thanks for the link new ac compressor came, wired up license plate lights, windshield sprayers are out [now fixed]. Replaced a few bulbs. I'm going to schedule my inspection shortly to wrap this all up. was given free boost gauge-will probably install that this month. I'm going to fix the clock too, it's annoying me for some reason...
a few minor updates: I needed a new radiator, old one was leaking install writeup here: http://mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php/40710-02-wrx-radiator-thermostat-installation-walkthrough new rearview mirror sitting in a box,I picked up some new 17" wheels a while back that will go on in the spring. I just had the car in for a recall covered by Subaru for the fuel smell a week ago. The smell was really really bad and started to occur when temps dropped below freezing. The recall of course fixed it. I was even given a 2010 impreza as a loaner, nice car. Though I was glad to get my manual back. This wrx is growing on me fast. It's been a blast out on snow covered roads too. - ryan I've put on over 5k miles on it now and everything is running pretty good. I do have a small oil leak I need to track down though, Hoping it is valve cover a little loose but a trusted source thinks it could be a cam seal. when it's warm enough in the garage I'll take a look.
a little update: I've driven over 15k miles on it and it's running really well. No real issues to report except an asshat who misjudged pulling into a parking spot and rubbed the paint on the back quarter panel driver side. It should buff out. I did get tired of the sag in the rear and invested in an eibach pro kit as the 1/2" spacers I had didn't look like they would cut it. I also ended up helping Zombie and his friend out with some wheels that were needed in a pinch. So the oem 17's I picked up from Sheen ended up going on another car (sorry idget, I didn't profit on them so theres that ). So Zombie came through with replacement summer wheels a few weeks ago. Rota Tarmac 2's I think. Wheels & struts went on 2 weekends ago without incident. I didn't bother with a detailed writeup as there are plenty documented around. Spring compressor was used to remove stock springs from the strut but were not needed for putting the assembly back together with the eibacks. I was glad as that saved time. only pic I have for now is this cell taken minutes after dropping the car off jack stands. I still had to torque everything down at this point. I'll grab better pics once I get the car cleaned up.
oh, forgot to add, next up is cracking the headlights for a little paint and getting my rear quarter buffed out.
I didn't actually track it down yet. Part of it is being lazy, part of it is not enough time. It is on the list though.
a small update. The source of my oil leak is it's leaking driverside from behind the cam gear. I will be grabbing parts soon and a new timing belt will be put on. I've also developed a bad wheel bearing so I'm sourcing a used spindle to replace that as well. If there is time I'll be cracking the headlights with the help of zombie. If I can talk him into it I'll also put in the grimmspeed up pipe. I'll probably install the stock boost gauge thats been sitting in the garage for a while as well. I'm also about to cross 140k on the clock marking ~22k since I completed this. I passed inspection as well and that went surprisingly well.
time for another update. A few changes have occurred recently. The small oil leak I had was starting to smell when sitting at stoplights so I decided to get this tackled. At the same time I thought it would be a good idea to install my grimmspeed uppipe that I received at christmas last year. I also have atleast 1 wheel bearing that is bad so that needs to be addressed as well. Of course one thing leads to another and before I know it an Invidia catted DP and a grimmspeed 3 port electronic boost control solenoid are on trucks headed to my place. These will go in for a planned stage 2 tune. I somehow rope my brother (mnsubaru member Zombie) in to help me. I want to take a few seconds to thank him for two long hard days of work we put in on the car. Installing the dp, uppipe, doing motor work, boost guage, and spindle in two long evenings. was stupidly insane to do on a short timeline. thanks bro. I didn't take a lot of pictures for this apart from what the partialteardown revealed. Night 1 We replaced the spindle for a new wheel bearing. I ordered a spindle from a place in North Carolina hoping to get a used piece on the cheap without too much rust. The yard sends the spindle in a crappy box for shipping and for extra fun includes the rotor to up the shipping weight... The threads for the wheels poke through the box and mess up the threads a bit. I don't have much choice but to install them. I'll never order from that place again. The radiator gets pulled along with everything else to get at the timing belt cover/timing belt/cam gears. The stock dp, uppipe, and exhaust headers get taken out of the car as well. Closer inspection of the condition of the motor reveal that not just one camseal is leaking but both are leaking. I only had picked up one seal from the dealer so we call it a night and make a parts list. The idlers on the car are in rough shape. The whole area is oily and needs to be cleaned up so parts add up quickly. Now one of the reasons I decided to keep this car is that it had new Subaru heads and valves were installed ~17-20k miles ago according to dealer receipt. Only headwork and new belt were listed. The waterpump or idlers were not replaced but maybe at 100k for waterpump? imho there is no reason my motor should need work done at this point in time. Inspection of the RH head shows everything is fine, clean, dry. The driver side is a different story however. The pics will speak for themselves. Oil leaking was leaking from both cam seals because the both seals were installed incorrectly. It may be leaking slightly from valve cover but this isn't a big concern currently. You can see where the inner part of the seal on the cam seals are pushed in compared to outside of seal. There excess rtv all over that needs to be cleaned up. The timing belt was also installed off a tooth which explains lack of power, etc. wtf seriously? i hope this is a rare subaru dealer problem. sloppy sloppy work. I decide to bite the bullet and pick up new idlers, water pump and tensioner because the condition of the current ones are not great. We are right there to do it and we don't think the timing belt will make it another 80k to hit the 100k mark. The smallest idler will certainly fail soon and the belt will walk. I'd rather spend the money to fix now correctly vs. a broken motor. I get the parts the next day. I run all over the place to find a m12 1.25 die to fix the wheel bolts on the damaged spindle. Only 3 of the 5 bolts will thread easily. I end up having to pick up a relatively expensive set at fleet farm to find the m12 1.25. Sears, lowes, pep boys, home depot, auto zone, menards didn't have the correct size. Neither did the cheap large harbor freight set that I have nor my brothers two sets have it. I only found m10 1.25 and m12 1.5 wherever i looked. I don't have time to order online so i just get the set at fleet farm- nothing wrong with a good die set I guess. Night 2 Lots of work left but here is the motor all cleaned up with new idlers, seals, water pump, tensioner, etc etc and timing set CORRECTLY. All thats left at this point is to pull the tensioner pin. add crank pulley and start assembly of remaining acc. belts, radiator, etc. It's already getting late on our second night and there is a lot to do. The boost gauge is in, The timing belt work is all done. We still have to put in the dp, uppipe, install exhaust headers, radiator, torque everything down, fill with fluids and start everything up. It's long since reached the point where I realize we bit off more than we should have on a tight deadline. Beer helps lighten the mood as we prepare to push to the finish. Coolant is the evil of the night-stuff is pretty nasty, sticky as hell and gets on everything if you don't watch it. On night 1 we finished around 2am. We are scheduled to finish around 2:00-2:30 the second night. All I can say is the lift in my brothers garage is huge and makes this all somewhat bearable. I owe my brother big time for this. Ordering the invidia dp was a great choice. I cut the stock heat shield ahead of time and repair pathetic looking wires on the o2 sensor. the dp goes in easily and everything lines up perfect. It's such a quality part that is engineered well. I have only a couple of last pics i took time to snap. Inspection of turbo reveals no shaft play at 140k miles, I was a bit worried it might show some. The help... (new hydraulic lines on me bro) is making a few last minute adjustments to exhaust headers a shot of the invidia dp, you can also see part of the subframe (the big u piece that control arms attach to. It goes up around the front of part of the car. It is corroded really really bad. I go in for the control arm inspection next week. I hope they replace this piece as part of it but I'm fearing they are not. If they don't I might have to spring for it out of pocket. I'll get better pics later but parts are crushed and rusted right through. The nice rear flange of the DP shows the quality in the piece. I also have an adapter made by grimmspeed that is pretty stout to mate the dp to stock exhaust. If you look close you can see the uppipe that was installed. Only other surprises we found were that the axel bolts were way over torqued. Probably leading to my wheel bearing problems. When i torqued the bolt to spec it matched up with an original mark on the nut, it was no where near where it had been set by someone with no sense of torque settings. I should have taken a pic but neglected to. The driver side bearing is bad and a used spindle for that is in route from Texas. I'll take a pick if that too is over torqued... bunch of clowns worked on this car I swear. Atlast! everything is cleaned up and running really really really well. Car is much smoother to drive with correct timing. It actually seems somewhat fast. A Stage 2 tune via Nuke will occur this week as well, I can't wait. I'm just glad I didn't leave the leak go any longer. I could have lived with it for a while since it only occasionally dripped a spot on the driveway (maybe once a week). It would have only gotten worse though and eventually the timing belt would have walked. A crappy job by a sloppy mechanic who didn't give two ****s could have made for a really bad day down the road.
Nice thorough work, you two! I'm sure the lift and an extra set of hands cut your time significantly. Did you pull the exhaust manifold because you didn't/couldn't lift the motor out of the mounts to free the uppipe? It'd really surprising how nice the piece is considering how inexpensive it is. Every one I've installed has fit perfectly. You can reuse all the stock bolts, the bellmouth doesn't interfere with the lower bolt, the trans mount flange lines up, and the pipe itself doesn't hang too low. Fits much better than the CNT and ebay ones I've installed and is even better than most of the expensive name brand ones as well. Glad everything is mostly squared away for now. Now go enjoy it!
Hey idget! The lift is a dream.... Someday for sure. I had a full gasket set given to me so I think the thought was to use new ones as well. Chad can probably answer that but I think he did loosen one of the motor mounts so I can't say for sure why. I was messing with the boost gauge or cutting a heat shield at the time. I'll have to look for pics and update again but I had the body guy re-address one of the c-pillars. the bondo on the replacement clip that was in place by a previous shop started to crack through the paint. Bruce wasn't surprised when he heard about it. He had a feeling I'd call since he remembers thinking he should have fixed it at the time. He fixed it on the house by welding in all new steel. He touched up my wingless decklid as well-woot! ....So once spring hits I'll probably hit you up for a detail as the paint will have cured. He buffed the car quickly which also fixed the spot where someone brushed me in a parking lot earlier but it needs a proper detail. will enjoy thoroughly once my tune is done. piece of mind will come post control arm fix.
small update: Before christmas I had nuke tune my car for stage 2, thanks Nuke! Car runs better than ever and is a bit quicker too. This should be perfect for a daily driver. I was given a heads up on a decent deal on some lightly used snow tires. Also I had the opportunity to pick up some new 17" wheels to go with these new snow tires. Now, if we only would get some snow to make use of them. I still can't believe it is Jan. 9th and we have no snow. One thing is for sure, I won't miss my old all seasons. car is dirty but will get washed shortly. the wrx's in the states should have come with these wheels. I like my rota's but these will be perfect as a winter wheel.
Just read the whole thread. Amazing work! I had a thought on badging, you could do wrxrx... Since it's had two back halves
This was a great write up! Makes me wish that i would have been more detailed on the flood recovery project(not that it was this much work)! Bruce does awesome work and i still can't wait to get my car to him to take care of my rust issues. Would have been there already but the car running properly took first priority...and all tha monies. Looks great and congrats on the save!
sorry, and thanks I do have enough wrx badges to do it. For now i've settled with the standard wrx with impreza underneath it in it's standard spot. fairly clean and simple. I did run across your car regarding the floodan. congrats on getting it going recently- glad you kept it alive.
update: quick pic It's time for something new and my wrx is going up for sale. I've enjoyed rebuilding it and putting work into it. It's been good to me and never left me stranded and I've run it for 20k + miles. I will be looking at getting a forester next. Here's a pic of it last week. I think I've looked/worked on everything on this car. I've definitely gotten familiar with it/subaru that is for sure.
Thanks again for everything. My sister loves it. She drove around with me in the passenger seat for a good 3 hours tonight.
Glad to see it is staying in the club - this car almost deserves a "baby book" like album... I think I have pics of it rolling off the delivery truck at the dealership with zero miles on it in a box somewhere....
