Subaru Issues a "Stop Sale" On ALL 2008 2.5 Liter Turbo Models

An intercepted internal email dated this morning from Subaru of America headquarters has ordered a stop sale of several turbocharged 2.5 liter Subaru sedans.

The stop sale of these products stems from some knocking issues experienced outside the US market, and appears to be a precautionary measure at his time.

As soon as the issues are resolved (probably a simple ECU reflash.), these models should return to market.

See the memos below for the official details:

IMMEDIATE STOP SALE ORDER
TO: GLR-- MAR-- NWR-- SCR-- SDC-- SWR Dealers
FROM: Subaru of America, Inc.
DEPARTMENT: Service
DATE: 04/07/2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Legacy vehicles have been added to the Stop Sale

We regret to inform you that we must place an immediate stop sale order on all of the 2008/2009 Subaru Impreza, Forester and Legacy vehicles equipped with a 2.5L Turbo Engine produced with the beginning chassis number and later as shown below.

Model
Body Type
Chassis Number
Production Date

Forester Wagon 701045 or later 2008/01/08 or later

Legacy 2.5GT-LTD 222825 or later 2008/02/04 or later
2.5GT-B 222958 or later 2008/02/04 or later
OBK 2.5XT-LTD 353835 or later 2008/02/01 or later

Impreza Sedan 523363 or later 2008/01/08 or later
Wagon 825183 or later 2008/01/08 or later

The reason for this immediate Quality Assurance action is that there have been several reports of "Engine Knocking Noise" from other markets on vehicles produced after the production dates listed.

Initial investigation confirms an internal wear issue on the failed units.

In the interest of preventing any possibility of failures for our customers, we have chosen to isolate any potentially affected vehicles by ceasing sales of the potentially affected units until the root cause and correction can be identified.

All the other displacement engines and the 2.5L Natural Aspirated Engine are excluded from this action.

Your region/distributor will be contacting you with a detailed list of affected vehicles assigned to your dealership. However, dealer trades cannot be tracked so please be aware of the affected VIN range.

If you have a vehicle in inventory that falls into the affected vehicle range, please ensure that your sales and service staff are immediately notified that the unit is un-saleable until further notice from SOA or your region/distributor.

If any of those vehicles has an unusual engine noise, please notify the SOA Technical Helpline immediately with all of the details and submit an E-QMR.

Should a customer bring an affected vehicle into your service department for an unusual engine noise, please immediately arrange that they are given the use of a clean SSLP vehicle and notify the Technical Helpline and submit an E-QMR.

You will be contacted shortly thereafter on how to proceed.

Htay7500 - 4/7/2008 4:14:41 PM

+3 Boost

"Subaru Issues a "Stop Sale"...

I've never heard of anyone else doing this, but I hope they solve this. good thing it wasn't a recall.

EnnNorak - 4/7/2008 8:25:31 PM

+1 Boost

I never did trust turbos anyway but the 2009 Subaru Forester is on my shopping list. Now I'll only consider the normally aspirated version.

no1listensanyway - 4/7/2008 5:53:04 PM

-1 Boost

I guess this will affect about 5 people nationally and another two globally.

rocker - 4/7/2008 10:21:57 PM

0 Boost

My thoughts exactly.

Htay7500 - 4/8/2008 6:38:38 AM

+1 Boost

they are actually. I don't remember where I read that from though. Their dealers (sometimes) aren't really considerate.

Reason - 4/8/2008 6:31:04 PM

+2 Boost

My experience concurs with your statements 997JET and Htay7500. The ones I've driven made me feel as if they were milled from a solid piece of metal, very sturdy as evidenced by their top notch safety ratings. Although I must say they are a tad overpriced, and it's simply absurd that the Legacy GT's with the 2.5L Turbo does not come with a vehicle stability suite standard, especially in an AWD setup.