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this was a compromise with my grandmother for agreeing to not buy a motorcycle while i'm living with her it runs and drives, is rust-free as far as I've been able to find, and was $700. came complete with obama/biden 08 bumper sticker, period-correct aftermarket head unit, pretuned to NPR. libmobile I love my prius way more than I ever expected to (that's a story for another time) but it's also boring as gently caress to drive. and while I'm stuck in suburbia for the forseeable future, with a pandemic on, I might as well find something better to do than play computer games. So I lurked the local craigslist and happened upon this. It's at about a quarter-million miles, but the engine sounds and feels fine. It's the 1.8L EJ, which apparently didn't have as many head gasket issues as the contemporary 2.2, or so I'm told. It's a salvage, from getting rear-ended about 20 years ago. comes with original dented rear hatch. but bonus: the PO said he got a replacement hatch, mounted it, but then it wouldn't shut because the striker and its mount got moved. so he put the original hatch back on and just left all the wires and the wiper fluid line cut. ok. also the driver's side exterior door handle and window didn't work when I got it, but I've already fixed that. there's a tiny bit of play in one of the front wheel bearings, and the PO said the ball joints and CVs had only been replaced once, about 20 years ago, but that he'd been greasing them. one or both of the right CVs are making a little noise, and at about 60mph there's a slight wobble in the steering wheel. So the suspension, while not currently completely hosed, will be there soon. the interior is in mixed shape. the plastics and carpets are mostly in pretty good shape, except the dash is partially taken apart from a botched attempt to repair the HVAC. The PO warned me not to turn on the fan because it had been shorted to the charging circuit and would blow the fuse if you turned it on  ok. There is an AC compressor under the hood, but it had no belt on it and the PO simply said "no A/C". ok.comes with an aluminum WRX hood, in the wrong color, and missing the scoop. Lol $700 was squarely in the middle of the KBB range for "fair" condition, and he'd been forthcoming about all the issues from the beginning, so after a halfassed attempt to haggle over the only issue he hadn't mentioned (the wheel bearing) I paid his asking price. Goals: i want to make vroomvrooms in the dirt, but more importantly, I want this to not just become a monument to my ability to start things I don't finish. I want to keep it running and driving. Any portions that'll require tearing it down below that level, I want to be thoroughly prepared beforehand and get done as quickly as is feasible. I want to be able to drive this thing and get my stickshift fix often. Checklist: get it registered pop valve covers to assess level of gunk? or drop the oil pan? change inspect un-tenderlycaress the HVAC wiring at least to the point that I can run the heater and defrost the windshield once i can safely run the heat, do a full coolant flush and inspect the thermostat inspect vestigial A/C compressor and decide if I want to repair and recharge, or simply delete and be fan & heater only the stick feels a little mushy, especially around first, so figure out if that's just bushings or if synchros are worn diagnose and treat cooling system leak drain and refill transaxle and rear diff with new gear oil Once the above damage control is done, THEN I get to start on the fun stuff total suspension rebuild front and rear with all new bushings, ball joints, and CVs strut tower braces better brakes (rear discs for sure, possibly bigger fronts) LSD rear LSD front? cage? port and polish? Bigger, longer-term philosophical questions: reassemble interior, or strip interior paint or patina smog-legal or outlaw Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Apr 7, 2021 |
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Jan 16, 2021 01:26
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MY man! 
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Jan 16, 2021 01:56
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bought a multimeter and a bunch of crimp connectors and got all the wiring to the hatch reconnected. door ajar sensor, wiper, and 3rd brakelight all work. soldered the connector back onto the rear defroster, and figured out which of the two blue-with-red-stripe wires was the defrost, and it's showing 3 ohms between the two terminals, but without any frost to de i can't be sure its working, but it should be. i even got the rats nest of crimps wrapped up and crammed back in, so the little rubber grommet tube thing is back in place. hopefully it doesn't leak. the wiper fluid line is on the other side, and i need some kind of double-male connector to patch it, and god knows where i'll find that the rear wiper blade spinning freely was just a loose nut Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 11:07
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Ohhhh I can tell you how exactly to do it annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd then OP will be Waaaaaaaaait I thought these cars were LEGO and I'll laugh and laugh and laugh about the little traps everywhere that makes it annoying as gently caress esp if you are trying to swap post MY97. i'm still learning the vin codes. remind me what gcfd means? e: after some digging i found this: https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vehicle_Identification_Numbers_(VIN_codes)/Subaru/VIN_Codes so gc is 1st-gen sedan, gd is 2nd gen sedan, gf is 1st gen wagon, right? also i'm in california so the engine is staying as-is for a loooong time, likely forever. i want to drive it, not trailer it Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 11:37 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 11:14
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STR posted:https://www.amazon.com/Windshield-Washer-Connector-OTUAYAUTO-Universal/dp/B07MZQY32N oh, theres standard dimensions for washer fluid hoses? well that should make it easier than i was expecting e: this seems obvious in retrospect Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Jan 20, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 22:54
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i'm bleeding the brakes (my first time doing this ever) with the help of a $10 kit from the parts store. i'm glad i bought the big bottle of brake fluid because good god this stuff looks like motor oil. the first batch to come out was drat near opaque
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Jan 20, 2021 02:47
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saute window ala shitbox here's a pic of the old brake fluid. and this all of it together, including a bunch of clean fluid pushed through. yikes  I topped up the power steering fluid and coolant too, both were slightly low I was able to bleed the brakes without removing the wheels, since I don't have a jack and stands yet, but that also means i wasn't able to inspect the pads and shoes while i was at it. old dusty air filter out, clean new filter in Looking at jacks, it seems like the best bang for my buck would be to get a bottle jack that barely fits under the side rails ($60) instead of spending two or three times as much on a shittier floor jack, t/f? Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jan 21, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 00:53
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changed the oil and filter, topped up the coolant and power steering fluid. ran it to operating temp as part of the oil change and while I was in there, i (carefully) took off the radiator cap to take a peek and the coolant is still bright yellow and was flowing, so the thermostat and coolant can wait until i unpoop the HVAC and can flush the heater core too. I bought the wrong rear hatch lift supports (too short, they were for the 02-07 wagon) and have subsequently banged my head on the hatch enough times that i buckled and dropped another fifty bucks on the right ones. hopefully autozone lets me return the wrong ones, but if not i'll probably be able to unload them eventually on someone with a second-gen wagon. engine oil was pitch black, so i'm glad i did that. i thought about using ultraplatinum fancy oil but elected instead for plain high milage oil. I don't need the extra detergents and dispersants revealing any leaky seals yet. I did find a leak in the radiator. there was a quiet hissing sound from one corner of the radiator after warming and turning it off. there was some dried antifreeze around the sound and it immediately stopped when i popped the radiator cap. it seems high enough up that it's just leaking pressure most the time and not fluid, but adding the leak to the to-do list. i bought a bigass jug of 85w gear oil and will be draining and refilling the transaxle and rear diff at some point so far so fun e: i've also been hitting bits and pieces with simple green as I go. the engine compartment is coated in oil and dust. Oh! and the worn CV boot has now completely seperated and the CV is exposed the open air. no puddles! Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 20:51
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ThirstyBuck posted:IMO it’s not a true shitbox if there isn’t rust. (I’m looking at you upstate NY). That's fair. I'm definitely not up against the kind of uphill battle I'd be fighting if this thing came from somewhere it snows. e: although the bits of surface rust ive been finding, i've been wire wheeling and spritzing with rustoleum. it's ugly but looks are at the absolute bottom of my priorities. in fact, i started to wire wheel what's left of the hood's blue paint and then said forget it, because even if i get rid of it all, i still have a hood with broken blue plastics and a missing hood scoop. Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 22:07
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woof. im glad i took a second look at the power steering. the fluid was way lower than i initially thought, because the little screen filter that drops into the tank and sits at the rim of the entrance was so clogged it was making the dipstick read as full while the tank was half empty. i swapped it with a much cleaner one i found in the assorted parts box that came in the back seat, but not before i got my little siphon pump and emptied the tank. freakin yikes dude, more opaque brown fluids that should be translucent and colorful. So I did the closest thing to a bleed i can do without unhooking hoses. filled the tank with clean atf (the specified fluid), turned the steering wheel lock to lock a few times with the engine running, then pumped out the tank again. more dirty atf, but much closer to translucent. i quit while i was ahead and topped it off at that point. lo and behold, the power steering pump sounds much, much less tired than it did before. now it only gets noisy in the last 10-20 degrees of steering wheel turn before lock, where it was whining across its whole range before. there may be more life in that pump and steering rack than I thought. How much should I expect to pay a shop to make sure the AC is completely drained of refrigerant before i start tinkering with the compressor and condenser?
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Jan 31, 2021 08:22
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I replaced the four cheap copper spark plugs with some iridium ones, the plug wires look fine for now and the multimeter didn't show anything out of spec so i just slimed them with some dielectric grease and put em back on. The car definitely feels like it starts a little easier and runs a little smoother. A couple weeks ago I figured out I could take off just the top plastic veneers for the hood vents (the faded blue ones) and since I could get those off I decided to finish what the PO started and wire wheel the rest of the top of the hood. I experimented with some 400 grit sandpaper to see if it might be worth trying to get a more uniform texture but nah. I'll leave that work for if I ever decide to paint it. I have no illusions about this thing ever not looking like a heap of poo poo, but it looks a little less lovely now. I mentioned earlier that I had been wire wheeling and rust-stop-painting any spots of surface rust as I found them. Well the front left fender had a bunch of little rust spots because it's got lots of little dents, and so now it had a bunch of black blobs with paint runs coming off them. So I decided to pull the fender, clean up around and behind it, and see what I found in terms of rust. Hardly any! God bless California. The whole thing was pretty well caked with mud and covered in two decades of dust, but there was only a few spottings of surface rust, mostly around bolts that had been installed before painting and so had bare metal under their washers. I got some brushes and hot soapy water and tried to get as much moisture-retaining grime off as I could, especially around where the bottom of the fender bolts to the rocker. The mudflap had mostly done its job but there was a lot of dust and some still wet (!!!) mud in there. Once everything was clean, I scuffed the fender and the stuff behind it with some 1000 grit sandpaper and replaced the ugly flat black blobs with an even coat of the same flat black rustoleum paint on the fender and everything behind it. I'll post some updated pics soon. I also dropped a couple hundred bucks on a new CV, two new wheel bearings, and some press/pull tools that should mean being able to do those replacements without needing to upset the alignment. This'll be my first time doing something like this, and I'm hoping it'll go smoothly because my prius also has a noisy CV that i've just been ignoring for the entire pandemic. oopsie
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Mar 23, 2021 12:10
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i was indeed referring to putting dielectric grease inside the wire boots, to keep moisture and crud out of the boot. the spark plug recess is almost vertical, so crap will inevitably accumulate in there. there was definitely plenty that came flying out when i blasted some compressed air down them before removing the plugs although i did put antiseize on the threads. the idea that you shouldn't is brand new news to me; that's interesting. i'll take a second look at my manuals and see if the torque specs specify if they're wet or dry Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Mar 24, 2021 |
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Mar 24, 2021 23:28
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i imagine aluminum heads are both more sensitive to over-torquing and less sensitive to corrosion, making it more likely that the threads being wet and the torque being approximate will cause problems
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Mar 28, 2021 19:42
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STR posted:Wait, these have aluminum heads? i just meant in general, with aluminum heads becoming more common in parallel to coated plugs becoming more common
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Apr 1, 2021 02:45
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well parts and tools all came and im up to my tits in replacing both front wheel bearings and the front right axleshaft. so far i appear to have succeeded in pressing in the front left bearing without destroying it or letting the axle fall out of the gearbox. tomorrow is the right side
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Apr 2, 2021 07:14
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this right side hub may not come out. i have repeatedly soaked it with deep creep and wailed on it with a hub puller and slide hammer like it owed me money and it hasn't budged. The other one came out with about 15 minutes of finagling. this axle came out harder than the other one too, with a minor dusting of rust, so i think the hub may be rusted into the inner bearing races tight enough that the 5lb slide hammer won't cut it. so now I'm pondering my next step. i'm definitely still changing the axle since that came out of the hub. but i can't see any way to press the hub out with the tools I have, so as I see it my options are to pull the knuckle with the hub still in it and either 1) find someone with a hydraulic press and try that, or 2) scrap the whole assembly and buy a new hub and knuckle. either way i'd have to get a front end alignment afterword so my hopes of doing this without touching the alignment points may be dashed. any advice? I've tappytapped all over the knuckle and hub with a ballpeen hammer, i've tried wedging a chisel into the gap between the hub and knuckle, i've tried hammering on the back side of the hub with an impact socket as the pushing tool, none of that's seemed to knock it loose. I'm going to keep hitting it with deep creep every few hours and try the slide hammer again tomorrow, maybe fog the inside of the hub with an upside-down can of duster to chill it in the hopes of shrinking it a bit, but beyond that I'm out of ideas for how to break this loose with the knuckle still on the car
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Apr 2, 2021 23:59
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IOwnCalculus posted:At least try the hydraulic press option first before jumping straight to new knuckle time. That was the plan, even before I found out that apparently only the left knuckles are still available from subaru i could spend a day at a junkyard wailing on hubs there but i may just come to the same result. time to get on the horn to neighbors and possibly local auto shops and find a press for borrow/hire
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Apr 3, 2021 08:18
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well, using duster to freeze the hub didn't work, application of mild fire to the knuckle didn't work, and the joints in both my hands are stiff from all the slide hammering  ive been doing the last two days. i'm ready to concede and pull the knuckle. the alignment points on the knuckle are the bolts that attach it to the strut and the position of the inner tie rod according to my clymer manual. the subaru shop manual doesn't mention where to scribe alignment marks since it just goes straight to pull the knuckle anyway. also i've discovered while i'm under here that drat near every rubber boot on the whole front end is torn all the way around. the left axle is fine, and the right ball joints are fine, but the rest is toast. i have the replacement for the right axle already, which takes care of that, but i guess if i'm going to be getting an alignment i might as well be replacing the steering rack boots and ball joints e: scribe marks? the yellow ones are me, the blue and white are old and appeared phoenixlike from the eighth inch of grime i scrubbed off  
Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Apr 3, 2021 |
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Apr 3, 2021 20:23
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well, it's an extremely minor easter miracle. the hub is out of the knuckle. three days of spritzing it liberally with deep creep and tappytapping at various angles with various tools and hammers seems to have done it. the only thing i tried today that i hadn't before was wedging the angled end of a crowbar in between the hub and knuckle and tappytapping on the long end. i felt something give and was like "holy hell it bent this huge crowbar? but nope it finally budged so i threaded the slide hammer back into the puller and out it came for now i'm taking a break but i've gotten the inner races off the hub and filed flush the tiny burrs i put on it. I could probably replace it too but... ehhh. it aint broke as far as i can tell. a woodworking straightedge and some feeler gauges doesn't show any observable gap so if I warped it its very minor. and i'll be greasing the poo poo out of everything so if it does have to come back out it hopefully won't be this difficult next time e: lol i just realized AFTER THREE DAYS HE IS RISEN lmao Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 20:09
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 no more steampunk sound effects when turning. yay!
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Apr 7, 2021 04:21
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i love myself a good set of dr seuss pjs
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Apr 7, 2021 11:03
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I took the car on a shakedown cruise on some country roads   that last one was marked "jeep trail" on the map so i couldn't not do it. a little careful choosing of line on the more washed/rocky parts and the car handled it like a champ. i did have one serious pucker moment though; i heard a loud thunk as something bottomed out over a series of bumps. turns out it was just the front tow hook, but now i want to get a skid plate. that unprotected oil pan up front was giving me the wrong kind of excitement there's still some weird vibration at highway speeds, but it's a lot less. it's merely noticeable at 75 where before it felt unsafe to take the car above 60. it must be coming from something else because there is now absolutely zero play in all four wheel bearings. the vibration comes and goes with seemingly no reason, it isn't consistent about what makes it more or less noticeable Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Apr 11, 2021 |
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Apr 11, 2021 18:28
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I went to the local street legal drags and holy moly this shitbox is the slowest thing i've ever sent down a drag strip, and i've drag raced some real garbage the best ET i got all night was an 18, and that was with 25psi front 23 rear, a 4k clutch dump and no-lift shifting. going down the track in anything resembling a manner sustainable for my clutch produced mid 19s with a good launch and 20+ if i bogged it. i'm pretty sure i had the highest dial-in out of the whole field lol this poor thing took my dickhead driving in stride, but I need to develop some uh, more refined technique before I break something, especially considering drag racing isn't even the main thing I want to do with it i may take my prius next week. it might actually be faster Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Apr 15, 2021 |
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Apr 15, 2021 08:35
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Yeah I knew it was gambling with my driveline but I figured with this car topping out at 103hp brand new and me planning on doing autocross and rallycross, if something was going to break from a couple clutch dumps it was going to break anyway i pulled the rack off to inspect under them and other than a ton of  it looks fine. There's some cracks in the paint but they appear to be over some crumbly white stuff that looks like body sealant, so everything looks fine. I'll hit it with some ruststop paint before putting the rack back on for my peace of mind  e: i considered not putting the rack back on to see how big of a difference it makes in gas milage, but 1) i have no weatherstripping to replace it 2) i have nowhere to store it and 3) there is a sillhouette of it outlined in clear coat where it shaded the roof from the sun lol Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Apr 15, 2021 |
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Apr 15, 2021 23:35
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well.... second time at the drag strip, i had resolved to be much gentler with the clutch this time. but during the climb in first the rpms jumped from 4k to 6k in an instant. sounds like i've got a clutch job in my near future in a dearth of caution and a desire to get the most out of my thirty bucks, i continued. if the clutch slipped any more I didn't see it. but i guess it's good to get a heads-up that the clutch is tired Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Aug 12, 2021 |
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Aug 12, 2021 01:58
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Steely Dad posted:Did you break into the 17s? oh god no, last time with me beating the clutch like a rented mule i think my best time was eighteen and a half. this time i wasn't even in the teens  e: also i'm going to try to do something about all the broken images Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Aug 12, 2021 |
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Aug 12, 2021 21:18
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well, i made it into the 17s by bringing the prius
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Oct 24, 2021 08:41
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I've had zero money to spend, and with the price of gas, that means i have negative money to spend on working on the car. I'm a newly-minted Registered Nurse (wahoo!) though so I'll be getting a job sooner or later that should give me more than my current annual income of zero USD I caught myself daydreaming about Cusco LSDs and Speeduino piggybacks the other day. job first, then hooliganism
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Apr 15, 2022 20:47
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general update: the red wagon's been sitting at my grandma's house cause I took a job at a hospital out in the boonies and could only bring one car. the battery's now dead as a doornail and the tires drier-looking than I remember, but with a jump it starts right up and 3 of the tires hold air, with the fourth taking about a week to set the rim on the ground. so it's driveable, but barely. i'm making optima and continental money now (thanks CNA/NNU) so i'll be getting some cool poo poo soon. in the meantime, I bought a dirt bike. oh and a 2004 STi lol
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Nov 25, 2023 12:07
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