Got my VIN and estimated delivery date of August 28th......

I ordered a '23 BRZ Limited, Ignition Red with the STi short throw shifter in the last week of April. Last week I received my VIN and ETA. 

Already have received my custom spec'd 8th Generation Fortune Auto 500 series coilovers with Swift springs custom rates and valving speced by Atlanta Speed Company for use. These come with new front swaybar links. Also ordered the following as well as the Whiteline rear lower control arms (so you can adjust camber), Whiteline rear swaybar links, and Whiteline rear toe links with lockout adjusters (so you can, you guessed it, adjust the rear toe). These cars gain a lot of camber and toe out when lowered in the rear. 

However, now I'm getting a bit nervous. We are seeing reports on the forums of early engine failure. Apparently whatever (robot or person) is applying too much RTV on the oilpan, at some point, bit chunks or a long chunk break off, get sucked into the oil pickup, starving the engine and wiping a rod bearing. 

One guy whose engine failed at 5500 miles has had is engine claim denied (even though he has pictures from the dealer showing the RTV clogging the pickup). Someone from Toyota went through his social media and found a picture of him at a skid pad event, said the car isn't supposed to be used that way.

Now here is the REAL KICKER! When you buy a new GR86 Toyota GIVES you a FREE NASA TRACKDAY!!!! 

Maybe pay the dealership to drop the pan and re-install?

I admire your ability to wait so long.

In reply to OHSCrifle :

I have thought about that. I'm going to go talk to the service writer about once the car gets here. 

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) : 

No choice really. The didn't open up ordering for the '23s until a week before I put my order in. I already haven't had a car since March of 2021, so not a big deal. And lots of guys have been paying ADM. It's already bad enough not being able to negotiate off MSRP, I refused to pay more.

They tried to on a small $1k markup, so I stood up, shook the salesman's hand and thanked him for his time. They quickly removed it on the condition I finance through them, which I will. But if they screw around on the rate, I'll just refinance through PenFed after a month and the bank will take back their commission. 

From what I've seen/heard Subaru has been good about honoring warranties, Toyota is the one being E36 M3ty about it. Drop the pan if you want, just know that that's another opportunity for your warranty claim to be denied if the dealer wants to be crappy. And if you're gonna do it, do it immediately.

dps214 said:

From what I've seen/heard Subaru has been good about honoring warranties, Toyota is the one being E36 M3ty about it. Drop the pan if you want, just know that that's another opportunity for your warranty claim to be denied if the dealer wants to be crappy. And if you're gonna do it, do it immediately.

I would never do it myself, I'd have the dealer do it and pay. Just to avoid the hassle. 

On guy whose engine went a few weeks ago, short blocks are ok backorder until the middle of next month at the earliest.

The risk there is that the dealer tech does a bad job of reassembly and still causes the issue. Subaru techs should be better trained, but Subaru has also been much better about honoring warranties. Not really sure what the right answer is. I've seen at least one person that's bore scoped in the oil pan and there's some stuff in the pickup but the engine is still going strong. Maybe related, but in general if you're going to be autocrossing it (or really even just spirited street driving) it's going to want something better and thicker than the stock 0w20 oil.

I was there when the car you mention seized it's 2.4, and it was a gut wrenching sound. Sucks to hear the dealer is screwing with him on the warranty work, especially if it's got tons of RTV in the oil pickup like the other pics I've seen. Autocross doesn't make RTV appear in a pick up, assembly error does that.

I was hoping the issue was just an isolated incident but it appears there are others popping up as well. With that said so far there's only a few reports out of the thousands sold. Fingers crossed you don't have to dick with all this on yours.

You only hear about the failures. The real rates are really low. 

Maybe get a gauge or light (can you get something cheap that works off obd2 data?) If you're really worried, but I'd say just send it.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

That's my thought as well. 

The main point is I think it's screwed up that Toyota gives people a track day, but then if you use the car like that and there is a failure, they deny the claim.

After my Chrysler/Fiat experience with dealerships and their lack of knowledge and available techs for the Fiat engines, I've been advising folks to buy the Subaru over the Toyota. Which techs would you rather have working on a Subaru boxer?

In reply to maschinenbau :

Subaru, by far, even though I wanted the highlighter blue GR86. But their system sucks. You can't actually go in to a Toyota store and order a specific spec of car, you tell them what you want and hope they get an allocation. And most of the GR86s are auto.

Subaru at least let's you go in, sit down with the sales guy and go through the order form on his computer and order exactly what want.

Congrats. I just sold my 22 BRZ for get this....36K for a 28K car. I just couldn't resist for that kind of cash. Maybe next year I'll get another one.

You'll have a lot of fun with it. 

bmw88rider said:

Congrats. I just sold my 22 BRZ for get this....36K for a 28K car. I just couldn't resist for that kind of cash. Maybe next year I'll get another one.

You'll have a lot of fun with it. 

Yeah, with some of the prices I'm seeing people get from Carmax and Carvana. I figured I'd take it by in a week or two, and if they are going to offer me $10k more than I paid. I'd probably do it and put that in the bank and order another one. 

When we were hunting gr86s we ended up with two reservations. The one we decided we didn't want, the dealer was being crappy about not wanting to return the deposit. In response we briefly considered going and getting it and immediately flipping it to carvana, but ultimately decided the relatively small payout wasn't worth the risk. It would have been like a 12hr round trip to the middle of nowhere Kentucky. If it was closer or somewhere more interesting we might have gone through with it.

Checked MySubaru.com, as of Friday it says the car is on a train heading this way. I'm hoping that means it will be here before the 28th!

Remember,  kids: Never fly the A model of anything.

So, are other any other Subie engines built with overly-gooped oilpans?

Appleseed said:

Remember,  kids: Never fly the A model of anything.

That seems very un-GRM. If you no one tried a new thing, they would cease to exist. 

But I forget this is the land of hating new cars, then being upset manufacturers don't make new cars they like, because they refuse to buy new cars. 

This is also very much not the a model. It's more like the b or c model. It should be a refined machine at this point not showing teething issues. 

Yeah this is the C model, but it seems that the over-gooping issue has been worsening throughout the entire 3-revision production run - usually on recall work but it's now so bad that the engines are leaving the factory with it. Ironically the new oil pickup they designed to address that part being a known weakness on the FA20 may be extra-vulnerable to goop blockage.

dculberson said:

This is also very much not the a model. It's more like the b or c model. It should be a refined machine at this point not showing teething issues. 

You're correct. I think the engine stuff is overblown. I'm still going to treat it just like my '15 BRZ I bought new. 

Play with it a bit, good fluids, quality mods, and drive it. I admit I was a bit nervous, but it has a warranty, so I'm just going to drive it and enjoy it. 

Hopefully OEM Audio comes out with their full stereo upgrade soon. 

I have the suspension, the duckbill should be here today. Order wheels, get it ceramic coated, a few other small things, then I'm going to leave it alone and just enjoy it. 

Duckbill spoiler showed up today, just have to decide on wheels and catback now. 

Delivery date has changed twice so far in the last few weeks. Originally the 28th, then the 18th, then yesterday.......still no updates. 

Apparently it's been sitting at the railhead (likely somewhere around DFW) for more than a week. But a driver shortage means they are trucks worth of cars sitting there with no one to deliver them. 

EDIT: The dealer just texted me, apparently Bob Moore Subaru alone has 36 cars at the railhead awaiting delivery once they can get drivers. 

In reply to bmw88rider :

So you owned a Golf R for a short amount of time and sold it for the BRZ, which you owned for a short amount of time.  What's next?