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.
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.
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.
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.
