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Cuntpunch posted:I grew up around Subarus and drove the family 93 Legacy Wagon between 2004 and 2006. During that time I more or less abused the hell out of it - driving with cheap gas at altitude and ignoring the intermittant CEL that a mechanic informed me was probably the knock sensor due to this - driving on dying CVs, etc, etc. I was pretty stupid about cars, but the only major repairs it asked of me was new CVs, despite being 200k+ miles and having somewhere between 1500 and 2000 highway miles put on it weekly due to work at that time. It got rear-ended on the interstate by a Town&Country, an accident it drove 40 miles home from, then was totalled by the insurance. I own a 2001 2.5RS. I purchased it in 2003 with 33k on the clock. It now has 168k on the clock. Here are the major repairs/maintenance I've had to do in the past 6 years: -clutch (previous owner + me learning stick on the car made this happen) -water pump (did not fail, but was completed under warranty) -wheel bearing -Fan rheostat -transmission mount (damaged from doing clutch swap) -valve cover gasket -timing belt -axle (torn CV boot) If I didn't swap the engine in it last year it would have needed; -head gasket -transmission output shaft bearing Currently needs: -rear struts (both are blown after 130+k of new england roads and me having fun in the dirt) -brake bleed, but i need to fix the bleed valves on all 4 calipers as they're rusted (one has already snapped off) Overall, this car has been reasonably maintenance free over the past 6 years. If you're buying an RS with over 100k on the clock make sure it's had the timing belt done, or deduct the cost of replacing it from the price. If you're looking in 150k range, get paperwork for the head gasket replacement. Check for oil around where the heads mate with the block. Check the coolant for milkiness. Ask if it's ever overheated. If they haven't done the head gasket replacement but the heads look to be in good shape, consider offering them somewhat less in anticipation. The head gaskets on these cars often go at ~150k like clockwork. As far as rust goes, You will generally find it under the side skirts or on the rear fender right above where the rear bumper attaches to it. Depending on how severe it is, you can be looking at 600 to 1000 to fix it.
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May 4, 2009 20:05
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I would second/summarize what was said above with the RS will not be a maintenance free car by any means, but personally would consider it easy to work on as well as fun to work on. If you're looking for a car you won't have to take into a shop or do wrenching on yourself, I don't think any Subaru in the 96+ model year era is necessarily a good choice.
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May 4, 2009 20:13
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si posted:I would second/summarize what was said above with the RS will not be a maintenance free car by any means, but personally would consider it easy to work on as well as fun to work on. The thing is, after really thinking about all the work I've had to do on my car, I think the RS has performed quite well. That's a lot of miles, and a decent number of years for such a short list. I think if you're looking for any car that's going to be +50k miles or +5 years old, a repair free existence is a pipe dream or you're just grossly negligent of your cars needs. I think if you compared my car to a similar Honda or Toyota of similar year/mileage you wouldn't see much difference.
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May 4, 2009 21:32
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Quick question - I went to install my new Perrin top mount intercooler, but figured I'd spraypaint the logo on it first using the included stencil and some red caliper paint. I ended up spraying too heavily, and made a huge goddamn mess, as all the edges on the stencil curled up - plus some overspray bled through the sides of the stencil. Rather than saying Perrin, it's just a big red blob in the center. This is one of their black intercoolers - I went down to the local Lordco to grab some black paint to spray over it, but they were out. They did have some black spraypaint for barbeques that is supposed to be able to handle heat up to 260 degrees Celsius, so I picked this up instead. Before I go and spray it on, am I going to be screwing up any sort of heat transfer or exchange on the IC by doing this? I figured I'd just spray it on lightly over the portion that I messed up to make it look a bit cleaner.
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May 4, 2009 21:40
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dayman posted:The thing is, after really thinking about all the work I've had to do on my car, I think the RS has performed quite well. That's a lot of miles, and a decent number of years for such a short list. I think if you're looking for any car that's going to be +50k miles or +5 years old, a repair free existence is a pipe dream or you're just grossly negligent of your cars needs. I think if you compared my car to a similar Honda or Toyota of similar year/mileage you wouldn't see much difference. To an extent, part of it is the level of work that is needed to keep it going. I would say the early 90s Civics and Corollas would have a significant advantage just because of the head gasket issues of the Subaru. I think if it weren't for that chronic problem, you would be absolutely correct. However, they are no Mercedes 300D, where you can be grossly negligent of the car's needs and it will probably keep running for you until the body has completely rusted away from the drivetrain. TeamIce posted:Quick question - I went to install my new Perrin top mount intercooler, but figured I'd spraypaint the logo on it first using the included stencil and some red caliper paint. I ended up spraying too heavily, and made a huge goddamn mess, as all the edges on the stencil curled up - plus some overspray bled through the sides of the stencil. Rather than saying Perrin, it's just a big red blob in the center. This is one of their black intercoolers - I went down to the local Lordco to grab some black paint to spray over it, but they were out. They did have some black spraypaint for barbeques that is supposed to be able to handle heat up to 260 degrees Celsius, so I picked this up instead. Before I go and spray it on, am I going to be screwing up any sort of heat transfer or exchange on the IC by doing this? I figured I'd just spray it on lightly over the portion that I messed up to make it look a bit cleaner. I was always under the impression that intercoolers used some sort of special painting that allowed for efficient thermal transfer. This special paint might be about as special as McD's special sauce though.
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May 4, 2009 21:43
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The other problem with the RS coupe is going to be how insane the resale value is on them. It's going to be tough to find a nice, manual one from someone who isn't asking a retarded amount, or that's not beat to poo poo/salvage title/welded together. What's your budget for this?
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May 4, 2009 22:27
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Looks like I answered my own question - I found some forums that made mention of people self painting their own intercoolers with black BBQ paint to go from silver to black, and they ran dyno testing before/after ; temperature difference was non existent to negligible at worst. I'll just spray a thin coat on from an angle to mask the red portion, and call it a day.
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May 4, 2009 22:59
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si posted:I had no idea, that makes sense though. That is also the purpose of the air pump on the modern motors, right? Yep, like the air pump they installed on the 07 STi.
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May 5, 2009 00:53
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Edit: Holy poo poo double-post from like 8 hours apart. Bugreport filed! Edit2 for content: dayman posted:I own a 2001 2.5RS. I purchased it in 2003 with 33k on the clock. It now has 168k on the clock. Here are the major repairs/maintenance I've had to do in the past 6 years: I'm not necessarily looking for something that doesn't require any attention, just something that I can rely on not to strand me. It'd also be a second car so that I can finally get my hands dirty doing real work - the current circumstances leave me with the unfortunity situation that if I pull something out of my (only) car and something goes wrong(bolt snaps, I gently caress up, etc) I'm left without a vehicle. Having a second 'reliable' car would grant me some freedom to tinker with the knowledge that I can still get myself to work. I've done my research on the common issues to look for with the middle-aged RS, the head gasket issue being the biggie. There have been a few listed in my area, but they've always had pretty big issues of some sort when I've asked questions. One was a '98 with the factory DOHC engine, which I understand is less desireable than the 99+ SOHC, otherwise clean except for the massive bang-up on the driver's door. Another was listed as a great car, good shape, etc - turns out it needed a brand new front axle and hubs. Salvage titled coupes are also common. I'm not in a desperate mad-dash hurry to buy, just trying to gather more information about these cars so that when a good one does come along, I can decisively make a move for it. The Slaughter posted:The other problem with the RS coupe is going to be how insane the resale value is on them. It's going to be tough to find a nice, manual one from someone who isn't asking a retarded amount, or that's not beat to poo poo/salvage title/welded together. What's your budget for this? I'd like to think that there's a deal to be had for 4-5 if I keep my eyes open, though if a particularly clean opportunity comes along I could go to 7ish. Cuntpunch fucked around with this message at 03:07 on May 5, 2009 |
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May 5, 2009 02:46
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http://springfield.craigslist.org/cto/1108221955.html Happened to see this one not long ago (it's local to me here). I know nothing about the car, but it sure does look nice. However, the $7500 tag should give you some idea of what Slaughter is saying about resale on them.
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May 5, 2009 03:24
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si posted:http://springfield.craigslist.org/cto/1108221955.html HAHAHAHAHA I paid 7400 for my 02 WRX And thats $1200 more than edmunds suggests its worth AnomalousBoners fucked around with this message at 03:27 on May 5, 2009 |
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May 5, 2009 03:25
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RealKyleH posted:HAHAHAHAHA I paid 7400 for my 02 WRX
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May 5, 2009 04:21
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MMD3 posted:One small (potentially stupid) question that has been nagging me about my '05 9-2x. When I lock/arm it sometimes it will honk and sometimes it will beep. I have no idea why it does which or what they mean, I assume they both mean it's armed but I can't determine any rhyme or reason to why sometimes the alarm beeps and other times I get a honk. You sure you're not tapping it more than once? On my WRX, the alarm arms (and it honks) if I hit the button three times in succession. If I hit it just once, it just beeps and locks.
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May 5, 2009 04:21
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Cuntpunch posted:Edit: Holy poo poo double-post from like 8 hours apart. Bugreport filed! I don't know if you've been looking here already, but you'll probably want to check out RS25.com. There's always at least 3-4 RS's for sale on there in various levels of modification. While buying an already modded RS might not seem attractive, if you shop around and do your homework, you can often get a well cared for car for at or below blue book. The other advantage is forum advertisements tend to be waaaaaay more honest than craigslist because they know they're not gonna bullshit an enthusiast. One thing that's fantastic about subarus is that they're easy to work on (unless you're doing spark plugs on a coil on plug car  ) . The axles and hubs you mentioned from that other car could been replaced with units from a late model L or Forester and you could have done it with hand tools in about 1-2 hours.Also, WRX's are going for less than RS's now? When did this happen? I have to be one of the GC's biggest fans in terms of styling, but i would never spend more on one than a WRX, that's just insane. dayman fucked around with this message at 14:12 on May 5, 2009 |
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May 5, 2009 14:09
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dayman posted:that's just insane. Congratulations, you just figured out the 2.5RS market. Those cars used to be a great way for someone with some mechanical skill to cheaply get into a performance car, by doing a swap, etc. Now everyone is doing it including lots of people that have no idea what they're doing in a garage. this means that they're all either really expensive, really broken, or just generally thrashed.
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May 5, 2009 14:37
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The messed up thing about the RS market is that the GC's go for more than the Bugeye RS's. I compared what I could probably get for my car with what people are asking for their GC's in my area and it's 2k less. I have a newer car that is worth less then the older one. All that aside the RS has been fine except for the god drat head gaskets. 1300 to fix them the first time. I had my cars heat gauge start to move again, coolant bubble over, and the same general poo poo as when it popped the head gasket last time. Dealer I had do the work last time said they'd cover it thankfully. Once I finish school in a year I'm selling it and trading up.
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May 5, 2009 15:59
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it's not really that difficult to do the head gaskets yourself. There are even DIY's out there for doing it without lifting the engine...although it's waaaay easier to do it if you yank the engine out. Maybe it's just me, but for 1200 dollars, i'm willing to learn to do almost anything.
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May 5, 2009 18:15
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GravityDaemon posted:You sure you're not tapping it more than once? On my WRX, the alarm arms (and it honks) if I hit the button three times in succession. If I hit it just once, it just beeps and locks. ahhh, do you have to hit it 3x for the alarm?
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May 5, 2009 18:40
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Asking about this because I'm starting to see some STI swaps showing up: how easy is it to do an STI swap into a WRX? There are a few examples showing up on local enthusiast forums where a guy has replaced his bugeye motor with a JDM 2.0L STI motor. Is the wiring harness the same? I know the wiring harness for adding a JDM STI motor into a USDM 2.5RS is a big ordeal, but is it that big of a difference between turbo models? I assume not, because the STI motor is pretty much the same as a WRX motor except with stronger gubbins and a beefier turbo, correct? Basically, if the swap is very trivial I'll feel better about looking at those swaps. Otherwise, the amount of things the installer can gently caress up is going to make me uneasy. It's already bad enough that they've replaced the motor for some reason (and may or may not have also replaced the transmission/mounts/etc if the last one blew). On the plus side, the price of WRXes is coming way down to reasonable degrees. I guess everyone getting fired from sweet oilpatch jobs is starting to affect the market. Still looking out for a nice wagon. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 18:47 on May 5, 2009 |
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May 5, 2009 18:44
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It's quite easy to swap a JDM STi swap from the same approximate model years into a WRX. The Version 6 and 7, and I'm pretty sure the version 8 will drop right into a WRX. All you need for the 7/8 is an AVCS wiring kit, which they make and isn't too involved to install. For newer STi and USDM STi's, there are some other big differences like TBW and I'm not sure if they drop right in. The RS is a different story. For some reason the non-turbo model harnesses are very different from the turbo models, and require a complete merge for the swap. This part of the swap is the most difficult, and is usually what scares most people. If you're buying a swapped car, the best ones to buy are those swapped by dedicated swap shops such as East Coast Swappers in CT, Garage Tuning in CA, Broken Motorsports in NJ, and a couple others. Other services like iWire and ECS do the wiring merge and let you do the mechanical. If the car wasn't swapped by a notable garage, then it's important to find out how long they've been driving it and to try and find as much info as possible by perusing forums and the like. Swaps are most definitely the trickiest thing you can do with a subaru and shouldn't be taken lightly, but as a result these shops are in demand and they do a fantastic job. My car was swapped by ECS last summer and I haven't had a single problem with it yet. Basically what this means is that they've done a perfect job since I sourced the engine myself and any problems resulting from the swap would have cropped up by now.
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May 5, 2009 19:14
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If you have a functional 2.0L motor (or at least heads that are in good shape) you're actually better off not doing a swap, but rather buying the easily obtainable and cheap 2.5L STI shortblock assembly. That way you don't have to worry about wiring or anything else, you just swap the shortblock, use your 2.0L heads (you'll get a slightly different CR at the end, but it's been done a ton of times, no challenge), and everything else. You'll end up wanting a different turbo and such most likely, and then you just need a custom protune. Throw some forged pistons on the 2.5L assembly will jack the price up but at that point with the 2.5L shortblock with forged pistons and 2.0L heads you have a pretty monster motor and don't have to deal with all the custom wiring of doing a complete swap.
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May 5, 2009 19:27
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dayman posted:
ECS I hear good things about. There's no way in hell I would let garage tuning anywhere near my car, and I especially wouldn't want anything they've put together. I've seen a lot of stuff come out of there, and it's generally poorly done or incomplete. The soldering I've seen (that they're so proud of), has been terrible.
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May 5, 2009 19:56
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dayman posted:If the car wasn't swapped by a notable garage, then it's important to find out how long they've been driving it and to try and find as much info as possible by perusing forums and the like. Swaps are most definitely the trickiest thing you can do with a subaru and shouldn't be taken lightly, but as a result these shops are in demand and they do a fantastic job. There are a lot of WRXes for sale with catback/turboback exhausts, and I've read in this thread that you need to do a tune immediately after modifying the exhaust. So far I've been checking listings to see if they come with an Accessport, or asking the owners if they have done the tune themselves. Some quick questions about that then: - I don't see a lot of other people asking the seller in "for sale" threads on enthusiast forums if the car has been tuned. Is it general knowledge that you should be tuning after an upgrade? - Is a tune for this exhaust doable on your own? I assume there are maps you can download and flash onto the ECU with the Accessport. - Should I just run away from any machines that have had intake/exhaust mods? Seeing cold-air intakes and especially blow-off valves flips my bozo bit and I religiously avoid the car. For reference, my ideal is to have a mostly-stock wagon that is pretty reliable. I would like to have a waist spoiler if possible, since I like how they look on the '98 Impreza Outback Sport, but I don't think they make them for models past MY03. I don't want to go boost-crazy, but I might be interested in changing the tune to bring in crisper throttle response. I will probably tweak the suspension in order to be stiffer as my maturity as a driver and my ability to turn around cones improves. I don't really want an STI-swapped fire breathing beast making 35psi with an 8500 RPM redline, as I've seen privately sold in my price range. Does the estimation of 24000km/yr hold for turbo cars as well, or should a turbo car be considered to be 'high mileage' with fewer kilometers on it? The big problem with my local market is how many miles the cars have on them; it is very difficult for me to find a MY06 or earlier with less than 100k km/62k mi on it. There's a 2003 Spec R1 at Subaru City in Edmonton (4 hours away) for $19000 that has 78,000 km (49k mi) on it, but the colour is a lot more attention-grabbing than I want and the price is also very high for how old the car is.
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May 5, 2009 20:00
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If the car has been modified poorly, and not tuned, if something breaks it will most likely be piston ringlands from detonation. You'll be able to see that with a compression check.
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May 5, 2009 20:10
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jamal posted:ECS I hear good things about. There's no way in hell I would let garage tuning anywhere near my car, and I especially wouldn't want anything they've put together. I've seen a lot of stuff come out of there, and it's generally poorly done or incomplete. The soldering I've seen (that they're so proud of), has been terrible. GT seems to have a good rep on RS25 and Nasioc, but I'll take your word for it since I haven't personally seen their work. I know Paul,the owner of ECS, personally; even before he started the shop with another subaru guy. He's a perfectionist in every sense of the word. If you decide to get a swap done there, he will take care of you. The only time people have had complaints about ECS is when they failed to provide the proper equipment for the swap, were warned that what they were providing was inferior, but decided to go ahead with it anyway and something broke. The couple times that ECS has made mistakes, they've gone above and beyond to rectify their error and make the client happy. Also, seconding compression/leakdown test. You would be a fool to be buying an FI subaru without having this test performed. Keep in mind, many people sell their cars as "stock" but really they've just parted out the mods and returned it to stock configuration. si also made a good point with swapping in a shortblock. It has all of the benefits of swapping another engine into a WRX with almost none of the drawbacks, except the nice AVCS you get from late model STi's. Having a CAI or BOV is definitely a toolbag alert for subarus, especially if those are the only mods. However, they won't necessarily be beaten on. A test drive and the aforementioned comp/leakdown test will answer a lot of questions about a car. Most folks don't tune themselves, and the guys that do will usually have more mods than exhaust. Why do you need a tune after just swapping exhaust? A less restrictive exhaust shouldn't hurt the car at all, however, without a tune, you're not going to get much boost in performance.
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May 5, 2009 21:07
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Just a downpipe with no tune can cause boost creep and other overboost issues. Even with a tune it's not uncommon.
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May 5, 2009 21:22
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jamal posted:Just a downpipe with no tune can cause boost creep and other overboost issues. Even with a tune it's not uncommon. I am guessing it is because of a lack of backpressure but I don't understand the turbo/exhaust dynamic all that well.
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May 5, 2009 22:25
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Goddamnit - finally had my intercooler, uppipe, and downpipe all installed today at my mechanic. It all went on without a hitch, with the exception of the downpipe - it's a Perrin 2 piece catted. The front section had no trouble at all connecting, but according to my mechanic, the rear section will not fit - he says it smashes into the undercarriage of the car. Has anyone else had any fitment issues with the Perrin stuff? I've fired them off an email, and tried to contact them at the AIM address they provide, but gotten absolutely no response.
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May 5, 2009 23:16
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Does this happen on other kinds of cars, or just Subarus? It can happen to any turbo car. What happens is basically you increase the volume of air flowing through the exhaust, and the various parameters which try to control the boost will no longer have the same result as they did previously. You can run into problems both with just the electronic parameters or also mechanical aspects that are no longer able to provide enough bleed off of the excess pressures.
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May 5, 2009 23:30
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I'm looking at buying an 02/03 WRX sometime in the next two months. First question- What's a reasonable final sale price to buy one with 85-100k miles on it. Second question- My current car is a 97 Toyota 4runner. Nothing fancy, just the normal 2WD, manual, 4 cylinder 2.7 model. It has about 270k on it, the body is dinged up and paint showing signs of weathering and fading. The interior isn't in the best shape, but it's all there. Mechanically speaking, the car runs great. The clutch is as good as when I first got it replaced at about 220k, though the meshes on the gearbox are slowly going out. It gets something like 19mpg in city. What would something like this be worth? Also, I'll probably be buying and selling privately.
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May 6, 2009 09:55
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MMD3 posted:ahhh, do you have to hit it 3x for the alarm? No, it arms automatically evenutally. I think hitting it three times will arm it immediately though. Im not entirely sure about this; the alarm section in the manual was a bit confusing.
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May 6, 2009 14:14
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The 3x arm is the parking lot finder feature. The alarm arms on 1 hit and the doors lock, and may or may not make a sound depending on your beeper setting and/or brokenness.
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May 6, 2009 14:16
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Parthenogenocide posted:I'm looking at buying an 02/03 WRX sometime in the next two months. Anywhere from $7-9000 would be my guess, depending on condition, region, and modifications. Parthenogenocide posted:Second question- My current car is a 97 Toyota 4runner. Nothing fancy, just the normal 2WD, manual, 4 cylinder 2.7 model. It has about 270k on it, the body is dinged up and paint showing signs of weathering and fading. The interior isn't in the best shape, but it's all there. Mechanically speaking, the car runs great. The clutch is as good as when I first got it replaced at about 220k, though the meshes on the gearbox are slowly going out. It gets something like 19mpg in city. What would something like this be worth? Depends, Toyotas tend to hold their value something insane, I would say maybe $2500?
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May 6, 2009 14:41
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Anyone in north Jersey own an 09 WRX? I figured now would be a good time to replace my 02 impreza with a base WRX 5 door given the economy, but every dealer in the area only has a single car in stock optioned up to 28k. They're also surprisingly unwilling to budge on price compared to other brands, even the Costco auto program quoted me 800$ above invoice.
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May 6, 2009 14:57
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TeamIce posted:I've fired them off an email, and tried to contact them at the AIM address they provide, but gotten absolutely no response. PM them on NASIOC.
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May 6, 2009 15:00
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Parthenogenocide posted:What's a reasonable final sale price to buy one with 85-100k miles on it. KBB: 2003 WRX 85,000 miles Good $9,570 Fair $8,645 (I'll drive to your house and give you a dollar if you find one in "excellent" condition) Given your description of the condition of your 4runner: Fair $2,075
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May 6, 2009 15:03
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Hey now, I would call my 2002 "Excellent" Hell, it has a brandy new transmission in it right now. It's also never been modified.
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May 6, 2009 21:02
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bull3964 posted:Hey now, I would call my 2002 "Excellent" read the description on kbb and i can pretty much tell you that almost no 2002 subaru meets those criteria if it's been driven.
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May 6, 2009 21:21
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dayman posted:read the description on kbb and i can pretty much tell you that almost no 2002 subaru meets those criteria if it's been driven. Ok, I will give you bullet #2 since I had to have hail damage repaired (so there has been some paint and body work), but the rest of it is 100% true in my case.
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May 6, 2009 21:28
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Parthenogenocide posted:I'm looking at buying an 02/03 WRX sometime in the next two months. I just got my 02 WRX wagon for 8.5k with 84k on the odometer. The dealer was asking 10.5k so you'll have room to work with, if finding one privately doesn't work out, or one happens to be at the dealer when you drive by.
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May 6, 2009 22:54
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