Contemplating an old impreza. need advice

[ingrowtn]

As it happens the sensor itself was only £105 + vat. The remainder was that it comes supplied with the plastic tube it sits in. This is being returned because it was broken and I re- used the original after cleaning it. On that basis not too bad price wise.

[ingrowtn]

And add £266 for a new fuel pump.

[ohtari]

ingrowtn said:

And add £266 for a new fuel pump.

YOU PAID WHAT!!!???





A new Walbro kit is only 80 odd, I paid 30 for mine off of a scooby forum!


I can't say too much though, I just had to fork over £420 for new set of coil packs...


Ahh subaru, the love/hate relationship goes on

[ingrowtn]

One of those RAC approved garages - includes VAT and a couple of hours labour for fault diagnosis (it was only suspected fuel pump when it was recovered there) plus fitting plus I told them to give it s 'proper' road test. Quite reasonable I thought.

The hate part of the relationship disappeared as soon as I hit the motorway slip road and pressed the loud pedal

[ellis12345]

right... im back, and i think i've managed to buy a decent scooby on a budget
we'll just have to wait and see how reliable it is...


awd turbo 2000
it's done 134,000 miles
full subaru service history
many receipts of previous work carried out
it drives absolutely great
only problem is a slight oil leak, its not exactly pouring out but its enough to make you think 'oo that could do with sorting' plus its dripping on to the exhaust so its a bit smokey/smelly. took it to a bloke round the corner from me for him to have a quick scan over, couldn't see exactly what it was but he reckons its just a leaky rocker gasket...
Ended up paying 1700 for the car, 1300 for insurance. hopefully it's still driving as sweet as it is at the moment in 12 months time.

also.. i know a lot of people are very specific as to which petrol to use or which oil to use etc... any tips for me as i'm a complete scooby novice, it's a bit of a step up from anything iv'e ever owned before

[ellis12345]

when i say i took it to a bloke round the corner from me, he is a proper mechanic... not just any old bloke that lives round the corner

[MarvGTI]

Bought a 1997 Estate 2.0 NA 3 months ago and except for some cosmetic niggles, ot's absolutely spot on mechanically.

The interior doesn't rattle, it drives very nice for 100k and generally feels ultra solid.

That said, I service it myself as Subaru's hourly rates rival those of German Premium over here.

Go for it!

[mt fuji]

ohtari said:

YOU PAID WHAT!!!???





A new Walbro kit is only 80 odd, I paid 30 for mine off of a scooby forum!


I can't say too much though, I just had to fork over £420 for new set of coil packs...


Ahh subaru, the love/hate relationship goes on

should have only been paying around £250 for your coil packs ! , but as you say love/hate !

[mt fuji]

ellis12345 said:

right... im back, and i think i've managed to buy a decent scooby on a budget
we'll just have to wait and see how reliable it is...


awd turbo 2000
it's done 134,000 miles
full subaru service history
many receipts of previous work carried out
it drives absolutely great
only problem is a slight oil leak, its not exactly pouring out but its enough to make you think 'oo that could do with sorting' plus its dripping on to the exhaust so its a bit smokey/smelly. took it to a bloke round the corner from me for him to have a quick scan over, couldn't see exactly what it was but he reckons its just a leaky rocker gasket...
Ended up paying 1700 for the car, 1300 for insurance. hopefully it's still driving as sweet as it is at the moment in 12 months time.

also.. i know a lot of people are very specific as to which petrol to use or which oil to use etc... any tips for me as i'm a complete scooby novice, it's a bit of a step up from anything iv'e ever owned before

looks clean enough , what year ? , its just you have pre facelift bumper and facelift bonnet !

[ingrowtn]

ellis12345 said:

right... im back, and i think i've managed to buy a decent scooby on a budget
we'll just have to wait and see how reliable it is...


awd turbo 2000
it's done 134,000 miles
full subaru service history
many receipts of previous work carried out
it drives absolutely great
only problem is a slight oil leak, its not exactly pouring out but its enough to make you think 'oo that could do with sorting' plus its dripping on to the exhaust so its a bit smokey/smelly. took it to a bloke round the corner from me for him to have a quick scan over, couldn't see exactly what it was but he reckons its just a leaky rocker gasket...
Ended up paying 1700 for the car, 1300 for insurance. hopefully it's still driving as sweet as it is at the moment in 12 months time.

also.. i know a lot of people are very specific as to which petrol to use or which oil to use etc... any tips for me as i'm a complete scooby novice, it's a bit of a step up from anything iv'e ever owned before

Looks nice Pretty much everybody I have spoken to in the mechanic business reckons engines are bomb proof as long as it's been looked after with regular oil changes. Mine's done 127,000 and with the new MAF and fuel pump is driving better than it did when I bought it with 70,000 on the clock two years ago; no rattles, no bangs and no smoke and still feels tight. Inside the filler cap it says 'super unleaded only' which is what I put in - Sainsbury's high octane is as good as any (in fact I reckon the car runs better on that then VPower) and it's cheaper too. I use 95 RON only if I'm caught short and can't get 97 - runs fine (although about 40 miles less to a tank). I definitely notice a difference using super as opposed to regular.

Can't say about oil - it gets changed at services and never needs a top up. In fact it never uses any oil or water. Cam-belt is 50,000 or 3 years - check when this was last done.

[rb5er]

Looks nice. Use super unleaded.

Oil leak is indeed usually rocker cover gaskets which are not a big or expensive job so get them done.

Congrats.

[TheRealFingers99]

99 -- my MR2 turbo can't tell the difference between Shell and Tesco.

Looks OK.

[ellis12345]

1997 is the year, R reg although its now on a nothern ireland plate, no idea why but i like it

[Serin]

If its a 97 then itll be similar to a V4, so it would have the early bumper, but the later bonnet and grille. The V5 had the more modern bumpers, and while the bonnet was the same, the grille was more pronounced

Anyway, nice Turbo2000 you got there!

[ellis12345]

had no idea there were so many different versions,
and yes it will be a nice turbo2000 when i sort the oil leak out. had a sift through the past reciepts and the rocker gaskets were only changed a few weeks ago, so il phone the place that did it tomorrow.
hopefully it's just some tit that put it on back to front and not something more severe

[rb5er]

Sometimes the rocker gaskets can be a bit of a pain to seal.

Hopefully its just those and not a head gasket or 2 thats leaking.

[KaraK]

Looks like a tidy one

I had two classics of the same era (an S-plate and an R-plate) and they were brilliant - both died accident related deaths rather than mechanical and were on 120k + miles at the time.

Stay on top of the maintenance with a decent mechanic who know's their way around them and you'll be fine . Depending on how friendly your insurers are there are a couple of good, relatively cheap upgrades for that iteration that I found:

• Exhaust -> a de-cat centre section and an STI or Prodrive back box frees up a bit of the growl/burble without being massively in your face and I found a slight improvement in mid-range pull and driveability and weirdly it gave me a marginal gain in economy on long runs?

• Brakes -> They have the utterly woeful 2-pot callipers on the front, the MY99 4-pots bolt straight on and are a massive improvement. If you can't go that route then decent brake fluid and pads are a must to help avoid fade on really hot days or sustained blasts

• Front strut brace -> I had an STI one on my cars (in fact it's probably still kicking about the garage somewhere) and I found it sharpened the front end and gave me much more confidence at turn-in.

Fuel-wise most forms of Super Unleaded will do the job, I found V-power to be the best but had no problems running on Tesco or Esso etc. The only one to avoid is BP Ultimate - I tried it a few times when nothing else was available and for whatever reason they just don't like it.

[ellis12345]

bit of an update...
oil leak looks to be sorted, both rocker gaskets have been properly sorted, the reason they were leaking so much is because they had been bodged together using the wrong gaskets and cheap sealer which caused both of them to be leaking quite a lot. very slight leak coming frorm one of the pipes which has been sorted. engine has been cleaned as much as possible underneath and not a spot of oil so far
just need to sort a few of the dodgy electrics out now.

[ellis12345]

KaraK said:

* Brakes -> They have the utterly woeful 2-pot callipers on the front

i take it you've never drove a standard 1.2 nova then makes the brakes on my scooby feel like porsche 911 brakes!

[TCarter]

ellis12345 said:

right... im back, and i think i've managed to buy a decent scooby on a budget
we'll just have to wait and see how reliable it is...


awd turbo 2000
it's done 134,000 miles
full subaru service history
many receipts of previous work carried out
it drives absolutely great
only problem is a slight oil leak, its not exactly pouring out but its enough to make you think 'oo that could do with sorting' plus its dripping on to the exhaust so its a bit smokey/smelly. took it to a bloke round the corner from me for him to have a quick scan over, couldn't see exactly what it was but he reckons its just a leaky rocker gasket...
Ended up paying 1700 for the car, 1300 for insurance. hopefully it's still driving as sweet as it is at the moment in 12 months time.

also.. i know a lot of people are very specific as to which petrol to use or which oil to use etc... any tips for me as i'm a complete scooby novice, it's a bit of a step up from anything iv'e ever owned before

It's looking like a tidy Scoob, hopefully the leak will be an easy fix.

Who did you get insurance with? That seems like a bit much to me.