Inski or Vinnie or anyone at a dealership, help me out with this one

[Mighty Subie]

Ok, I have a question. What happened to the service bulletin that's out about the early 02 WRXs for a fuel line that is too long/short/f-ed up? I get a really bad unburnt fuel smell through my vents when it's below umm 40 or so out until my car is completely up to temp and then I get it just a tiny bit sometimes after that. I heard that there is a service bulletin out about that and I also need to get in to have my seat bolt recall fixed. whoever gets me the info first will get my car in their dealership to be fixed!!! lol

ready...

set...

GO!!!

 

[Rightseat]

good question...I got the same issue, bugeye waggie ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

 

[Shorty]

If you woulda posted this when anyplace is open you woulda got a quicker answer. I'll look it up tomorrow if nobody else has beaten me to it. Suppers waitin'.

 

[Rightseat]

...I'll look it up tomorrow if nobody else has beaten me to it.

To save you some trouble:-- look up Bulletin Number 09-36-03: 2002MY Impreza WRX Fuel Smell in Cold Weather.

Involves replacing a rubber hose and hard pipe on fuel-feed lines to injectors. On early cars, these tended to shrink and leak. It's an intake-manifold-off job.

 

[Mighty Subie]

If you woulda posted this when anyplace is open you woulda got a quicker answer. I'll look it up tomorrow if nobody else has beaten me to it. Suppers waitin'.

Thanks a lot smart ass! Some people work during normal business hours!! lol jk. thanks for helping out. I got told by the dealership in bangor that they couldn't find anything in the books (ass holes) on that after the looked for a couple hours and called me back.

 

[rallyXcramps]

Yup, Right Seat Nigel has it.

 

[Shorty]

Special STM price to repair seeping fuel line that is under the intake: $416.26 w/labor and parts. How's that grab ya?

 

[Pedro]

Special STM price to repair seeping fuel line that is under the intake: $416.26 w/labor and parts. How's that grab ya?

Since it is a bulletin, shouldn't it be a no charge fix?

 

[Rightseat]

Yowja!

That sounds like I'm ordering partz and pulling me own manifold

(need to, cause am also chasing PO541 Evap CEL code)

Thanks for checking, tho.

actually, with this non-winter we having, I've only had the fuel smell a couple times so far.

 

[Runnah]

Psh, I love the smell of raw fuel in the morning!

Smells like...well raw fuel.

 

[Evan]

i have the same problem and remember nasioc.com having a big ass thread about it. i would have assumed that SOA would fix it for free.

 

[redlinerally]

Full article:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131755

 

[Evan]

also, there are a number of posts in the thread above stating that if you call subaru they'll possibly help.

that's what i plan to do. i'm hoping that patriot will be friendly enough to cover this, with the assistance of SOA (1-800-SUBARU3).

also, after market fuel rails will fix the problem, in case you need an excuse to mod ;D'

from last pages of thread:

My 2002 WRX has 94,000 miles on it. I live in Kansas and had first encountered this fuel smell problem last winter but only a few times, near the end of the season. I didn't think too much about it then but it came back with a vengeance this year. Temperatures in my area dropped to well below freezing for a couple of weeks and the noxious smell was atrocious. It gave me a headache almost instantly.

When moving, I did not encounter the smell. When stopped, I had to switch from fresh air to recirculating. This worked but was very annoying.

After doing my research, on Monday I contacted SOA at 1-800-SUBARU3 (782-2783). I spoke with a Subaru rep there named Grant Noble. I was very calm and as nice as I could be. Grant let me know that since my car was well out of warranty that Subaru may not be able to help, but that they might provide "good will". There were no guarantees.

He instructed me to contact my dealership and have them diagnose it as Subaru couldn't do anything until that happened first. I left my car with the dealer on Wednesday and notified SOA that I had done so. The dealership called me later that morning and said Subaru would pay half. I had it fixed that day. My total cost: $195.

I have to say that I'm pleased, although I think Subaru should do a recall. My dealer told me they already had five WRXs in that WEEK to perform the same work. It makes me wonder how many Subarus in total have been affected.

Yippee, SOA pulled through. I dropped my car off at CarlsenSubaru and gave them my case# with SOA. I calmly yet

firmly explained that this was a pre-existing defect that was

clearly an environmental, health AND safety issue, and that I

should not be responsible for the cost to repair. My dealer

contacted SOA who told him that it was up to the local field

rep. to make the call on the repair. They approved the repair

and covered the cost 100%. SWEET!

It took them overnight to fix - the tech apparantly

had a problem with a bolt when taking apart the intake

manifold. So be warned, this fix is not for the timid.

I didn't have the fuel smell this morning, but it wasn't very

cold. I assume it's fixed, but will keep and eye on it

closely over the next couple of weeks and let the forum know

if the smell comes back.

This restores my faith in Subaru. I was to the point where

I wasn't going to consider another one, now I am thinking

about an '08 hatchback STI. ;-) Goodwill at work indeed.

Thanks to this forum for all your help getting this straigtened

out. Also thanks to Carlsen Subaru for their excellent service.

All the best,

Mandoman

 

[Mighty Subie]

Well i'm going to give a dealership a call in the morning to see what I can do. I'm not planning on paying anything for this since it is a bulletin and a pre-existing safety issue, but we'll have to see.

 

[Shorty]

There isn't any recall so it wouldn't normally be free. I'll have to check with SNE's service/parts rep. If we can only on one for free it's gonna be mine! >

 

[Evan]

(vinnie and inski quietly back out of the room).....

 

[Pedro]

so basically subaru is saying

"well your car might go up in flames because we missed something, but we ain't gonna fix it"

Because this is honestly dissapointing.

 

[Mighty Subie]

well I called subaru today and they gave me a case number and told me that they would "see what they could do when i get an appt" I called Quirk (no i dont like quirk but it's the closest place) and they gave me an appt for tomorrow morning. I will get my car REALLY stinky with the smell, since all i have to do is turn on the fan when it's cold, and bring it in all smelly and see what they will do.

 

[Mighty Subie]

well before SOA talked to the dealership up at in bangor, I was quoted a price of *drum roll* $791. I almost choked. I told them that SOA will be calling them on it so that they can discuss the price since this is a Subaru mistake, not something that was worn down over time. I did have to f'ing pay $80 for Subaru to diagnose the damn problem though even though I told them what was wrong and they even came back and told me that it was exactly what I told them it was. So if I was to pay the amount that I was quoted, plus the 80 that I already had to pay for them to figure out that I was right about what the problem was... It would be costing me over 900 f'ing dollars (with tax added in)!!!!

SOA called me this afternoon and left a message saying that they discussed it and wanted to talk to me about what they are willing to do, but she didn't say on the message exactly what they were willing to do. I wish that I didn't have to sleep during the day or else I would have been able to talk to her then.

I will be finding out what they came up with this morning. If it really is up to the service rep and they aren't willing to do it for free, then I will have to talk to a different dealership. This isn't like this is an isolated incident or anything. They realized this was an issue in production and corrected but decided that it wasn't a large enough risk because of the issue only arising during excessively cold days to warrant a recall.