Owning a Car in Costa Rica - Ongoing Saga With Our 2006 Subaru Forester

This may not be of much interest to those looking forward to travelling to Costa Rica as a tourist. But, it may be of interest to expats currently living in Costa Rica or others from any country who might be thinking about moving to Costa Rica - and who want to own their own vehicle.

A number of maintenance problems have recently arisen with respect to our 2006 Subaru Forester purchased about 1 year ago. Fortunately, they have been relatively minor and we have been able to deal with them at far less cost than we would expect in Canada or the U.S. Mechanical and electrical parts which have to be imported can be quite expensive in Costa Rica because of import duties and markups. But the cost of skilled labor is typically far less expensive than in Canada or the U.S.

Our Subaru is an AWD ("all wheel drive", not a "four wheel drive"). Lately, the rear end began making clunking noises suggesting to Lance a transmission or differential problem which could involve big bucks - even in Costa Rica. Fortunately, it turned out that Lance is not skilled at diagnosing automotive problems.

The problem became exacerbated when the vehicle simply pooped out while trying to drive up a relatively steep hill to our home in Hacienda El Paseo. It stalled and would not move forward in any gear even with the gas pedal fully depressed. In order to get up the hill, we had to back down and then take a high speed run at the hill. Actually, we had to take two runs because we did not back up far enough or gain enough momentum on the first run.

Question - where to get help for this sort of problem in Grecia, Costa Rica? I did a search on the ¿Qué Pasa, Grecia? website and found a glowing report about Carlos Morera Perez, the owner of Superior Automotriz. Carlos is fluent in English - far more so than our fluency in Spanish, particularly with respect to technical automotive matters. The official Subaru dealership in Costa Rica may or may not be the best place to go for older vehicle parts. If it is, then we would trust Carlos to go there for any parts that might be required.

Carlos had the car from the Saturday morning when we took it in (carefully avoiding steep hills along the way) until the following Wednesday morning when it was ready for pick up. His first step was to take it for a test drive with Lance and I on board. All the symptoms (clunking and pooping out) repeated themselves, but he did manage to avoid a complete stall on one relatively steep hill.

Carlos then explained a number of possible causes. In a nutshell they boiled down to a mechanical problem, an electrical problem, or both. As it turned out, there was no problem with the transmission itself (whew!). If Lance correctly understood Carlos the problem was with communications between two on board computers which together operate to control the workings of the transmission. A wiring harness or part of a wiring harness between the computers had become corroded and proper control signals were not getting to the transmission. 

Carlos worked very hard (up to 9 pm on one day) to diagnose and fix the problem. He was unable to find a Spanish language online repair manual for a 2006 Subaru Forester (the earliest being for 2010) and ultimately turned to an English language online manual available from the U.S. - making his understanding of English all the more important. 

Logically, the first step in making a diagnosis is not to imagine that there might be some problem with communications between the on board computers. The first step is to ensure that the computers are receiving proper input signals in the first place. This can be time consuming, but if the inputs aren't right, then the outputs can't possibly be right. The old adage "garbage in - garbage out" applies.

The last step was a final test drive with Lance as the driver, Carlos as a passenger, and me as a back seat driver. When all was said and done the total cost was 149,700 Colones or about USD $245 (CDN $320). Shudder to think what the same work might have cost in the U.S. or Canada.

As an aside, it is significant to note that there are useful Facebook information pages for expats that are not limited to Grecia in Costa Rica. Before we moved from Atenas to Grecia, we asked our expat connections about reliable mechanics in Atenas. Up popped the name of Freddy Castro in Atenas. He turned out to be first class: trustworthy, capable of dealing with a problem on a variety of vehicles, and not inventing problems which did not exist. In our view, the same is true of Carlos in Grecia. Apparently some mechanics in Canada and the U.S. have no problem identifying problems which do not exist - and they charge an arm and a leg for repairing a non-existent problem. With appropriate diligence, we have not yet encountered this problem in Costa Rica.

As a further aside, Freddy in Atenas was unable to find a source in Costa Rica which had on hand a replacement OEM air filter for a 2006 Subaru Forester. As a result, and with a caution to us, he substituted a different filter. It did not work well. It made a lot of noise. Ultimately, we located and purchased an OEM filter from a dealership in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was purchased and brought down to Costa Rica by Canadian friends. There was a huge improvement in performance.

As a result, Freddy (with his cautions) in Atenas and Carlos in Grecia will be our preferred mechanics in Costa Rica.