fmj

Cheers guys

Here is a picture heavy result!

Rear:

Front:

You will notice that some of the bolts in the pics have plastic caps on them and some don't. After taking those pics I did finish fitting caps to all the bolt heads hopefully to stop corrosion, making things easier next time I take it appart!

All in all things went pretty smoothly. The project did take me twice as long as I had originally planned and I did have to go to A&E due to a red hot piece of metal sticking to my eyeball (yes I was wearing goggles but the little **** some how blew around them and into my eye!).

The result was a car that sat about 15-20mm lower and looks far more balanced. The car feels far more planted and just grips and grips. After fitting all of this I took a run up to Powerstation who did a full laser allignment and checked everything over. The ride is more firm and things do rattle around a little more but that is to be expected when fitting harder springs and poly bushes. High speed stability is definately better! I am very happy with the car and now have a new sump (too much rust on the current one) and an STI6 Carbon Fibre spoiler to fit. So stay tuned for threads about those bits in the near future.

Wow, never thought I would receive so much negativity on this forum. Thank god it's only from one member! I am not instructing people here. I put this thread together because a lack of new stuff on these forums leads to people going elsewhere. I like to try and do my bit to contribute to the forum and if somebody can use one of the pics or posts I put up as a reference or to see a part of the car before they attempt something then hopefully it will help them. The Undershield was done back in October so it was actually quite mild and it hadn't rained for weeks so the underside was very dry. As I have said. I had a limited time window and I wanted to get this done. I could have waited until the height of summer but I would probably need the car then not to mention other factors that would have stopped me from getting this done.

If you don't think I tried cleaning the bolt with a wire brush, glass paper, dremmel etc before removing it then that may be because I didn't write that I did. I tried these things, they didn't work. I am sure you could have done it and next time I will give you a PM and ask you to come and do it for me.

Epic? No? So this is an easy task for somebody with no mechanical background and no garage facilities? I know everbody who saw me doing it or asked about it thought it was a pretty big undertaking as well as Powerstation when I told them I had just done it all on the drive.

Yes I am using Eibach lowering springs.

If you think that dropping the tank and subframe is routine maintenence then I guess there are a lot of lazy forum members on here because I doubt many do this.

To those who are still reading thank you for the support and I will finish this off with the after pics in the next few days .

Ive removed rear hub bolts off 1800 gl beaters intact.

Just realised you were reffering to the stuck lateral link to hub bolts.

I don't know how you could physically remove these the way they were seized. Even a 5 foot extention wouldn't budge them. Didn't really have the time to arse around any more and I wanted to use new ones anyway (the originals were pitted and rusted) so my method worked just fine .

Yip he seems to have good intentions but not really going about it the way i would.

Fmj, why didnt you drop subframe and tank whilst at it, opportunity mist imho? Secondly waxoyl is intended for interior cavities etc and wont last even a year in wheel arches. Areas that are subjected to impact require underseal, stonechip gaurd or epoxy.

Ive removed rear hub bolts off 1800 gl beaters intact.

Yeah arches are undershielded and then waxoyled to cover bits I couldn't get to As for the subframe. Yeah Ideally I would have but you can go on forever until you have nothing left but the shell. I am doing this to my daily driver, on a driveway, outside, in the winter, with fairly basic tools, on my own, with just knowledge learnt from DIY and the net. I did this whole project in free time after work and on days off over a three week period with a dead line for wedding I had to drive to. So I was limited on cost, location/facilities, time, ability. If I did the subframe then I would want to source a spare which I would then powder coat, all new bolts and mounts which would cost £100's more no doubt. Maybe next time I will do that but this will do for now .

As for the bolts... I don't think you realise how crap these were. They are small (m6 I think) bolts that have been heated and coroded for 12 years. You could round them off with your fingers they are that brittle. Any attempt to use the head of the bolt to turn it resulted in rust dust and no movment. Even taking the heads off the bolts the parts were still rusted together. Beleive me these were fooked.

While doing all this I found that my offside rocker cover was leaking and the lower weld of my stainless up-pipe was cracked about 80% of the circumference. GREAT.

I duly removed the turbo heat shield and then started to realise what a bitch of the job the up-pipe was. I quite easily removed the downpipe which was a shock and then undid the up-pipe to turbo bolts.

Then I moved to the lower bolts but decided it would be easier to do without the heat shield. The problem with this was that every time i touched a bolt the head would fall apart leaving a very strong fixing with nothing for a socket to grip! I got very angry and drilled, cut, beat and twisted the sheild off. I was so pissed off with the shield being a rusty piece of sh*t that I removed the whole lot and ordered some wrap.

VICTORY!!!!

Little did I realise you can't get the up-pipe off the car once its unbolted! You have to remove the engine mount bolts and jack the engine via the sump until you get enough clearence to slide the pipe out. I couldn't get enough height with the nuts left on so I had to remove them and then of course the engine moved out of the mounts which took a lot of effort to get back into place.

Of course it had the last laugh as while a pulled it off I knocked the rad drain plug which then wouldn't reseal! So the next job was to drain the coolant. Reseal the plug with a bit of 3 bond and then refil.

New pipe wrapped:

I then refitted it and wrapped the manifold in the same way with stainless ties.

I was getting so pissed off with extra jobs by this point this is the only picture I took of the rocker gasket fix. Here it is all finished:

Surfice to say its a pain in the ass.

So onto the front of the car!

Front wishbone, tie rod, ball joint removed:

Next the strut:

Removed :

Old strut and all the parts to build the new one:

New vs Old:

Shiney new track rod fitted to steering rack:

Booted:

Track rod end fitted, thread coper slipped and a bike inner tube fitted as a sleeve to stop the thread from rusting!

Fitted to hub:

New ball joint seated:

New wishbone with ALK and new bushes:

No, bought and lightened

I thought the RCM ones were for the STi? Might look into one myself now the clutch is starting to show its age

I think there is a 5 and 6 speed version. But the super lightweight is a lot more money for only a bit less weight then the light weight. Whereas the lightweight is half the weight of the OE.

IIRC the WRX flywheel is of comparative weight to the stock n/a flywheels. You should me able to get another and get it lightened under £300 - makes a huge difference.

Used to have one fitted to mine but after the ex was stalling it at nearly every junction, I switched back to standard.

Lightened for £300? You could get a nice shiney new lightweight one for that. I would go for a Roger Clarke one personally. I have the normal light wieght one rather then the super light weight and its about half the weight of the OE part. More revy and does not stall easily at all.

just happened to be reading the haynes US forester/legacy manual the other night and it seems you can loosen relevant bits off and then lift engine 2 inches up with a hoist to get sump clear of subframe to remove some sump bolts- so not quite engine out, but still a pretty big job. expect very similar with wrx, pity cos new sumps are relatively cheap at import car parts.

I just did my oil change with the intention of cleaning the rust off of mine afterwards so I could undershield it... Found that it was too late and two pin hole type rust spots were slowly letting oil seep out! So my advice is don't ignore it!

I have a sump on order and will be fitting it soon so I will do a guide if I manage to do it myself.

I wish I had noticed BEFORE I put new oil in!

These new MOT changes have already been posted mate and to be honest don't seem half as scary as they look when they were explain by a few people on here who understand them.

New trailing arms assembled with new stainless bolts and Poly bushes:

Trailing arm bush fitted into lower rear hub. I used a g clamp and piece of wood to get this one in and as usual it wasn't easy!

Rear lateral link arm fitted.

Both arms fitted remember if you cant get the bolt in the chassis end jack the hub to raise the drive shaft.

A moment of looking at what I had done so far and wishing that the weather was better, that I had a double garage and that it wasn't getting dark so early!

After doing all this I unbolted the strut. The top is a bit of a bitch at the rear as you have to remove the rear seats and there isn't much room at the top. Removing the seat belt reel is a must to get to the top mount bolts. Another thing you have to do before pulling the strut is to remove the brake line from the bracket that is attached to the strut body. To do this VERY carefully cut a small slit in the brack so you can bend it open to remove the line. DONT CUT YOUR BRAKE LINE! The proper way to do it would be to remove the brake line.... stupid design!

Anyway with the strut removed and mountains of 11 year old dust brushed out of the rear arch. I attacked any rust with vairous products and fillers until it was all clean. Then I masked everything off and applied the waxoyl.

Waxoyl done and masking removed.

New rear strut assembled:

New top nut

New Subaru top mount

New spring seat

New rubber upper spring seat

New dust boot

New bump stop/helper

Eibach Spring

Lower rubber spring seat

KYB Damper

It is important to ensure that all parts are fitted the right way around with the spring ends sat in the right parts of the seats. You also have to keep an eye on the rubber seats as they can twist as you remove the spring compressors. When you first sit the compresses springs on the lower seat it will look wrong. But as you loosen the compressors you will see the spring fit into the correct allignment.

Old V New

Strut fitted:

Having completed my epic suspension upgrade (every sinlge nut, bolt, bush and component) last year. I am now waiting for a carbon fibre STI 6 spoiler for my classic to replace the GRP version which has cracked paint and rusty water dripping out of it from shitty cheap screws used inside where it fills with water.... I do find myself constantly spending money replacing things that ought not to need replacing!

The next plan is a big brake kit and then a semi clossed deck forged bottom end with a bigger turbo, braded fuel lines and 740 injectors.

P.s. ref the rust if its anything like mine you need to look right up inside the arch where the strut is mounted to the chassis. You will probably find the outer side is completely made of rust causing water to get inside the arch and run down behind the outer arch pannel cuasing more rust there.

Considering buying a freshly imported classic v4 or 5 type R,thinking right or wrong this would be better? seems that most cars for sale in uk have been modified and had an engine rebuild(thinking of perhaps just an exhaust for the time being condidering insurance quotes!!)what sort of mileage should a un-modified engine do? Have budget of around 6k. also having trouble finding an insurance company that can give me a sensible quote! full licence 30yrs, no accidents or convictions, transfered car policy to insure a van for work 10yrs ago, now they wont recognise this for ncb and so have to start from scratch!! any recommendations appriciated.

Sounds like a plan! You should get a fairly decent one for £6,000 but you need to find a good importer. Obviously it will need the various conversion bits sorted and they are mapped for Jap fuel so you will need to remap for a proper fix or run high octane fuel (possibly with an octane booster) but somebody will confirm this. The fact it's an import will bump up the insurance. For a similar UK model a P1 would be almost as good but you may struggle to find a good one for that money.

Need to be 63 with 20 years plus NCD! I pay £308 for our WRX PPP and the insurers are aware of Prodrive extras and other minor mods...

I'm fairly confident that by the time this guy is 63 there will be no scoobies left and the few that are won't be able to be used as we will all have to drive eco boxes.

I know that quite a lot of people get sport versions and put turbo spoilers and bonnets on for the look. With a better exhaust system it will still sound quite nice as you still have a flat four. As has been said mate try a few qoutes online, (you will have to make up your age and the policy start date as they won't qoute that far in advance). As I said before if you do this you will spend a lot of money keeping it going and it will take a lot longer to save up for a turbo model but its up to you .

Hi mate, I grew up watching McRae and Burns in the 97-00 WRC cars and wanted one then however I was only 13-16 at the time. As soon as a looked at insurance when I got my license at 18 I knew it was out of the question to start with. I got a 1.8 16v Peugeot 306 in the end as it was the only small normal car I liked the look of and it was quite quick (not compared to a scooby). I paid through the nose insuring it which cost me well over £1000 for a car that cost me £3000 to buy. I then spent the next year and a half modifying it with all the usual bits, stainless exhuast, better brakes, induction, subtle body kit parts, lowered, alloys etc. I spent £1000's which then put the insurance up to about £1600.

Then a complete knob drove into the back of me and wrote it off.

By that time I was 21 and had a choice. Get another normal car and waste loads of money modding it again (I knew I wouldn't be able to leave anything as standard) or jump into a scooby. I spent £6250 on a UK Turbo and then a whacking £2100 on my first years insurance with 1 Years NCB and no convictions.

I still have the scooby now and i'm 27. I have spent £1000's on mods and the insurance has dropped to about £800.

To be honest insurance has gotten so silly now I really don't think you will insure a turbo model at 17 unless you have many many £1000's to throw away. You could get a non turbo but don't think about modding it to be a turbo as is really isn't worth doing and will cost more in the long run. The proplem with getting a non turbo scooby is that compared to other small typical first cars it will still cost an arm and a leg to run. This will mean you have less money to save for a turbo model. The sensible thing would be to get something cheap and leave it alone. Save for a couple of years and then splash out on the car you really want when you have the money to afford it as well as its upkeep. This would be the sensible thing but I know that in your position it is difficult to wait and get something dull for the time being.

Work on the rear starts:

Rear ARB and Droplinks removed:

Pic showing strut to hub bolts cracked off, abs sensor wire and bracket undone and caliper unbolted and suspended from Arb mount.

The other side of the strut to hub bolts. I put a spanner on this side and used the impact gun on the bolt side.

Removing the lateral link arms was.... interesting! Luckily Subaru had a bit of a clever idea here. The bolt and nut for the front lateral link you can see here are obstructed by the driveshaft one side and the fuel tank the other. So you cant get the impact gun on. Luckily the nut side has been covered with a rubber cap that stops corrosion so you can easily use a spanner to undo the nut. Also worth mentioning that with the hubs hanging down the bolt won;t come out as it will hit the driveshaft. If you jack the hub up the driveshaft lifts out of the way and with some wiggling you can get the bolt out.

Now a bit of a snag. There is a very long bolt that runs through the outer ends of both lateral links and through the hub. There is then a nut on the end. Now with a bit of effort the nut came off. However the bolt had seized itself inside the steel bushing tube of the front link arm. So the bolt would not slide out. I tried everything including hitting it with hammers, mallets etc. Using the impact gun to try and free it up, extension bar etc.... nothing worked.

So in my anger I cut the bolt head off of the rear end and swore at it.

Luckily the rear lateral link arm bush wasn't seized like the front one and with no bolt head in the way it came off with a bit of pulling.

Leaving something that I could hit with a hammer!

This is what slide out the other side after a bit of whacking. It really has seized completely and no matter how hard I tried it won't come out! The other side was the same.

A pic with both link arms removed A word of warning the bolt that holds the rear lateral link arm to the subfarme is a cam adjustment bolt. Make sure to undo the nut end and keep the bolt head still. If you undo it the other way the cam wiill spin and bend the bracket it fits in. Again some drive shaft lifting via hub jacking may be needed.

I didn't take any pictures of the trailing arm removal but its as easy as undoing the three bolts that hold it to the chassis and the one bolt that holds it to the hub. All removed.... Now focusing on that old bush in the bottom of the hub.

Using a puller as pusher to get it out. It put up a bit of a fight.

With that out I then cleaned up the hole with the dremel as well as the long bolt hole in the hub and all bolt mounting points on the subframe and chassis.

If you are looking for a good shock at a good price try KYB. They are OE spec and actually used by Subaru. Camskill have good prices on them.

Fitting the new Poly Bushes to the rear lateral link arms. These were far more difficult then I thought they would be! The instructions say "Inset bush and then insert tube". By "Insert" they must mean force with all your might! In the end I applied loads of grease and used a black and decker vice/workbench to squeeze the tubes into the bushes. I tried heating the bushes in hot water as suggested to soften them but this had no effect at all. Photos are shown below:

First part of the bush is pushed in by hand:

Then I tried to push the rest in by hand which was impossible as they were so hard to squeeze in. Then I tried forceing them in by clamping them in the work bench but they kept popping out rather then seating.

The method that worked was to use a BLUNT screwdriver to get the last part in. Then finally clamp the bush in the bench to push it through.

Then fitting the tubes with the bench method:

To get the last part in (as they sit slightly below the surface) I used a socket to press them in.

Then I found that one tube and one washer (used later) were missing from the kit! Luckily CamSkill are brilliant in the customer service department. Despite the fact I had brought the kit almost a year ago they still sent the missing parts to me. This went missing in the post so they then sent me the rest of the kit they had opened and let me return what I didn't need. Now THATS customer service!

The trailing arm and front wishbone bushes were fitted in much the same way.

Wanted to share a good experience and to ask if anyone has had similar fun!

Had reason to travel to Nottingham earlier this week and parked in a multi story when I was there (Union Road I believe). Being a big fan of the noise from the exhaust especially at low speeds, found the acoustics in this place amazing and for a short period the car sounded fantastic from my slow trundle around the place, it was almost a shame to find a free space..

Being from a very flat part of the world (Lincolnshire) wondered if any of you fellow drivers have found similar places where it's a pleasure to wind the windows down! Or is it just me being over excitable with the car being relatively new to me.

Lol it's great until you start setting car alarms off... I set three off in a row once.

Um I can hit 68mph in my classic Uk turbo in second. Thats just below the red and as standard.

Rough guess of 5-5.5s.

P1 is reported as 4.6s with 276bhp and is lighter than the std uk turbo which takes 6ish.

But P1 has different gear ratios.... Best bet is to try it. Just once shouldn't do too much damage . V

Ok so it's been a while.... and I have updates and pics to tell the story. First here is how the underside looked before the upgrade.

The rear:

You will see that I had already fitted the Whiteline Drop Links on a previous occassion.

The rust seen in these pics is actually nowhere near as bad as it looks. For some reason the camera flash really brings it out! It's all surface to be honest and can be rubbed off with a bit of elbow grease.

The Front:

You can see that I had already removed that front Anti Roll Bar and Drop links before I remembered to take these pics! To remove the bars or drop links you need the cars weight on it's wheels. I.e on ramps or a pit NOT a jack. The removal of the drop links was easy as they were fitted with new bolts less then a year ago and well greased. The ARB brackets were fairly easy to undo too considering they had been subjected to 11 years of rust and never undone! I strongly recomend a good set of six sided sockets here and for all rusted bolts/nuts as they don't round bolt heads off like the more common multi point sockets. I actually use a Halfords Professional Impact socket set for this as they are six sided and hard as hell. They only downside is they are bulky and sometimes too big to fit in smaller spaces.

Before going any further I soaked all bolts/nuts with penetrating oil and left it to work for a few hours. I don't know if this worked but it was worth a go as I had some laying around.

Stay tunned.

I had my car mapped on V Power. So if i were to use lower octane fuel in it then I might encounter det (very bad). Other fuels of the same octane rating should be ok but I don't risk it. PS make sure you have the type of fuel you will normally use in the tank when you go for your remap. The better the fuel the more power the mapper will be able to squeeze out. Just remember you are then limited on your fuel choice to those of the same or higher octane rating.