The Subaru shop that sold me the car swears this is normal and the explanation they gave that it takes a second to lubricate on the first start due to the engine design. Never had a boxer before and sounds believable so I accepted the explanation.
But less than 50 miles after purchasing the car the air pump system throws a code for a $1-2k engine repair and I no longer trust them. The standard "It never gave us a code, don't know what your talking about, but we can fix it.".
This shop is locally trusted and has good reviews, but I am beginning to think that may just be because they are really good at explaining away things and covering stuff up. The chances of a car magically needing a major repair 50 miles after purchase, when the car has 180k on it, is basically like winning the lottery while being struck by lightning. So either I am insanely unlucky or the shop is hiding things.
The first start of the day and only the first start, for around 1-2 seconds, the engine knocks very loudly (enough that it can clearly be heard from inside the house, sounds like a diesel starting), and then goes away almost instantly. Will not happen again unless the car sits for several hours.
This is not piston slap, I know what that sounds like. It did it before I bought the car, then as a prepurchase agreement the same shop did a complete timing/idler replacement since the sound was similar to videos I found of tensioners failing. Still did it afterwards and at the time I trusted the shop so I decided to go with it and accept their explanation.
Is this normal?
But less than 50 miles after purchasing the car the air pump system throws a code for a $1-2k engine repair and I no longer trust them. The standard "It never gave us a code, don't know what your talking about, but we can fix it.".
This shop is locally trusted and has good reviews, but I am beginning to think that may just be because they are really good at explaining away things and covering stuff up. The chances of a car magically needing a major repair 50 miles after purchase, when the car has 180k on it, is basically like winning the lottery while being struck by lightning. So either I am insanely unlucky or the shop is hiding things.
The first start of the day and only the first start, for around 1-2 seconds, the engine knocks very loudly (enough that it can clearly be heard from inside the house, sounds like a diesel starting), and then goes away almost instantly. Will not happen again unless the car sits for several hours.
This is not piston slap, I know what that sounds like. It did it before I bought the car, then as a prepurchase agreement the same shop did a complete timing/idler replacement since the sound was similar to videos I found of tensioners failing. Still did it afterwards and at the time I trusted the shop so I decided to go with it and accept their explanation.
Is this normal?