The car took a while to get used too, for a start it had almost 100bhp more than my EcuTek'd Bugeye, it was also the first time I had used a 6-speed box and the 'funky' diff. I was originally scared of stacking it but once I got some confidence I really started to enjoy it!
After a while I got lucky (in my opinion) and found a 2nd hand set of RA wheels on Scoobynet with Yoko ADO7's with tonnes of tread left. I also stuck some mudflaps on for good measure..
For the next 6 months and 5kmiles, all was well in Scoobyland, then it all went a bit sh1t really!
Whilst cruising on the M25 on my way to Bruntingthorpe to attend the Asda charity day last year with the WR1OC, I got approximately 20 miles from home and had a massive loss of power and plumes of white smoke out the back of the car. Pulled over and couldn't see anything wrong, I natually thought a head gasket had gone (bearing in mind I bought the car with 11k miles on the clock and it now had 16k miles).
Got it low loaded home and went to the Asda day with a mate and spent all weekend with the raving hump so got rather drunk!
After the weekend I contacted RCM as the car had been serviced and modified by them for the previous owner. I was just after some advice, but when I explained what car it was, they instantly remembered it and told me the previous owner had loads of work done by them, got it mapped elsewhere, then it had blown up!!! He then got another engine put in by someone else (don't know who or what engine they used) and the car had loads of issues and never ran properly. The dealer which I had bought the car from had then bought it from the previous owner at a knock down price due to the engine issues and had 'fixed it' and sold it on!
Obviously I was not very happy with this, the dealer had more than enough chances to tell me the history of the car, he had advertised and sold it as an immaculate and original 2006 Spec C with 11k miles on the clock!
After contacting the dealer he told me that RCM were lying and it was only a £40 sensor, but during the same heated telephone conversation he then let slip that he had 'spent £2k replacing the pistons'!!
So I now have a car which has been totally miss advertised and sold, I have no clue what state the engine is in, or even what engine is actually fitted to it!
The dealer wanted to take the car to his mechanic in Manchester and said that if it was found to be his mechanic's fault, then he would pay for the repairs, but if it was my fault, then I would have to pay for it. I did not agree with this, if his mechanic had done something wrong then he would never admit to this and blame it on me no matter what the issue was! Plus if this was the same mechanic that had already worked on it, then there was something wrong with his work. I also didn't want him to take the car to Manchester because then he would have all my cash AND the car, I maybe silly but I'm not stupid!
I nominated a Subaru specialist near me and after a lot of protesting he agreed he could do a full engineers report on the engine.
The engine was taken out of the car and on a visual inspection it was found that
1. Split in inlet pipe next to turbo
2. Broken and bodged brown and black engine loom plugs
3. Speaker used for intake temperature sensor
4. NGK5 spark plugs in cylinders 2 & 4
5. NGK7 spark plugs in cylinders 1 & 3
6. Compression test showed no compression in cylinder 2
7. Scope shows scoring on wall of cylinder 2
8. Wrong crank pulley
The dealer then agreed that the specialist could take the engine apart for pictures and a full report.
During this time the specialist had a family member pass away and after 5 weeks, the engine was still sitting on his stand in the workshop. The dealer was kept up to date with the issues.
I finally decided to take the engine elsewhere and with the agreement of the dealer I collected it from the first specialist and drove it straight to the agreed second specialist.
Upon stripping the engine, these are the pictures I took...
Wrong screw for dip stick
Wrong crank pulley
Running rich
Speaker wire on charge temp sensor
Brown loom plug
Black loom plug
Cylinder 2
Sump pickup with metal parts
Sump full of metal (crap picture)
Leaking headers
Damaged gudgeon pin stopping piston from being removed
Cylinder 2 damage
Every single bearing scoured
Cracked ringlan
Piston 2 - no surprise!
