Hi All,

Some of you guys have met me at the South SF Raging Boba meet last Friday. The name is James and I rolled up in the bugeye wrx on Rota Torques. Some of you probably heard me talk about the condition of the 2000 Impreza I owned before hand and ended up selling it because of the 2002 WRX gift I got from my girlfriend.

A little bit more of a back ground story. I purchased the Impreza last year (2013) in April and got a check engine light within the first few hours of purchase and within the first few months I was replacing the TPS, idle air control valve, knock sensor, wide band 02, and then having the A/C system crap out. Now before I purchased the car I went over it tooth and nail and took my time with it. Minus cosmetic damage the car seemed mechanically sound to me.

Fast Forward to now, my WRX is now smoking from the turbo location and this isn't the first time either. The car was purchased in February from a Toyota Dealership and within a month I racked up 3000 miles (yah that excited for boost and AWD), time for an oil change. I used Mobil 1 Synthetic 5w-30 as the manual said I could use. Of course this happened before I even knew about Mobil 1 changing their formula. Soon after the oil change the turbo starts smoking and after quick and swift research I switched over to Rotella T6 oil and all was fine. Come that point I decided to pick up an SPT intake and a Cobb Accessport on the cheap which all seemed well. Now at 1400 miles into this oil change, the Turbo is smoking.

These are my first 2 Subarus, 3rd if you include my girlfriends 2012 Legacy and as much as I like Subarus, it saddens me that I've had 2 somewhat bad experiences in the first few months of ownership. Now I am mechanically inclined and have worked on cars since I was 12. I've built Hondas in my younger days and then moved up to higher performance vehicles like Supras, M3s, and 350zs. I won't lie, at heart I am a Toyota and Nissan Nut, but love the package of Subarus.

What am I doing wrong? Why does bad luck hit me with Subarus? I've done research on the smoking turbo and it appears to be 1 of 4 things as you all may know. Banjo Bolts on the Turbo, Turbo soon to be going out, Valve cover gasket broken, or head gasket cracked.

I know this sounds like a rant, but I'm more for need of assistance. Anyone locally experienced this issue? and if so what was your fix? Not that I don't trust other members from other areas but first hand in person experience would allow me to learn and expand my Subaru knowledge versus reading something and hoping for the best.

Any help is appreciated!!!

 

Sorry to hear of the misfortune with your Subarus.

Unfortunately, I'm not knowledgeable about your situation and can't be of any help but do hope things get resolved soon! I'm happy to lend some brute manpower should you need it

 

You can put UV dye in the oil and look for external leaks. Smoke from the turbo location can also be caused by a leaking coolant line dripping on the turbo. Have your taken the heat shield off and looked with a flashlight when its smoking? It honestly shouldn't be that hard to spot where its coming from when its happening.

Are you specifically only getting smoke from the turbo location or is your car also smoking from the exhaust?

 

The smoke specifically comes from the turbo location. It use to come out of the exhaust pipe but that was before switching to the Rotella T6. I've taken the heat shield off too but don't see anything noticeable that would make me think there's a leak.

 

I have a 2013, which I bought new, and do have a fear in the back of my head that something may go wrong at anytime. It's inevitable for all cars, and sometimes it's a hit or miss.

 

Haha Thanks for the offer, I'll keep it in mind.

 

Probably not you. Could be the WRX. Who knows what was done to that car before you owned it. I don't blame you if you wanted to get rid of it. Sounds like a major pain in the butt.

 

how many miles do you have? could be turbo going out.

 

I actually don't want to get rid of it since it was a gift from my girlfriend. The car was bone stock when we got it, not a single modification so it was a great platform for me to play with. Its just discouraging to have to deal with fixing things before mods can be done.

 

its got a little over 142k miles, and I'm pretty positive its the original turbo. I could be wrong. CarFax report never showed a Turbo replacement

 

if you're mechanically inclined, you can get a stock turbo for $50-$100, its worth a shot to just see if it the turbo. do you have a boost gauge in the car? is it hitting max boost?

 

Boost gauge indeed in and at WOT in 3rd gear it hits about 14.7 PSI. Cobb Accessport shows 14.3 PSI so its pretty spot on to the appropriate settings.

I've thought about buying a stock turbo but I've only seen used ones which puts me on the fence since again I wouldn't know what the history of that turbo is. A remanufactured one is about 400 to 500 dollars which would make me feel more confident I guess.

Just want to hear anyone else's personal experience with this before I start throwing huge amounts of time, energy, and money at this.

 

If it comes and goes, can you recreate the smoking? Under what conditions does it smoke?

I'd recommend:
- Determine what the smoke smells like. Is it oil, coolant, etc?
- Try to find a leak, if it's external to the turbo.
- If you can't find any external leak, take off the TMIC & y-pipe. Look inside the turbo, see if there's oil pooling inside the turbo.

 

At 142,000 miles you're surprised at having to do some maintenance? ...

 

Get under the car and see if the valve cover is leaking and the oil landing on the header uppipe area!