Rik

Matt, No, not just the HG's, they said the engine would require a rebuild, as the heads would need skimming and that alters / raises the compression, hence it stresses the btm end shells, crank etc: It all rests on how much damage was caused by seller's mismanagement of the cooling system. That can only be assessed when the engine is stripped down unfortunately. I'm dreading the thought of going to a court over this but the truth is, we really are the victims, though many would beg to differ. Regards, Rik.

Hi Matt, Thanks for asking. When I called the Scooby Clinic they said £3000 but they said it could go higher. Something we can't afford to do. Regards, Rik.

Matt, I very much doubt any of you on this forum, who own, or who have owned, (be it old, or not) a Scooby for several years,fail to notice that you have to keep topping up coolant and, when doing so, are oblivious to the fact that the coolant header expansion tank is caked in dense oil residue. Yes, hoses and loose fitting clips etc;etc; can cause coolant losses but when re-filling the header tank you'd have to be blind to fail to see the state this one was in. Were the tank made of black plastic, instead of the opaque white plastic, as it is, then you could be forgiven for not seeing the tell tail warning signs. These cars are not your everyday Ford, Vauxhall, run of the mill vehicles, they're enthusiasts cars and enthusiasts don't normaly overlook things like coolant losses. Rik.

Mr B, The car starts fine,doesn't seem to lack power, pulls well, sounds sweet, no white smokey stuff and the oil, although could do with changing, shows no trace of coolant or contamination, or at least I can't see it. It's the coolant that was contaminated with oil that points to HG's. There's no low end knocking, but the tappets could do with adjustment, as they can be heard ticking merrily but they are not loud, just a normal everyday tappet sound. The engine bay is now very clean and is easy to detect any fluid or hose leaks. There doesn't appear to be any oil or fluid stains on my drive and the car has stood there for over 5 weeks. Has not been driven since it was taken to local garage for diagnostic test on 3rd August. Most people here talk about needing a complete engine re-build, so you're amongst the few who have said ... just change the HG's. Still very concerned about putting money into a small claims court appeal, that's why I asked for people's views on here. Matt mentions the seller may counter sue. Regards, Rik.

Tidgy, I see what you're saying, 'buyer beware', that's all very well for those who are well clued up with cars but TBH most folk are not clued up at all. My son is one of them. As for him thrashing it on the way home...not a chance in hell. My daughter took him in her old Renault 1400cc Scenic and he followed her all the way back home. Not in a million years would she do over 70mph...more like 60mph max, so the Scooby would have been practically idling. Regards, Rik.

Mr B, I tend to agree with you when it comes to sellers and I totally distrust all dealers, that also includes the rip-off merchant Main Dealers too. Main dealer labour prices, as well as new and used car mark up percentages beggar belief, but our trading laws allow them to do as they please. My main concern here, is one you've highlighted. That the seller, in court, will deny all knowledge of any fault and will state that the car was open to inspection. In a nutshell, that's where we may fail to convince a court that we fully inspected the car, even though my son is inexperienced in car mechanics. As I've already said on here, had I have been able to get to see the car then, no way would he have sold it to him as my mechanical experience from the past would have identified the fault within minutes. From reading the replies here, it looks as though we're on a loser, big time, and because of the high cost to repair it may mean we'll have to try to sell the car 'as is'. As to what we could get for it, goodness only knows? Regards, Rik.

Gambit, Sorry for the late reply. Thanks to you too for your sympathetic input and advice ...once again, it's very much appreciated. It strikes me that the seller purposely took the precaution of avoiding to insert any details regarding the mechanical condition of the car. It was advertised in 'Autotrader' and only outlined the model and replaced ancilliaries, he'd included 14 photos of the bodywork. Had I been the one selling a such high performance vehicle, I would have emphasised the mechanical virtues of such a car and would clearly state that the engine and transmission were in first class condition. Were that to be the case of course. As that was not the case, then the obvious thing to do would be to omit giving any details, re engine, and hope any prospective buyers would be attracted mainly by pictures of the car. Kind regards, Rik.

Classic Mica, Apologies for the very late reply. Thanks so much for your detailed explanation outlining possible faults / flaws to check. My son has learned a VERY costly lesson here with the purchase of this car and it has lain on my driveway now for the past 5 weeks without being able to be used. He taxed and insured it at a high cost and all that money may as well have been put in the dustbin. To be honest, the car looks, (on the face of it,) a very nice vehicle, and apart from two small dings on the bonnet face, it is in near mint condition, body and interior .. He obviously bought it for the love of Scoobies alone and for the fact it looks a really nice car, but although he thinks he 'knows it all' , he's young and naive when it comes to the general mechanics of vehicles. The seller is obviously in a far better position to fight this case than we are and as we all know ... money talks. He very rarely used the Scooby, or at least that's what he told us and he'd barely driven it this year...that seems rather odd to me, as it would have been a nice motor for driving. I'm presently taking advice from Trading Standards and Citizens Advice to see how to proceed. Trouble is we could lose the case and then suffer even more loss...something I can ill afford to do, as I'm a disabled old git with no income to back this up. As I've previously mentioned on here, I just hope this post / thread helps prevent another case like this and causing some other poor soul to fall into a similar trap. Kind regards, Rik.

BoozyDave, BTW ...love your avatar. :D Without having recorded the conversation between my son and the seller, we have no proof. What we do have, is that a local garage tested and diagnosed the problem within 3 days of the car being purchased. That was the eariest we could get it booked in. I diagnosed the car had a head gasket failure during the early morning of 31st July. Car was bought on 30th July. Booked into garage for second opinion diagnostics test Monday 3rd August..result .. Head gasket failure! But as you say, £100 to go to court, but as long as it costs no more than that, then all we can do is hope. I sincerely hope this post may help prevent anything like this from happening to any prospective buyers out there. Rik.

Matt, I know that’s the law but there are thousands of laws that tend to be an idiotic farce. To begin,I assume that all of you on this forum are enthusiasts; I firmly believe you all love your cars. That being the case, why did the seller of this junk heap tell me over the phone; (after my son purchased the car) that he often topped up the coolant and oil. Ask yourselves, would any of you keep topping up coolant and oil without investigating what was causing the losses? How could anyone, (unless they were blind) not notice the thick black residue that was caked all over the walls of the once, white plastic, header / coolant, expansion tank? According to the seller, this car was the love of his life????? So how come, as an enthusiast, could you possibly not notice the dense, tar thick, oil residue, that was also caked around the rubber feed pipe inside the header tank, and also all round the top of the radiator filler area, plus the small coolant container that feeds the turbo. All were caked in oil that had been there for a considerable time. Rik.

Matmidgley, I'm not into Latin but know that my son has been seriously ripped off...buyer beware or not! Rik.

Matt, Thanks. That's a serious worry now...lesson here is:- DON'T BUY PRIVATELY, unless you are 100% mechanically minded and 100% experienced in car mechanics....unless of course you have tons of dosh and couldn't care less! So, for innocently buying a car, well above it's real value, we also stand to have to pay out £3k to fix it. The law needs a serious alteration. Regards, A very worried Rik.

Tidgy, Thanks to you too. Will have to take a closer look under the hood to be certain as to what we have exactly. Cheers, Rik.

Savage bulldogs, Once again I'm very gratefull for your help. Thanks. I did have a Google, re avecs, but it seemed a bit of grey area to me? One thing is clear to me now though...I assume we have what is termed, a 'Newage' model, so that alone helps when clarifying jobs, parts etc: Regards, Rik.

Hi All, Have any of you guys had any dealings with court proceedings, re buying of goods, cars etc: ? Currently trying to find out what would the cost be if we lose a judgment on a faulty Scooby we've bought privately. Details on another thread of what's happened. Here: http://uk.subaruownersclub.com/forums/topic/15908-help-needed-re-major-engine-repair/ Any info will be well appreciated. Regards, Rik.

Jay762, A bit of a late reply, (typical of me to miss seeing your post) but thanks for the warm welcome. Rik.

Savage bulldogs, You seem to have a good working knowledge of these engines and it's great to know there are many here who know what they're talking about, re Scoobies. You mention 'avecs heads', being fitted to Sti's and there's somewhere I'd seen that WRX's have these fitted?? Would the car we have ... a 2.5 WRX wagon, registered late March 2006, possibly have these heads fitted? I'm just interested to know that's all. Regards, Rik.

Savage bulldogs, Thanks...Some very useful info you've given me and it's all food for thought. How long ago was it when you rebuilt your engine? Regards, Rik

Thanks guys you're all a great help and your help is well appreciated. :D Rik

Tidgy, Is there a way to PM members on here? Would contact you giving location. Regards, Rik.

Stants, Thanks for trying to help out. The one shown in the bay link would have been practically on my doorstep, as I used to live north of Wolves, so that short block in Bilston would have been easy to go see etc: Regards, Rik.

Tidgy, Thanks for your kind words...appreciated. What you have written is worrying to me. If the block needs replacing and it could well be the case, then I really don't know at this point as to how we could afford to get it fixed. As I said earlier, we could maybe buy an engine from a breakers yard but could end up having to re-build that, as there's no guarantee that another unit would be perfect. Though anything mechanical is never perfect we know. Scooby Clinic is well over 200miles from me, so popping in isn't an option I'm afraid. The person who sold us the car was within nominal mileage to the Clinic, hence some of the work was done on the car there. Regards, Rik.

Savage bulldogs, I'd considered taking that route but you never know what people are selling, as we've found to our cost with the car. The Scooby we have has full service history...mostly from Subaru main dealers, or the Scooby Clinic. It's done 46,000 miles and that's genuine, so it might be a better option to keep this engine and rebuilding it. The costs we're being quoted are around £3k Correct me if I'm wrong but if we bought a 2.5 Sti, would that mean we would need to mate it with the 6 speed box? Rik,

Stants, Thanks for your help too...again it's great to be on a forum like this. I'll give them a call tomorrow. Jay762, To update you. I called the guys up in Sheffield and they were very sympathetic re price but as you can well imagine engine re-builds don't come cheap. I really wish when people sell a car they would be more honest but sadly that seems to be the way of the world and usually the innocent end up having to pay for it. The good news is that looking at what you guys have found it appears that there may be light at the end of the tunnel as far as prices go. I feel so angry as to how my son has been treated I want to publish the blokes name and address who sold him the junk. Rik.

Jay762, Once more, a big thank you from me for your help/advice. TBH I feel really sorry for my son, him having spent over £6,000 in total on a car that's presently not fit for the road. Youngsters 'eh, they won't listen to the 'old man', who has quite a bit of experience, having owned many cars and all of them second hand, so I've always had to fix and mend whenever problems have occurred. Will definitely keep you posted as and when I have more info. Kind regards, Rik.