Under warranty or no? I should know today

"MUSASHI66" (musashi66) 05/22/2019 at 15:58 • Filed to: None

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I had my dealership replace my oil in their express lube department. They apparently checked my brakes as well, and my front pads are at 4mm, and my rear pads are at 1mm!

random photo of a white wrx

1mm rear pads at 17000 miles! They told me they suspect a sticking caliper because they shouldn’t be so low at such low mileage.

So, I scheduled an appointment and dropped of the car yesterday. Told them not to replace anything unless it is under warranty - their plan is to machine the rotors, and replace calipers and pads. Because this is brakes - something usually not covered by warranty because they are consumables - I have a feeling they’ll try to refuse coverage. If they refuse to fix it under warranty, I’ll probably just replace the pads on my own.

At this point, I am about done with Subaru. I use to recommend Subaru to anyone looking for a car, but now... my brakes, my wife’s engine and sensor issues, my mom’s CVT issues... and the fact that all their cars now have a CVT, I think I might be on my last Subaru.

Final nail in the coffin - the dealership wants $80+ to sync my TPMS. I put on my winter wheels and tires which don’t have sensors back in October and a few weeks ago I put on my original summer wheels and tires with the sensors and the damn car won’t re-sync. Fuck that noise.

Update - they are replacing front and rear pads under warranty. Two weeks ago I was at 4mm for front and 1mm for rear brakes according to their express lube department, but apparently today the  fronts were down to 2mm which is some sort of magic number for them to replace them under warranty and send the pads back to Subaru. Yay for free. 

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 16:13

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Don’t pay to sync your TPMS. The little tool to do it is so cheap.

MUSASHI66 > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 05/22/2019 at 16:18

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$150 for Ateq Quickset. Not sure who has it cheaper. 

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 16:22

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Does subaru not have their own tool?  The Ford TPMS tool is like $35

MUSASHI66 > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 05/22/2019 at 16:29

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If they do, I’m not aware of one and never came across one on forums. 

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 16:35

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shitty

TheRealBicycleBuck > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 16:50

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If you’ve taken it to the track or autocrossed it, that would wear out your brakes real quick. I had to replace my brakes after my first track day. One of lessons learned was to turn off traction control. With it on, the car is constantly trying to assist you around the turns and it does this with differential braking. By the end of my second 20-minute run, my brakes were cooked.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 16:59

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The rear brakes on my outback were down to metal at 25k, I replaced them again around 60k and this was not covered under warranty. DIY was like $200 for the rears, with included rotors and pads.

I think the traction control system is very brake oriented and that leads to excessive wearing.

MUSASHI66 > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/22/2019 at 17:00

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I had one open lap day 15000 miles ago. They never noticed any issues on my 6k or 12k oil changes. 

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 17:11

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Man you really got a lemon. Although while I say that I’m currently trying to figure out why I get stuttering/loss of power at high rpm at WOT. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 17:21

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A lap day? That probably did it!

I’d bet the tech didn’t look at the brakes during the oil changes, even though they have a checklist that they’re supposed to complete. The new techs are stuck doing the oil changes and the y are prone to taking shortcuts and making mistakes. They overfilled mine during one oil change and it trashed the engine . The techs never admitted any wrongdoing even though it had twice as much oil as it should have . They just treated it as a warranty item.

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/1789622857

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/visited-my-wrx-this-morning-1790440641

WRXforScience > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 17:34

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I just hit 50k miles on my Subaru and I’m on my 11 th set of front pads, 4th set of front rotors, 5th set of rear pads and second set of rear rotors. Of course, I’ve been autocrossing and racing my BRZ since the week I got it (about 200 autox events and about 60 trackdays). I’ve also bought 14 sets of tires (the originals are still in good shape).

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 17:46

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Yeah, don’t pay for the TPMS sync. They tried to charge me for that at the dealership but I complained for a few minutes and they ended up doing it for free (as it should be).

MUSASHI66 > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/22/2019 at 17:47

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I guess it’s a possibility. I just talked to them and they are changing front and rear pads under warranty. 

MUSASHI66 > WRXforScience 05/22/2019 at 17:48

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That doesn’t really help :).  I had one open lap day 15k miles ago and that was it. 

MUSASHI66 > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 05/22/2019 at 17:49

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Wow that’s bad. I felt bad for doing my 2000 Tundra pads at 33k miles and I thought I was doing something wrong. 

MUSASHI66 > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/22/2019 at 17:50

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My wife’s was more lemony than mine. At least they are doing this under warranty. But next April can’t come soon enough. These two are approaching the time I spent at a dealership with my 2004 Touareg which was the most unreliable car I ever had. 

WRXforScience > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 17:55

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I could take your car on the track and wear out the brakes in one 20min session. Stock brakes don’t last long at the track (usually you end up boiling your fluid before completely cooking the pads).

I used my stock pads at the track once as an experiment. I did one 20min session babying the brakes and they were fine. The second session I was conservative but kept a quick pace. In the third and final session I did normal braking. The pads lasted the final session but turned pink and were ruined (they worked until they cooled then looked like fired bricks). I had good fluid and spare pads with me, I was purposely trying to find the limits of the stock setup.

My BRZ is much easier on brakes than your WRX (the stock BRZ and WRX brakes are the same but the BRZ is down 600lbs and 65hp compared to the WRX. Stock brakes aren’t meant for the the track and if one of my students shows up on stock brakes we specifically warn them about the limitations of the system and keep an eye out for trouble.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 17:59

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I always replace rotors too as we get a lot of corrosion on the rotors and I just don’t want to take any chances.

MUSASHI66 > WRXforScience 05/22/2019 at 18:03

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Brakes were definitely the worst thing about the stock manual base wrx on track. Even my buddy with an Audi TTRS had issues with brakes.

If I ever track my cars again, I’ll  need new pads, brake lines and brake fluid. Stock is not enough. 

MUSASHI66 > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 05/22/2019 at 18:04

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I think I might be doing that soon on the tundra. Brakes squeal a lot - pads are in great shape, but I think I’ll swap the rotors and pads. At 134k miles, new rotors won’t hurt. 

WRXforScience > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 18:07

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Street brakes are for the street, track pads are for the track. No cars come with track capable pads from the factory (some Porsches come close) because pads that can hold up to the track make so much noise and dust that no on would put up with them on the street.

Pads and fluids are all you need, stock brake lines are fine and in some cases better than stainless steel lines.

TheRealBicycleBuck > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 18:18

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Lucky dog! They didn’t offer to replace mine under  warranty! Truth be told, they saw the wear on the edge of the tires and knew exactly what I’d been up to. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > WRXforScience 05/22/2019 at 18:47

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This is why I love using my Miata as a track car. Did 5 track days on the cheapest possible brake pads I could find. Sure they weren’t GREAT brake pads but they still had some life left in them since Miatas are light.

WRXforScience > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 05/22/2019 at 19:00

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As you get faster you’ll need more pad, even in an NA Miata. Don’t worry though, they’ll still be cheap and last for a long time (also, Miata rotors are stupid cheap with whole sets costing what a single normal rotor would).

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > WRXforScience 05/22/2019 at 19:09

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Yeah since the “new” miata has functional calipers, I plan on running separate brake pads for the track and the cheapest possible street pads the rest of the time. It was a pain in the rusty car because just about every brake pad change required at least one caliper replaced due to the damn cylinder seizing, so opening the brakes at the track was a high risk endeavor. Now since I am already taking the wheels off to change over to the track set, I can just swap pads while I am in there and it should go back together fine . I am also going to be swapping my driver seat track side so it should be an interesting process every time.

I think moreso, I just avoid cutting speed so much because of how long it takes to bring it back up in this car. But yeah I need to work on heel toe shifting and threshold braking so that I actually use the brakes instead of just kind of coasting into turns. It’s certainly an area that would help my lap times considerably.   

MUSASHI66 > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/22/2019 at 20:50

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Honestly, I’m very surprised as well. 

Under_Score > MUSASHI66 05/22/2019 at 22:51

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Around here, Subaru has a small dealer network and doesn’t discount. There are maybe a dozen Forester Premiums for sale in metro Atlanta; meanwhile, there are HUNDREDS of Rogue SV’s, RAV4 XLE’s, and CR-V EX’s.

MUSASHI66 > Under_Score 05/23/2019 at 10:16

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I think you are replying to the wrong post here, but here it goes anyway - go with Heuberger motors in Colorado Springs - they will give you a few grand in discounts, and ship the car to your door, for under a grand from what I understand. 

Justino6969 > MUSASHI66 05/23/2019 at 11:38

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I’ve taken a truck to Discount Tire to sync the sensors after I got new wheels and tires before, shipped with new sensors already mounted and balanced to my door from customoffset.com, and they did it for free even thought that truck had never been to Discount Tire before . Might be worth a shot to pop over to your local one and ask them how much it costs; might get lucky like I did.

MUSASHI66 > Justino6969 05/23/2019 at 13:49

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That is a great idea - they always treat me really well at my local discount tire. Thanks!

Under_Score > MUSASHI66 05/23/2019 at 16:46

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I was just mentioning that the small dealer network is another problem with Subaru. My sister basically decided on another car, since she didn’t want to be in an “outdoorsy club.” She doesn’t kayak, bike, or any of that stuff. If Subaru appealed to hobbies of  astrology and Buzzfeed quizzes, she’d be on board haha.

MUSASHI66 > Under_Score 05/23/2019 at 17:18

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Oh, that’s not a problem in Colorado. I can throw a rock at a Subaru dealership from just about anywhere in Denver. 

Under_Score > MUSASHI66 05/23/2019 at 18:17

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I live in a county with over 750,000 people. The Subaru dealership opened in 2008. There was one before that that was open for a brief time in the early 2000’s.

There are three Ford dealerships in my county alone.