I have a '05 Forester XT with 135,000 miles, I purchased the car new and have always performed regular maintenance and oil changes. The car is my baby.
On a recent freeway drive I heard a “pop” followed what sounded like a shredding accessory belt. This went on for several miles with diminishing power. There was zero smoke from the exhaust.
I managed to coax it into the nearest Subaru dealership. They diagnosed a bad AVCS solenoid, with P0011 error code. They charged me $2200.00 to change the solenoid and clean all the oil feed lines! While they were at it, I had them clean the banjo bolts to the turbo, as this had never been done. The engine was removed from the vehicle for them to complete the work.
Today I went to pick it up, it started right up and idled fine. When I pulled onto the highway and accelerated TONS of blue smoke billowed from the exhaust and it had zero power. Before this the car burned one quart of oil every 3,000 miles. I turned around and the car is now back at the dealership.
I’m at a loss as to what to do. The car is not driveable at this point.
I hate to point fingers, but what could the dealership have done to cause this excessive oil smoke? Again, the car NEVER smoked before the dealership got a hold of it.
Turbo likely failed. P0011 typically means that.
good luck
I agree.
The turbo has an impellar driven by the exhaust driving another that pushes air in to the intake. The shaft for the impellars is spinning in oil-lubricated bearings. If the seal that prevents the oil from getting into the engine’s intake fails, oil gets pushed (the oil is under pressure) and pulled (by the vacuum of the intake system) into the engine’s intake.
The good news is that this doesn’t mean the engine is destroyed, only the turnbo… and maybe the cat and a few other details that don’t like oil film.
When the dealership did the work on the AVCS unit, they removed the engine. When they did I looked at the turbo charger, there was some play, but it was NOT excessive. How could the turbo suddenly fail considering little play and no wear on the intake impeller on the turbocharger.
I assume it backs at dealership so they will give the diagnosis.
The turbo will suddenly fail if it previously had oil starvation(before AVCS) or had oil starvation leaving the dealership. I hope it is something simple but right now everything points at turbo. Blue smoke is not good.
I have a car(2005 Legacy GT wagon) with similar motor but been very lucky and have 164,000 trouble free miles. But a forum I go to abounds with failures stuff around this. I simply change the oil every 3500 miles albeit regular non-synthetic stuff since brand new and it has been wonderful or I am lucky.
“Some play” is by definition excessive in a turbo. They spin at what, 100,000 rpm or so?
When I brought my car to the dealership the original symptoms were a “pop” followed by rough running and low power. There was no smoke coming from the exhaust.
The dealership has finished the repair, now the car is smoking heavily from the tailpipe(blue smoke, oil) and has little or no power. It is not driveable at this point, whereas before I was able to drive it. The dealership wants $2200 for their fix, which was not a fix!
I am reluctant to pay the dealership for the damage. My thought is to trailer it home and fight the dealership for the charge.
What else can I do?