What did you really do to your car today? V3.1

[Gixhost]

I installed a frameless rearview mirror w/HomeLink in my 04 STi!!! I recently installed one in my 21 RAV4, Toyota part number PT374-00210. Its just a Gentex unit that Toyota rebrands. It uses a battery so no running wires. You'll need the Subaru adapter [Subaru part number H501SSA041] from the BRZ, another rebranded Gentex part I believe. This also works for other older Subarus. The adapter causes the mirror to move forward into the cabin a bit but nothing crazy. I thought it looked good and I can ditch the remotes in the cars. I pulled the trigger on a second one after seeing a good price on eBay...saved some money on the initial one from a dealer with a pretty good discount but again, not as good as eBay.

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[Nerdelectric]

I changed the clutch in my 2015 WRX. I installed a 240mm dia. ACT HD street sprung clutch kit with flywheel (SB11-HDSS, rated 449 ft-lb), and Torque Solution billet release fork and pivot. I also took the opprotunity to flush the brake and clutch system with new Valvoline Dot 3/4, in addition to new Redline 75W90ns tranny and rear diff gear oil.

This clutch feels sooo much better than stock. It's actually a lighter clutch pedal with more travel between full and no engagement. That's good too, cause she's just a tiny bit bitey, so it helps to modulate it.

I'm quite proud of how it worked, because this is my first time doing something like this solo, to my daily driver.

The start of the project:


About ready to seperate:


I got it off!




Old clutch:




New release fork and bearing:


New flywheel:


Clutch:


Pressure plate:



It took 4.5 days, a 20lb propane tank for heat, and 2/3s of a case of beer.

[Patrick Olsen]

Thought I had a brake dragging the other day on the way home from work. Got home and could smell it. Pulled out my infrared pyrometer and found the rear driver's rotor was over 500F. "I think I find which one is dragging!"

So yesterday I jacked up the rear and took a look. I was assuming it was just stuck slider pin(s), but it turns out the piston is stuck - I could barely get it to move with a big 6" C-clamp. I ordered a new caliper on Rock Auto and should get that in a couple days.

While I had the rear jacked up, I installed the rear braided hoses I had picked up from Mach V long, long ago - about 2 years ago. The driver side one fought me - the flare nut where the brake hose attaches to the chassis hard line was stuck pretty good, and either I rounded it off or it was already getting rounded off. I ended up having to use vice grips to get that one off - not my preferred solution, but the other option is to replace that hard line, which I think would involve dropping the rear subframe. No, thanks, I'll use the vice grips. I never did get around to installing the other front line due to the same problem. Now that I have 3 of the 4 hoses installed I suppose I should break down and get that other front hose done, too.

[Patrick Olsen]

I was away on travel during the week, and the replacement caliper from Rock Auto showed up while I was gone. On Saturday I was able to get out and install the new caliper. I wasn't terribly impressed by the quality of the rebuilt caliper; the bleed screw threads seemed loose, such that it was leaking fluid around the threads once I cracked the bleeder enough to open it, and I had to crank down pretty hard on the banjo bolt to not get leakage there. I'm not really sure I got the banjo bolt 100% leak-free, so I'll have to keep an eye on that. As for the leaky bleeder threads, well, I decided it's a rear caliper, so if it's not perfectly bled it's not the end of the world.

On a separate note, I rolled 258,000 miles just as I arrived at work this morning.

[Patrick Olsen]

Changed the oil on the beater. Was going to send a sample to Blackstone for analysis, just for grins, but of course forgot to grab the sample bottle and thought of it again right after removing the drain plug.

[SubaruSVXCrazy]

Originally Posted by Patrick Olsen

Changed the oil on the beater. Was going to send a sample to Blackstone for analysis, just for grins, but of course forgot to grab the sample bottle and thought of it again right after removing the drain plug.

Do you have a custom build?

[Patrick Olsen]

It's a '96 Impreza Brighton EJ18 intake manifold on a '96 Legacy Outback EJ22 short block that the previous owner put in. Plus he painted the intake manifold red, so ... yeah, it's pretty frickin' custom!

[Patrick Olsen]

- A couple of weekends ago (after doing the oil change) I took the Impreza on a 12-hour, 700-mile trip to go pick up some parts for one of my future projects. Specifically, I picked up a mostly complete '99 Cobra IRS with a bunch of new-in-box aftermarket upgrade parts, plus a set of '98 Cobra wheels.




I picked up the IRS first. The IRS subframe wouldn't quite fit into the trunk - it was a few inches too wide to fit between the wheel wells - so it went into the back seat. (You can see just a little bit of the black steel below the milk crate.) The trunk got filled with the axles, a couple boxes of parts (control arms, spindles, upgrade parts), sway bar, etc. When I picked up the wheels, I was able to put one on each side of the back seat, between the IRS subframe and the quarter trim panels. A third wheel went into the foot well behind the passenger front seat, and the fourth wheel you can see in the passenger seat. I could've put into the back seat somewhere, but it was easy enough to just stick it in the front. Not pictured is the front knuckle/hub with 13.5" rotor and bigass Roush/Alcon caliper installed that I brought along to test fit in the '98 Cobra wheels, just to make sure the wheels would clear; that's all sitting in the front passenger foot well.

- During said 700-mile trip the windshield took a hit from something.

The big ring was about 8" diameter, and the smaller rings inside were 3.5" or so. It was basically right in front of me, but fortunately was just above my line of sight, so it wasn't bothersome. I don't know what it was that hit me - I caught a glimpse of something, but at 75ish I don't think I even really processed what I was seeing before it actually hit. It was loud as hell! I've never seen a windshield crack like that; I think whatever it was must have been heavy.

So, on Tuesday this week the car got a new windshield from Safelite. Only took 3 attempts to get it done! A different company was supposed to come out last Wednesday - confirmed an appointment via phone and text, scheduled time window came and went, no call, no text, no attempt to reschedule. OK, so you don't want my money, I'll spend it with Safelite instead. Set an appointment with Safelite for last Friday afternoon. Scheduled time window was about to elapse with no sign of the tech, so it got pushed to this Tuesday (with a discount to make up for the inconvenience).

[Patrick Olsen]

Had to clean up the positive terminal on the Impreza's battery Sunday, after the car failed to start and my buddy and I had to pop start it Saturday night. It didn't look like the corrosion was that bad, but I guess it was - cleaned it up and car starts just fine now.

Coincidentally, I had just gotten a packet of those felt battery terminal protector thingies, so I was going to be pulling the cables off anyway, but the car decided to make me do it a little sooner.

[Patrick Olsen]

After a few days of starting just fine, the car didn't want to start again this morning; had to jump it with my wife's car. The battery isn't even 2-1/2 years old, so it shouldn't be on its last legs already. Makes me wonder if the alternator maybe isn't operating up to par. Of course, my old multimeter has died, so I can't really check anything. I ordered a new multimeter and should have that today.

[Patrick Olsen]

- Over the weekend I greased all the Brighton's sway bar bushings and the trailing arm forward (chassis) bushings. All 4 sway bar bushing grease zerks were rusted shut, so I replaced all of those. For whatever reason the 2 zerks on the trailing arms were fine. All 6 have caps on them, so I'm not sure why only the sway bar ones were stuck. But it worked out well because I only had 4 replacements!

- Rolled 260,000 miles today.

[Patrick Olsen]

- Rolled the dice and installed the summer wheels/tires on the Brighton coupe. There are some cold nights/mornings in the forecast, but I still have the Nokian all-weather tires on my CTS-V, so if I get worried I can drive that. Not a ton of tread left on the summer setup, but they'll last for a bit.

[SubaruSVXCrazy]

Originally Posted by Patrick Olsen

It's a '96 Impreza Brighton EJ18 intake manifold on a '96 Legacy Outback EJ22 short block that the previous owner put in. Plus he painted the intake manifold red, so ... yeah, it's pretty frickin' custom!

Haha nice!

[Unabomber]

Sideskirts y0!



Got a new toy from the interwebs today, but I'm sending it to a certain someone for 3D scanning so hopefully they can knock it off as it ain't made any longer.

[Gixhost]

Originally Posted by Unabomber

Sideskirts y0!



Got a new toy from the interwebs today, but I'm sending it to a certain someone for 3D scanning so hopefully they can knock it off as it ain't made any longer.

Sick!

[Patrick Olsen]

Used the 14' 4" long beater to transport a 16' long cattle panel from Tractor Supply to the house.



[That's some sort of weird reflection on the rear quarter, not a big-ass scrape. Not that it would really matter, I suppose, since the paint is pretty much completely dead anyway.]

It was strapped down quite securely, I didn't hear or feel any sign of it moving around even at highway speed. Got a thumbs-up and a laugh from a couple bikers along the way, and definitely got some quizzical looks from people in other cars or walking on the sidewalk. Got passed by a Prince William Cty cop on the highway and he didn't even give me a second glance.

[Patrick Olsen]

A week or so ago, the beater Impreza had overheated during a quick drive to the grocery store, probably less than 5 miles round trip. I found the radiator was wicked low; did some poking around the hoses and the radiator to see if there was a crack in one of the tanks or a sliced hose or something, but didn't find a "smoking gun". I had never smelled coolant, hadn't seen any signs of leaking, so I was a bit mystified. I topped off the system and drove the car a few times with no issues.

The cattle panel pick-up was part of taking my brother to go pick up a car of his that's been in storage for a couple years while he was in S. Korea. The car was stored out near Summit Point. We were most of the way out there, on Rte 7 near Berryville, when the car seemed to be losing power and then I saw the temp gauge start to rise a bit. Crap! Pulled over into a mini-mart / gas station and there was coolant leaking from the vicinity of the lower radiator hose on the driver's side. Initially I couldn't tell where it was actually coming from, but once things had cooled off a bit I was able to reach down to feel around where the hose connects to the radiator. I discovered the hose clamp was loose - wait, no the hose clamp isn't just loose, the hose clamp is broken! (Blurry cellphone picture...)


It had rusted through and was just along for the ride. A friendly local saw my brother and I fiddling around with the hood up, scratching our heads a bit, and offered to take us somewhere if we needed help. She said there was a True Value hardware store nearby, so we went there, grabbed a new clamp, a screwdriver for said clamp, a 10mm wrench and diagonal cutters, and a jug of coolant. Installed the new clamp, topped off the cooling system, and we were good to go!

[Unabomber]

My last emergency repair had me buy grocery store pliers and screwdriver for like $25 due to the fuel lines going into the filter slipping off due to those super great compression clamps. Now they live in my glove compartment. With Harbor Freight/wish, there's not reason to not have a crappy toolset in the car.

[Patrick Olsen]

Replaced a long-broken driver headlight with a new (junkyard) one, and also replaced the driver fender with a better junkyard part.

- The headlight was still working fine, but had taken a rock through the glass so it was eventually going to fill with water (and I wasn't sure if it would get flagged by my safety inspection).

- As posted here a while back, somehow the driver door and driver fender got out of alignment, so the leading edge of the door caught the trailing edge of the fender and bent it out of shape. It's probably been a couple of years ago now, but I managed to snag a better fender in the correct color off a car at Crazy Ray's, and it's just been sitting in the garage waiting for me to get off my butt to install it.

[designfate]

Installed my Spec-C roof vent in my bugeye. Also found and purchased a pristine set of Ver7 STi seats

[Unabomber]

Originally Posted by designfate

Installed my Spec-C roof vent in my bugeye. Also found and purchased a pristine set of Ver7 STi seats

My vent is off to paint this weekend. I have 02 wagon and a local guy that has done like 4 roof vent installs. Any last minute tips?

[Patrick Olsen]

- Loaded the beater Impreza at Home Depot with 10 2cuft bags of mulch and 6 1.5cuft bags of garden soil, plus some other gardening stuff. It definitely was squatting at the rear for the drive home!

- After unloading the above, and doing some garden work, lined the trunk with a tarp and loaded it full of invasive plants that my wife and I dug up so that I can take it all to the I-66 dump tomorrow.

[Patrick Olsen]

- Replaced the coil pack and plug wires on the beater Impreza. Denso coil pack and NGK plug wires, both from Rock Auto.

For quite a while I've noticed that if it's wet/damp out that I'll get very noticeable misfires until the engine warms up. I finally got around to popping the hood one night a week or so ago, after a couple days of rainy weather, and could see the spark "leaking out" from the coil pack. I may have been able to just get away with new plug wires; the boots on the old Duralast plug wires didn't slip very far onto the coil pack, which I think was a big part of the problem. But a new coil pack wasn't all that expensive, so I did both.

I would post a pretty picture with the fancy new blue plug wires on the poorly painted red intake manifold, but NASIOC Images has been down for weeks, soooo...

[Patrick Olsen]

Double

[JB2004WRX]

Actually a compilation of several things I did last week. Finally getting to work on my car!

Day 1: Removed fender, headlights, bumper in preparation for replacement.
Day 2: Went through my EVAP system to diagnose the CEL! Didn't change a thing but the light's been off for 4+ cold starts and 100+ miles now... guess it was a loose hose or something...
Day 3: New headlights! Pretty SPEC-Ds but one of the LED's came broken. Customer support got me a new one, just gotta get back to my "shop."
Day 4: Hour and a half drive either way to buy a new-to-me fender, didn't know those were so hard to find. Installed that, and put the car back together!

Before:


After an Encounter With a Tree:


After Repairs:




**Imma keep these headers in the hopes NAISOC Images will be back online eventually!**