Kelvinators latest project - 2012 Subaru BRZ
Discussion
It'd been an interesting month or so since I sold the Alto, trying to work out what on earth my next project would be. Finally, It fell into my lap.
I knew the criteria. There were a few reasons to sell the Alto, and one of them was to experience a new platform on the track. I felt I had reached the limits of what that car could do without dumping a bunch of money into it for bigger turbos, new wheels and tires etc.
This meant I was looking to move away from FWD and get a RWD or AWD car. Being manual was non-negotiable. The other goal was to try and reduce the amount of money I had tied up in the Alto. That last one was actually much harder than I expected as all the "fun" cars had "fun" tax on them.
My options were really limited; An MX5, an Altezza or some sort of Subaru. Nothing else really fit the price range. So that's where I started.
In terms of Subarus, I tried to avoid pre-Y2K as older than that involves 6 monthly WOFs, and I can't be bothered with that, so that left with me Legacys or bug-eye onwards Impreza. Anything STI was out of the question, I couldn't afford that performance, but it still had to be a turbo. The options for WRXs were limited. There were a few bug and blob WRXs floating around for a good price, but they all carried huge Ks (usually around 300,000km) with questionable histories and modifications. I didn't want to buy a time bomb.
The uncertainty around these led me to look at the newer hatchback style Impreza, as they still came in turbo options, manual, AWD, and usually with lower Ks as they were newer.
My wife and I did a couple hour round trip to look at the first one. A black 2007 Impreza S-GT, the JDM narrow-body WRX.
It'd been for sale for a while, and the seller did advise that the last WOF had a note for underbody rust on the rear subframe, but otherwise the car was "all good". The rust wasn't too much of a worry as long as the rest of the body was solid, as I could wire brush and treat the subframe.
This car looked good from a distance, but as I walked toward it (from the rear), I immediately noticed really bad "orange peel" in the rear quarter panel. Being in the industry and having seen it all, this put me on alert straight away. The more I looked, the worse it was. Rust bubbling in the roof gutter at the rear, bad paintwork, rust starting on the boot floor where the rear panel had been cut off and replaced (along with a tell tail paint pen "cut" line). The seller told us "oh yeah it had a small nudge in traffic a couple of years ago". Yeah, his definition of "small nudge" might differ from mine, when it appears the whole rear end had been cut off and rebuilt. It probably would'nt be an issue for most people, but it would always bother me.
I took it for a quick drive anyway to see if it was worth the effort to fix it up, but although the 260hp and AWD felt nice, it just didnt really inspire me. The price was also too high cosidering the issues. I walked away.
Next was a New Zealand new version of the same car, a 2009 WRX, also in black. Long story short, this too had been in a rear shunt, with a misaligned tailgate, both rear quarters had been repainted, and there was a lovely patch of cracking bog above the rear wheel, with rust bleeding stains under it. I didn't even drive this one, I just thanked her for her time and left.
As a change of scenery, I had been watch a listing for a 1993 WRX "Version 1" but hadn't been able to get in touch with the seller before someone else bought it. This was an exception to the rule, I love these old GC8s but the prices are getting insane, so when it was relisted a little further up the coast for a similar price, I jumped to contact the seller.
Already alarm bells are ringing, why is he selling it so soon? He spun a story about needing the funds, but in truth I think he bought it without inspecting it and got stung and needed to offload it quickly.
One day after work I drove up the coast and went to view the car. I knew from the previous seller that there was some rust, and he had provided a couple of photos showing it was in the top of the front guard and in the rear door, both replacable panels, but he hadnt supplied photos of the rust in the boot he mentioned.
Viewing the car, the rust was far more extensive. In a quick look, I found a rust bubble in the front chassis rail, rust bubbling along the top edge of the rear guard, and worst of all, the seller pointed out the rust in the boot; basically the whole rain channel under the rear glass, on both sides where the hinges are, was made of bog. Cracking, badly painted and rusty bog. When I mentioned "heck, I didn't think it'd be that bad", the seller replied "neither did I". Ouch. I walked at that point, you'd need to either reshell that car, or gut it and spend months cutting all the rust out and rebuilding it.
The final Subaru I looked at was another NZDM WRX hatch, this time in silver.
Much to my surprise, this one had also been crashed. I knew it was rough, and had a couple of dings, but it was priced well, so I could've overlooked those, but this one had a new curveball, rust. It wasnt huge, but there were definitely rust bubbles down the LH A-Pillar by the glass, and at the top of the hatch opening where the hinges are that someone had tried to paint over. When asking about things like cambelt and service history I got a lot of blank looks, so that didn't bode well.
I took it for a quick drive to see how it went and it was fairly disappointing. The clutch feel was horrible, and the brakes had a massive shudder, so work was obviously needed in those places too.
I'm quickly finding out that these WRXs were often bought by families and are just "a car", with little care given to what they are or how to properly look after them. It's a shame.
So, whats next? The old Toyota Altezza was in the price range, and with 200hp on tap with a 6 speed manual and torsen LSD, they should be fairly fun. I've owned one before, and although it was a nice car to drive, it always felt a bit underpowered for the body, and wasnt that exciting. This lead me to consider a couple, but not bother looking at any.
Finally, it was MX5s. I looked at three. I'll start with the one I walked away from as soon as I started it up; an ND1.
It's a gorgeous car, and even the massive stupid wing didn't look too bad in photos (although in person it looked 100x bigger). This had some seriously questionable mods though, one of which was a painted on Union Jack on the soft top (why). The worst though was the exhaust, which I don't think had anything resembling a muffler. I got in, pressed the start button and was immediately greeted by the loudest car I have ever been in. My wife was standing just outside the open door, and I couldn't hear her talking to me over the exhaust.
That exhaust, and the fact that the car was so small and cramped for my rather generous frame, meant that I had to walk away.
That left me with a pair of NCs. I've also previously owned an NC, and really enjoyed it, so knew one would go well as a track car.
Turners Damaged Auctions was the location of the first one, an early NC1 RS soft top. It had high Ks, appeared to have been sitting outside for ages, had some cosmetic issues, but otherwise if it went cheap enough I was prepared to fix it up and thrash the pants off it. Even if the engine was bad, I had planned to 2.5 swap it.
I went and viewed the car, since by some miracle it was at the local yard
Externally, it didn't look too bad. The brown soft top needed some love, there was a ding in the RH rear arch, and the front bumper was... trash. The inside was pretty good too. Some wear, but with over 200,000km on it, it's to be expected. It also had a broken front quarter window.
The underside is where it got a bit iffy.
It all appeared to be surface rust, but there would be a few hours worth of work under there scrubbing it with a wire wheel and then treating and painting it.
The auction rolled around, and with a fixed price limit in my mind, I was ready to hit the bid button. The bidding started and ended about a grand higher than my limit, so it wasn't to be.
Interestingly about a week later it popped up on Facebook with a new reg and wof, a repainted front bumper, replaced window and dyed soft top for significantly more than he paid. Can't argue with the hustle, at least he did some work to fix it, but I can't help but wonder how much work he put into the underside, or if he just blasted paint right on over the rust.
Finally, the last NC I looked at was a PRHT NC1 at the infamous "s
te car dumping ground" dealer
Everything about it was right. The colour, the spec, the power hard top, manual, LSD, cloth interior, and something like 130,000km. I jumped at the chance to view it bright and early the next morning.
They had it parked out front and center, where it was catching some attention, paint shining in the sun. After a good look around, issues were coming to light. The term "polished turd" was coming to mind. The tires, although good Michelins, were about 10 years old and hard as plastic. The engine was weeping oil in a couple of places under all the dealer spec shiny slime, and there was an excessive amount of wear in the interior for the Ks; it was ageing worse than both my old one and the Turners one above, which both had over 200,000km on them.
I jumped in and took it for a drive anyway, as I can fix all of that, for a price. The drive showed me three things; I like NCs a lot. The thermostat was stuck open so it never came to temp, and the rear shocks were poked. The slightest bump would have the rear of the car slamming violently down onto its bump stops. Horrible. I had the same issue with my old NC, and spent a not-insignificant amount to fit a pair of new shocks to fix it.
Pulling back in, the salesman comes up, beeming, practically rubbing his hands together after running them through his slicked back hair. His face dropped when I said its got a couple of serious issues, the thermostat is stuck open, the rear shocks are stuffed and the tires are borderline dangerous, would he work with me on a better price? "The boss drills into us every Monday not to drop prices" is what I got told. They "might" take it to a workshop and have them "look" at the thermostat and shocks, but I wouldnt count on either of them being fixed properly, if they even acknowdleged there was an issue. It's no wonder they're (proudly) sitting on a massive inventory of cars that never seem to sell.
I decided to leave it at that point. The price was too high, they were asking a premium price for a car that needed some significant work. If they would've worked with me to drop the price a grand or two, it would probably be in my driveway.
After viewing the other hunks of junk in the mean time, I actually went back to the dealer the other weekend, a couple of weeks after first seeing the car, with the full intention of dropping the asking price on it and driving away as it is. This time it was in their shed, under the artificial lighting. The more I looked at it, the worse it looked. The paint was fading and peeling in places, and it just didnt have that shine from last time. With a heavy heart, I walked away again.
Now, there is one other car that fits the criteria almost to a T. The Toybaru twins; the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ. I had been writing these off as the prices were just too high. I couldn't justify dropping $16-17K on a high KM one. The autos were cheaper, but stuff that.
These guys have the concept right. Modern, light weight (just over 1200kg), RWD, Manual, and a responsive 2L flat four "Boxer" engine. They were a collaboration between Toyota and Subaru. Both cars share the same basic shell, driveline and interior, but the differnet brands gave them different faces and trim levels. The BRZ is generally considered a bit more upmarket than the 86.
So, the other day whilst flicking through Marketplace, wading through all the trash, I spot a new listing for a 2012 BRZ. Oh, it's manual. Price is pretty decent too; a bit lower than usual.
Within a couple of hours of it being listed, I had interrogated the seller, got sent a bunch more photos, and made a slightly silly offer, which had been accepted.
The seller was really upfront. It has 190,000km on the clock, so its lived a life and has some marks to tell it, but he sent me photos of every little mark inside and out. Anything I asked, he tried his best to answer.
A couple of days later, where I lived in a constant state of "he's going to sell it out from under me", he met me in the agreed town, about half way between where he and I lived. I look over it, take it for a quick drive, and deals done. We wait about... 2 hours for the bank to transfer the cash, and then we're off home.
Sitting waiting for funds to clear...
The two hour drive home was interesting. I quickly learnt the car had some flaws. The most obvious one was that the JDM stereo was still installed and I had no idea how to connect my phone to it. Que two hours of jamming to the Japanese pop music that I found stored on the headunit internal hard drive. I got a couple of interesting looks gound through the small towns, cranking that, arm out the open window...
The other big issue was the throttle response and clutch control was terrible. Taking off from intersections resulted in either bunnyhopping away, or nearly stalling it as the throttle did nothing. I got a bit more used to driving around it, but it wasnt that much fun.
I'm also forgetting that the car came fitted with a lovely sickly sweet air freshener in the cup holder, which got so strong and unpleasant I considered throwing it from the moving car to get rid of it, but in the end I handed it to someone to throw in the bin at the next stop.
Oh, and the last surprise was that the car has a pretty bad shake when travelling over 100kph. I'm hoping this is the mismatched cheap ditchfinders that are currently fitted.
Anyway, I made it safely home and although I was off to a bit of a rocky start to the relationship, I still enjoyed the drive back. It was a very pleasant car to drive.
If I were a Youtuber, I'd say something like - I BOUGHT THE CHEAPEST MANUAL BRZ IN THE COUNTRY. But I'm not, so... yeah, I did though.
It was fithly, but I couldnt help myself from stopping and grabbing some photos.
Being an S trim level, the highest in this model, I also ended up with some goodies like dual zone climate
and heated half leather seats
Along with red stitched leather padding around the place.
A previous owner had ticked a couple of boxes too, which left me with an STI skirt kit (except the front lip which has been replaced with a knockoff due to an incident with a possum), LED "dayliner" DRLs, the red STI start button and the previous owner added the rear spoiler with STI gurney flap.
Over all, its a stunningly good looking car. The World Rally Blue paint and STI skirts are what really tipped me over to buying this one. All the others that were on the market tend to be black, white or the odd red one. I'm also a fan of it being the Subaru variant as I feel its the most true to its heart; the boxer engine.
So yes, thats the new toy. I have a big list of things that need doing, and before doing any actual "upgrades" I really want to get on the track and get a baseline first, so I know what to improve on.
I knew the criteria. There were a few reasons to sell the Alto, and one of them was to experience a new platform on the track. I felt I had reached the limits of what that car could do without dumping a bunch of money into it for bigger turbos, new wheels and tires etc.
This meant I was looking to move away from FWD and get a RWD or AWD car. Being manual was non-negotiable. The other goal was to try and reduce the amount of money I had tied up in the Alto. That last one was actually much harder than I expected as all the "fun" cars had "fun" tax on them.
My options were really limited; An MX5, an Altezza or some sort of Subaru. Nothing else really fit the price range. So that's where I started.
In terms of Subarus, I tried to avoid pre-Y2K as older than that involves 6 monthly WOFs, and I can't be bothered with that, so that left with me Legacys or bug-eye onwards Impreza. Anything STI was out of the question, I couldn't afford that performance, but it still had to be a turbo. The options for WRXs were limited. There were a few bug and blob WRXs floating around for a good price, but they all carried huge Ks (usually around 300,000km) with questionable histories and modifications. I didn't want to buy a time bomb.
The uncertainty around these led me to look at the newer hatchback style Impreza, as they still came in turbo options, manual, AWD, and usually with lower Ks as they were newer.
My wife and I did a couple hour round trip to look at the first one. A black 2007 Impreza S-GT, the JDM narrow-body WRX.
It'd been for sale for a while, and the seller did advise that the last WOF had a note for underbody rust on the rear subframe, but otherwise the car was "all good". The rust wasn't too much of a worry as long as the rest of the body was solid, as I could wire brush and treat the subframe.
This car looked good from a distance, but as I walked toward it (from the rear), I immediately noticed really bad "orange peel" in the rear quarter panel. Being in the industry and having seen it all, this put me on alert straight away. The more I looked, the worse it was. Rust bubbling in the roof gutter at the rear, bad paintwork, rust starting on the boot floor where the rear panel had been cut off and replaced (along with a tell tail paint pen "cut" line). The seller told us "oh yeah it had a small nudge in traffic a couple of years ago". Yeah, his definition of "small nudge" might differ from mine, when it appears the whole rear end had been cut off and rebuilt. It probably would'nt be an issue for most people, but it would always bother me.
I took it for a quick drive anyway to see if it was worth the effort to fix it up, but although the 260hp and AWD felt nice, it just didnt really inspire me. The price was also too high cosidering the issues. I walked away.
Next was a New Zealand new version of the same car, a 2009 WRX, also in black. Long story short, this too had been in a rear shunt, with a misaligned tailgate, both rear quarters had been repainted, and there was a lovely patch of cracking bog above the rear wheel, with rust bleeding stains under it. I didn't even drive this one, I just thanked her for her time and left.
As a change of scenery, I had been watch a listing for a 1993 WRX "Version 1" but hadn't been able to get in touch with the seller before someone else bought it. This was an exception to the rule, I love these old GC8s but the prices are getting insane, so when it was relisted a little further up the coast for a similar price, I jumped to contact the seller.
Already alarm bells are ringing, why is he selling it so soon? He spun a story about needing the funds, but in truth I think he bought it without inspecting it and got stung and needed to offload it quickly.
One day after work I drove up the coast and went to view the car. I knew from the previous seller that there was some rust, and he had provided a couple of photos showing it was in the top of the front guard and in the rear door, both replacable panels, but he hadnt supplied photos of the rust in the boot he mentioned.
Viewing the car, the rust was far more extensive. In a quick look, I found a rust bubble in the front chassis rail, rust bubbling along the top edge of the rear guard, and worst of all, the seller pointed out the rust in the boot; basically the whole rain channel under the rear glass, on both sides where the hinges are, was made of bog. Cracking, badly painted and rusty bog. When I mentioned "heck, I didn't think it'd be that bad", the seller replied "neither did I". Ouch. I walked at that point, you'd need to either reshell that car, or gut it and spend months cutting all the rust out and rebuilding it.
The final Subaru I looked at was another NZDM WRX hatch, this time in silver.
Much to my surprise, this one had also been crashed. I knew it was rough, and had a couple of dings, but it was priced well, so I could've overlooked those, but this one had a new curveball, rust. It wasnt huge, but there were definitely rust bubbles down the LH A-Pillar by the glass, and at the top of the hatch opening where the hinges are that someone had tried to paint over. When asking about things like cambelt and service history I got a lot of blank looks, so that didn't bode well.
I took it for a quick drive to see how it went and it was fairly disappointing. The clutch feel was horrible, and the brakes had a massive shudder, so work was obviously needed in those places too.
I'm quickly finding out that these WRXs were often bought by families and are just "a car", with little care given to what they are or how to properly look after them. It's a shame.
So, whats next? The old Toyota Altezza was in the price range, and with 200hp on tap with a 6 speed manual and torsen LSD, they should be fairly fun. I've owned one before, and although it was a nice car to drive, it always felt a bit underpowered for the body, and wasnt that exciting. This lead me to consider a couple, but not bother looking at any.
Finally, it was MX5s. I looked at three. I'll start with the one I walked away from as soon as I started it up; an ND1.
It's a gorgeous car, and even the massive stupid wing didn't look too bad in photos (although in person it looked 100x bigger). This had some seriously questionable mods though, one of which was a painted on Union Jack on the soft top (why). The worst though was the exhaust, which I don't think had anything resembling a muffler. I got in, pressed the start button and was immediately greeted by the loudest car I have ever been in. My wife was standing just outside the open door, and I couldn't hear her talking to me over the exhaust.
That exhaust, and the fact that the car was so small and cramped for my rather generous frame, meant that I had to walk away.
That left me with a pair of NCs. I've also previously owned an NC, and really enjoyed it, so knew one would go well as a track car.
Turners Damaged Auctions was the location of the first one, an early NC1 RS soft top. It had high Ks, appeared to have been sitting outside for ages, had some cosmetic issues, but otherwise if it went cheap enough I was prepared to fix it up and thrash the pants off it. Even if the engine was bad, I had planned to 2.5 swap it.
I went and viewed the car, since by some miracle it was at the local yard
Externally, it didn't look too bad. The brown soft top needed some love, there was a ding in the RH rear arch, and the front bumper was... trash. The inside was pretty good too. Some wear, but with over 200,000km on it, it's to be expected. It also had a broken front quarter window.
The underside is where it got a bit iffy.
It all appeared to be surface rust, but there would be a few hours worth of work under there scrubbing it with a wire wheel and then treating and painting it.
The auction rolled around, and with a fixed price limit in my mind, I was ready to hit the bid button. The bidding started and ended about a grand higher than my limit, so it wasn't to be.
Interestingly about a week later it popped up on Facebook with a new reg and wof, a repainted front bumper, replaced window and dyed soft top for significantly more than he paid. Can't argue with the hustle, at least he did some work to fix it, but I can't help but wonder how much work he put into the underside, or if he just blasted paint right on over the rust.
Finally, the last NC I looked at was a PRHT NC1 at the infamous "s
te car dumping ground" dealerEverything about it was right. The colour, the spec, the power hard top, manual, LSD, cloth interior, and something like 130,000km. I jumped at the chance to view it bright and early the next morning.
They had it parked out front and center, where it was catching some attention, paint shining in the sun. After a good look around, issues were coming to light. The term "polished turd" was coming to mind. The tires, although good Michelins, were about 10 years old and hard as plastic. The engine was weeping oil in a couple of places under all the dealer spec shiny slime, and there was an excessive amount of wear in the interior for the Ks; it was ageing worse than both my old one and the Turners one above, which both had over 200,000km on them.
I jumped in and took it for a drive anyway, as I can fix all of that, for a price. The drive showed me three things; I like NCs a lot. The thermostat was stuck open so it never came to temp, and the rear shocks were poked. The slightest bump would have the rear of the car slamming violently down onto its bump stops. Horrible. I had the same issue with my old NC, and spent a not-insignificant amount to fit a pair of new shocks to fix it.
Pulling back in, the salesman comes up, beeming, practically rubbing his hands together after running them through his slicked back hair. His face dropped when I said its got a couple of serious issues, the thermostat is stuck open, the rear shocks are stuffed and the tires are borderline dangerous, would he work with me on a better price? "The boss drills into us every Monday not to drop prices" is what I got told. They "might" take it to a workshop and have them "look" at the thermostat and shocks, but I wouldnt count on either of them being fixed properly, if they even acknowdleged there was an issue. It's no wonder they're (proudly) sitting on a massive inventory of cars that never seem to sell.
I decided to leave it at that point. The price was too high, they were asking a premium price for a car that needed some significant work. If they would've worked with me to drop the price a grand or two, it would probably be in my driveway.
After viewing the other hunks of junk in the mean time, I actually went back to the dealer the other weekend, a couple of weeks after first seeing the car, with the full intention of dropping the asking price on it and driving away as it is. This time it was in their shed, under the artificial lighting. The more I looked at it, the worse it looked. The paint was fading and peeling in places, and it just didnt have that shine from last time. With a heavy heart, I walked away again.
Now, there is one other car that fits the criteria almost to a T. The Toybaru twins; the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ. I had been writing these off as the prices were just too high. I couldn't justify dropping $16-17K on a high KM one. The autos were cheaper, but stuff that.
These guys have the concept right. Modern, light weight (just over 1200kg), RWD, Manual, and a responsive 2L flat four "Boxer" engine. They were a collaboration between Toyota and Subaru. Both cars share the same basic shell, driveline and interior, but the differnet brands gave them different faces and trim levels. The BRZ is generally considered a bit more upmarket than the 86.
So, the other day whilst flicking through Marketplace, wading through all the trash, I spot a new listing for a 2012 BRZ. Oh, it's manual. Price is pretty decent too; a bit lower than usual.
Within a couple of hours of it being listed, I had interrogated the seller, got sent a bunch more photos, and made a slightly silly offer, which had been accepted.
The seller was really upfront. It has 190,000km on the clock, so its lived a life and has some marks to tell it, but he sent me photos of every little mark inside and out. Anything I asked, he tried his best to answer.
A couple of days later, where I lived in a constant state of "he's going to sell it out from under me", he met me in the agreed town, about half way between where he and I lived. I look over it, take it for a quick drive, and deals done. We wait about... 2 hours for the bank to transfer the cash, and then we're off home.
Sitting waiting for funds to clear...The two hour drive home was interesting. I quickly learnt the car had some flaws. The most obvious one was that the JDM stereo was still installed and I had no idea how to connect my phone to it. Que two hours of jamming to the Japanese pop music that I found stored on the headunit internal hard drive. I got a couple of interesting looks gound through the small towns, cranking that, arm out the open window...
The other big issue was the throttle response and clutch control was terrible. Taking off from intersections resulted in either bunnyhopping away, or nearly stalling it as the throttle did nothing. I got a bit more used to driving around it, but it wasnt that much fun.
I'm also forgetting that the car came fitted with a lovely sickly sweet air freshener in the cup holder, which got so strong and unpleasant I considered throwing it from the moving car to get rid of it, but in the end I handed it to someone to throw in the bin at the next stop.
Oh, and the last surprise was that the car has a pretty bad shake when travelling over 100kph. I'm hoping this is the mismatched cheap ditchfinders that are currently fitted.
Anyway, I made it safely home and although I was off to a bit of a rocky start to the relationship, I still enjoyed the drive back. It was a very pleasant car to drive.
If I were a Youtuber, I'd say something like - I BOUGHT THE CHEAPEST MANUAL BRZ IN THE COUNTRY. But I'm not, so... yeah, I did though.
It was fithly, but I couldnt help myself from stopping and grabbing some photos.
Being an S trim level, the highest in this model, I also ended up with some goodies like dual zone climate
and heated half leather seats
Along with red stitched leather padding around the place.
A previous owner had ticked a couple of boxes too, which left me with an STI skirt kit (except the front lip which has been replaced with a knockoff due to an incident with a possum), LED "dayliner" DRLs, the red STI start button and the previous owner added the rear spoiler with STI gurney flap.
Over all, its a stunningly good looking car. The World Rally Blue paint and STI skirts are what really tipped me over to buying this one. All the others that were on the market tend to be black, white or the odd red one. I'm also a fan of it being the Subaru variant as I feel its the most true to its heart; the boxer engine.
So yes, thats the new toy. I have a big list of things that need doing, and before doing any actual "upgrades" I really want to get on the track and get a baseline first, so I know what to improve on.
Edited by KelvinatorNZ on Friday 18th April 10:15
You are the complete opposite than me. I dive in head first with the first car I view.
The Subaru looks good. If its going to spend any time on track at all then make sure the pcv is working correctly and over fill the oil a small amount. If you change to track tyres I would highly recommend fitting a baffled sump. These have such a good chassis with sticky tyres you can starve the engine of oil.
The fa are better at scavenging the oil from around the crank and heads than the ej but its still an inherent issue with a boxer layout. Ultimate solution is dry sump but mega ££££.
The Subaru looks good. If its going to spend any time on track at all then make sure the pcv is working correctly and over fill the oil a small amount. If you change to track tyres I would highly recommend fitting a baffled sump. These have such a good chassis with sticky tyres you can starve the engine of oil.
The fa are better at scavenging the oil from around the crank and heads than the ej but its still an inherent issue with a boxer layout. Ultimate solution is dry sump but mega ££££.
Edited by sam.rog on Friday 18th April 10:29
sam.rog said:
You are the complete opposite than me. I dive in head first with the first car I view.
The Subaru looks good. If its going to spend any time on track at all then make sure the pcv is working correctly and over fill the oil a small amount. If you change to track tyres I would highly recommend fitting a baffled sump. These have such a good chassis with sticky tyres you can starve the engine of oil.
The fa are better at scavenging the oil from around the crank and heads than the ej but its still an inherent issue with a boxer layout. Ultimate solution is dry sump but mega ££££.
I used to jump head first into cars, but since being treated for ADHD it's really taken the edge off that impulsivity for me. I'm far more cautious now.The Subaru looks good. If its going to spend any time on track at all then make sure the pcv is working correctly and over fill the oil a small amount. If you change to track tyres I would highly recommend fitting a baffled sump. These have such a good chassis with sticky tyres you can starve the engine of oil.
The fa are better at scavenging the oil from around the crank and heads than the ej but its still an inherent issue with a boxer layout. Ultimate solution is dry sump but mega ££££.
Edited by sam.rog on Friday 18th April 10:29
Reading extensively seems to indicate that the FA20 in the Twins doesn't need a baffled sump (which doesn't seem to be a thing) and the baffle plates aren't needed either, with some people report other issues after fitting them. The PCV system is a good shout though, I'll grab a new valve in my next order.
Having arrived home with the new car the day before, I took no time at all to start ripping the car to bits.
The first thing to fix was going to be the head unit. I had previously purchased another of the cheap Android units from AliExpress, the same I had used in the Alto, in preparation to fit it in my next car, so once I bought the relevant wiring and fascia adaptors, I was ready to get stuck in.
I started by removing the surrounding trim, which came free by hand
Where I immediately came across my first problem. Being the stock head unit, it still had the stupid security screws fitted. As if anyone wants to steal a stock head unit that badly.
Nothing a garage full of tools can't fix though. A small bolt extractor was the perfect solution
Upon removing the unit, I was greeted by the obligatory JDM nest of wiring behind the head unit
It took a lot of work to unpick all the wiring and dump what wasn't needed
All the black wires with the square plugs are for various antennas around the car, which would require a lot more disassembly than I can be bothered with, so they were bundled up, taped up and zip tied out of the way. This left with me with the two main connectors, the FM antenna harness (with adaptor) and a 5 pin connector which has the reverse camera trigger on it.
As a side note, the wiring adaptor required is for a Toyota, showing the car's shared roots. In NZ it's an Aerpro APP0141
I also needed some little filler plates for either side, since the standard head unit is wider than a normal Din unit. These were Aerpro ATB2
Along with all the wiring for the head unit, there was also wiring for the ETC unit in the glove box, which all had to come out. This turned out to run all along the dash, to under the steering wheel
Where I also found this weird bundle of wires with heaps of unused bullet terminals
As it turns out, this is actually a genuine accessory. Part number H0077AL000 - Option Harness, which ties into the car harness and gives a bunch of "outs" to use for various things
It appears the DRLs tie into it, as does the ETC unit and reversing camera trigger. Very handy!
Anyway, back to the head unit. This is where it all started to turn a bit pear shaped.
The Android unit is very shallow, so the brackets need mounting holes quite far forward (an issue I had in the Alto), but putting the two side by side looked like I should be good
The filler plates needed some modifying to clear the mounting brackets. I had to cut a lot more out of these later on
A quick test fit in the surround. It's VERY tight, I suspect the Android unit might be a fraction taller than the Din standard.
I cut the ISO plugs off the adaptor harness, and wired it to the head unit wiring, ready for a test boot
Excellent, everything seemed to be working. So now it should just be as easy and screwing it in and pushing the surround on over it, right? No.
This part of the job took the longest. In the end I had to file the mounting holes on each bracket into slots, so I could lower the head unit down as it mounted too high and clashed with the dash, and finally it took me a while to realise the filler pieces needed to be moved backwards a hole, and can't mount flush with the unit otherwise they actually try to share space with the surround, which is no good. This took a horrible amount of test fitting, back and forth, to get it to fit right.
In the end though, it finally did
And the two reasons I wanted this unit, worked
The audio quality, like in the Alto, isn't great, but the original head unit didn't sound amazing either (clear, but lacking bass), so I'm not sure if that's just normal for these. At the end of the day, I just want background music for commuting. Most of the time when driving this, I'll want to be enjoying myself and concentrating. The main function is Waze and being able to use Torque Pro.
Speaking of Torque, one function that was missing from the Alto is present on the BRZ; engine oil temp. This isn't the final layout, but good for testing.
This has to be added with a custom PID in Torque, based on instructions in this thread here and using these settings
[QUOTE]
OBD2 Mode and PID: 2101
Minimum Value: -40
Maximum Value: 215 (this is just the maximum that this location can support, which does not mean the sensor can read that high)
Scale factor: x1
Unit type: C
Equation: AC-40 (no space between A and C; "AC" is the location within the response)
OBD Header: 7E0 (Auto also works, but seems to take longer)
[/QUOTE]
Seems to work well and responds as expected. I still really rate these little cheap head units. They're far from perfect, and if you're into good audio I wouldn't bother, but for the functions they offer, it's hard to beat.
One last little bit of work, while I was under the dash, was to fit my Pivot throttle controller. By some miracle, this car uses the Toyota harness, which I happened to have already since I last used this on the Yaris.
I disconnected the throttle pedal harness
and added the Pivot harness in line
I tapped into the option harness for switched power, connected the ground to a bolt, and job done.
The main reason to add this wasn't to improve throttle response, but to actually dull it down. This one does both Sport and Eco modes, and as I found out, turning it to Eco2 was enough to dull the pedal response and make the car more drivable. This was just masking an issue I would find the solution to later on.
The first thing to fix was going to be the head unit. I had previously purchased another of the cheap Android units from AliExpress, the same I had used in the Alto, in preparation to fit it in my next car, so once I bought the relevant wiring and fascia adaptors, I was ready to get stuck in.
I started by removing the surrounding trim, which came free by hand
Where I immediately came across my first problem. Being the stock head unit, it still had the stupid security screws fitted. As if anyone wants to steal a stock head unit that badly.
Nothing a garage full of tools can't fix though. A small bolt extractor was the perfect solution
Upon removing the unit, I was greeted by the obligatory JDM nest of wiring behind the head unit
It took a lot of work to unpick all the wiring and dump what wasn't needed
All the black wires with the square plugs are for various antennas around the car, which would require a lot more disassembly than I can be bothered with, so they were bundled up, taped up and zip tied out of the way. This left with me with the two main connectors, the FM antenna harness (with adaptor) and a 5 pin connector which has the reverse camera trigger on it.
As a side note, the wiring adaptor required is for a Toyota, showing the car's shared roots. In NZ it's an Aerpro APP0141
I also needed some little filler plates for either side, since the standard head unit is wider than a normal Din unit. These were Aerpro ATB2
Along with all the wiring for the head unit, there was also wiring for the ETC unit in the glove box, which all had to come out. This turned out to run all along the dash, to under the steering wheel
Where I also found this weird bundle of wires with heaps of unused bullet terminals
As it turns out, this is actually a genuine accessory. Part number H0077AL000 - Option Harness, which ties into the car harness and gives a bunch of "outs" to use for various things
It appears the DRLs tie into it, as does the ETC unit and reversing camera trigger. Very handy!
Anyway, back to the head unit. This is where it all started to turn a bit pear shaped.
The Android unit is very shallow, so the brackets need mounting holes quite far forward (an issue I had in the Alto), but putting the two side by side looked like I should be good
The filler plates needed some modifying to clear the mounting brackets. I had to cut a lot more out of these later on
A quick test fit in the surround. It's VERY tight, I suspect the Android unit might be a fraction taller than the Din standard.
I cut the ISO plugs off the adaptor harness, and wired it to the head unit wiring, ready for a test boot
Excellent, everything seemed to be working. So now it should just be as easy and screwing it in and pushing the surround on over it, right? No.
This part of the job took the longest. In the end I had to file the mounting holes on each bracket into slots, so I could lower the head unit down as it mounted too high and clashed with the dash, and finally it took me a while to realise the filler pieces needed to be moved backwards a hole, and can't mount flush with the unit otherwise they actually try to share space with the surround, which is no good. This took a horrible amount of test fitting, back and forth, to get it to fit right.
In the end though, it finally did
And the two reasons I wanted this unit, worked
The audio quality, like in the Alto, isn't great, but the original head unit didn't sound amazing either (clear, but lacking bass), so I'm not sure if that's just normal for these. At the end of the day, I just want background music for commuting. Most of the time when driving this, I'll want to be enjoying myself and concentrating. The main function is Waze and being able to use Torque Pro.
Speaking of Torque, one function that was missing from the Alto is present on the BRZ; engine oil temp. This isn't the final layout, but good for testing.
This has to be added with a custom PID in Torque, based on instructions in this thread here and using these settings
[QUOTE]
OBD2 Mode and PID: 2101
Minimum Value: -40
Maximum Value: 215 (this is just the maximum that this location can support, which does not mean the sensor can read that high)
Scale factor: x1
Unit type: C
Equation: AC-40 (no space between A and C; "AC" is the location within the response)
OBD Header: 7E0 (Auto also works, but seems to take longer)
[/QUOTE]
Seems to work well and responds as expected. I still really rate these little cheap head units. They're far from perfect, and if you're into good audio I wouldn't bother, but for the functions they offer, it's hard to beat.
One last little bit of work, while I was under the dash, was to fit my Pivot throttle controller. By some miracle, this car uses the Toyota harness, which I happened to have already since I last used this on the Yaris.
I disconnected the throttle pedal harness
and added the Pivot harness in line
I tapped into the option harness for switched power, connected the ground to a bolt, and job done.
The main reason to add this wasn't to improve throttle response, but to actually dull it down. This one does both Sport and Eco modes, and as I found out, turning it to Eco2 was enough to dull the pedal response and make the car more drivable. This was just masking an issue I would find the solution to later on.
Next on the list of things to quickly knock off, I wanted to install a proper gauge to measure oil pressure and temp.
I had planned to install a temp gauge in the Alto but never got around to it, so knowing that the BRZ would be seeing track time and I wanted to monitor it, I looked into my options.
I wanted something clean, simple and easy. The solution came in the form of an Saas Dual gauge
It's really designed for oil pressure and coolant temp, which is a weird combo, but there is no reason it should have issues reading oil temp. I ordered a gauge and a couple of adaptors to mount the sensors on the FA20.
The next question was how to mount it. I wanted it subtle, and not sticking up in a pillar mount or something. Searching around, I came across vent pods, which allow you to mount a gauge in the right-hand dash vent, which seemed like a nice tidy way to do it.
I found one on Thingiverse and tried to print it on my ancient old printer, which didn't go well. Thankfully, a friend has a much better printer and kindly ran one off his machine for me
I quite like this design as it still allows for airflow through the vent instead of completely blocking it.
To install it, the dash vent just pulls out. Stick your fingers in the vent and grabbing the outside edge, give it a sharp pull
As a small note, it fits back in with the large bit of the surround facing the cluster. I marked the top of mine to make it easier to refit without guessing which way it goes
Once removed and on the bench, the front ring just unclips
As does the retaining ring behind it
Now the vent flaps can be removed
The vent pod insert was a smidge too small on the outer diameter, so I wrapped some tape around it to make it a snug fit
I used some foam tape to pad the back of it out too
After a quick scuff with some scotchbrite to dull the gloss, I reassembled it all
Now for the less fun part, the wiring. I knew the under dash wiring would be easy, the option connector has everything I need, but getting the two sensor wires from the engine bay through the firewall was going to be a pain.
To power both the throttle controller and gauge from the option harness I needed to make a Y splitter, so I whipped one up
For the sensor wiring I chose to go through the main grommet, using the add-in tube thing
I snipped the plugged end off the tube above the main wiring harness
And using an old coat hanger, I fed the bundle of wires through
You'll want to use a zip tie to seal the tube around the wires once you're happy with their length.
I ran the wires to their relevant locations on the engine. I haven't received the adaptor for the temp sensor yet, so I have just bundled the wires up where they need to go, but I could fit the pressure sensor.
That big round plug is where the temp sensor will go once the adaptor arrives.
I'm going to tee into the factory pressure sensor here, on the front of the engine
To access this, I removed the intake pipe and air filter housing
A ton of room with that removed
I fit the adaptor and the two sensors
This location gives heaps of room to clear the air filter box. The wiring for the stock sensor sits well below it.
Before refitting the intake piping, I removed the four 10mm bolts from the throttle body, removed it and cleaned it. It was caked in black sludge. I wedged the throttle pedal down and used brake clean and a rag to thoroughly clean inside it.
With the intake reassembled, I moved to installing the gauge into the dash. I ran the wiring through the vent, plugged the gauge in and pushed it into place. There is a bump on the LH side of the ducting behind the vent, this gave me room to feed the wires out without cutting into the ducting.
I pressed the ignition button and it all lit up
A quick first start to make sure it all worked and check there were no leaks. Pretty good pressure when cold. Without the temp sensor, the digital readout just sits at zero.
Good oil pressure when warm too. This is at 89c oil temp
Once the temp sensor is fitted, I will rely more on the actual gauge rather than Torque, but it'll be interesting to compare the difference between the two.
Hopefully this will let me catch any potential oiling issues before they become a problem.
I had planned to install a temp gauge in the Alto but never got around to it, so knowing that the BRZ would be seeing track time and I wanted to monitor it, I looked into my options.
I wanted something clean, simple and easy. The solution came in the form of an Saas Dual gauge
It's really designed for oil pressure and coolant temp, which is a weird combo, but there is no reason it should have issues reading oil temp. I ordered a gauge and a couple of adaptors to mount the sensors on the FA20.
The next question was how to mount it. I wanted it subtle, and not sticking up in a pillar mount or something. Searching around, I came across vent pods, which allow you to mount a gauge in the right-hand dash vent, which seemed like a nice tidy way to do it.
I found one on Thingiverse and tried to print it on my ancient old printer, which didn't go well. Thankfully, a friend has a much better printer and kindly ran one off his machine for me
I quite like this design as it still allows for airflow through the vent instead of completely blocking it.
To install it, the dash vent just pulls out. Stick your fingers in the vent and grabbing the outside edge, give it a sharp pull
As a small note, it fits back in with the large bit of the surround facing the cluster. I marked the top of mine to make it easier to refit without guessing which way it goes
Once removed and on the bench, the front ring just unclips
As does the retaining ring behind it
Now the vent flaps can be removed
The vent pod insert was a smidge too small on the outer diameter, so I wrapped some tape around it to make it a snug fit
I used some foam tape to pad the back of it out too
After a quick scuff with some scotchbrite to dull the gloss, I reassembled it all
Now for the less fun part, the wiring. I knew the under dash wiring would be easy, the option connector has everything I need, but getting the two sensor wires from the engine bay through the firewall was going to be a pain.
To power both the throttle controller and gauge from the option harness I needed to make a Y splitter, so I whipped one up
For the sensor wiring I chose to go through the main grommet, using the add-in tube thing
I snipped the plugged end off the tube above the main wiring harness
And using an old coat hanger, I fed the bundle of wires through
You'll want to use a zip tie to seal the tube around the wires once you're happy with their length.
I ran the wires to their relevant locations on the engine. I haven't received the adaptor for the temp sensor yet, so I have just bundled the wires up where they need to go, but I could fit the pressure sensor.
That big round plug is where the temp sensor will go once the adaptor arrives.
I'm going to tee into the factory pressure sensor here, on the front of the engine
To access this, I removed the intake pipe and air filter housing
A ton of room with that removed
I fit the adaptor and the two sensors
This location gives heaps of room to clear the air filter box. The wiring for the stock sensor sits well below it.
Before refitting the intake piping, I removed the four 10mm bolts from the throttle body, removed it and cleaned it. It was caked in black sludge. I wedged the throttle pedal down and used brake clean and a rag to thoroughly clean inside it.
With the intake reassembled, I moved to installing the gauge into the dash. I ran the wiring through the vent, plugged the gauge in and pushed it into place. There is a bump on the LH side of the ducting behind the vent, this gave me room to feed the wires out without cutting into the ducting.
I pressed the ignition button and it all lit up
A quick first start to make sure it all worked and check there were no leaks. Pretty good pressure when cold. Without the temp sensor, the digital readout just sits at zero.
Good oil pressure when warm too. This is at 89c oil temp
Once the temp sensor is fitted, I will rely more on the actual gauge rather than Torque, but it'll be interesting to compare the difference between the two.
Hopefully this will let me catch any potential oiling issues before they become a problem.
The final lot of work in the week since I bought the car, was to sort out some shifting issues
Since I got the car, I had some drivability issues. I've previously mentioned the throttle and clutch response being an issue, but the gearbox also shifted pretty badly.
There is history of the gearbox having been rebuilt not long after the car was imported a few years ago, under warranty, due to a "whine in 3rd gear". I confirmed with the workshop that did it that yes, it's been rebuilt, but no they didn't retain any info on exactly what was done.
It's fine when driving, no whine now, but the shifting is pretty crap for a box that people rate quite highly. When cold it's very hard to shift, and when warm pretty much every gear is notchy to shift into, and often crunches. There is also a fair bit of play in the shifter when in gear.
After extensive reading, I concluded that the gearbox fluid needed to be changed, and I wanted to try the uprated shifter springs to see if they made an improvement. Other than money, I had nothing to lose trying this.
I ordered some uprated shifter springs and three bottles of the recommended Motul Gear 300 75W90 gearbox oil
The car went up on the Quickjacks, for my first look under it. Over all, it's very clean under there with minimal concerns. All the suspension bushes appear to be in serviceable condition.
I started with the shifter springs. To access the gearbox I removed the rear under tray (the black tray, not the silver one), which is secured with a whole lot of 10mm bolts
There are two springs, one either side of the gearbox
This one uses a 10mm hex. There is VERY little room to get this one out, so you will have to use a hex key, not a socket. I had to dig deep through my roll cab to find this as I normally use sockets or my big hex keys which had no chance of fitting.
The other is easier to access
Both were very tight. I guess when they were refitted after the rebuild, on the bench, they were done to FT (F'n Tight) instead of NM. They had also been refitted with good old grey RTV, which was a pain to clean off.
That second one uses a 27mm socket, and is a lot easier to access if you have a flex head ratchet. I had to use a cheater pipe to crack this one
Yay, sealant
Remove the springs (the one behind the 10mm plug may need a pick or magnet to slide it out) and replace them. Refit the plugs. There is a lot of talk online about cross threading the big one in the photo above, but just take your time to refit it by hand. Put some pressure on it, rotate it backwards a couple of times, and then it should wind right on in by hand with minimal effort.
I couldn't get the torque wrench onto the 10mm one, so did that up gutentight by hand, and used the torque wrench on the 27mm one.
With the springs replaced, I located the drain and fill plugs on the side of the gearbox
Which are both 10mm hex. I cracked the upper one and then removed the lower drain plug to release a torrent of thick and quite dark fluid. The level was right, and no chunks came out, but the fluid wasn't pretty. I cleaned the small amount of sludge off the drain plug magnet, replaced the crush washers on the plugs (18x24mm alu) and refit the drain plug.
I started to refill by using the nozzle on the bottle, but ended up sticking a pump in the bottle and pumping it in to the gearbox as it was quicker.
After about 2.2L went into the box, and it started to trickle out again, I refit the fill plug. A quick clean with brake clean, and we were done.
I refit the under tray, and lowered the car down.
Up top, I replaced the battery.
The sticker indicated that it had been replaced at 56,000km in 2017 (Heisei 29)
The cranking was quite slow, and I really didn't want to get stuck somewhere.
I whipped the old one out
And stuck a nice new one in. Shame to lose the cool blue Subaru battery though
Cranking is much faster and more powerful now.
While under the bonnet, I also enlisted the help of my wife to bleed the clutch. It's a weird system on this, where I couldn't one-man bleed it. If you push the pedal down with the bleeder open, it didn't push fluid out, you have to pump the pedal and hold it down with the bleeder closed and then open it to release the fluid. The pedal also gets stuck to the floor due to the helper spring. I definitely got some air through the hose, and the clutch does feel a bit less vague now.
So what's the verdict? Well, It's like a new, better, car. The throttle body clean I mentioned in my last post made a massive, completely unintentional, improvement. I can only presume the throttle plate was getting stuck closed and opened once a sufficient amount of angle/motor torque was dialled in by the pedal (usually around 15-20%), snapping it open. Now it opens straight off the pedal being pressed, and the response is significantly better. I no longer use the throttle controller to dull the pedal response, I may even start using sport mode.
Secondly, the gearbox fluid completely changed the feel of the box. No longer is it stiff and hard to get into gears, it's a lot smoother, but all the notchy and crunchy shifts have completely gone. It went from a gearbox I legit thought was on its last legs, to one that's pretty good to use. Not MX5 (or Alto) levels of accurate and smooth, but much better.
The shifter springs have also taken out a lot of the in-gear play in the shifter, which makes the selection of gears more accurate and it no longer sort of wobbles into gear, occasionally being blocked by the gate. There is still some play, but it's no longer an issue.
The combination of these fixes means I no longer bunny hop and jerk away from a stop, and it's made the whole driving experience much more enjoyable.
And finally, the last improvement until the next lot of parts arrive, new tires and an alignment.
I knew the rear tires were bad; the previous owner warned me one would need replacing for a WOF, and the other was new, but mismatched, from having a puncture. The fronts, appeared fine.
Knowing I was going to want to drive this car spiritedly, I ordered some Bridgestone RE003s, in the stock 215/45R17 size. I can now confirm you can fit a full set of four in the car.
Today, I dropped the car in for the tires to be swapped over and an alignment. I'll tell you what, I'm glad I did. First, the front tires were also trashed. They're cheap ditch finders, but it turns out the inside edge of both were chewed down to the secondary rubber, so they're no good. One rear was also worn down on the inside edge.
The fronts
One surprise to me with the old tires was how soft they are. After handling the RE003s which are quite a firm carcass, the cheapies have no structural integrity at all. The sidewalls squish under the weight of its own mass, and the belts in the tread just sink down if you apply any pressure.
The alignment explained it all though; the excessive wear, the weird tracking, and the shaking when driving. That's a heck of a lot of front toe. The RH front was 4mm toe out, and the LH front was 2.2mm toe in, basically driving like this / / but with one side pointing right almost twice as much as the other.
I could do with some front camber though...
Driving down the road now, I could immediately feel the car was smoother. I didn't realise it must have been shaking or something at lower speeds too, as it feels different even around 50kph. The steering is more responsive and no longer wanders down the road.
Of course, I had to break in the new tires, so a quick drive over a local hilly road was in order. Suddenly, after all this work, the car finally felt cohesive and like it was all working together, not trying to fight itself. It feels very good to drive now, and I'm finally bonding with it, instead of just liking it, seeing the potential in it, but being annoyed by how it feels.
I still need to clean it, but here are a couple of quick photos with the new rubber
Since I got the car, I had some drivability issues. I've previously mentioned the throttle and clutch response being an issue, but the gearbox also shifted pretty badly.
There is history of the gearbox having been rebuilt not long after the car was imported a few years ago, under warranty, due to a "whine in 3rd gear". I confirmed with the workshop that did it that yes, it's been rebuilt, but no they didn't retain any info on exactly what was done.
It's fine when driving, no whine now, but the shifting is pretty crap for a box that people rate quite highly. When cold it's very hard to shift, and when warm pretty much every gear is notchy to shift into, and often crunches. There is also a fair bit of play in the shifter when in gear.
After extensive reading, I concluded that the gearbox fluid needed to be changed, and I wanted to try the uprated shifter springs to see if they made an improvement. Other than money, I had nothing to lose trying this.
I ordered some uprated shifter springs and three bottles of the recommended Motul Gear 300 75W90 gearbox oil
The car went up on the Quickjacks, for my first look under it. Over all, it's very clean under there with minimal concerns. All the suspension bushes appear to be in serviceable condition.
I started with the shifter springs. To access the gearbox I removed the rear under tray (the black tray, not the silver one), which is secured with a whole lot of 10mm bolts
There are two springs, one either side of the gearbox
This one uses a 10mm hex. There is VERY little room to get this one out, so you will have to use a hex key, not a socket. I had to dig deep through my roll cab to find this as I normally use sockets or my big hex keys which had no chance of fitting.
The other is easier to access
Both were very tight. I guess when they were refitted after the rebuild, on the bench, they were done to FT (F'n Tight) instead of NM. They had also been refitted with good old grey RTV, which was a pain to clean off.
That second one uses a 27mm socket, and is a lot easier to access if you have a flex head ratchet. I had to use a cheater pipe to crack this one
Yay, sealant
Remove the springs (the one behind the 10mm plug may need a pick or magnet to slide it out) and replace them. Refit the plugs. There is a lot of talk online about cross threading the big one in the photo above, but just take your time to refit it by hand. Put some pressure on it, rotate it backwards a couple of times, and then it should wind right on in by hand with minimal effort.
I couldn't get the torque wrench onto the 10mm one, so did that up gutentight by hand, and used the torque wrench on the 27mm one.
With the springs replaced, I located the drain and fill plugs on the side of the gearbox
Which are both 10mm hex. I cracked the upper one and then removed the lower drain plug to release a torrent of thick and quite dark fluid. The level was right, and no chunks came out, but the fluid wasn't pretty. I cleaned the small amount of sludge off the drain plug magnet, replaced the crush washers on the plugs (18x24mm alu) and refit the drain plug.
I started to refill by using the nozzle on the bottle, but ended up sticking a pump in the bottle and pumping it in to the gearbox as it was quicker.
After about 2.2L went into the box, and it started to trickle out again, I refit the fill plug. A quick clean with brake clean, and we were done.
I refit the under tray, and lowered the car down.
Up top, I replaced the battery.
The sticker indicated that it had been replaced at 56,000km in 2017 (Heisei 29)
The cranking was quite slow, and I really didn't want to get stuck somewhere.
I whipped the old one out
And stuck a nice new one in. Shame to lose the cool blue Subaru battery though
Cranking is much faster and more powerful now.
While under the bonnet, I also enlisted the help of my wife to bleed the clutch. It's a weird system on this, where I couldn't one-man bleed it. If you push the pedal down with the bleeder open, it didn't push fluid out, you have to pump the pedal and hold it down with the bleeder closed and then open it to release the fluid. The pedal also gets stuck to the floor due to the helper spring. I definitely got some air through the hose, and the clutch does feel a bit less vague now.
So what's the verdict? Well, It's like a new, better, car. The throttle body clean I mentioned in my last post made a massive, completely unintentional, improvement. I can only presume the throttle plate was getting stuck closed and opened once a sufficient amount of angle/motor torque was dialled in by the pedal (usually around 15-20%), snapping it open. Now it opens straight off the pedal being pressed, and the response is significantly better. I no longer use the throttle controller to dull the pedal response, I may even start using sport mode.
Secondly, the gearbox fluid completely changed the feel of the box. No longer is it stiff and hard to get into gears, it's a lot smoother, but all the notchy and crunchy shifts have completely gone. It went from a gearbox I legit thought was on its last legs, to one that's pretty good to use. Not MX5 (or Alto) levels of accurate and smooth, but much better.
The shifter springs have also taken out a lot of the in-gear play in the shifter, which makes the selection of gears more accurate and it no longer sort of wobbles into gear, occasionally being blocked by the gate. There is still some play, but it's no longer an issue.
The combination of these fixes means I no longer bunny hop and jerk away from a stop, and it's made the whole driving experience much more enjoyable.
And finally, the last improvement until the next lot of parts arrive, new tires and an alignment.
I knew the rear tires were bad; the previous owner warned me one would need replacing for a WOF, and the other was new, but mismatched, from having a puncture. The fronts, appeared fine.
Knowing I was going to want to drive this car spiritedly, I ordered some Bridgestone RE003s, in the stock 215/45R17 size. I can now confirm you can fit a full set of four in the car.
Today, I dropped the car in for the tires to be swapped over and an alignment. I'll tell you what, I'm glad I did. First, the front tires were also trashed. They're cheap ditch finders, but it turns out the inside edge of both were chewed down to the secondary rubber, so they're no good. One rear was also worn down on the inside edge.
The frontsOne surprise to me with the old tires was how soft they are. After handling the RE003s which are quite a firm carcass, the cheapies have no structural integrity at all. The sidewalls squish under the weight of its own mass, and the belts in the tread just sink down if you apply any pressure.
The alignment explained it all though; the excessive wear, the weird tracking, and the shaking when driving. That's a heck of a lot of front toe. The RH front was 4mm toe out, and the LH front was 2.2mm toe in, basically driving like this / / but with one side pointing right almost twice as much as the other.
I could do with some front camber though...
Driving down the road now, I could immediately feel the car was smoother. I didn't realise it must have been shaking or something at lower speeds too, as it feels different even around 50kph. The steering is more responsive and no longer wanders down the road.
Of course, I had to break in the new tires, so a quick drive over a local hilly road was in order. Suddenly, after all this work, the car finally felt cohesive and like it was all working together, not trying to fight itself. It feels very good to drive now, and I'm finally bonding with it, instead of just liking it, seeing the potential in it, but being annoyed by how it feels.
I still need to clean it, but here are a couple of quick photos with the new rubber
Was that actually a stock head unit? Certainly in the UK the early GT86 had the generic touchscreen unbranded stereo that is fitted to the Auris, RAV4, Avensis etc. (Just had to replace my partner's in her Auris so I am clued up on these!). The BRZ had different units but not Panasonic that I have seen. Perhaps different in NZ/Japan?
Regardless of the above - you always know its a good day when you get a pic heavy post from Kelvinator!
Regardless of the above - you always know its a good day when you get a pic heavy post from Kelvinator!
Om said:
Was that actually a stock head unit? Certainly in the UK the early GT86 had the generic touchscreen unbranded stereo that is fitted to the Auris, RAV4, Avensis etc. (Just had to replace my partner's in her Auris so I am clued up on these!). The BRZ had different units but not Panasonic that I have seen. Perhaps different in NZ/Japan?
Regardless of the above - you always know its a good day when you get a pic heavy post from Kelvinator!
That Panasonic unit and the reversing camera were very expensive genuine accessories. It was a Japanese Domestic Market specific unitRegardless of the above - you always know its a good day when you get a pic heavy post from Kelvinator!
Om said:
Was that actually a stock head unit? Certainly in the UK the early GT86 had the generic touchscreen unbranded stereo that is fitted to the Auris, RAV4, Avensis etc. (Just had to replace my partner's in her Auris so I am clued up on these!). The BRZ had different units but not Panasonic that I have seen. Perhaps different in NZ/Japan?
Regardless of the above - you always know its a good day when you get a pic heavy post from Kelvinator!
The UK BRZs came with a generic Pioneer double din with associated fascia adapter. Regardless of the above - you always know its a good day when you get a pic heavy post from Kelvinator!
I assume they came from Japan with just a hole in the dash and the UK importers fitted the Pioneer once on UK soil.
We got rid of our GT86 last year and I miss it. For long motorway drives it wasn't great and the engine doesn't sound that good but the drive is great. Because they are so noisy and tinny inside the stereos are pretty poor. I upgraded the front speakers to Focals and it still didnt sound good, apparently the sound improves if you add some dynomat or the like but I never bothered. I didnt get ours on track but as long as its not a big power circuit you are on I'm sure it will be a hoot.
SamG40 said:
We got rid of our GT86 last year and I miss it. For long motorway drives it wasn't great and the engine doesn't sound that good but the drive is great. Because they are so noisy and tinny inside the stereos are pretty poor. I upgraded the front speakers to Focals and it still didnt sound good, apparently the sound improves if you add some dynomat or the like but I never bothered. I didnt get ours on track but as long as its not a big power circuit you are on I'm sure it will be a hoot.
Coming from the Alto, which was a tin box with no sound deadening and short gearing that means at 100kph it sits at 4000rpm, the BRZ is comparatively a pleasure on the open road. I'm quite liking the subtle rumble of the engine and dort through the sound pipe thingOne thing I have been chasing since getting this car is backlash and thumping from the rear diff when coming on and off throttle or changing gear; I finally sorted it.
Cleaning the throttle body and changing the gearbox oil had helped a lot in driving smoothly, but there was still what I would consider too much thumping and backlash in the driveline when coming on and off the throttle. Driving slowly in start stop traffic was pretty terrible.
To try and combat this, I ordered two sets of inserts from Whiteline; A gearbox mount insert and a rear diff mount insert kit.
I started with the gearbox mount insert. I was going to order an STI mount to replace the stock one, but decided on the Whiteline insert mostly based on cost.
There isn't much to it, it's literally a moulded piece of polyurethane that gets installed in the mount, to take up the voids in it.
The instructions call for completely removing the cross member and mount, but the internet said I could install it much easier with just some careful jiggery-pokery, and the internet is never wrong.
This guy here is what we are working with. The insert goes into the gap shown by the arrow, which allows the insert to take some of the weight/force, instead of just the two blocks of rubber either side of it.
I found since my mount has about 190,000km on it, it had compressed enough that I needed to jack the transmission up, this was done with a bottle jack and a couple of blocks. I did have to remove the rear black undertray to access the bottom of the transmission.
This is the only bolt you need to undo to fit the insert. It goes through the bottom of the mount, to the flat square block of metal in the above photo of the mount - Its kinda T shaped.
Once the nut is removed you should be able to push the whole bolt upwards by hand. This is how you slip the insert in. I jacked the transmission up until I had ample space in the mount
Thoroughly grease the insert with the supplied grease and then using one hand to hold the T bolt up and out of the gap in the mount, use your other hand to slide the insert into place.
Orientation of the mount is a little unclear, if the Whiteline wording should be visible from the front or rear, but as far as I can see it makes no difference, and I've seen others install it both ways. The instructions say to "slide the insert into the rear of the mount".
Slip the centre bolt down through the insert, lower the trans down, refit the nut and then torque it to 40NM. To stop the T of the bolt twisting, I jammed a flat blade screwdriver in between the metal and the side of the mount.
Job done. Quite easy to do when you don't need to drop the whole crossmember. I'm not sure why they say to.
While in the area, the next part to install was the FactionFab rear shift carrier bush. This is another polyurethane replacement.
It's a big, solid unit and comes with new bolts
The old mount is held in place with two bolts. To gain better access, since it's a bit limited up there, I removed the two bolts off the driveshaft hanger bearing, and let the shaft droop down.
This gained me just enough wiggle room to get a spanner up there and undo the bolts
Using two hands, one on either side of the mount, wiggle and pull it backwards to remove it. It's a tiny little thing compared to the replacement. The rubber is very soft.
Grease the spigot on the end of the carrier, and then wiggle and slide the new mount into place. Refit it with the two new bolts, bolt the driveshaft back in, and you're done.
The difference in these two changes was quite noticeable. More direct shifts, less play in the shifter, and much better feel. I think most of it was the mount insert, but the carrier bushing can't hurt to do.
Moving to the back of the car, I had high hopes for the rear diff inserts. These, like the gearbox insert, are designed to fill voids in the stock mounts and stiffen them up. The kit includes two inserts for the rear mounts, and two sets of inserts for the two front mounts.
These are the front mounts, bolted vertically up to the subframe
And the two rear mounts (foreshadowing...)
I started with the front mounts. Using a jack I took the weight of the front of the diff and removed the bolt from one side
The first part of the insert is a ring that slips over the top of the mount. Remove the metal cap sitting on top of the mount, pop it aside, and then offer up the ring. This needs to be worked slightly so that it hooks under the centre of the mount and wraps over the side. The ring is the shiny black part between the diff and subframe.
Don't forget to refit the metal cap on top, this kinda just sits there in place, on top of the ring.
Next is to fit the lower insert. This pushes into the centre of the mount and has two notches in it that locate on the protrusions in the bushing. The lower plate will locate in the bumps on the insert.
Rinse and repeat for the other side, and that's the two front mount inserts done.
Now, the rear. This is where it all turned pear shaped.
First, remove the rear swaybar D bush mount brackets so you can move the swaybar to get more room
This should give ample space for removing the bolts on the rear mounts. Do one mount at a time. I started with the RH one and soon found an issue. The bolt was really deeply recessed into the mount.
I removed it and noted how weird the mount looked. It wasn't what I was expecting.
There was zero chance that the insert would fit, the whole design and shape of the mount was wrong. Going by the paint pen X under it, I suspect the car failed compliance on a bad bush when it arrived in NZ, and to get it through the workshop fit whatever bush would fit the hole. It looks a bit like an IS200/300 bush from my googling, but definitely not the right one.
It should look something like this, on the right, fitted to the subframe
Anyway, the LH bush looked fine, so let's do that one. I removed the two bolts, greased the insert up and slipped it into place
The alloy plate goes on and the bolts refitted.
After torquing the bolts up, this is where I left it, since I couldn't do the other bush until I sorted a solution.
The solution ended up being me ordering a new genuine bush from Japan, knocking the incorrect bush out, and fitting the new one with the insert. Easy, right?
The bush arrived quickly, so the BRZ went up on axle stands
New genuine bush and correct bolt
The mount is vastly different from the currently fitted one
I knew I wasn't going to be able to get the new bush in with the muffler fitted, so that had to be removed first. The bolts were a bit crusty, but heating them up nice and hot with a heat gun, soaking them in CRC and then a couple of ugga duggas got them off without issue.
Unhooked from the hangers and removed. Tons of space now.
I removed the swaybar mount brackets again and removed the centre bolt from the bad bush. Classic Bunnings bolt, a little different from the correct genuine one.
I wound the new bolt into the diff, just to check the threads werent damaged.
All was good, so it was hammer time. I'll tell you what, spending about 1.5 hours under the car swinging a 1.5KG hammer upside down above your head with limited room, is probably one of the worst jobs I have done in a long time. My arms are killing me now.
I was using a combo of 1/2" extension bars (which will never be the same again) and a couple of long bolts, to hammer on the edge of the bush. There isnt a heck of a lot of room around the diff to access the bush.
After many whacks, the bush finally started to shift
The problem was that because I could only access one half of the bush, it kept trying to come out cocked on an angle and then getting bound up. To address this, I actually removed all but one of the bolts in the rear bush of the diff, which I loosened, and then lowered and shifted the diff across. This gave me more access to the other side of the bush.
With the extra access, I managed to get the bush out straight to a point where I couldn't drift it out any further due to the inwards facing flange on the subframe. The trick here was to move to the other side of the subframe and start hammering the bush sideways back and forth. A few good whacks and the bushing just fell out.
Comparing the two bushes, well, yeah. No wonder the diff banged around like it wasn't supported... it kinda wasn't; all the force would be acting like a big lever on the bush since it was only supported at the very outside edge of the bush. That bush couldn't have been doing anything once some torque was applied to the diff.
The correct bush supports the diff through the whole length of the bush.
Refitting, in comparison to removal, was very easy. I lined the bush up in the hole, with the locating arrows facing straight up and down, and then using a mallet knocked the bush home until the centre tube was touching the diff backplate. Using a ruler, I checked the bush was square in the subframe and tweaked as needed.
And now, I could finally install the Whiteline insert for that bush. What an ordeal.
Everything was torqued as per the Subaru manual
As a slight side note regarding the front inserts on the diff, I had heard these can introduce gear whine at certain speeds, and unfortunately I can confirm this was the case. Having them fitted introduced a noticeable gear meshing whine at a couple of different road speeds, mainly around 70KPH and 100KPH, which sucks, since that's where most of my commute usually is.
You would get used to it, but I hate noises like that, so opted to remove the two front mount inserts completely and only run the rear bush inserts.
The result is no more gear whine, but most of all, the thumping, banging and backlash from the rear diff is gone. Finally, everything seems to be connected together, and it's a lot easier to drive now. I can't be 100% sure what was the inserts and what was just having the correct bush fitted, since I never drove the car without the inserts and the good bush, but either way, I'm happy.
If they had just fit the correct bush in the first place, this job would've been done and dusted ages ago, but no, previous owners have been living with it like that and thought nothing of it.
As a little bonus, it would be rude to have the rear muffler removed and not start the car, right?
https://youtu.be/muTPg5DrieU?si=Se3ZqrzPj18L2FEV
Cleaning the throttle body and changing the gearbox oil had helped a lot in driving smoothly, but there was still what I would consider too much thumping and backlash in the driveline when coming on and off the throttle. Driving slowly in start stop traffic was pretty terrible.
To try and combat this, I ordered two sets of inserts from Whiteline; A gearbox mount insert and a rear diff mount insert kit.
I started with the gearbox mount insert. I was going to order an STI mount to replace the stock one, but decided on the Whiteline insert mostly based on cost.
There isn't much to it, it's literally a moulded piece of polyurethane that gets installed in the mount, to take up the voids in it.
The instructions call for completely removing the cross member and mount, but the internet said I could install it much easier with just some careful jiggery-pokery, and the internet is never wrong.
This guy here is what we are working with. The insert goes into the gap shown by the arrow, which allows the insert to take some of the weight/force, instead of just the two blocks of rubber either side of it.
I found since my mount has about 190,000km on it, it had compressed enough that I needed to jack the transmission up, this was done with a bottle jack and a couple of blocks. I did have to remove the rear black undertray to access the bottom of the transmission.
This is the only bolt you need to undo to fit the insert. It goes through the bottom of the mount, to the flat square block of metal in the above photo of the mount - Its kinda T shaped.
Once the nut is removed you should be able to push the whole bolt upwards by hand. This is how you slip the insert in. I jacked the transmission up until I had ample space in the mount
Thoroughly grease the insert with the supplied grease and then using one hand to hold the T bolt up and out of the gap in the mount, use your other hand to slide the insert into place.
Orientation of the mount is a little unclear, if the Whiteline wording should be visible from the front or rear, but as far as I can see it makes no difference, and I've seen others install it both ways. The instructions say to "slide the insert into the rear of the mount".
Slip the centre bolt down through the insert, lower the trans down, refit the nut and then torque it to 40NM. To stop the T of the bolt twisting, I jammed a flat blade screwdriver in between the metal and the side of the mount.
Job done. Quite easy to do when you don't need to drop the whole crossmember. I'm not sure why they say to.
While in the area, the next part to install was the FactionFab rear shift carrier bush. This is another polyurethane replacement.
It's a big, solid unit and comes with new bolts
The old mount is held in place with two bolts. To gain better access, since it's a bit limited up there, I removed the two bolts off the driveshaft hanger bearing, and let the shaft droop down.
This gained me just enough wiggle room to get a spanner up there and undo the bolts
Using two hands, one on either side of the mount, wiggle and pull it backwards to remove it. It's a tiny little thing compared to the replacement. The rubber is very soft.
Grease the spigot on the end of the carrier, and then wiggle and slide the new mount into place. Refit it with the two new bolts, bolt the driveshaft back in, and you're done.
The difference in these two changes was quite noticeable. More direct shifts, less play in the shifter, and much better feel. I think most of it was the mount insert, but the carrier bushing can't hurt to do.
Moving to the back of the car, I had high hopes for the rear diff inserts. These, like the gearbox insert, are designed to fill voids in the stock mounts and stiffen them up. The kit includes two inserts for the rear mounts, and two sets of inserts for the two front mounts.
These are the front mounts, bolted vertically up to the subframe
And the two rear mounts (foreshadowing...)
I started with the front mounts. Using a jack I took the weight of the front of the diff and removed the bolt from one side
The first part of the insert is a ring that slips over the top of the mount. Remove the metal cap sitting on top of the mount, pop it aside, and then offer up the ring. This needs to be worked slightly so that it hooks under the centre of the mount and wraps over the side. The ring is the shiny black part between the diff and subframe.
Don't forget to refit the metal cap on top, this kinda just sits there in place, on top of the ring.
Next is to fit the lower insert. This pushes into the centre of the mount and has two notches in it that locate on the protrusions in the bushing. The lower plate will locate in the bumps on the insert.
Rinse and repeat for the other side, and that's the two front mount inserts done.
Now, the rear. This is where it all turned pear shaped.
First, remove the rear swaybar D bush mount brackets so you can move the swaybar to get more room
This should give ample space for removing the bolts on the rear mounts. Do one mount at a time. I started with the RH one and soon found an issue. The bolt was really deeply recessed into the mount.
I removed it and noted how weird the mount looked. It wasn't what I was expecting.
There was zero chance that the insert would fit, the whole design and shape of the mount was wrong. Going by the paint pen X under it, I suspect the car failed compliance on a bad bush when it arrived in NZ, and to get it through the workshop fit whatever bush would fit the hole. It looks a bit like an IS200/300 bush from my googling, but definitely not the right one.
It should look something like this, on the right, fitted to the subframe
Anyway, the LH bush looked fine, so let's do that one. I removed the two bolts, greased the insert up and slipped it into place
The alloy plate goes on and the bolts refitted.
After torquing the bolts up, this is where I left it, since I couldn't do the other bush until I sorted a solution.
The solution ended up being me ordering a new genuine bush from Japan, knocking the incorrect bush out, and fitting the new one with the insert. Easy, right?
The bush arrived quickly, so the BRZ went up on axle stands
New genuine bush and correct bolt
The mount is vastly different from the currently fitted one
I knew I wasn't going to be able to get the new bush in with the muffler fitted, so that had to be removed first. The bolts were a bit crusty, but heating them up nice and hot with a heat gun, soaking them in CRC and then a couple of ugga duggas got them off without issue.
Unhooked from the hangers and removed. Tons of space now.
I removed the swaybar mount brackets again and removed the centre bolt from the bad bush. Classic Bunnings bolt, a little different from the correct genuine one.
I wound the new bolt into the diff, just to check the threads werent damaged.
All was good, so it was hammer time. I'll tell you what, spending about 1.5 hours under the car swinging a 1.5KG hammer upside down above your head with limited room, is probably one of the worst jobs I have done in a long time. My arms are killing me now.
I was using a combo of 1/2" extension bars (which will never be the same again) and a couple of long bolts, to hammer on the edge of the bush. There isnt a heck of a lot of room around the diff to access the bush.
After many whacks, the bush finally started to shift
The problem was that because I could only access one half of the bush, it kept trying to come out cocked on an angle and then getting bound up. To address this, I actually removed all but one of the bolts in the rear bush of the diff, which I loosened, and then lowered and shifted the diff across. This gave me more access to the other side of the bush.
With the extra access, I managed to get the bush out straight to a point where I couldn't drift it out any further due to the inwards facing flange on the subframe. The trick here was to move to the other side of the subframe and start hammering the bush sideways back and forth. A few good whacks and the bushing just fell out.
Comparing the two bushes, well, yeah. No wonder the diff banged around like it wasn't supported... it kinda wasn't; all the force would be acting like a big lever on the bush since it was only supported at the very outside edge of the bush. That bush couldn't have been doing anything once some torque was applied to the diff.
The correct bush supports the diff through the whole length of the bush.
Refitting, in comparison to removal, was very easy. I lined the bush up in the hole, with the locating arrows facing straight up and down, and then using a mallet knocked the bush home until the centre tube was touching the diff backplate. Using a ruler, I checked the bush was square in the subframe and tweaked as needed.
And now, I could finally install the Whiteline insert for that bush. What an ordeal.
Everything was torqued as per the Subaru manual
As a slight side note regarding the front inserts on the diff, I had heard these can introduce gear whine at certain speeds, and unfortunately I can confirm this was the case. Having them fitted introduced a noticeable gear meshing whine at a couple of different road speeds, mainly around 70KPH and 100KPH, which sucks, since that's where most of my commute usually is.
You would get used to it, but I hate noises like that, so opted to remove the two front mount inserts completely and only run the rear bush inserts.
The result is no more gear whine, but most of all, the thumping, banging and backlash from the rear diff is gone. Finally, everything seems to be connected together, and it's a lot easier to drive now. I can't be 100% sure what was the inserts and what was just having the correct bush fitted, since I never drove the car without the inserts and the good bush, but either way, I'm happy.
If they had just fit the correct bush in the first place, this job would've been done and dusted ages ago, but no, previous owners have been living with it like that and thought nothing of it.
As a little bonus, it would be rude to have the rear muffler removed and not start the car, right?
https://youtu.be/muTPg5DrieU?si=Se3ZqrzPj18L2FEV
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff