Why This Subaru WRX Engine Was Destroyed At Just 95,000 Miles

Subaru WRX engines are known for being potent, reliable four-boxers. Given that so many WRX owners push these powerplants to their limits, blown-up boxers aren’t exactly a scarcity for engine breakdown videos, but to see one that’s already bought the farm with fewer than 100,000 miles on it, well, that’s sort of a statistical outlier.

So, what exactly happened here? How did one of the most reliable engines in its class kick the bucket at just 95,000 miles? Here’s what you need to know.

A Look At The Subaru FA20DIT

The Subaru FA20DIT, also known as the Subaru FA20F, is a Japanese-built, fuel-injected twin-scroll turbocharged engine first introduced in 2012, and a Wards Auto “ten-best engines” winner for 2015 and 2016. Here’s how it performs in the 2016-2021 WRX.

With a manual transmission and the right driving conditions, this engine could bring the WRX to 60 mph in a respectable 4.8 seconds. Besides the WRX, this engine can be found in the 2014 to 2018 Foresters, making 250 hp in the American XT, or 276 in the Japanese XT. The Subaru Legacy also packed a version of the engine delivering 296 hp.

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The FA family is a favorite among Subaru fans for its improved power capacity. It’s a tougher, more robust engine than the outgoing EJ, making it a popular choice for hot-rodding and power-modding, and that brings us to this blown-out 95k unit.

This Engine Was Taken To The Limit

Early in the video, Eric at @I_Do_Cars shows us why the engine is in such rough shape. After pulling the upper intake manifold, we can actually see the internal components of the engine by shining a flashlight between the block halves. You’re not supposed to be able to do that. So this thing really went off like a stick of dynamite.

As he continues to pull the engine apart, it begins spilling pieces out onto the floor, and we eventually get to the cylinder heads where Eric finds a bit of aluminum debris. The deeper Eric digs, the more damage he finds, discovering a smashed lifter, a shattered rod, and bits of shrapnel and engine block in places they don’t go.

Another Victim Of Power-Modding

In Eric’s final analysis, he identifies power modding as the most likely culprit for this engine’s blow-out. Eric notes that the WRX is one of the most popular engines for power-modding, suggesting that, by the time these cars are scrapped or sold off on the used market, maybe 5% of them are still stock.

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According to the breakdown, what most likely happened was:

1. The FA engine was boosted past its limit.
2. A rod bent and snapped.
3. The broken rod ran roughshod over the engine, slapping everything in reach and shredding whatever it touched.

Unless this was a recent upgrade, the fact that the engine made it to 95k with such intense engine modding is actually a testament to its durability.

Always Buy Stock

The only reason to buy a power-modded vehicle, if we’re talking about popular hot-rodding models like the Subaru WRX, the Mustang, Civic Type Rs, and so on, is because you plan on getting rid of all those mods and returning the car to stock. There’s nothing inherently wrong with power-modding your car, but a lot of customized performance models you’ll find on the market are just like the one in this video.

They were pushed all the way to their limit, hitting the speed limiter every time out, until they finally gave up the ghost, and the original owner decided it was more trouble to fix than it would be to sell, even at a substantial loss.

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Whenever you push a vehicle to produce more power than it was capable of producing stock, you’re making the engine do something it wasn’t exactly designed to do. Some engines, like the FA series, hold up better to that engine modding than others, but they all have their limits. So, if you want something that you can at least rely on to make the trip home, you never want to buy a power-modded vehicle.

Buying Stock Is Harder Than It Sounds

Eric at @I_Do_Cars notes that, around 95% of the time, any Subaru WRX you find on the used market is going to be heavily modified. In some instances, the person selling you the car might not be the first owner, and they won’t know what mods it has in the first place.

If you don’t know a car’s history, the only way to guarantee that you’re buying unmodded is to buy brand-new. That’s obviously not an option if you want a 2015 Subaru WRX, so the best you can do is refuse to buy anything that doesn’t have some maintenance history records you can look at. If you know what you’re looking for, you can take a look under the hood for any aftermarket performance parts like performance exhaust systems and cold air intakes.

If you’re still pretty green when it comes to performance modding, though, then there’s not much you’ll be able to tell on sight without bringing a more knowledgeable friend along with you.

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When in doubt, it’s best to remember the old adage that, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you find a private seller trying to get rid of a 2018 WRX at half its $15,602 Kelley Blue Book fair purchase price, you’re probably going to have to put three times that much money into it just to get it back to stock.

Our take: if you don’t know what a modified FA engine looks like, hold out for one with comprehensive maintenance records.

Sources: Subaru, @I_Do_Cars, Kelley Blue Book