Seemingly Never ending problems with my beloved LGT

I bought my 2005 Legacy GT about 18 months ago from a Dealer. In the last year, I have had nothing but problems from it. In fact, since I purchased the car, it has been in the shop for a total of 2 months. So, I decided to come to you, hoping for some sort of help with my newest problems.

 

In April, I noticed white smoke coming out of my tailpipe, and a loss of power. The dealer said that the cause was "Internal Failure OK'd Per DPSM," and that they "removed the exhaust and found the impellor broken." They replaced the turbo Assembly.

 

After getting the car back, it seemed to run very well.

 

Fast forward to June 1. A flashing check engine light has come on, and the car shakes violently when in use. Took it to the same dealer, and they determined that #4 Piston was broken, after "removing coil and plug to find the plug smashed." The replaced the piston and rings, the valves and the cylinder head, and adjusted all valves to Spec.

 

I got the car back on July 10, and since then, the car seemed to drive well...until yesterday. I noticed that as I would slow down at red lights, the car would gradually heat up, and when stopped, the gauge would stop, not at the red, but at the notch just before it. Today, I looked in the coolant container to find that it was empty. Then, I checked the oil to find that it was slightly above the L, and that it was a very dark black color(I have no idea if this detail is significant, only that in my dad's 2008 Jaguar XJR, the oil seems to be a reddish brown).

 

I hope that someone here can help me. I have only driven 1000 miles, and it used up almost all the oil. What should I do?

 

 

P.S. If it makes any difference, all the work done to the car was covered under warranty.

The car may have had a hard life before you got it. Take it back and see what they say...that sucks.

I hope you get it sorted ASAP.

is the dealer covering it under warantee? my friend had all the same problems with his cobalt ss. he had a warped head

my car was burning oil like that too and was dark as hell. Its probably burning oil right past the ring.... I was not soo lucky as my motor siezed up completely 2K later. Seems like your car def. had a hard life before like mine did

i used to want an 05+ turbo Legacy, but after being a member here for a few years, i don't want to end up with sloppy seconds.

 

can you imagine buying a used car(new to me) that has all the various DIY's contained in this board.

theres some ridiculous ones in there, take a look

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=37

a possible history of blown turbos?

 

sorry to hear of your misfortune OP , i'd milk the warranty as much as possible.

for what its worth,

i'd certainly express to the dealer that you're unhappy and think that the car has had previous modifications.

Not necessarily mods but an owner that pretty much abused and neglected the car.

 

I would suggest a thorough checkup on that car and then let the dealer resolve that and possibly go bash the previous owner. Include the whole transmission and suspension in a checkup - or you may stand there with a blown gearbox or other not very inspiring problems.

Sounds like a headgasket failure for sure.

 

Unfortunately, the motor has to come back out. At this point, I would request a new longblock (that's the actual block AND heads), and start from scratch.

Sounds like a headgasket failure for sure.

 

Unfortunately, the motor has to come back out. At this point, I would request a new longblock (that's the actual block AND heads), and start from scratch.

 

im with him on that

ditto, good luck getting that.

im with him on that

+1

I'm with him and he's with the other guy, so what I'm saying is complain to the dealer that the car has been in the shop for so long already, you are STILL having problems and the motor just seems to like failing time and again. Propose that it would probably be cheaper for them in the long run anyway to just drop a new one in rather than continually pay for labor to fix up the one you got now.

+1 If they replaced the piston, rings, head, and valves but didn't do any work or replacement of the short block (at least for cylinder #4) then they just did a bandage, they didn't fix the problem. Odds are that the popped piston did some serious damage to the cylinder, even if it only ran for a short while after failing. Basically, they did the absolute minimum to get the car back up and running without fixing the damage. It would be reasonable to ask them to replace the whole longblock, at least give them a chance to before formally calling it a lemon.

 

Unfortunately, I'm speaking from experience on the popped piston...

So, to make matters worse, on the way back from work today, I was in a fender bender. Will the dealership blame the problems on this?

So, to make matters worse, on the way back from work today, I was in a fender bender. Will the dealership blame the problems on this?

 

If the damage reached the radiator and damaged it, then they probably will. If they are an honest shop, they will disregard it and just go off the previous problems you were complaining about prior to the fender bender.

Not necessarily mods but an owner that pretty much abused and neglected the car.

 

I would suggest a thorough checkup on that car and then let the dealer resolve that and possibly go bash the previous owner. Include the whole transmission and suspension in a checkup - or you may stand there with a blown gearbox or other not very inspiring problems.

Why would you BASH the previous owner? Who gives a crap how the previous owner treated the car, it was THEIR car. You're buying used, you need to be ready to take the chance. Back in the late 90s, my sister bought a 1997 328is sport. The car was a BMW CPO vehicle. Guess what, it had NOTHING but major problems. This is the reason I didn't buy the used S4 I was looking at. You just don't know what the person before you has done to/with the vehicle, nor can you control it.

 

To the OP: It sucks that you're having these problems. You can either keep taking it to the dealer seeing as they are warrantying the problems, or you can look for another car. It's a crappy situation because you're spending your hard earned money on something you expect to be reliable and fun. I'm sorry. BAC5.2 as well as others have started to point fingers at a very logical problem. It's time you have a chat with your dealer and see what they say. Hopefully they can sort everything out. Keep us posted.

"I noticed that as I would slow down at red lights, the car would gradually heat up, and when stopped, the gauge would stop, not at the red, but at the notch just before it. Today, I looked in the coolant container to find that it was empty. Then, I checked the oil to find that it was slightly above the L, and that it was a very dark black color(I have no idea if this detail is significant, only that in my dad's 2008 Jaguar XJR, the oil seems to be a reddish brown)."

 

Neither of those symptoms means anything....

 

the coolant expansion tank can be pretty much empty, depending on when it was checked (hot, cold, warm, etc.)

 

The oil being at the low level can, again, be completely depending on how the dipstick was checked (on this car, the dipstick is very hard to get an accurate read).

 

The oil being dark means nothing.

 

The only meaningful symptom is that your temp gauge moved way up (but not into the red). This can mean a variety of things, but all of them need to be immediately checked out. It could be as simple as a stuck thermostat, a cooling system needing flushed, or a "on it's way out" water pump.....or it could mean a head gasket failure.

 

Joe

What's the mileage? To me, if the oil was dark and low, it was probably not changed regularly by the previous owner which is critical in when dealing with a turbo. The coolant overflow tank, should never move unless the coolant in the radiator is low, even if it is hot or cold out when you check it. If the dealer didn't change the oil after they did the piston work (which would surprise the hell out of me), and it is already dark and low, you've got problems man.

I actually had very similar problems. I am Currently running a LGT 05 M/T. I bought it used with 29,000k on it. I am up to 85k on it at the moment. Thus far I have replaced a clutch within the first 3k, the turbo at 60k, which I had to pay for, just 2 days ago that replaced turbo seized again (oil stravation...imagine that). They replaced this one under a 1 year parts warrenty. I got the car back and went to drive it to work (45 miles away). Within those 45 miles my car gave a major hiccup and then started making a terrible kind of pinging/banging sound. Sound like a blown valve or a thrown rod...hard to tell. So long story short...I am in a fight at the moment with the dealer and subaru to replace the engine because even though it will turn over they are considering it seized and not their faults. Let me state that I have been very conscieous of servicing this car, oil changes and service every 3-4k mi. I certainly cannot afford to replace the entire engine on my own, and am taking any suggestions