Impreza Log book

Day 50

MY EBRAKE NEEDS TO BE ADJUSTED, ASAP.

Had a reeeaaaally scary moment today, although thankfully the situation was handled smoothly. 

Bro’s & I were heading out for movies to see Captain America - which was pretty dope and worth the wait. Instead of rolling in 3 different cars, we decided to go in one, to save gas and parking space. So Will suggests that I park the Impreza on their driveway, which has about - I don’t know, roughly 20*-25* incline? It’s a noticeable incline nonetheless. As I shut off the engine and put my handbrake up, and open the door and let go of the brake pedal, the car starts rolling back! Luckily I was able to hop in still and step on the brakes to stop the car, and it didn’t hit anything/anyone in the process. I’m also thankful that it didn’t happen while we were away as injury/accidents/damages could have potentially happened if no one was there to see my Impreza roll : \ 

*sigh. The things I go through to drive my own car. I love my Impreza regardless though. :D 

Day 47

Just got back from the Philippines! Best 2 & a bit weeks of the 2011 year so far - and probably won’t be topped by anything for a long while.

Sophia’s so dirty! Left her outside since the garage is for my parents’ cars, and it definitely rained hard the past 2 weeks, daaaamn! I missed driving her though, it was great driving around the block last night after getting home :)

Time to address some more of the smaller issues now that I’m back from vacation! Halfway through 2011, and it’s becoming an even better year than I had imagined.

Day 25

Sophia’s been great! I think I’ve found the spots as to where/when to shift up - although I should have by now considering that I’ve had her for almost 3 weeks already. Nothing really to log about over the past week except for: 

i. The inner rubber door trim which divides my driver door to the inner rocker panel is veeeery loose. Loose to the point that even the pins are loose - one even came off! Luckily the pin came off at home and I was able to keep it in my possession. I’ve re-inserted the trim back onto the pins, but I definitely need to glue em down securely, seeing as how there seems to be some glue-like residue on the trim already. 

I had my sister’s boyfriend drive the car around his neighbourhood since he also owns an Impreza (MY05 GDB 2.5RS) & he liked it for the most part (shifter bushings & squeaky clutch pedal bugged him lol). Even got to talking about parts & maintenance in regards to both my GC and his GDB. Personally, if I didn’t own this car, I don’t think I’d have any worthwhile conversations with him lol : \ 

I leave for Philippines with my family in 2 days, and the one thing that makes me sad about leaving is that I won’t be able to drive my car lol. 

Day 19

Got my tune up done yesterday - $200 down :( but a smoother running Impreza :) 

i. Shifts into 2nd and 3rd are smoother with the newly replaced transmission oil.

ii. Brakes are much more responsive and have basically no sponge-like feel on the pedals.

iii. Engine stays cooler thanks to coolant flush and new coolant :) 

Things that were brought to my attention at the shop while the car was up on the hoist:

i. My rear differential, while it was getting its older and fairly dirty differential fluid out, is showing its signs of wear. Apparently one of the previous owners did not get the fluid changed when they should have which is at around 80-100k km’s. Bits of metal were also found in the magnet+lock combo in the rear diff - again signs that I should think about replacing it within the next 20k : \

ii. There was a hole in the headers that was patched up with muffler cement : \ The cement will hold for now, but I definitely don’t want to prolong running with a patched up header. I figure I’ll source a used, OEM header from a fellow Toronto Subaru Club member, or maybe even a junkyard. 

iii. My rear swaybars are shot lol, I’m not surprised though. Rear Control arms will probably need to be replaced next year. Some rust along my exhaust system, and the exhaust piping was made using crush bending techniques, not mandrel bending = a not so smooth exit of waste gasses. 

iv. When the car got completely repainted, some of the parts were not put back properly, i.e. the radiator drain plug. When draining the rad+coolant, it should come out in a steady stream if the plug was affixed correctly… mine caused it to rain coolant : \ 

So the parts list for the Impreza continues to grow, but as with anything, building the car back to perfect takes time. I’m just happy she finally got a fresh set of fluids. Next up, when I return from the Philippines, engine oil! 

Day 17

I truly believe that the more you drive your car the more you notice the SMALL things. 

For example:

i. I went in for a carwash a few days ago at the local Shell. Everything went well except for the part that a SMAAAAALL bit of water got in from the driver side window. small as in like 15-20 droplets. I know that Subaru never manufactured the Impreza without door frames around the windows, but that still shouldn’t happen…

ii. Wiper blades. I thought getting new blades from the old Legacy would hold up perfectly well with the Impreza. Turns out that I’m missing some sort of lock mechanism/pin to hold the blades in place so as to not have them come loose when using them consistently for a long period of time. Guess I’m going back to using the old blades.

iii. The rubber strip on the bottom of the driver side door wasn’t affixed properly when the previous owner got the car repainted. I’m pretty sure all I have to do is plug the rubber strip back into the respective plugs on the bottom of the door panel, but still. 

iv. One of two things - Either my driver front tire’s punctured somewhere, ooooooor my valve stem needs to be replaced - Just like on my family’s MY05 BL5 Legacy. 

On a positive note, I’ve finally been able to get the clutch to engage at under 2000 rpm. Yeah, a noob accomplishment, but I’m happy. Any saved gas and clutch wear is good for me :) 

Day 14

I’m really worried that my synchros are really bad. I mean I know there’s some grinding at times, but I’m really starting to notice them more and more.. : (

I hope it’s just me having driven the Impreza for 2 weeks now and noticing all the small details! : (  : ( 

Day 12

Almost 2 weeks with my Impreza and I can’t complain at all :) Just like any car and owner, I’m beginning to notice a LOT of small things that didn’t bother me the first few days with her:

i. One of the plastic pieces by the windshield’s water drainage/redirection system is broken, which leaves some exposed metal. I mean it still holds in place but it’s easily removable - which it shouldn’t be.

ii. The wiper intermittent speed is awfully slow. Even on the fastest setting, it doesn’t seem to move fast enough. I thought the slightly newer wiper blades from my family’s previous MY05 Legacy BE5 sedan would make the job a bit easier/smoother, but it’s the motor or the arms which need to get taken care of.

iii. Some parts of the rear quarter windows rubber mouldings aren’t held in place to the body panel properly : \ I mean I know the car got a fresh re-paint a year or two ago, but whoever did the re-assembly of the body panels didn’t really do a great job…

iv. Shell gasoline > any other gasoline. I originally ran Petro Canada’s 87 Octane fuel in the Impreza (since I only need to run 87, yay!) on my first fill up almost 2 weeks ago, and logged in a little under 300km at half a tank. With Shell’s 87 Octane fuel, I’m at around 240km with still a good 3/4 between the 3/4 tank mark and 1/2 tank (I hope that makes sense). Guess I’m going with Shell from now on. :) 

Day 9

Corner light - fixed! :) 

Next on the list - new wiper blades and a tune up. 

Plus, I realized I’ll be needing a parts bin for all my used parts/future equipment. I mean I’ll most likely be borrowing tools from my dad for the meanwhile, but I’ll probably want my own in the future. Hopefully my dad lets me make a small shelving/bin unit in the garage to fit my stuff :) 

On another note, I knew my driver’s front tire was a little low on air, but I didn’t know that it was only at about 14psi (in comparison to the recommended 32psi by Subaru) o.o” Good thing I finally got around to putting air in it! D: 

Day 7

So it’s been 1 full week since I’ve started driving the Impreza. I’ve gone through almost half a tank because since now that I have a car, I’m now the one driving to Scarborough since they always come up to my place.but at almost 270km, with probably another 15-20km before I actually hit half, I think I’m doing fairly well with my gas consumption.

On another note, my axleback exhaust definitely looks out of place. It’s lead me to looking for cheap alternatives on toronto-subaru-club.com but so far, nothing yet. After reading up on which exhausts provide the best rumble without being too deep or too loud, I’ve come across 2 which I’m really interested in getting (3 if I include a stock STi exhaust, just to keep it really low key and still have a mild rumble) - GReddy Evolution 2 or a Borla (forgot the specific model).

But that’s not gonna happen anytime soon anyway, although it’d be nice if it happens before winter lol. (It’s only June and I’m worried about winter already. smh)