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Impreza 1999 Turbo Seized

My Impreza seized up in Scotland a week ago. It had done 72,000 miles and had been regularly serviced by Subaru dealers from new and had only come back from being serviced five days before it broke down. The garage has shown me the end cap and part of a conrod that had broken and dropped into the sump pan. No oil pressure warning light came on and the engine showed no signs of overheating before stopping. Earlier I had noticed a metallic tinkling noise but had put that down to an exhaust heat guard that I had had trouble with before. I was hoping that somebody might have an idea as to why and how my engine should so suddenly die! For those of you who don't know Scotland it is a country crammed with police radar traps hidden around every bend! That is my way of saying - I wasn't thrashing the car and was cruising well within the 60mph speed limit! I am baffled, and so is the garage who say it was just bad luck that it happened. Very expensive bad luck!

Reply to
richardclive
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Reply to
Edward Hayes

The car had only been about 170 miles after the service which had been a small one - oil change and filter etc. When the car broke down I was so pi..ed off I forgot to check the dipstick - which was rather silly of me. Someone has suggested that an overfill of oil can be almost as lethal as having no oil. What surprised me was that that no smoke or steam appeared from the exhaust, and the engine looked externally clean. The only sign of things being amiss inside was water coming from the cooling overflow, although the engine didn't smell particularly hot. I have had blown head-gaskets, had radiators leak and other such nasties in the past(not Subarus!) so was surprised by the apparent seizure without warning. Anyway, thanks for your interest.

Edward Hayes wrote:

Reply to
richardclive

Did the shop also service the coolant in any way? Does one plug have a distinctly different appearance than the other 3? I'm thinking internally blown head gasket. Though I think the '99s are more prone to external leaks, may be a different year/switch in GB.

I dunno - could just be bad luck.

carl

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

It certainly is, but they are probably right. I take it the car is not 'chipped'. The only low-mileage, catastrophic engine failures I have ever hears of have been on chipped cars.

David Betts snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk

Reply to
David Betts

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