Thumper's Ride...
 

Well, since it looks like I'll be sticking with the SVX for a little longer (indefinitely?), I figured I'd start writing my experiences down. This is a journey about bringing my car back up to specs and driving her. Note at this point that she's been sitting over a year and has moved a total of 66 miles during that time. Most of that... well, a few small runs to keep her "out and about", and once to get gasoline. During her slumber she was woken once a month for about half an hour, just to run up to temperature.

So I tried to sell it. I tried... but for various reasons ended up unable to. So I decided that I'm going to drive her again, if only for a while. I'll see how things work out... I'll see if I continue to keep her or if I decide again to sell.

So today... day 1. This is the day I committed myself to my new course of action. I started my day calling around a few shops to get quotes on wheel bearing replacement. The best quote I got was actually from Sears Tire and Auto. $248 and change... and yes, I made sure I tested the guy on the phone regarding the packing grease. He succeeded :) So my car's scheduled for that, a wheel balance and an oil change on Saturday morning at 8am.

Next phone call; my insurance agent. He was quite surprised to hear that I was re-adding a car to my policy that I'd dropped over a year ago. He commented that's quite unusual; people usually only add new vehicles, rarely do they re-add old ones. Still, we got it added with minimal fuss. No comprehensive coverage though; my feeling is that the car's worth such a small amount on the open market that a relatively minor accident will total it. As a result, liability only. The cost? Not insignificant... but not bad either.

Finally, I got on subaruparts.com and ordered the sensor that's gone bad in the engine compartment. $168 plus $20 shipping. Oooh... that sucks... but it's got to be done.

So here we go... a few hundred bucks down on where I really wanted to be... but hopefully looking at making my SVX a roadworthy example again. I'll post an update when I have more to say.

Hope you enjoyed the ramble :)

OK, so where are the pics at??

I am glad to hear you are going to keep her. I always am sad to hear when someone sells their car because I know that it will be missed more than they know. Take some pictures of this venture that you are involved with. :) :)

How do they live with themselves? Over a hundred collars for a little sensor. Madness!

Thats a great deal for the bearing job. I spend like over $150 just for the parts:confused: . Make sure they replace the shipping grease (you can get a tube of Mobil 1 grease from Autozone and have the sears people use it)
Glad that you decide to keep the car. Maybe a mini meet with some other St Louis area members soon?
Good luck

My understanding is that this is a non issue with the new bearings. Make sure the seals are the proper ones. Poor fit = dead bearings.

Here.

Now, these were taken a year ago, but the car's driven less than 100 miles since then. Only two weeks ago did it finally get a bath :)

The Mobil 1 grease is already sitting on the passenger seat waiting for Saturday :) What can I say? I've used Mobil 1 products for years and I have a soft spot for them :)

As for a St. Louis meet... yeah, definitely! We'll have to put something together and see if some other people in the area want to join up.

OK. Not much of an update... but it's an update.

After the technician at Sears ended up calling in sick, my car ended up sitting for a couple of days before anyone was able to touch it. Still, yesterday they pulled the rear end apart and started digging in.

At first they couldn't see anything wrong with the right-rear bearing... but on removing it the tech did notice some serious scoring on the inside of the bearing race. The bearing itself seemed fine... but in the trash it went. Without tearing apart the bearing, it would be impossible to do a true post-mortem... but the current theory is that there was something trapped inside the race that was tearing up the bearing. Nothing was found, but it may have been trapped in the bearing itself.

In order to press the bearing in, they of course removed the hub from the car too (they don't use no hub tamer :) )... and removing it turned out to be a significant ordeal that involved cutting one of the bolts. It was completely frozen. Probably not surprising for a 10 year old car with 135K miles. Still, they were able to source a replacement bolt from the local Subaru dealer. No problem.

During the process it was found also that the boot had a hole in it. Aha... I think we found our entry point for foreign matter into the bearing. Still, sourced a replacement for that, too.

This morning she was put back together, the oil was changed and the cooling system was completely flushed and filled. Once it was taken for a quick run it was found to need an alignment... so this afternoon she's being aligned. I can't speak to that directly; I was told just by the tech who worked on the car (whom I trust).

So, with the extra parts, the extra labor and the extra work that was added, the ~$300 price tag has exploded to around ~$600. Still, if things are working as I hope they are this will be a small price to pay for having my car back alive again :)

I probably won't get a chance to pick up my car today. Too busy... but maybe tomorrow. I'll report more when I can.