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Thanks to CAT INTERCEPTOR for the thread title. Since I was 16 or 17 I wanted a Subaru SVX. It hit all the notes for me. Comfortable, somewhat powerful, AWD, and weird. However, when I got my first car I ended up getting a practical, reliable Impreza. A very good car, fun to drive in the slow car fast way, but not as weird as the SVX. Since then I’ve never been able to justify a weird car with zero parts availability. UNTIL NOW. This is quite possibly the cheapest SVX that has been sold in the past few years, a 1994 LSi model, to be exact, top of the line. I got this basket case for $250 because I couldn’t justify spending $3,000 on it with all the problems it has and I built up a rapport with the seller. I recommended a few things she could try to fix the biggest problem (valvetrain noise) but she decided to see what the dealerships would offer her. Predictably, it was $500, and I had offered to buy it at what they were offering if it was low enough that I could justify doing all the repairs and risking more problems that my shade tree friend and I hadn’t seen. After a trip to a local mechanic I got a clean bill of health to take it home but a laundry list of issues to fix. On the bright side, it was a one family car, I have almost all the maintenance records since it came off the lot in 1994, and it only has 80,000 miles. To-Do: Coilovers (current suspension is fucky and Subaru struts are NLA) Valve Cover Gaskets leaking Transmission leaks on rear side of pan and driver’s side electrical connection Left front CV axle boot torn (replacing whole axle) Rear differential cover leaking Power steering pump whining when cold at full lock and leaking from return line Rear brakes and brake fluid need replacing (doing braided lines while I’m in there) Fix sunroof only intermittently working Fix inside door lock not working Fix clear coat/paint damage on the roof and bumper Re-seal driver’s side turn signal Tighten down center console lid Replace battery with a sealed AGM battery, this cold kills batteries fast and this one is already flaky. Figure out why it has a hard time starting when pointing uphill (fuel pressure?) Replace driver's door speaker Possibly replace head unit To-Done: Replaced air filter Replaced throttle position sensor (thankfully aftermarket ones are made) Replaced front brake pads and rotors with slotted rotors and upgraded street pads. Replaced front struts, the old ones were completely blown out. Clean EGR valve, intermittently getting a stuck open/closed code, when it’s on it runs very rich Diagnose valvetrain noise Eventual possible upgrades: Manual transmission swap I’m going to be getting coilovers with a similar ride height to stock, partially because there are speed bumps on my road that are more like curbs, partially because I want to keep this looking more or less stock. Giorgetto Giugiaro designed this thing and as far as I’m concerned it’s a piece of art. I’m also considering Koni Yellow cut-a-struts, but those seem to be designed for use with lowering springs. The availability of struts from Subaru is iffy, I expect it will only get worse, and there are no aftermarket options. The rear struts are leaking slightly and the fronts are used, so I expect within another 20,000 miles I’ll need something new. The manual transmission swap will make it a lot easier to drive on the steep mountain roads we have here. If I want to downshift in the automatic I have to floor it and the car goes “You sure? You really sure? We doing this? Okay” and then shifts. A good manual would help a lot there. The swap is a lot of work, but it’s a common enough swap that there’s thorough documentation and even kits out there. I’m likely to have a shop do it though, I know when I’m over my head some of the time at least. This thread may also have guest appearances from me doing work on my Impreza (the same one I got 12 years ago), it needs new brakes and fluid and possibly a timing belt job, going to do a compression and leakdown test before that first, no point in doing that if the engine is going for other reasons. Enough talking, here’s the pictures 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Aug 7, 2021 |
# ? May 31, 2021 01:04 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:13 |
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Now there's something you don't see everyday. I love these things, and I think every time I see one online I'm a little amazed that it's an actual car that Subaru made. E: And now you've got me looking up SVX videos on youtube thanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw71BBBl9ok Mental Hospitality fucked around with this message at 01:21 on May 31, 2021 |
# ? May 31, 2021 01:16 |
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Post icon was inapporpriate for thread (poo poo Post LOLNO), changed for Subaru content.
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# ? May 31, 2021 01:41 |
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Yeah, the way I describe it is that the SVX was Subaru's engineers wanting to prove that they could do more than that weird little truck and your librarian's station wagon. They put a ridiculous amount of effort into this car. The key holes on the door light up so you can get the key in easier at night. There are two window vents on each side, so there's good airflow on both sides of the inner window trim. The steering wheel is telescoping and tilting in 1992, and it has a lever at the bottom that just swings it up to the top so if you have a hard time getting out past the steering wheel you can just pop it up for more room. Apocryphally the reason the wheels are shaped like fans is to pull air in from the outside towards the brake rotors. It was a 10:1 compression engine in the early '90s before any kind of variable timing, making more horsepower in NA form than any of its NA 6-cylinder contemporaries except the NSX which was in another world as far as price. The base model NSX had a $65,000 MSRP in 1992, the top-end SVX had a $28,000 MSRP, which was still high for a Subaru but less than half the price. It's an extremely stable car even 27 years later with half-worn suspension, 80 feels like 60 in my Impreza, which led to a few terrifying moments on a mountain highway near me where physics said "I don't give a gently caress what it feels like, you're in a 3700 pound car and I will throw you off the cliff if you don't pay attention." I should clarify I wasn't intentionally going 15 over, and after noticing I dropped down. I've driven the Impreza for so long I barely even look at the speedometer anymore, I just know how fast I'm going based on how the car feels. The suspension is also much nicer with the many potholes we have to deal with, spine-jolting potholes in the Impreza just feel like a somewhat unpleasant bump. And it's very nice to work on thanks to the oil and grease all over the undercarriage preventing the bolts and nuts from seizing up like my 5-year-newer Impreza. I haven't even needed to use my breaker bar. Thanks to CAT INTERCEPTOR for fixing the icon, this is maybe the third or fourth thread I have ever made since registering so I always forget to update the icon.
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# ? May 31, 2021 01:48 |
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Post icon was inapporpriate for thread (poo poo Post LOLNO), changed for Subaru content. I always thought these were really cool, but also, it was low production enough that I would never want to own one. I wish you the best luck because you might need it.
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# ? May 31, 2021 01:54 |
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edit: Wow, I think that's the first time I've double posted (accidentally)
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# ? May 31, 2021 01:54 |
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I'm very lucky in that there is a strong community for these cars, so it's possible to find used parts for the most part, if there are cross-compatible parts someone has figured it out, and there are people that do stuff like rebuild PS pumps for fairly cheap. But yeah, anything that wasn't on another Subaru is either NLA or running out of stock in Subaru's warehouses. Brakes and axles you can find, a few companies make coilovers, and transmissions/drivelines/differentials can be swapped, but I've already run across a few cases where "fix it" is the only option when normally it might be a "replace it" on other cars. I'm hoping that as more and more people get nostalgia for 90s cars that there will be more of an aftermarket, but with the low production numbers and the amount that have gone to the crusher or been cannibalized for vanagons it's likely to be limited.
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# ? May 31, 2021 02:01 |
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I'm not sure how similar the PS pump is to later model Subarus, but there's an o-ring on the return line that tends to get brittle and shrink up a bit. Especially in the cold. Mine whines like a motherfucker when it's really cold out until there's some heat in the engine bay, totally fine when it's above about 45F outside. This is a short and sweet walkthrough, though the p/n may differ (and I'm sure the pump is probably in a different spot). It'll also cause leaking from the return line where it meets the pump. Subaru PS pumps don't really go bad often unless run dry. The uphill starting problem is probably an issue with the fuel pump inlet. I know newer Subarus had an access panel inside the car to get to the pump, hopefully the SVX does too. If it does, it's very easy to pull the pump to see what's going on. Some of them had an issue with an o-ring expanding and popping part of the pump apart, but I think that was specific to the 00-03 Legacy/Outback/Baja pumps. Beautiful car! randomidiot fucked around with this message at 10:25 on May 31, 2021 |
# ? May 31, 2021 02:02 |
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someday i really want an svx (or xt6 but lmao those don't actually exist) to complement my other two broke-brain moron cars (pair of mr2s). i test drove one years ago but it needed too much work. was extremely nice and comfortable and i woulda jumped on it if i had the money to deal with its issues. hoping you get this thing into near-perfect running condition, they deserve to all be saved 'cause they're too cool for time to swallow up. DEEP STATE PLOT fucked around with this message at 03:18 on May 31, 2021 |
# ? May 31, 2021 03:14 |
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neat car. i really dont see them very often, and when i do they snap my neck trying to get a second glance. you sound like the right guy to get that car, im glad you're keeping it on the road
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# ? May 31, 2021 05:44 |
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hell yeah goofball half window car
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# ? May 31, 2021 14:49 |
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I've kept an eye open on SVXs for some time and actually made an offer on a low mileage 98 years ago which just didn't work out, but at the end I stopped looking. The parts availability (not the least of which is glass) and appetite for transmissions scared me off. That said, I am living vicariously through you.
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# ? May 31, 2021 17:15 |
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There's a book called Where The Suckers Moon about the Subaru USA marketing department around the time the SVX was being introduced. It's, uh, quite the set of stories. They had no loving idea how to sell it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=929BMIWRLYc
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# ? May 31, 2021 17:23 |
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“$1.38 a gallon”
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# ? May 31, 2021 18:06 |
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Raluek posted:neat car. i really dont see them very often, and when i do they snap my neck trying to get a second glance. you sound like the right guy to get that car, im glad you're keeping it on the road Thanks. I'm definitely going to put more effort into fixing it than most would, I hate how disposable just about everything is considered in our society, I fix things that most people would probably throw away, partially because of the principle and partially because I enjoy it. Also I'm not going to drive it like an idiot and wreck it like some owners who just see cheap fast-looking car. This car is actually just about perfect for me, I can drive around town in it as it is and spend a day or two on weekends tackling one problem at a time. The most intimidating thing for me at this point is figuring out the valvetrain noise, although it seems like it might have quieted down a bit since the TPS was installed at least. slidebite posted:I've kept an eye open on SVXs for some time and actually made an offer on a low mileage 98 years ago which just didn't work out, but at the end I stopped looking. The parts availability (not the least of which is glass) and appetite for transmissions scared me off. It's funny, glass availability has actually gotten better somehow. Used to be you needed a parts car, now you can get windshields from China for the low, low price of... $300, untinted. Tinted apparently about $900. Still better than them just not existing. Part of what attracted me to this car was having perfect glass though, that's one pain in the rear end I would prefer not to deal with. You can actually make '05-'07 (I think) STI struts fit, but it involves drilling a new hole for one of the strut mount bolts and some fitting and welding for the sway bar. This is the only Subaru I'm aware of that mounts the sway bar end link on the strut rather than the control arm. Not sure what made them decide to do that, that design is more of a pain in the rear end because you don't have a simple nut and bolt to hold on to each end like with a normal Subaru, you've got a nut and then (thankfully) some flats right by the joint to stop the bolt spinning. And the end link is more mechanically complex because it has to flex rather than just being a piece of hard rubber. So I won't be surprised if I have to eventually pick up a new set or some adjustable ones if the joint wears out. Seat Safety Switch posted:There's a book called Where The Suckers Moon about the Subaru USA marketing department around the time the SVX was being introduced. It's, uh, quite the set of stories. They had no loving idea how to sell it. I'll need to read that book, I've heard how terribly they marketed the Legacy and Forester at first (even the Got Milk ad agency hosed it up), so I'm not surprised that they couldn't handle something unusual if they couldn't handle a sedan and small SUV.
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# ? May 31, 2021 19:01 |
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I don't remember seeing ads for the Legacy at all, and I always do a double take when I see one on the road (especially a new one). The Outback (now that it's its own distinct model) and Forester I see plenty of ads for today, but the Forester is fairly popular.... now.
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# ? May 31, 2021 21:38 |
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There's a write-up somewhere on how much they struggled with marketing from like '90 to '98 because they built their reputation on cheap cars and then the Legacy was loaded with a bunch of standard features that ended up putting the price a couple thousand over a base Accord or Camry. But to people just looking at sticker prices they didn't see any reason to buy the Legacy over the Toyota/Honda options. I was looking for ads from the first generation of Legacy and they're all about safety and the AWD, with one about how many Subarus are still on the road from 10 years ago which I guess was surprising back then as opposed to normal now. But nothing about "Look at all the features that you don't have to pay extra for." Then a marketing firm realized that a large amount of people who were buying Subarus fit the lesbian demographic and started making ads with LGBT subtext that would fly under the radar of soccer moms but make the people they were targeting feel seen.
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# ? Jun 1, 2021 02:44 |
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I'm trying to track down this stuck EGR code and wanting to knock out the possibilities that would mean I don't have to pull the entire thing and scrub it with a wire brush and carb cleaner. The code is for EGR stuck open/closed and is intermittent, I can't really find a consistent pattern for it turning on and off but sometimes it will stay off for hours, sometimes it will come back on after a few minutes of being off. The EGR valve is vacuum-operated, here's a picture I stole I'm wondering if it's an intermittent vacuum link, is that a thing? Has anyone seen a similar issue with a vacuum-operated EGR valve?
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# ? Jun 11, 2021 21:01 |
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IIRC, Crocodile Dundee was the spokesman for the Outback back in the 90s.
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# ? Jun 12, 2021 13:48 |
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Glad to see this in it's own thread. I had a fleeting moment of rebuilding an svx a few years back, now I can vicariously rebuild it through you!
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# ? Jun 12, 2021 15:56 |
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22 Eargesplitten posted:It's funny, glass availability has actually gotten better somehow. Used to be you needed a parts car, now you can get windshields from China for the low, low price of... $300, untinted. Tinted apparently about $900. Still better than them just not existing. Part of what attracted me to this car was having perfect glass though, that's one pain in the rear end I would prefer not to deal with. Funny story, I'm at the point in my own SVX rebuild where I'm finally getting the windshield replaced. Got a quote from a local glass place for $250 out the door , which I was not at all expecting. I guess I'll see how that turns out when he drops by to install it on Wednesday. Guess the perfect bronze one in my parts car isn't worth as much as I thought
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# ? Jun 12, 2021 17:06 |
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Black88GTA posted:Funny story, I'm at the point in my own SVX rebuild where I'm finally getting the windshield replaced. Got a quote from a local glass place for $250 out the door , which I was not at all expecting. I guess I'll see how that turns out when he drops by to install it on Wednesday. Guess the perfect bronze one in my parts car isn't worth as much as I thought There's a huge variation on glass replacement estimates, and it has a lot to do with where you are, I think. Out in Idaho where Outbacks are plentiful, it's like $150 to replace the shield on my first gen Legacy wagon. In Chicago it's almost $400 because Subaru still hasn't really caught on.
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# ? Jun 12, 2021 19:05 |
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rickiep00h posted:There's a huge variation on glass replacement estimates, and it has a lot to do with where you are, I think. Out in Idaho where Outbacks are plentiful, it's like $150 to replace the shield on my first gen Legacy wagon. In Chicago it's almost $400 because Subaru still hasn't really caught on. Right, that's one of the reasons this is a bit weird. I'm in Long Island, NY where everything seems to be pricier than most other places in the US. Safelite quoted me $450 for the same job. What makes this weird is that this glass was literally unavailable new for any price not that long ago, and now it's $250 all-in, in an area with relatively expensive goods / services, and the glass guy coming to my house to do it. Not complaining, but it was a pleasant surprise. I'm getting the windshield done on my Odyssey at the same time, and the quotes for that were $400 / $200 (Safelite / Independent).
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# ? Jun 12, 2021 23:51 |
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I could be dreaming but didn’t it used to be people had parts car SVX’s just in case the windshield broke? The JDM Alcyones still don’t go for a lot of money with low miles, I have been tempted. A place I could send it for a manual swap would seal the deal.
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# ? Jun 13, 2021 17:40 |
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Yeah, that used to be one of the big things in a parts car. I don't know why windshields are available now, but I hope it stays that way. There's a place that has done a good amount of manual swaps, but it's going to cost you more than the car: https://smallcar.com/subaru/the-svx-5-speed-conversion/. $4620 for just the labor plus another $400 or so for the kit they have that has all of the custom fabricated mounting pieces, plus all the actual parts like the transmission, clutch, shifter, clutch cylinder, etc. If I was going to get one of the JDM ones I would go for the lower trim level, I think it was called E or something like that there, the L was the high trim there. Just because the L had all wheel steering and while that's cool, that's going to be even more impossible to find parts for. Or if you have a shop you trust for custom work there's a fairly thorough guide out there but unless they're considerably faster than Small Car claims it will probably still be about the same, they estimate 30-40 hours for someone to do it with the instructions and the fabricated mounting parts.
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# ? Jun 13, 2021 20:26 |
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At $250 for an SVX windshield I'd be tempted to get a spare. I have a feeling these guys approved an estimate based on an old book without actually understanding how hard it is to get the parts.
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# ? Jun 13, 2021 22:35 |
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I realized yesterday that the tires on this thing are 10 years old, so I guess that's another thing on my list. Which really loving sucks because I already got a set of studded snows and was hoping to be able to use these old ones until the fall when I put the snow tires on.
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# ? Jun 14, 2021 18:58 |
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Related to the previous post, I have a question about wheels. I've got a set of summer tires from my Impreza that I have pretty much no use for, they're 205mm tires and reports are that the 7.5J wheels on the SVX in particular are too wide for 205mm tires which are generally right at the edge of what will fit on a 7.5J wheel. Would there be a problem with finding some 6.5-7" wide wheels with the same center bore and a similar offset and putting the tires on them? The tires are high-end summer tires with one season on them so I expect even with the narrower contact area they would still have better traction than the all-seasons that have been on this car, not even taking into consideration the fact that the current tires are about as old as my forums account. I'd just use the wheels the tires are currently on, but the bolt pattern is different between the Impreza and the SVX. If that could work, is there any sort of website that has a way to find cars based on their wheel size, offset, and center bore? I'm thinking I could snag a set from a pick and pull for like $80-100, which would save me a ton of money compared to buying a new set of tires, and if I decide to sell the wheels and get another set of original SVX wheels eventually I could probably turn around and sell the wheels for the same price I paid since they aren't wear items like tires.
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# ? Jun 15, 2021 18:42 |
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Related to the previous post, I have a question about wheels. I've got a set of summer tires from my Impreza that I have pretty much no use for, they're 205mm tires and reports are that the 7.5J wheels on the SVX in particular are too wide for 205mm tires which are generally right at the edge of what will fit on a 7.5J wheel. Would there be a problem with finding some 6.5-7" wide wheels with the same center bore and a similar offset and putting the tires on them? The tires are high-end summer tires with one season on them so I expect even with the narrower contact area they would still have better traction than the all-seasons that have been on this car, not even taking into consideration the fact that the current tires are about as old as my forums account. I'd just use the wheels the tires are currently on, but the bolt pattern is different between the Impreza and the SVX. I'd probably go ahead and get new tires the right size, but I'm boring. Your plan would probably work fine. Is it possible to xref wheels at Rockauto? There has to be some sort of wheel database you can access.
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# ? Jun 15, 2021 23:25 |
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https://upullandpay.com/denver/find-your-part/ The part interchange her sort of worked, in that I brought me a pic of an SVX in stock with wheels on it that I would bet are long gone by now.
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# ? Jun 15, 2021 23:27 |
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Normally, the master wheel thread on NASIOC would be the recommendation, but it looks like it explicitly doesn't cover the SVX (only stating that it's a 57.1 mm center bore). I'd still peruse that part of the forum to see what else SVX folks are doing.
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# ? Jun 15, 2021 23:37 |
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StormDrain posted:https://upullandpay.com/denver/find-your-part/ Well that's cool, I might have to go down there and check it out. Those are the stock wheels that for some reason people don't like so it's possible they're still in stock. They're on backwards, though. You don't see a ton of these in junkyards which is both good and bad, good because there's not that many of them around anyway and bad because it means I can't cannibalize them for parts. The wheel thread said that the tires should fit fine on the stock wheels so I might try that too. I just have a bunch of expenses coming up so I can't afford to spend another $500-600 on tires and installation right now. So my options are not drive it, drive it on unsafe tires, drive it on the studded winter tires I already bought (also unsafe during a summer heatwave) or use the existing summer tires I have.
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# ? Jun 16, 2021 00:42 |
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You should set an alert too for this car there. I'm guessing they rarely roll through. Same with their other local locations. Provided you actually need junkyard parts. Nice for scooping up little interior pieces that break.
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# ? Jun 16, 2021 05:59 |
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I was actually thinking of that, there's shoulder belt retainers on the seat, both of mine are snapped, and I'm pretty sure the green cars like that had the same kind of tan interior that mine has. Cloth rather than leather, but the retainers are plastic anyway. One of the levers to flip the seat forward also lost its plastic cover, although I have no idea if those can be removed without breaking them. I didn't realize it was possible to set an alarm for a certain model of car coming in. Might also be best to pull the power steering pump and lines, been trying to think of other parts that commonly fail and are NLA that I could easily pull. The throttle position sensors fail a ton but thankfully SpeedyEFI makes replacements with a pigtail, mounting adapter, and a BMW sensor, I think an E36 off the top of my head but I'd have to check the part number to be sure.
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# ? Jun 16, 2021 07:04 |
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Unfortunately serious work on the SVX is going to have to go on the back burner for a bit, my friend whose garage I've been using had the head gasket blow on his land cruiser so that's priority #1 right now. I'm going to still get the tires replaced and try to clean out the EGR if I can do it without getting the car up on jacks but probably most of my wrenching for a bit is going to be helping him replace whatever needs replacing there.
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# ? Jun 20, 2021 05:12 |
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Welp, ups and downs today, I took the car in to get the Hankooks I used to have on my Impreza installed, and it has way more grip now between them being high performance summer tires and being a year or two old rather than 11, and they just barely don't stretch. Bad news is I took my car through the wash after that and I have about a dozen new paint chips all the way down to the primer, the paint is pretty clearly fragile at this point. I'm probably going to get it vinyl wrapped at some point, unless it's something an amateur can do well. I guess I'd probably need to fill in the chips as well to avoid them showing through the vinyl? Ideally I'll get it in the Laguna Blue some of the SVXes came in, that would have been my preferred color in the first place.
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# ? Jun 23, 2021 18:29 |
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Get it mechanically sound first, worry about the finish later. All old finishes are doomed that's never going to get fixed, but a nice vinyl wrap will be awesome once it's reliably running
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# ? Jun 26, 2021 02:28 |
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Yeah, that's the plan. I got the EGR cleaned out and have driven it a few hundred miles without issue, the brakes stopped making noise so I guess they have finally finished their break-in period. Next up is replacing the brake lines and fluid, and I have an appointment to take it to a shop to check the alignment, it feels like it's pulling just a tiny bit, enough that I don't notice pulling on the wheel but enough that if I let go of the wheel it veers to the side faster than it should. The valvetrain noise that I noticed when first inspecting the car is gone now as well, I think it must have been TPS related because it was gone before I did anything with the EGR. So that's a relief, I'd much rather just replace the valve cover gaskets without having to replace a broken spring or valve or lifter or anything like that. I need to do an oil change soon though, I noticed yesterday that the oil change sticker indicates they changed it shortly before I got the car but the shop put 5w30 in it because they didn't bother checking the manual to see that 5w30 isn't recommended for extended or high-stress driving. So I'm putting in a RockAuto order today. I'm hopeful that this was a one or two time thing, the records for all but the last 10k miles or so were from the dealership where the original owner bought the car so I'd hope they would at least check what oil type to use. Maybe it says in the records, I'd need to pull them out again.
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# ? Jun 26, 2021 22:43 |
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Cross-posting with the Subaru thread, anyone have experience with Kein engine mounts? I've got the car reliable enough to drive long distances (about 450 miles yesterday) which is a massive win but I noticed a bit of rocking briefly when I first hit the throttle after coasting. I'm thinking I'll take a video of the engine bay when I pull the throttle cable, see if it seems like an engine mount is worn. Kein makes upgraded mounts and torque struts, the former of which aren't available from Subaru anymore as far as I can tell.
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# ? Jun 28, 2021 23:13 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:13 |
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Transmission mounts for the auto are also a big improvement. I’m not sure if the normal automatic insert will work for the SVX though. I have group-N in my Forester XT auto and went with the RalliTek insert. It’s pretty swank.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 05:37 |