Stories like this almost scare me into getting out of the subie game.




Almost.

 

Stories of deffered maintenance?!

 

+1 on the valve cover gasket. I got a 04 wrx with over 140k miles on it and thought the turbo was smoking. I replaced it and noticed the turbo was in great shape with zero shaft play. It was still smoking then I realized the valve cover gasket was leaking oil(just a small drip at a time). But it dripped on the up pipe and smoked near the turbo.

 

I've just seen so many "oh **** - my ****s broke" threads all over the interwebs. Even though there are more "non broke" subarus out there than broken ones.

I love my car, just afraid of that day when it fails me hardcore. I guess thats any car... but I certainly wonder how much longevity I have hurt with upgrading stuff.

 

I'm almost positive it's your valve cover gasket, especially if it's on turbo side.

 

Valve cover gasket or your upper turbo oil feed/coolant feed hose is slightly leaking or..... Simply since the turbo was pushed the seals are bad and it needs a fix. Doesn't matter if it's hitting target boost at this point.

More important was the timing belt serviced?

 

Do it right and it will last forever. 07+ are prone to ringland failure and most of them have to do with people being stupid and buying everything off rsd without getting a tune.
Other than that op has a bugeye that was due a long time ago for maintenance.

How long have you had your car? Long enough to get scared while reading boy who cried wolf stories on nabisco and I club?
My car drives like **** right now, cant even hold boost and I still love the little ****er. Still paying it off too. 4 more years and its an 06 lol.

 

Its a 12-13 year old car. Its gonna have its issue and need some maintenance. Add a turbo into the mix and its even more. There is a plethora of parts available and somewhat easy to work on. Any car will have its issues.

 

From the turbo location, I'd suggest looking at your valve cover gasketfor leaks or your cv boot to see if it is torn.

 

Coming up on 1 year in June. Its like.. when you love something, and you dont want to see it die. Huge fear is the car taking a dump and being without a ride.

(coming from the fact that when i moved to the bay area, i had no car and lived in the tenderloin like 2 years.) I never want to be carless again!

 

Thanks everyone for your input and narrowing it to the valve cover gasket being the most likely suspect. I'll be taking it to a shop in a little bit due to some time constraint for me. It's not that I'm not surprised if have to do some maintenance although the car fax report showed all major maintenance done including the timing belt done at 120k. But it doesn't sound like this is a high mileage issue as it looks like posts in the past show this happening.

Don't get me wrong I love this Subaru and don't really want to get rid of it. Just the most emotional rollercoaster of a brand I've ever dealt with when it comes to cars.

 

^^^ Exactly. The truth is, most people simply do not maintain their cars and this rears it's head when you purchase one. I cannot imagine buying a used car and NOT doing some work on it - work that probably should have been done by the previous owner. It's just the way it goes, unless of course you buy a car from me. Ha. But seriously, even though I do "all the things" and my cars are nearly always tip-top mechanically, I bet someone could find issues with them, or things that, in their opinion should have been done or done differently. Cars are complex devices.

After owning two 10 year old SAABs at the same time, my Subaru can never hurt me. It's all about perspectives. Even with my blown 5spd last year, I don't think my WRX will ever end up costing as much, over it's lifetime, as my '02 9-5 Aero did to keep it on the road for 1 year.

 

So the car got diagnosed yesterday, PROPS to the Subaru specialist TD Garage in Berkeley for the Free Check up and doing it super quick. Turns out to be the passenger valve cover gasket and spark plug seals failing. Rechecking the carfax report I got from the dealership shows this was replaced at 120k. Not a hard job from what I can tell on the DIY I found, but TD Garage has quoted me a fair price to do both sides in my opinion so I'll be sending it to them next week to get it taken care of. Plus getting an Oil Pressure Sensor installed in the rear oil galley for my Oil Pressure Gauge, so 2 birds with one stone.

Sorry for the rant everyone. Looks to be a simple and fairly inexpensive fix.

 

Watch out for TD garage. Went there to get a killer b dual washer/coolant tank installed and they ended up also removing my oil catch can