well a few of you may recall a few months back when i was debating between a 98 R and an 02 WRX.
I could have gotten an R for about 14k with miles around 80k. The WRX cost 16k, but it was newer, only had 35k miles, and was still under warranty. I bought the WRX because of lower insurance rates, lower theft rates, and i THOUGHT reliablilty because of so few miles compared to the Acura.

Well, after less than 5 months of owning the car, i have already spent over 1k in repairs. Now something else is wrong, and the dealership can't figure it out, so they want to start changing random parts.........basically they want me to pay them to guess at my problem...... unbelieveable.

Just ranting a little bit. I honestly thought that this car would be reliable.
man was i wrong.

 

Agh! And you had a GSR! You should have known better. Spank yourself!

 

exactly, i sold the GSR in hopes to get the R. The car needed a clutch and the 90k service, so i figured sell it before i need to spend more money on it.
Now the freakin WRX has depreciated so much, i don't even know if its worth selling.

anyone wanna trade..........

 

What were the other repairs you had to have done?

And what exactly is wrong now? I know you said the dealer can't figure it out, but what are teh symptoms?

 

At leaset you can sleep at night with your car outside.

 

first i had to buy floor mats because for some reason the car didn't come with them. (100 bucks).

Then the clutch went bad (knew that from the first time i drove it.)
dealer wanted to charge me 900 bucks.....500 parts, 400 labor. I said screw that, bought an Exedy OEM replacement clutch on Ebay for 200 bucks, and had them install it. ended up costing about 700 bucks by the time it was all done.
NOW THIS IS THE KICKER: i took it back for a grinding/winding/vibration noise that only occurs at 3500 rpms in 3rd gear and 2500 rpms in 4th gear, and only under deceleration. They couldn't reproduce the sound on the lift, only on the road.
FOr some reason the guy thinks its the throwout bearing on the clutch, but he won't warranty the fix because i didn't buy the clutch itself from him. AAHHH!!!!

So now he wants to charge 500 bucks to replace that throwout bearing.....and he's not even sure that's the problem. So basically he wants me to pay him all this money to GUESS at my problem. UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!

Quite honestly, i don't know what to do. Im seriously considering selling the car.

 

I almost made the same mistake............almost

 

i dont necessarily think you made a big mistake, but you have had what sounds like a bad experience with the WRX. I have several friends that have them and enjoy both driving them and riding in them, that still doesn't mean i would want one though

R for life

 

Well, I do remember readnig that the 02's did have more problems on the tranny than any other year. Might want to read up on that.

From 03 on, the WRX got a stronger tranny.

I have to ask, no dropping the clutch right? overall going pretty easy on it?

 

Sorry to hear about your misforunate repairs! Its pretty funny, im selling my Type R (Canadian winters here own me, plus i need a 4-dr for my family..although the R is roomy!) and was thinking of a WRX... AWD and Turbo sound good....

But lookin at the Subaru's exterior, then interior... ugh? can it be any uglier. I'm shootin for an 01 Lexus IS300, and prep it with a nice Wet Zex 100shot kit for when i decide to have "fun times" leather, class, LEXUS, = )

 

I would only use dealerships for repairs if it's under warranty. they charge a fortune for labor and parts.

WRX's styling doesn't look nice at all IMO. Lexus def a better choice.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITRIK &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I'm shootin for an 01 Lexus IS300, and prep it with a nice Wet Zex 100shot kit for when i decide to have "fun times" leather, class, LEXUS, = )


</TD></TR></TABLE>

how about the lexus gs430 with awd? :drooL: anyway, remember that you gotta pay to play. obviously the previous owner played and made you pay. for example, the clutch going out at 35k means that there had to have been some kind of romping around for it to just obliterate the clutch after 35k. this new problem sucks, but who knows what could have been done to the car in the first 35k. regardless, i still think that the Honda and Toyota by far own when it comes to reliability (for japanese vehicles). good luck with the problems and try going to another auto repair shop because dealerships will give it to you IDB.

 

only 1 clutch drop in 5 months of ownership. I really don't beat on the car at all. I let it warm up properly before using full throttle......etc.
I do autox it, but i really don't believe that is really abusive.

Now the guy before me.........no idea. But judging by the fact that the clutch is gone after 36k, ill bet he beat the hell out of it. Often times these cars are driven really really hard. According to the service manager, they are made to be driven hard, but sometimes just can't stand up to the abuse they're put under..... 5k clutch drops, etc.

Truthfully, i really do believe that the EVO and STi and all these other cars that people are having "reliablilty issues" with. If driven properly would hold up just fine.

 

wrx is just one of those cars I wouldn't recommend buying used. I think you also made a bad choice by not getting the oem clutch considering you weren't willing to accept a trade off of reliability for performance.

 

Damn that really sucks. Hope you get the wrx to working order.

 

I had the noise with my ITR 1 month ago... when i let off the gas and in certain RPMS when decelerating it wuold make a buzzing/winding noise yuo desribed..

It was some heat shield thing , the acura tech just bent it to **** instead of replacing it and costing me $120 so its nicely fit and tight and doesnt make any noise anymore! lol.

Park your car in idle and check for noises from your transmission.. if you hear something, get someone to go in your car and press in the clutch and see if it goes away.. if so then it syour throwout bearing/or other bearings in your tranny possibily?

 

yeah must be nice to have it repaired that easily, but i am not so fortunate.

The dealer removed all heat sheilds, and drove the car only to find out that it still made the noise. The big thing was that they couldn't reprocude it on the lift even while under load.

 

Sounds like the clutch...several guys on NASIOC had similar symptoms and reported a new clutch/pp/flywheel solved the problem. There's supposedly a TSB on it.

Here's the thread: http://forums.nasioc.com/forum...20910

[QUOTE=chris1866]
NOW THIS IS THE KICKER: i took it back for a grinding/winding/vibration noise that only occurs at 3500 rpms in 3rd gear and 2500 rpms in 4th gear, and only under deceleration. They couldn't reproduce the sound on the lift, only on the road.
FOr some reason the guy thinks its the throwout bearing on the clutch, but he won't warranty the fix because i didn't buy the clutch itself from him. AAHHH!!!!
[QUOTE]

 

if it is the clutch (which it very well may be). i will ask the same question as i asked the dealer....why only in certain gears at certain rpms? dealer said "i can't really give you a straight answer to that."

but in any case i appreciate the link to that nasioc thread.....i sent the starter a pm.

 

Just wait until your tranny goes....i would start looking for an STI tranny NOW!!!

 

WRX's have the shittiest tranny's. I have owned 2 wrx's. Love them both, but when I would switch to my 4 Civic EX the shifter felt like butter. 02's have the worst transmissions, start looking for STi RA gears now. WRX's only have 32k mile warranties (unless you bought an extra warranty). Subaru also has the worst dealerships. Check out http://www.nasioc.com and find a good dealer in your area. Out of all the ones in the NOVA region there is only 1 I would have taken my WRX's too. The rest are really strict on warranties and crap. Im sorry about your Subaru experiance, they are great cars, you just got a crap one. Also, you can buy a brand new WRX for $20K at http://www.fitzmall.com . Its strange how alot of people dont know about this. I bought my 05 WRX for that price and then sold it 10k miles later for $500 less than what I bought it for.

-Rob

 

If it ain't a type R , then it Ain't Tight car.. someone send him the song!

hahahaha.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chris1866 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now something else is wrong, and the dealership can't figure it out, so they want to start changing random parts.........basically they want me to pay them to guess at my problem...... unbelieveable.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds pretty normal to me.

-Chris

 

i would have bought the ITR I almost sold My 00 FBP SiR for a 01 CW ITR w/ Red Interior but never did! Big mistake!

I wish i did! kickin myself now

 

well after speaking to some people and doing some more research. i have decided to just drifve the car the way it is for the time being as i am really tight on cash.
i do like the WRX and think it is a fun car. i don't regret buying it because i love the versatility it offers. I guess the clutch is the only true problem i have encountered so far (because this second thing appears to be a continuation of the first clutch problem or a direct result of it depending on which way you look at it).
i think ill keep it a while longer...........looks at calendar...............i give it another year till i'm driving an R.