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Is your Subaru dealer competent?


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he stopped working on the older subies awhile back.he got tired of all the rust.just deals with newer ones(earlier 90s an up). so i'm not to sure if he'd have any luck with getting older parts either.alot of time,he just gets info from his friends there.

 

i should actually correct myself anyway,he doesn't always get his parts from dealer.i believe about 10% of the parts is from them,the rest is either from j/y or parts store.alot of the time the parts needed are usually minor ones like gaskets,brake pads,etc sorry if my earlier post was misleading in any way

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I use Peninsula Subaru in Bremerton, WA. Those guys know their stuff, even if one of them is a Honda nut. They occasionally get confused when I use engine designations to get a part. Sometimes they think that EA81 refers to year, but then they remember and we're all kinds of good. They even had a complete set of fusible links in New Old Stock. How cool is that???

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I really like my dealer. They generally understand what I'm talking about (EA81, EA81T, etc). The other cool thing is that one of them was advertising to his coustomers about WCSS6, and mentioned that he might go down for a day. The might not always have the parts I need, but can generally point me to a dealer that has the parts. Chaplin's Subaru kicks butt!

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My guy is great. He takes the time to look for stuff and he is willing to learn. Alot of the problem is they're not willing to learn about the older cars. I was in last week and talked to the service manager, I asked him if he had any guys that could work on an EA81 "what's that" was his reply. I told him it was an engine. He thought he was going to be cool and stump my parts guy by asking him if he knew what an EA81 was. Well, when Steve (parts guy) says "it's a 1.8l motor" the service manager just got the most priceless look on his face. The point is that when I first started going in Steve didn't have a clue but he was willing to grab the book and look up my parts. I think there has only been one time he has'nt been able to get me a part. Oh, and he set me up with a whole sale accout to, so I get parts cheap :) . Later, Tim

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Well, I started this never imagining that it would reach several pages. Have learned a LOT recently. Hopefully soon, we will again actually be glad we bought a Subaru. Here's what I have learned.

 

- Basicaly we were VERY poorly informed (repeatedly) that first there were shortblocks, then there werent. (BUT there are!). So we are now stuck wasting about $2,000 CDN on a rebuilt which is totally NOT what we wanted. We figure this rebuilt will last 2 years (lots of use), then we will go directly to WJM at Prestige SUBARU Parts Department. 1-828-298-9600, and buy a new shortblock (since the Canadian Dealers can only find them in Japan?), and bolt it in myself. THEN we will finally have (about $5,000CDN later), what we had requested from dealer.

 

- First of all, sounds like some of you have not even met mice people there. My local dealer is stocked with good people that have been very nice at all times.

 

- Just because they say it's available, it may NOT be.

 

- Just because they say they are NOT available WORLDWIDE, or NOT in NORTH AMERICA, they MAY be!

 

- best machine shop I could find was Paul's Sevice in Oroville, 3 pistons up for these guys (I only have 3)

 

- Get all the parts you MAY need before anyone cracks a nut. We went in for a possible spun bearing, and made sure that NEW crank and NEW short block were available. We were misinformed that they available, then AGAIN MISINFORMED that they were NOT avail in North America. It seems now that it's too late that there are several in the US. (Which I had thought until I went to Subaru was within North America, maybe I should pick up a new map from Subaru?)

 

- Don't rebuild the engine in your car if it still runs and is your daily driver. Buy an unknown donor and rebuild it first.

 

- Even better, BUY A NEW SHORTBLOCK from a dealer that can actually find one, like WJM at Prestige.

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I don't know why CCR didn't get mentioned. You'll pay half what a dealer will charge you and it will be as good or better then a factory short block. http://www.ccrengines.com Emily and Rick are great people to work with and have forgotten more about old subbies then most people will ever know. Tim

 

I just wrote them to see if they do Justy engines.

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