SVX Ownership off to a tumultuous start...

[BoxerFanatic]

Well, as some of you know, I bought an SVX, sight unseen, in order to save it from being crushed mercilessly.

The deal went down quickly and well, and the car was thankfully, and generously delivered to me in the midwest, from california.

Since then, it has been an interesting time. The car mostly drives quite well, and is very interesting to get to know all the ins and outs... I was aware before-hand of the sun damage to the leather of the driver's seat, and the rear seat back, and signficant clear-coat damage to the roof, and a couple other sections.

But other things have come up...

The starter seems to be slightly intermittent. It occasionally decides not to respond at all, and then minutes later, perhaps with a tap from my trusty D-cell maglite, is ready to go again.

After washing it the second day I had it, the driver's side door card had some very brown, ugly liquid in the pocket behind the suede panel, below the switch panel trim. I hope that doesn't mean that the driver's side door has clogged water drains. I have yet to pull the door card off to look inside. The driver's door window also is a bit less than smooth in it's operation, but it does operate.

Then, I noticed that the tires on the driver's side are a bit low, and I inflate them. Days later, the driver's rear tire is nearly flat.

Since I was at home, I pulled out the rolling floor jack, and jacked up the car.

Good thing, too, the original jack was not included. Glad I wasn't out on the road somewhere when I noticed the flat.

The compact spare had less than 15 PSI, but before that point, the retaining bolt was extremely stiff, and in the process of unscrewing, broke off. so now there is a stub sticking out of the trunk well... I am going to have to find my extractor and see if I can pull that out, and get another one, along with an OEM or other portable jack, for roadside.

So, the car sat on it's now-inflated temporary spare for a couple of days, while the Legacy toted the wheel and tire to the service station to be repaired, which it was.

Tonight... I decide it is time to put the main wheel back on, and I have two sets of wheels for both of my other cars, so not counting the SVX, I have 16 other wheels and tires, and change them twice a year, for snows and summers. The SVX makes 20. (although hopefully will negate the need for steelies and snows for the Miata, and it can slumber through the winter...)

So, I am well used to changing wheels. I knew I shouldn't have been in a hurry, and one of the lugs wasn't absolutely effortless to thread... but I did thread it by hand, and turned a few relatively easy turns, and then went on to the other 4 lugs. Cross-hatch tightening... and the 5th lug gets tight, and it isn't seated yet.

GREAT, now it won't back off the stud, either. A bit more leverage, and the stud snaps off in the lug.

So now, the car is sitting stationary on 4 lugs on the driver's rear wheel... and now I need a new lug, and a new 12x1.25 wheel stud.

I posted a question about installing those, in a tech thread... I hope to get some info there. http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/show...8&postcount=28

But this is turning out to be an interesting ownership experience already, and it hasn't even been two weeks yet.

I hope it isn't going to keep up with this sort of frequency of required down-time. I was hoping that the car and I would get along well, after saving it from being metal confetti, and all... But, maybe it is making me earn it a bit above the buy-in price, I dunno...

I usually don't break off screws and bolts that frequently. I may have to treat the SVX even a little more gingerly, if it is susceptible to breaking threaded parts like that...

[Manarius]

You're just finding all the broken things now. Once you get past that step, you shouldn't have something new broken every other week.

[Ownbot]

Well if you call this stuff a "tumultuos" start then you better just get rid of this car right now. You would be extremely LUCKY if these were your worst issues.

[BoxerFanatic]

Mostly I was just looking for a word that implied a bit of drama. Tumultuous is a bit strong... but I didn't take the time to search out a lesser impact word from the thesaurus.

Honestly, they are pretty small things... but i am hoping that they are isolated incidents, and it won't be a constant "nickel and dime" situation. Some work occaisionally is fine, but I bought the car for the road, not for the garage.

I knew the SVX was unique, but I didn't realize it to the extent that the specialized lug nuts for the OEM wheels, would be so unique that they would cause wait-part down-time in an instance like this.

[RojoRocket]

Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic

........ and it won't be a constant "nickel and dime" situation. Some work occaisionally is fine, but I bought the car for the road, not for the garage.

I knew the SVX was unique, but I didn't realize it to the extent that the specialized lug nuts for the OEM wheels, would be so unique that they would cause wait-part down-time in an instance like this.

Welcome to The SVX Zone!!! You are in luck though, as this board contains a wealth of info, and the "slightly zany" ownership group is always willing to offer assistance (and opinion)

Glenn

[Mike621]

Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic

Mostly I was just looking for a car that implied a bit of drama.

Fixed your post. Congrats on buying a suitable car.

[BoxerFanatic]

Originally Posted by Mike621

Fixed your post. Congrats on buying a suitable car.

Nice fix, and appropriate, too.

I like my dramatic cars to move... hopefully this down-time won't last too long.

I got a wheel stud today, hopefully I can get a lug nut fairly soon.

At the auto parts store, there was a crashed but running Geo Metro with a rattle-can flat black home-brew paint job, a fart can, and at least one of the wheels had only three lugs, and one broken-off wheel stud, on the right front wheel. Good for power and steering! That car truly had nothing to lose, if it ever did, it had long lost it.

Still not going to be keen on driving the SVX on 4 wheel studs, though.

[svxfiles]

Originally Posted by RojoRocket

Welcome to The SVX Zone!!! You are in luck though, as this board contains a wealth of info, and the "slightly zany" ownership group is always willing to offer assistance (and opinion)

Glenn

Welcome to The SVX Zone!!! You are in luck though, as this board contains a wealth of info, and the WHACKED RIGHT OUT OF THEIR FREEKIN SKULS!!!!!" ownership group is always willing to offer assistance (and opinion)














Fixed it for ya!

[Roo]

Sorry to hear you're having such issues. Interesting that in the three months this vehicle was with me, none of these things came to light - and my wife swears the jack was in the car when it left here - although I did forget to check the spare tire pressure .

The only thing I had happen on the 1500 mile test drive to deliver the car (in 31 hours) was the starter that one time while taking a picture of the Capitol building in Salt Lake City. Other than that, she performed flawlessly for me. I've noticed a lot of minor things seem to be large issues for you - but the folks here will be happy to help.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=50340

[dcarrb]

Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic

The starter seems to be slightly intermittent.

Search "Bosch relay" for considerable material on a possible remedy to this problem.

The compact spare had less than 15 PSI, but before that point, the retaining bolt was extremely stiff, and in the process of unscrewing, broke off.

The spare in my silver was obviously unused and completely flat; I wondered if it had ever been out of the well. And I broke the retaining bolt, too (and thought, aww, man, this is a baaaad sign). But the stub drilled-out easily and there were enough threads left on the business end to keep it working.

Turns out she's a good old car, one that has never let me down. Good luck with yours.

dcb

[BoxerFanatic]

Originally Posted by Roo

Sorry to hear you're having such issues. Interesting that in the three months this vehicle was with me, none of these things came to light - and my wife swears the jack was in the car when it left here - although I did forget to check the spare tire pressure .

The only thing I had happen on the 1500 mile test drive to deliver the car (in 31 hours) was the starter that one time while taking a picture of the Capitol building in Salt Lake City. Other than that, she performed flawlessly for me. I've noticed a lot of minor things seem to be large issues for you - but the folks here will be happy to help.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=50340

The wheel lug wrench, and the jack hold-down bracket are there... but the scissor jack is not. Not a big problem at home, where I have a trolley jack. It would be a problem out on the road, not being able to change a flat. I am looking into getting a replacement.

The water in the spare tire well was odd. I am hoping it is not a sign of a plugged sunroof drain. I would hate for a rust-free car to get rusty.

I suspect that the nail in the tire probably happened during, or more likely after the trip, as I noticed it several days after getting home, not while I was driving it around in Nebraska that weekend, or a few days once home in Iowa. If the nail was there that whole time, the leak was very slow. It certainly wasn't an explosive deflation event. Flat tires happen. I just don't want to be stranded by one.

The broken spare tire retaining bolt, and the broken wheel stud, both happened when I was working with them... so that was obviously not out of place before. The retaining bolt is not a big deal, but the broken wheel stud and wheel lug nut could put the car at risk of an accident if more studs were to break, and the wheel came off the car while in motion.

The starter has balked for me a couple of times, but so far I have been able to revive it in short order, and it does start 90+ percent of the time.

I am not trying to make mountains out of mole hills, I enjoyed driving the car before the flat, and I am anxious to get the issue resolved as soon as I can, and get back to driving it. I don't want the car to fall into the circumstance that I am wary of getting in and driving it, for the possibility that I will be stuck somewhere with a minor problem that has become a major one.

That is why I don't want to drive the car on 4 wheel studs on the rear left wheel... I don't want to break the other 4 wheel studs by being out of balance, or over-stressed, or damage the driveline or wheel. Plus if the tire repair doesn't hold, I'll need to put the spare back on.

---------------
On a situational update, I just got a message from the Subaru parts department, they can order me a new wheel lug nut, but if they order it today, it won't be available until wednesday...

and get this... maybe you folks already know... but a SINGLE LUG NUT is $17.13

I am glad I don't absolutely need more than one!!!

At that rate, it would cost $85.65 for 5 of them, or all 20 for 342.60!!!

I paid less than 85$, iirc, for all 20 McGard Spline Drives, and a drive tool for my Legacy, and they were hard to find in black. Chrome would have been even cheaper.

At that rate, why would anyone choose to re-finish, and keep using the stock wheels, if they require hardware that is so rare and expensive?

I wonder what a wheel center cap would cost for those... probably 90$ or something...

I would SO opt for aftermarket wheels, if I could afford them. I could probably get take offs from a mazda or nissan or something that would cross-fit, for less than 85$ a wheel, which is less expensive than 5 of these lug nuts...

[RojoRocket]

Those nuts are $8.65 from subaruparts.com. A new center cap runs $30.44. Why they list balance weights at $4.33-$8.29 is a mystery though! Special for the list $400 ea disk wheel???
I'm sure a member would have mailed you a spare lugnut for next to nothing if you had asked. edit: Just read your other lug/nut thread and was surprised no one offered one up. It's tough when you're in a hurry. Just fyi, when I mentioned internet sales my dealer counterman countered with a 20% discount. Still pays to use other sources for major purchases, but good to enjoy for little stuff.

SVX Zone!!

Glenn

[BoxerFanatic]

Originally Posted by RojoRocket

Those nuts are $8.65 from subaruparts.com. A new center cap runs $30.44. Why they list balance weights at $4.33-$8.29 is a mystery though! Special for the list $400 ea disk wheel???
I'm sure a member would have mailed you a spare lugnut for next to nothing if you had asked.

SVX Zone!!

Glenn

I was about to ask, actually. Ryan is pulling some salvage parts for me, from the two SVXs he is getting ready to crush... ( ) possibly some lug nuts, as well... I was inquiring to see if the Subaru dealer would be easier, and more quickly available. It may end up being neither.

Does anyone have a spare ready to go? I'll buy it, I'll even pick it up, if you happen to be in central Iowa... otherwise I'll pay shipping.

I set up an account on SubaruParts, looking for this... and I couldn't easily find it in the parts diagrams.

[RojoRocket]

Yeah, their diagrams take some use to familiarize. Disk wheel under suspension for AWD '97 I believe. Just to add some authenticity to my earlier statement, PM me your mailing address and I'll send you one of my spares.

Glenn

[1986nate]

I have a few extra lugs. PM me with your info