Suby Specialties

Efficient and knowledgeable. Honored the price they quoted me over the phone, and did not try to charge me, or overcharge me for a bunch of «extras.». My Subaru Outback is in good hands.

Suby Specialties is great! I had my 06 STI inspected here since it has been taken to this shop since it was a baby. They are very friendly and straight forward. Informed me of what repairs I would need in the future gave me a free oil change since it was my first time! When I need to have my STI rebuilt I will be bringing it here.

Great Subie service. Very knowledgeable and friendly. They are excellent at diagnosing and doing repairs to your Subie. If you want to leave your Subie in good hands… Subie specialists is the place for your car

We have two Foresters in our household. We heard about Suby Specialties from other Subaru owners, and have been coming here for 5 years now. Great service all around.

Steve is out. That leave Mary to run the place. I trust her as must as I did with Steve. She is great at what she does. She listens to the problems I have with the car and deals with them right away.

Installed my CAI, short throw shifter, and shift bushings on short notice. Did a great job — cool folks to boot. Thank you, Mary.

After 40+ years of tolerating bad auto shops, I finally found the gold at the end of the rainbow. I did my homework with other ‘review’ sites and Suby forums and all fingers pointed to this shop. Mary and her crew are the most professional out of many I’ve been to. I knew what the car needed and broke down the trust wall and asked her to evaluate my wifes 2003 WRX wagon-​with 133K miles on it-​and see if there is anything
major going on that might need repairing or replacing. What feedback did she give me? Flat out honesty. No up-​sell crap her. Her prices were very reasonable. A ‘Stealership’ would have raped me for. maybe $ 2500. She came in, parts and labor at $ 1730. Very fair due to the car needing many things under the hood. The biggest thing thing that blew my away? I have NEVER been to a shop that completely steam cleans and details the ENTIRE MOTOR when they were finished. (it could have just been my engine was really dirty, haha) This might not be a big deal to many of you, but to me? The most anal of car owners? I was amazed. Like new. My wife was entirely happy, because this is her baby. Also… For you macho dudes who think girls might not be the right choice to own and head an auto shop? You couldn’t be farther then what your ego tells you. Mary rocks. She not only takes care of and oversees this shop in every way, she wrenches as well, and has the experience and education to prove she deserves to rule this place with an iron fist to make sure we, the customers are more then happy. If anything else pops up with our Suby, you bet your ass it’s going back to the only place I trust. Suby Specialties.
Marc D

I’ve had two subarus throughout my life and this is the only place I take them to get it serviced. It’s under a new ownership and thank goodness it’s not a random stranger that took over the business. Steve has been great throughout my years as a Subaru owner and I wish him nothing but the best. Mary is the new owner. She’s young and energetic. She’s been working under Steve for several years and now she has taken over the helm. She’s great and I honestly don’t notice any differences between her and Steve. The service is quick and efficient. Their speciality is honest and fair. It’s not the cheapest nor is it the most expensive. Pricing is fair and that’s what I like.

My honey and I have been lucky enough to have Suby Steve as our go to shop for any major repair on our 2003 Forester. They were able to get the gaskets changed and back on the road in no time. For a major issue or just any little thing, this team know the car inside and out. You really can do no better for your Subaru. Love=Love!

I bought a 2004 STi recently and have been fixing all the «issues» with the car. I’m pretty handy given that I work for an automotive OEM as an engineer, but there were a couple things I wasn’t sure about because I’ve never owned an STi before. That and it’s always nice to have a real technician’s opinion.
I brought the car to the dealer and of course they said a million things were wrong with it, including the clutch and wheel bearings. I didn’t hear any wheel bearing noises, and the clutch wasn’t slipping so I was baffled.
I didn’t believe them, but I definitely wanted a second opinion. Heard about Suby Specialties via Unilocal and Google so I thought I’d bring it there for a check-​up.
Steve drove the car briefly and told me everything seemed fine. He even gave me a facial expression that was like «the dealers told you what?!» (expressing that he thinks the dealer was crazy). He wanted to confirm, so I made an appointment for a proper check-​up on the lift. When I went back for the appointment a couple weeks later, he recalled who I was (this is always a nice feeling when you go to a shop). He drove it again, put it on the lift and proceeded with a proper evaluation. He even explained his evaluation to me and turns out I have an ACT clutch (yellow clutch seen from the slit in the bottom of the transmission) and the wheel bearings didn’t indicate any issues.
So for now, I’ll move onto fixing the remaining issues on my own. But if anything major comes up, I will definitely be going back to Suby Specialties.
The overall experience was very nice. Steve was very knowledgeable with Subaru vehicles and the initial feeling he (and everyone at the shop) gives you is my welcoming and friendly.
It’s always nice to have a shop that knows who you are, whether its you the person or the Subaru that you’re bringing in.

So I’ve been having some issues with torque steer and an oil leak on a 2008 STi. I’ve taken it to several different dealers, nobody could help me. I took it to Forman, and they refused to take the project on. Mary the shop forman informed me that she would have a look at the car and instructed me to drive over there and they would check it out. within an hour they had a good feel for what was wrong. I then left and came back about a week later when we’d scheduled the appointment for servicing. Within 3 days they address the problem that nobody else was able to, or willing to, and fixed the oil leak. let me tell you, they are as good as it gets.

Recently had a bad oil leak on my car, Steve took care of me really well. Also my A/​C was broken for a while, as a poor college student I did not have the money to fix it due to other shops quoting me on about $ 800 to fix it. However, Steve fixed it for $ 370, can you believe it? He also offered to fix my oil leak without charging me labor so I basically just paid for the parts. And to sweeten up everything, he even fixed an exhaust leak for me for free. I will definitely continue to come back if I ever need to fix my car.

Just moved to the area, but have known about this shop for a few years now. So decided to bring my 07 spec. b in for 120k service.
Spoke to Steve and described some issues I have with my car. Radiator/​temp issue and steering issue. Troubleshooted both issues for me along with the 120k service. Now my car feels better than ever.
Dropped my car off in the AM, picked it up late afternoon. Only technician left was a redheaded girl. Didn’t catch her name but she pointed out the problems I was experiencing with the radiator/​temp and steering. I assume she was the one who was working on my car as she was the last person there. But I felt comfortable with her because she seemed very knowledgeable and is a fellow suby driver herself (she was washing her wrx while waiting for me, lol).
Overall good service. Good work, decent prices. Came in for 120k, left with more than what I expected. I’d bring my car here again.

Got my aftermarket intake installed and 30k mile service done here, Steve is real knowledgeable and consistent, great place to take your Suby for service if you live in the area or nearby!

I had my spark plugs changed here about a year and a half ago and one of my spark plug blew out they other and stripped the threads.

Here is a log of events for my car service.
Made an appointment 2 weeks in advance for my 105k service. Took a day off and drove from Irvine to Monrovia at 7am via 5, 57, 210. Got there at 8, no cars on the rack walked in and talked to Steve about my repairs. On top of the 105k service, I missed my 90k service, so there fluids that needed to be replaced. My Stoptech’s had 80k miles on them so I brought rotors for the guys to install. I also mentioned that my sway bars were squeaky and the AC belt was chirping.
Once I handed keys over, Steve drove the car around the block to look, feel and hear for problems. Meanwhile other Suby owners were dropping their cars off for the day. Once my car was on the rack they rotated my wheels/​tires according to the sequence that I had asked. However they did not hand torque the rear wheels, they used the impact gun :(
I left around 8:45 and had breakfast at LeRoy’s down Huntington. Great start to my car repair morning.
Around 11:00 I got a call from Steve informing me about my broken inner right axle boot, ac pulley, ac belt, and alternator belt. Which I gladly approved.
We knew this job was going to take ALL DAY so I wasn’t expecting the car to be done. I got dropped off back at the shop around 2pm, they were installing the brakes so I went to the local Starbucks down the street and chilled until Steve called at 4pm.
Upon paying for the service Steve advised me to keep an ear out for the brakes. They bedded in the brakes per Stoptech instructions but the car still made grinding noises with contact. Told me to put miles on the car and let him know if it doesn’t go away.
On my drive back to Irvine, I heard grinding on the brakes. Since there was traffic driving home I bedded in the rotors more by driving up to 60mph and slowing down to 10mph. By the time I got home the brakes were nice and quiet.
So my car is old and it made all these rattling noises on the dash board. I suspect Steve fixed it because the car is silent now, before the car would rattle every time you drive through anything bumpy. Steve probably heard it during his test drives and knew where to fix it. Really thankful for that.
Was it worth it to use a vacation a day to make car repairs? Yes. But then again I love my car. If you love your car and OCD about every nut, bolt and fluid that goes into it then Suby Specialties is your shop.

Steve and Donald are top-​notch and clearly are extremely experienced when it comes to anything Subaru.
Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and they’ll definitely be where I get all my future work done over the dealer.

Great staff and service. I felt confident that the work was being done well and prices were fair.
Did not appreciate, however, their attempts at advertising on MY car by putting fresh licence plate frames of their business name on both front and back licence plates without mention. Not cool.
Also, beware that appointments are often 2 weeks out so, if it’s an emergency, call another shop.

You love your Subaru? Think about taking it to the dealership when DIY is close to impossible for you? Do yourself and your Subie a favor, bring it here. Steve is a Subaru Guru! This guy knows a Subaru like the back of his hand. He’s very knowledgeable, nice and straight up with you on your car. If there is anyone I trust aside from myself, friend’s Craig and Marco, is Suby Specialties.
I’ve been here several times for services but the most recent one was the timing belt and water pump service. Made the appointment, they did the job with no problems and was ready to pick up the following day (because of cars for service before me). I paid $ 1,200 for the job but left with piece of mind. The car ran smooth, and no problems till now.
I bothered to ask Steve also that my car has been having a misfire with a CEL code of misfire in all 4 cylinders. I figured he might know something, but surprised me how fast he responded and certain about it. When I went home, I researched on what he had told me and sure enough, he was dead on right.
What you pay more here than other shops is knowledge on what’s under the hood and how your Subie works. It is cheaper, not by a big difference but cheaper non the less, than Subaru dealerships. You definitely get your money’s worth here.

Very impressed with the shop — I’ve been to a few different shops with my older car (honda accord) and I was generally unimpressed with the mechanic’s specific knowledge with my vehicle.
When I bought my Subaru, I did some research on my own and read about their more special AWD system.
I expected to keep my car for the long-​term, so after a few oil changes when my major service came up, I decided to bring my car over to Suby Specialties.
I called in and scheduled up my meeting.
Steve checked out my car and gave me the rundown on what to expect — and gave me a time frame of when he was going to work on the car.
Although I only had my 30k and 60k done at this shop, the car felt buttery new after each service!