CHANGE YOUR OIL OFTEN- TRUST ME.
Before I tell you what happened, why it happened and what happened after it happened. I want you to know I am not making excuses and what happened is totally my fault
So if your comment back to me is, you are an idiot, save your self the trouble.
(AGAIN NO EXCUSES) But, I have been quite busy lately, really busy, more so than I need to tell you. I had also gone on a few long trips with the car, Toronto a couple of times, NYC, etc… and somewhere between work and life, totally forgot about the Oil Change. How much you ask? well lets say I over shot it by 4K.
I was driving to Toronto, car loaded, and about 3 hours in. I hear a hissing noise. When I heard it, it hit me that the car has not been going as fast as normal, and the noise seemed to come on when I press the gas. I exited, got to a gas station and looked at things. checked the oil and lets just say it was LOW. So I added some, and hit the HWY again. By the time I ramped up to 120, the noise was really loud. So I dropped down the speed and put it on cruise, wanted to get to the next exit and get off again. Within a minute, the car made a weird noise, then the cruise came off, the check engine light came on, and the traction control light came on as well. Luckily there was an exit close by, got off, parked, and called road side assistance.
They offered to take the car to the closest dealer, which I asked them to do in the morning. They where very helpful except that the one thing I really wanted / cared for when its that late at night, and cold, is the safety of my family, which the road side assistance does not care to cover. I had written a blog post on that in the past you can read it here
In the morning the car was taken to Whitby which was the closes dealer to where I was
As soon as they looked at the car, the decision was clear and instant.
a) The Turbo is gone
b) It was my fault for neglecting the car
Since it was Saturday they could not source the part to work on it, but they promised to work on it on Monday and get it fixed. The only question was, who will pay for the damage.
Long story short, the dealer called me on Monday afternoon and informed me that Subaru Canada would like to have a word with me. within 30 minutes, a lady and a gentleman from Subaru was on the phone. They where very pleasant, and did a good job letting me know that I was at fault. Informed me that the cost of replacing the Turbo was close to $2000 and that it is not covered by warranty. No argument from my side. What can I say. However they had a proposal… They would pick up the cost of the turbo IF, I am willing to do an engine flush and the 24K service at the dealership. That sounds like a great offer, Deal. With that Subaru was generous to pick up the tab, and I got off with a $600 bill for maintenance that had to be done anyway.
So the moral of the story is, PLEASE, learn from me, Change your OIL on schedule, its very important… TRUST ME
Before I warp up, I want to give a plug to the Whitby dealership, they were nice and Mark the shop manager was very helpful.
I started to think after why Subaru would do that I don’t have the answer yet but I have 3 theories
1) I know the Subaru folks that called knew about my blown engine and maybe they feel bad so they paid for the Turbo
2) The Subaru folks thought if I pay for the Turbo, I wont do the engine flush, and by the time I get back home, I will need a new engine
3) The Subaru Folks know about this blog and want me to say something nice about them
Maybe its a combination of all of the above, and that is fine by me.
What do you think?