A History of my Teal SVX (extremely long)
 

A History of my Teal SVX.

I had spotted an SVX when I lived in NY several years ago. I used to have a Legacy station wagon and happened to park next to a beautiful Ebony SVX. It was kind of a love at first sight kind of thing. I didn't really do much research on the car or anything, I just really liked it when I spotted it. And mentioned it a few times after when looking for other cars.

One day I was looking around ebay for Subaru's and happened across the SVX. The teal was the first one I spotted, and the closest one to home. It was an extremely impulsive buy. I could not resist placing a bid on the beautiful car that was listed as "Fully serviced, ready for summer driving.":rolleyes:

Pic from the Ebay ad:
http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/fil...e928/41929.jpg

I was so excited to go get this beautiful car, that I could not even wait one day and picked it up the same night. Unfortunately we could not get a good look at the car because it was dark. I signed all the papers and everything without taking it for a test drive. Which was another mistake.

While signing the papers I was also informed for the first time that it had a reconstructed title. Which didn't bother me too much at the time. I was still very excited to take the car home. But still had a nagging bad feeling about the recent Maaco paint job. (What where they covering up? RUST)

I started to drive the car away, and the first thing I noticed was the brake pedal seemed to almost hit the floor. :( This would be the beginning of a very rocky relationship with this car.

I take the car home, it makes it, but by the time I park it in the driveway the brakes are so bad they almost don't work anymore. The first thing I do the next day is take the wheels off and look at the brakes. The brake pads literally fall apart in 3 pieces. :eek: I took the rotors into a local napa and they told me the rotors where way below minimum. So I go home, write an email to the seller that the brakes where completely shot, and I guess instead of wanting negative feedback, he sends me a set of stock rotors.

Once they came and we got the car put back together, I start driving it around a little bit. I started hearing a lot of rattling in the exhaust. And I then noticed the car had some major oil leaks. :( It was smoking from the exhaust and leaking from the front main seal. It started by using about a 1/3 quart every couple weeks, then turned into using a quart every 2-3 days.:(:eek: It was time for either a rebuild, or a swap.

An old thread on stuff it needed:
http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37221

Shortly after that the starter desided to go out and leave me sitting at a post office. :rolleyes:

This was around the time I met Budfreak. I was getting to the point I was going to send this car to the junk yard because Subaru wanted an outrageous amount to fix the car, and not very many local shops would mess with it.

I had picked up an aunt of mine from the airport, and on the way home, one of the heat shields fell off of the car. - A great first impression. We still laugh about the car falling apart everytime she visits and we're driving around.

Shortly before budfreak was to come pick it up to fix it, the transmission started slipping. :mad: And the wheel bearings where so bad on the rear end I ended up opting to get them fixed before it was to go out and have the engine swapped and transmission checked.

I took the car to a local tuffy dealer, they said they could have the wheel bearings done in 2 hours time. :rolleyes: Yeah, right. 2 hours turned into 10 days with the car in their Bay 1 on the lift. Needless to say they ran into problems, and had to order parts from Subaru. The rear control arm was what broke and took so long. They definately don't look forward to seeing this car anymore.:rolleyes:

I ended up having the engine swapped by budfreak aka Jason once it was finally back on the road. And I ended up driving the car out to his shop. (I got lost once along the way, not fun.) The cars transmission was slamming the underside of the car everytime I would accellerate, and sometimes slip. The mounts where all completely shot. (We determined once out there, the transmission was pretty much on its way out.)

Services I had done by Jason:

SVX Engine Replaced, new one had 120k miles

Everything being done on it:
New Water Pump, Timing belt, valve cover gaskets, cam seals, front crank seal, Thermostat and gasket, NGK Spark plugs, Valvoline 10W30 maxlife oil, fresh coolant

Other services done:

4.44 transmission swap
External filter & Transmission cooler installed

Air condition compressor, A/C Recharge (had already been converted to r-134a)

Splash guard under radiator/engine

Radiator Hoses

Accessory belts

window switches replaced

All Door locks and ignition replaced



After all of this, I still had to replace:
The exhaust (clogged) - temp fixed by a local shop - need to replace it completely in the future.
The radiator - replaced by Jason
Wheel bearings (AGAIN! - 5x replaced now by a local tuffy dealer, and STILL bad)
The Subaru Emblem fell off the car.
It has had several wiring problems
The starter has been replaced 2x since purchase
Upgraded brakes to slotted drilled and replaced all 4 calipers because front Caliper bracket broke and didn't want to mess with brakes again for a while.

And I have replaced various other parts on the car as well.
Basically Everything under the hood at this point.

Looks wise, I have the Alcyone SVX tail bar installed, and the smallcar grille and clear headlight lenses installed.

I can finally say, this car is my daily driver, and I feel like I could take it on a long distance road trip and it would not break down. It still needs some parts replaced (like the wheel bearings) but on the over all, its FINALLY just about complete.

And it will be one of the first to be getting a special modification designed by Harvey in the very near future. :D

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x...8/today076.jpg

You're a True SVX Lover!
 

A I have said to you before, I can't believe you kept it. But I can also say....you are obviously a true lover of the SVX;)

And I thought my 92 was in sad shape when my son bought it.

Just in highschool, buying a car that wouldn't even make it 25 miles to home. Many repairs later (all by my highschool..at the time son) it's now a daily driver. I bought the car from him, and I can't imagon ever selling it..too much sentiment involved. It's far from perfect, but it's reliable and everything works.

I really wonder just how many of the SVX's sold in the United States of any year are still on the road today.

Scott/Omaha

ill start...

1. '92 SVX LS-L

ahaha

but, back on topic,
amazing history behind your car...

Sometimes I am surprised this car is still on the road myself. There where times when I really wasn't sure it could be fixed. I have to give Jason a lot of credit for getting it back in shape, it was a mess.

I would have to guess there are probably a lot more SVX's in people's backyards or garages sitting with bad transmissions than SVX's that have been wrecked/parted out. :rolleyes:

tiv0 - Thanks :cool: