ALL 08/09 LGT, OBXT, FXT and STI OWNERS!!!!!

UPDATED WITH NEW INFO 4/7/08

 

THIS AFFECTS ONLY TURBO MODELS, NOT NA. THIS IS NOT A RECALL. THIS APPLIES TO 2008 TURBO 2.5L MODELS ONLY. PLEASE READ THE AFFECTED VIN AND BUILD DATES!!!!

 

UPDATED AGAIN:

 

Dealers received a list of affected VINs on their lots/inventory yesterday. Still trying to verify if this list contains sold vehicles as well, or just dealer inventory only. I'll do my best to keep you all updated as well as some of our other Subie reps on the boards. Thanks to Jon [in CT], Farrish Subaru, blackfang and others for chiming in.

 

IMMEDIATE STOP SALE ORDER

TO: GLR-- MAR-- NWR-- SCR-- SDC-- SWR Dealers

FROM: Subaru of America, Inc.

DEPARTMENT: Service

DATE: 04/07/2008

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Legacy vehicles have been added to the Stop Sale

 

We regret to inform you that we must place an immediate stop sale order on all of the 2008/2009 Subaru Impreza, Forester and Legacy vehicles equipped with a 2.5L Turbo Engine produced with the beginning chassis number and later as shown below.

 

Model

Body Type

Chassis Number

Production Date

 

Forester Wagon 701045 or later 2008/01/08 or later

 

Legacy 2.5GT-LTD 222825 or later 2008/02/04 or later

2.5GT-B 222958 or later 2008/02/04 or later

OBK 2.5XT-LTD 353835 or later 2008/02/01 or later

 

Impreza Sedan 523363 or later 2008/01/08 or later

Wagon 825183 or later 2008/01/08 or later

 

 

The reason for this immediate Quality Assurance action is that there have been several reports of “Engine Knocking Noise” from other markets on vehicles produced after the production dates listed.

 

Initial investigation confirms an internal wear issue on the failed units.

 

In the interest of preventing any possibility of failures for our customers, we have chosen to isolate any potentially affected vehicles by ceasing sales of the potentially affected units until the root cause and correction can be identified.

 

All the other displacement engines and the 2.5L Natural Aspirated Engine are excluded from this action.

 

Your region/distributor will be contacting you with a detailed list of affected vehicles assigned to your dealership. However, dealer trades cannot be tracked so please be aware of the affected VIN range.

 

If you have a vehicle in inventory that falls into the affected vehicle range, please ensure that your sales and service staff are immediately notified that the unit is un-saleable until further notice from SOA or your region/distributor.

 

If any of those vehicles has an unusual engine noise, please notify the SOA Technical Helpline immediately with all of the details and submit an E-QMR.

 

Should a customer bring an affected vehicle into your service department for an unusual engine noise, please immediately arrange that they are given the use of a clean SSLP vehicle and notify the Technical Helpline and submit an E-QMR.

 

You will be contacted shortly thereafter on how to proceed.

Ruh Roh

i've been hearing there have been a few stock sti's blowing up, and quite a few complaining about knock. I hope mine's not affected.

'08 STi FTL! JK...I want one.

 

I hope it all gets sorted out.

dammit! Mine is affected.

 

apparently it's all from build dates of jan 8, 08 on. GRRRR.

That sux Hope..sorry to hear that

 

That might explain the stories of them getting tuned and exploding though.

So what's Subaru going to do, replace your motor?

 

I'd demand a new car, even if you did have to wait a couple months.

That sux Hope..sorry to hear that

 

That might explain the stories of them getting tuned and exploding though.

ya, my road tune is scheduled for 5/10-5/11 too. only once a year opportunity. So I guess we just have to keep an ear out for any knock noise. And this only affects those built Jan 8 and on.

ya, my road tune is scheduled for 5/10-5/11 too. only once a year opportunity. So I guess we just have to keep an ear out for any knock noise. And this only affects those built Jan 8 and on.

 

I just talked to my parents' neighbor that works for the Subaru office in portland. He says that the actual cars affected have specific VINs. They used a blanket stop sale but the number affected is relatively small. I couldn't get any other information though. :-(

They looked mine up and it is affected

WOW!

 

Terrible news,hope you don't have any isssues or if your on the list its a matter of time

They looked mine up and it is affected

 

Can you check on mine too?

 

-Mike-

They looked mine up and it is affected

 

You JUST got it...can't have a few hundred miles on it...

yikes. hopefully the LGT is exempt from this.

alright, so they don't know which ones are affected just yet, it's a mechanical failure of some sort.... not sure exactly what it is but it's a knock and something is causing the motor to fail. This only affects 08/09 2.5L WRX/STI/FXT at the moment that were built after Jan 8, 2008 of this year and only with VINs in the above mentioned group. Now, not everyone in that group will be affected, they are trying to figure out which ones in that group are and early next week they should know which VINs are really affected. Until then, it's a wait and see...

see now u wish u didnt ditch the humble lgt.. king of cars

see now u wish u didnt ditch the humble lgt.. king of cars

I still have it and drove it around all day today.

Hmmm... Safety issue? Has any regular ol' mechanical issue caused a halt to car sales before?

Hmmm... Safety issue? Has any regular ol' mechanical issue caused a halt to car sales before?

I don't know, but it's a particular run of cars it seems and only a few of those that are affected, so I guess it's a wait and see... I'll know more early next week I hope.

Well - if the motor blows it can be a safety issue too. The responsibilities involved in case of a fire or someone going off the road hitting something inappropriate is sure scaring.

 

More interesting is what the problem is in reality. A knocking sound is never good - especially in a new engine.

Hubby just PM'd me this on NASIOC to post and let anyone with an 08/09 FXT or STI (possibly mine included, but we are waiting to see if the VIN is affected). There is an IMMEDIATE STOP SALE on those affected and if you happen to have one that is, you need to go to the dealership so they can give you a loaner car until they can get things sorted out.

Seen that posted. I did not know your hubby was Mavrik.

So far we just have 1 on our lot that is affected(09 Forester).

Seen that posted. I did not know your hubby was Mavrik.

yep, though sometimes, I'm sure he wishes he wasn't. :lol:

not good but at least you know they'll fix it.