Cheap WRX STI hatch - what could possibly go wrong?!
Discussion
Next job....
They guy who fixed the rust for me had a good look round underneath and spotted a failed bush on the front offside lower control arm.
Hard too see but the ball poking out the bottom there should be right up in the arm. I was never convinced the steering felt right!
As it's a press in/out job the arm has to come off so I decided to refresh everything on the arm.
A little research said suggested the biggest issue was getting the ball joint out the front steering knuckle. The pinch bolts snap and then the ball joint gets rusted in for good measure.
As I wasn't in a rush I decided to soak the bolt in plus gas over several days and put it through a few heat cycles. Unfortunately the CV joint sits just above the pinch bolt so it's a bit hard to not fry it. I wrapped it in wet cloths then put a heat proof mat over it to and heated it best I could with a blow torch.
I did 2 heat cycles and then a third and removed it while hot. To my surprise the bolt came undone!!
After about 10 mins hammering and levering the bolt joint popped out and the arm was off! (Note how rusty the ball joint is)
Turns out the rear bush was actually an adjustable powerflex one.
As they have a lifetime guarantee I dropped powerflex an email, in all honesty just to let them know I had one of their bushes fail and nothing more. They informed me it was an old design that they knew had issues and to my absolute delight sent me a brand new set! Amazing service!!
The arms were annoyingly covered in underseal (they are alloy on the STI so don't need covering) so I cleaned off the worst of it and refreshed all the bushes.
In True Haynes manual style refitting was the reverse of fitting. Except....
Oh bobbins, that's not right!
Turns out there is a large conical washer that goes between the arm and the ball joint. I must have just thrown it away with the old ball joint. Time for ICP to make some more money out of me!
I had a bit less luck with the other side. The ball joint was not giving up so easy. I got the pinch bolt out but the ball joint was having non of it. More than 3 hours swinging a lump hammer and dremeling and heating and spraying and more hitting. Bloody thing came out! Well what was left of it.
Steering is much improved again. Starting to feel like a real car!
They guy who fixed the rust for me had a good look round underneath and spotted a failed bush on the front offside lower control arm.
Hard too see but the ball poking out the bottom there should be right up in the arm. I was never convinced the steering felt right!
As it's a press in/out job the arm has to come off so I decided to refresh everything on the arm.
A little research said suggested the biggest issue was getting the ball joint out the front steering knuckle. The pinch bolts snap and then the ball joint gets rusted in for good measure.
As I wasn't in a rush I decided to soak the bolt in plus gas over several days and put it through a few heat cycles. Unfortunately the CV joint sits just above the pinch bolt so it's a bit hard to not fry it. I wrapped it in wet cloths then put a heat proof mat over it to and heated it best I could with a blow torch.
I did 2 heat cycles and then a third and removed it while hot. To my surprise the bolt came undone!!
After about 10 mins hammering and levering the bolt joint popped out and the arm was off! (Note how rusty the ball joint is)
Turns out the rear bush was actually an adjustable powerflex one.
As they have a lifetime guarantee I dropped powerflex an email, in all honesty just to let them know I had one of their bushes fail and nothing more. They informed me it was an old design that they knew had issues and to my absolute delight sent me a brand new set! Amazing service!!
The arms were annoyingly covered in underseal (they are alloy on the STI so don't need covering) so I cleaned off the worst of it and refreshed all the bushes.
In True Haynes manual style refitting was the reverse of fitting. Except....
Oh bobbins, that's not right!
Turns out there is a large conical washer that goes between the arm and the ball joint. I must have just thrown it away with the old ball joint. Time for ICP to make some more money out of me!
I had a bit less luck with the other side. The ball joint was not giving up so easy. I got the pinch bolt out but the ball joint was having non of it. More than 3 hours swinging a lump hammer and dremeling and heating and spraying and more hitting. Bloody thing came out! Well what was left of it.
Steering is much improved again. Starting to feel like a real car!
You can get a ball joint remover from ICP specifically for the Impreza that winds it out. However, I found that the issue was separating the arm from the ball joint, not the ball joint from the hub. I think I end up with a 4ft breaker bar and jumping up and down on it. That removed the ball joint from the hub but it was still fixed to the arm. Fortunately I was replacing the arm and Ball joint.
I expect it's a lot easier on a lift where you can get some proper leverage on it.
I expect it's a lot easier on a lift where you can get some proper leverage on it.
TEKNOPUG said:
You can get a ball joint remover from ICP specifically for the Impreza that winds it out. However, I found that the issue was separating the arm from the ball joint, not the ball joint from the hub. I think I end up with a 4ft breaker bar and jumping up and down on it. That removed the ball joint from the hub but it was still fixed to the arm. Fortunately I was replacing the arm and Ball joint.
I expect it's a lot easier on a lift where you can get some proper leverage on it.
Interestingly the ball joint came out of the arm with no problem at all. I expect it's a lot easier on a lift where you can get some proper leverage on it.
I only found out about the ICP tool afterwards. I do wonder if it would have worked. b
d thing was well and truly jammed in there!
After further research the symptoms of the car not quite running right pointed me towards some sort of boost leak.
I reseated the main intake pipes and replaced some of the vacuum pipes with samco ones.
TA da! The car runs tonnes better and seems more consistent under boost. Hoorah!
I did look into getting the car mapped but it has had an ecutek map on it at some point so needs to go back to an ecutek tuner now. It drives fine but it's running a bit rich. Maybe because of the changes I made?
It did pass it's MOT though!
Look how few miles the previous owner did! With that in mind and with relatively high Emissions at the MOT I have now run through a fuel treatment (eco motive clean drive). Never sure if they make any difference, I should probably take it back to the garage to check emissions again...
I reseated the main intake pipes and replaced some of the vacuum pipes with samco ones.
TA da! The car runs tonnes better and seems more consistent under boost. Hoorah!
I did look into getting the car mapped but it has had an ecutek map on it at some point so needs to go back to an ecutek tuner now. It drives fine but it's running a bit rich. Maybe because of the changes I made?
It did pass it's MOT though!
Look how few miles the previous owner did! With that in mind and with relatively high Emissions at the MOT I have now run through a fuel treatment (eco motive clean drive). Never sure if they make any difference, I should probably take it back to the garage to check emissions again...
drgoatboy said:
Cambs_Stuart said:
Now it's mechanically sorted, I'd take it to a mapper, particularly if it's running rich.
But for a cheap STI, this looks like it's going pretty well...
Thanks Stuart, that was always the plan, I think the wife has other ideas though and the Scooby might have to go But for a cheap STI, this looks like it's going pretty well...
drgoatboy said:
Cambs_Stuart said:
But it's an appreciating asset! A long term investment opportunity.
I bought it without telling her = doomed!Few little jobs done. First there was a patch of leather on the driver's bolster that had lost its colour...
The leather was ok, not torn, so it just needed a redye. Wanted to give this a go myself so order a kit
It was dark grey but came with some colours to mix in, the Subaru leather has a blue tinge.
They give you some little McDonald's ketchup holder tubs to mix in. And then apply the dye with a sponge.
Amazing I got the colour pretty much spot on straight away!
Then add a gloss finish and nearly as good as new, And all for £15!)
Also had a bit of an oil leak, nothing terrible but needed sorting, wasn't 100% sure if it was the rocker cover or the camshaft seal. Rocker cover gaskets are renowned for leaking on Subarus so I thought I would try that first, besides the camshaft seals involve taking the cam belt off and some special tools...
Taking the rocker cover off is still a pain! Even getting the coil packs off is very very tight!
Once the cover was all loosened off you actually need to loosen the lowered engine mounts a little and jack the engine up a smidge so the cover would clear the chassis legs.
Happily cams all looked nice and clean with no obvious damage. Always a relief!
New rcm gaskets and threebond sealant is advised (hard to find and quite expensive!)
All went back together no problem but all the messing about jacking up the engine an loosening engine mounts and everything turned a 30 minute job on a normal inline engine into a 4 hour saga although now I've done it once I reckon I could halve that at least.
Leak has improved but annoyingly not gone, looks like camseal is still seeping. Grrrrr...
One other quick job inside, the seat runners on Subaru appear to get rusty...
Rubbed down and treated
Lock of hammerite (and yes both sides needed doing)
Sadly time to call time on my Subaru adventure, time for something completely different...
Feels odd having an EV on the drive and an exceedingly loud very thirsty Subaru. Same idea but executed in very different ways. Hopefully I can get the Scooby sold. Seem to be a very limited market for them...
The leather was ok, not torn, so it just needed a redye. Wanted to give this a go myself so order a kit
It was dark grey but came with some colours to mix in, the Subaru leather has a blue tinge.
They give you some little McDonald's ketchup holder tubs to mix in. And then apply the dye with a sponge.
Amazing I got the colour pretty much spot on straight away!
Then add a gloss finish and nearly as good as new, And all for £15!)
Also had a bit of an oil leak, nothing terrible but needed sorting, wasn't 100% sure if it was the rocker cover or the camshaft seal. Rocker cover gaskets are renowned for leaking on Subarus so I thought I would try that first, besides the camshaft seals involve taking the cam belt off and some special tools...
Taking the rocker cover off is still a pain! Even getting the coil packs off is very very tight!
Once the cover was all loosened off you actually need to loosen the lowered engine mounts a little and jack the engine up a smidge so the cover would clear the chassis legs.
Happily cams all looked nice and clean with no obvious damage. Always a relief!
New rcm gaskets and threebond sealant is advised (hard to find and quite expensive!)
All went back together no problem but all the messing about jacking up the engine an loosening engine mounts and everything turned a 30 minute job on a normal inline engine into a 4 hour saga although now I've done it once I reckon I could halve that at least.
Leak has improved but annoyingly not gone, looks like camseal is still seeping. Grrrrr...
One other quick job inside, the seat runners on Subaru appear to get rusty...
Rubbed down and treated
Lock of hammerite (and yes both sides needed doing)
Sadly time to call time on my Subaru adventure, time for something completely different...
Feels odd having an EV on the drive and an exceedingly loud very thirsty Subaru. Same idea but executed in very different ways. Hopefully I can get the Scooby sold. Seem to be a very limited market for them...
Edited by drgoatboy on Saturday 7th October 20:53
drgoatboy said:
Sadly time to call time on my Subaru adventure, time for something completely different...
Feels odd having an EV on the drive and an exceedingly loud very thirsty Subaru. Same idea but executed in very different ways. Hopefully I can get the Scooby sold. Seem to be a very limited market for them...
Time to sign up to Plugheads. Feels odd having an EV on the drive and an exceedingly loud very thirsty Subaru. Same idea but executed in very different ways. Hopefully I can get the Scooby sold. Seem to be a very limited market for them...
Edited by drgoatboy on Saturday 7th October 20:53
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