Anyone got any tips?
Here's my situation (warning long, see tl:dr at bottom for ADHD sufferers):
In 2011 my wife and I purchased a 2009 Subaru Legacy from Mark Miller Subaru, it was "her" car. Against my objections my wife decided to buy the extended factory warranty through Subaru of America. FFW Thanksgiving day 2013 my wife is driving to visit family and she hears a knock in the engine. She immediately pulls over and turns the car off. She gets out and checks the oil, it is all but empty. A guy pulls over and offers assistance, turns out he has a few quarts of the appropriate oil in his car and he gives it to her. She tries the car again after adding the oil and at idle it sounds fine. She presses the gas and there is a knock. She contacts some family and they come to help her out. They add more oil and run the car at idle again, it sounds fine. She hits the gas and it knocks. We get the car towed to the Mark Miller Subaru dealership.
The previous oil change was in 12-12 at Jiffy Lube, my wife opted for the Synthetic oil. Her mileage was 42K. When we dropped the vehicle at the dealership the millage was at 52K. Recommended oil service interval is 7 months or 7000 miles.
Dealership said it probably just needed an oil flush, they couldn't hear a knock. Wife tells them it WAS knocking, thinks it's more than an oil flush type issue. They push, she agrees to pay for the oil flush. Guy calls back and said when he took it on a test drive there was a knock. Says it needs a new or rebuilt engine, asks for service records. We give him what we've got and he takes several days and finally presents us with the option of spending anywhere for $4,400 to $5,500 to replace the engine. We don't have $5K to give him. We ask if there are options or if there is a way they could work with us or do a good will type thing, we've bought 3 cars from Mark Miller since 2006 and plan to be in the market for another car in 2014. He says he'll talk to his service manager, then calls back and just repeats our option to spend $5K for a new engine, we ask him again if there's anything they can do, what other options we might have, he says he'll look into it, a few days later another call same thing, over and over.
Finally we get a hold of the service manager, he asks if we've called 1-800-SUBARU3, we're like wtf? Why haven't we been presented with this as we're begging for options? We start the process with the warranty side of Subaru. About a month after we drop the car off they come up with the idea of starting discovery to see why the engine failed. They say it will take 3 days, I call back 5 days later and they aren't done yet. Day 6 and I get the call that the cause was oil starvation, that it isn't likely that it will be covered, we'll be presented with some estimates for the repairs.
I haven't gotten the final word from the Subaru Warranty center but I'm expecting a denial. Anyone have any tips on how I should proceed?
Essentially if they are not going to cover the repairs we will surrender the vehicle. We're in the process of filing bankruptcy. We'd prefer to keep the vehicle, it's our only vehicle at the moment. If they partially covered the repairs we'd see what we could do, but there is simply no way we can swing $5K right now.
tl:dr 2009 Subaru Legacy, oil change at 42K miles, engine throws a rod at 52K miles, factory warranty coverage denied, we're desperate and looking for suggestions.
Here's my situation (warning long, see tl:dr at bottom for ADHD sufferers):
In 2011 my wife and I purchased a 2009 Subaru Legacy from Mark Miller Subaru, it was "her" car. Against my objections my wife decided to buy the extended factory warranty through Subaru of America. FFW Thanksgiving day 2013 my wife is driving to visit family and she hears a knock in the engine. She immediately pulls over and turns the car off. She gets out and checks the oil, it is all but empty. A guy pulls over and offers assistance, turns out he has a few quarts of the appropriate oil in his car and he gives it to her. She tries the car again after adding the oil and at idle it sounds fine. She presses the gas and there is a knock. She contacts some family and they come to help her out. They add more oil and run the car at idle again, it sounds fine. She hits the gas and it knocks. We get the car towed to the Mark Miller Subaru dealership.
The previous oil change was in 12-12 at Jiffy Lube, my wife opted for the Synthetic oil. Her mileage was 42K. When we dropped the vehicle at the dealership the millage was at 52K. Recommended oil service interval is 7 months or 7000 miles.
Dealership said it probably just needed an oil flush, they couldn't hear a knock. Wife tells them it WAS knocking, thinks it's more than an oil flush type issue. They push, she agrees to pay for the oil flush. Guy calls back and said when he took it on a test drive there was a knock. Says it needs a new or rebuilt engine, asks for service records. We give him what we've got and he takes several days and finally presents us with the option of spending anywhere for $4,400 to $5,500 to replace the engine. We don't have $5K to give him. We ask if there are options or if there is a way they could work with us or do a good will type thing, we've bought 3 cars from Mark Miller since 2006 and plan to be in the market for another car in 2014. He says he'll talk to his service manager, then calls back and just repeats our option to spend $5K for a new engine, we ask him again if there's anything they can do, what other options we might have, he says he'll look into it, a few days later another call same thing, over and over.
Finally we get a hold of the service manager, he asks if we've called 1-800-SUBARU3, we're like wtf? Why haven't we been presented with this as we're begging for options? We start the process with the warranty side of Subaru. About a month after we drop the car off they come up with the idea of starting discovery to see why the engine failed. They say it will take 3 days, I call back 5 days later and they aren't done yet. Day 6 and I get the call that the cause was oil starvation, that it isn't likely that it will be covered, we'll be presented with some estimates for the repairs.
I haven't gotten the final word from the Subaru Warranty center but I'm expecting a denial. Anyone have any tips on how I should proceed?
Essentially if they are not going to cover the repairs we will surrender the vehicle. We're in the process of filing bankruptcy. We'd prefer to keep the vehicle, it's our only vehicle at the moment. If they partially covered the repairs we'd see what we could do, but there is simply no way we can swing $5K right now.
tl:dr 2009 Subaru Legacy, oil change at 42K miles, engine throws a rod at 52K miles, factory warranty coverage denied, we're desperate and looking for suggestions.
