riverfever
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Woodland Park, Colorado
The last issue that happened to the Liberty was that it blew a seal on the steering rack and then I decided it was time to cut bait because it's been one thing after another since November and costed me thousands in deductibles. I started looking at Subarus again. After a lot of looking I finally found a 2013 Outback with the 3.6 motor at Larry H. Miller out by Powers and bought it. The vehicle had 59,3XX when I bought it and I did get an extended warranty. I had the car for a week and a half and was on the way home from work last Friday night and was literally a quarter mile from home when I thought I saw a light on the dash. It must have flickered but then it came back on a few seconds later and flickered. It was an oil indicator and I pulled over and immediately shut the car down and got out the manual. There are two oil lights on this car (one for level and one for pressure) and this was the pressure light. I checked level anyways and it was fine and oil looked very new. No leaks anywhere that I could see either. I called for a tow and it was taken back to the Toyota dealer that night.
They called Saturday morning and told me that since the vehicle was still under factory powertrain warranty (to 60k) that it would need to be towed over to Heuberger for them to look at it. It gets there Monday and I get a call Monday night. Pressure sensor is fine. They dropped the pan and the pump is fine. Then they thought it was head gaskets so they pulled the heads and they were fine. Then they looked in the pan and found a cloth-like, fibrous material that appears to have been picked up by the pump and impeded the flow of oil. The screen on the pump appears to have done its job so that's good. They have no clue where the material came from. Toyota did install a Toyota filter on it but it appeared to be in tact.
They pulled both cams to inspect them and the bearings and said they were in great shape. They then pulled one of the main caps and said the bearing did show some very minor wear. Service manager said he didn't think it was alarming at all and felt that it would be fine to go back together as is but thought it was a good idea to install all new rod/main bearings. I asked how we can be sure that none of this material made it past the screen and into the oil passages? He said that was a legitimate concern and that when they split the cases to get to the rest of the bearings they would have a much better idea if there was more reason to be concerned. I did not get the feeling that he was yanking me around but I wanted to ask what you all thought. My extended warranty will cover it if anything were to happen with the motor down the road (but it would be nice to avoid that). I don't want to be an a$$ and presume to know more than someone who does this sort of thing for a living but should I be questioning further why the passages aren't being cleaned out more? If the crank needs machining with new bearings? Wondering also, since it's still under warranty, if I should be putting in a call to Subaru and inquiring about whether or not a replacement motor is in order?
They called Saturday morning and told me that since the vehicle was still under factory powertrain warranty (to 60k) that it would need to be towed over to Heuberger for them to look at it. It gets there Monday and I get a call Monday night. Pressure sensor is fine. They dropped the pan and the pump is fine. Then they thought it was head gaskets so they pulled the heads and they were fine. Then they looked in the pan and found a cloth-like, fibrous material that appears to have been picked up by the pump and impeded the flow of oil. The screen on the pump appears to have done its job so that's good. They have no clue where the material came from. Toyota did install a Toyota filter on it but it appeared to be in tact.
They pulled both cams to inspect them and the bearings and said they were in great shape. They then pulled one of the main caps and said the bearing did show some very minor wear. Service manager said he didn't think it was alarming at all and felt that it would be fine to go back together as is but thought it was a good idea to install all new rod/main bearings. I asked how we can be sure that none of this material made it past the screen and into the oil passages? He said that was a legitimate concern and that when they split the cases to get to the rest of the bearings they would have a much better idea if there was more reason to be concerned. I did not get the feeling that he was yanking me around but I wanted to ask what you all thought. My extended warranty will cover it if anything were to happen with the motor down the road (but it would be nice to avoid that). I don't want to be an a$$ and presume to know more than someone who does this sort of thing for a living but should I be questioning further why the passages aren't being cleaned out more? If the crank needs machining with new bearings? Wondering also, since it's still under warranty, if I should be putting in a call to Subaru and inquiring about whether or not a replacement motor is in order?
