Axle Banjo Housing Problems of Subaru Legacy

The turbocharger simply went at about 132000 miles. From what I read online regarding the failed Legacy turbo,the turbo could have been saved if the union ( banjo) bolt with filter was changed. Subaru does not notify the consumer regarding this potential problem; that is irresponsible. It cost me $2300 to replace the turbo. . . I made sure that the union bolt was replaced as well.

See all problems of the 2005 Subaru Legacy 🔎.

The letter I sent to Subaru of America (edited): I am the owner of a 2005 Legacy gt. On August 5th, 2008 my family and I were headed to boise, idaho from bend, oregon. About an hour and a half from home I noticed that the engine was revving abnormally high to maintain speed. I called the shop back in bend (thomas sales and service) and they recommended that I have the car towed back to them. When we arrived back in bend the tech at the dealer inspected the car and determined that it was a turbo issue, as I had suspected. The service manager at the dealer who informed me the issue would be covered under warranty. Parts were ordered and service was scheduled. Several days later I was contacted again by the service manager who informed me that since my car was at 74k miles (but still inside the 5 year warranty period) it would not be covered and that the repair costs would be right around $2000. Naturally I was upset with this news. I am a member of the website Legacygt. Com and started looking around for information regarding my problem and found a service bulletin regarding the banjo bolt screen in the turbo getting clogged. At no time was I ever contacted by Subaru or my dealer regarding this potential problem or I would have had it checked out. I am also a member of mysubaru. Com and was not informed there either. I have had regular oil changes performed and have performed several myself (I have no record of this in the form of receipts, see attached copies) and the night before we left for boise I checked all the fluids and the air pressure in the tires and found everything was good. I was planning on having the oil changed again in boise. I have always used high quality synthetic oil since after the first couple of changes. What is really troubling is that at no time did I ever get a warning from a check engine light or error code, yet I seemed to have had a catastrophic failure.

At 48,000 miles the turbo blew. The car has had regular oil changes and now we are being required by Subaru of America to provide receipts for the oil filter/oil as we did our own oil changes and maybe it will be covered under the powertrain warranty. We were never informed of the banjo bolt and the need to clean the screen to prevent oil starvation (see Subaru technical bulletin 02-103-07) this process has taken a month already and the car still sits, dead, in the Subaru service dept. Upon investigation there are other Legacy gt owners with the same problem. Subaru did not use these same turbos (vf40) in the 2006 models. Maybe they realize there is a major problem with the 2005's?.