overkill

thank you!

Thank you! The clutch is feasible. As most folks in Colorado can attest, the drive back from the mountains in traffic can be brutal. I'd say 3 times in the life of the car I have been stuck in 4-8 hours of traffic, and for maybe 2 of those hours I had to ride the clutch. The traffic was not even going fast enough for first gear. I ended up just stopping until I had 30 or 40 feet ahead of me and then going. When you talk about early clutch wear, I think about those times. The turbo is the really confusing part. This morning the car is being towed to S Wings here in Denver. I will post more when they get a look at the car. Out of curiosity, the first garage wanted to rebuild the turbo at a cost of $1800. The second garage said that if the turbo is bad they will just replace it, either with a stock unit or an aftermarket unit. Why would one rebuild vs replace? Is one cheaper vs a better longer lasting repair? thanks, g

Thank you all for your responses! For simplicity I will try to respond all in this one post. I am currently using synthetic oil and changing it every 5000 miles. The suspension parts that were replaced were struts. Besides simmering, I would love any advice on driving to maximize the life of the turbo. Part of this all is my ignorance in knowing how longs the various parts last in a car. I guess I assumed that if treated well the car would make it to six digit miles just doing the recommended maintenance. The shop seemed surprised that the struts and clutch needed to be replaced at 60k. I feel a lot better knowing that at least for the struts thats not actually that out of line. As for the clutch, I accept that it could be my driving style although I try to be careful, not ride it, etc. The method of failure was that the clutch became harder and harder to press in. The shop said that something was starting to seize on it and that it was fairly common due to the way subaru designed it, and that the replacement wouldn't have that vulnerability. The shop that I'm using is Community Auto. I used to work with the brother of the proprietor and i think they are both subie heads who love to wrench on them. I've never had a reason to doubt his skill or honesty. I have also just received some glowing recommendations for S-Wings and for Buddy at "A Mobile Mechanics" in Golden who is apparently also called the subie whisperer. A guy at S-Wings is putting together a rough estimate for me to compare to what Community Auto gave me. The reason that the shop thinks I need a turbo is because it is making a rattling noise whenever i give it some gas. Emily, I'd love any recommendations you have for me. TD, I'm totally open to driving it hard without knowing it. Basically, i don't burn out or race or that sort of stuff and i generally peg the cruise control at 10 over and leave it there. but that aside, i love accelerating! getting on the highway and getting up to 75 or 80 fast is a blast! We have mountains around here that in my old 89 Jeep 6 cyl I had to put into 3rd gear to get over 55mph. In the wrx i just leave it in 5th and leave the cruise on and blow by everyone else. Before this I had my dads old saab 900 turbo and that is the car that convinced me that the ultimate mountain car is a turbocharged 4, which is why i got the wrx. But when I'm going up the mountains in 5th its the turbo thats making it possible. Maybe that is really hard on the turbo? What do you mean by putting it away wet? Maybe I'm doing that. Usually when I get where I'm going I have 5-10 min of going 35mph on city streets before I shut down. I've never simmered though. This is the best car I've ever owned and I'm OK with more maintenance if I know what to expect. I was just very surprised to have the car work flawlessly for 6 years and then suddenly get hit with 10k in repairs over a 3 month period. If I have to expect to spend that again in 5 or 6 years then yeah, I will sell this car. I have no idea if I need to expect to replace the transmission or anything else over the life of this wrx. Thank you all again!

I'd say about half the miles are from stop and go driving. i put in the highest octane gas i can. i just heard about the simmering 30 minutes ago from the other mechanic i called for a second opinion. can you please tell me more? whatever it is, i haven't been doing it :/

Hello! My name is Gerry, I'm new here and a friend suggested this as the place to go for questions like mine. I have a 2009 wrx premium hatchback that I bought brand new. I live in denver so I wanted a car that was good in snow and would have no problems passing people on the way up the mountain passes. I have never modded my car and I don't race it. Part of why I picked a Subaru is because they are supposed to last forever and be very reliable. I'd love to hit 150k-200k in mine. After 6 years, my car has 60k miles on it. I made a decision with this car to just find a subaru mechanic that i trust and let them do all the maintenance so that the car will last as long as possible and be in the best shape possible. So here is the problem. My car has been pretty low maintenance for the past 6 years. Then suddenly a couple of months ago, it needed new brakes, a new clutch and new suspension. Like I said I don't race the car. When it was new I took it on some dirt roads with washboards, maybe that jacked the suspension. My garage was surprised that the car needed that stuff so soon. To make a long story short, now the car needs to have the turbo rebuilt. The garage says that there is a 50/50 chance that when they drop the oil pan they will find metal and will need to rebuild the engine. They say that subarus often need a lot of work around 60k miles, but then they are good until 150-200k. They said that most subarus will need head gaskets replaced at some point but for my car the big repair is the turbo and most wrx's will need it, and then i shouldn't have any more big repairs. What do you think? Why is the best car I've ever owned falling apart at 60k? Is this really common for Subarus? Do I need a new mechanic? Thanks, Gerry