So I am on my way to SoCal right now and am currently stranded. My 2013 wrx basically conked out on me. Let me elaborate..I heard a faint knocking/ticking noise and over the course of 2 miles it got worse. I was starting to feel loss of power as well, so I pulled over. Now at idle and low revs it knocks really hard....like in multiple areas of the engine bay. Would appreciate your help as to what this could be....and why it's happening at 13,000 miles.

Currently waiting on a tow to the closest subaru dealer in Santa Clarita

 

Engine light on? Is it all stock?

 

is the car stock?

 

Rod knock, spun bearing, or something else. Either way engine is likely toast.

When the knock is audible it's usually failure.

 

Yes car is all stock. No mods, only has spt exhaust. No engine light on or anything. Just got picked up by the tow truck.

 

Seriously? At 13k miles....?

 

Kinda sounds like rod knock if it is that bad. Were you low on oil by any chance?

 

I am 200 miles late to an oil change, but the dipstick showed halfway full.

 

check the oil, report back

 

200 mi over shouldn't be an issue and half full probably not too bad either (not exactly good, but not dangerous IMO). That doesn't mean you can't get rod knock. Another member recently had a failure on a low mileage car as well.

 

It happens. You'll get a new engine under warranty If you haven't touched anything and kept up to date service records usually.

 

Without hearing it, can't tell you for fact...however. I have built motors in the past, had a SBC(350) that had a rod knock start at 200 miles, and a VW motor I built that developed rod knock 100 yards from the shop on its first drive after having been broken in on a bench. Sometimes its just a bad bearing or you get a blocked passage, or a ton of other possibilities.

 

I lost count of how many threads Ive seen on the internet of spun bearings on subaru's with low miles which is my guess.

Good luck at the dealer. Post an update when you find out the issue.

 

+1 for SOA

 

Its not just Subaru, its any high performance force induction motor. The fact is we have 4cyl motors that produce 250+hp and rev fast and hard. Parts are going to fail, its just how it goes. Search how many HP big blocks have eaten a rod at low miles, check out the stats on the Dodge Viper, the Evo, any of the big power motors.