Datsuncog's Heaps: Sept 2023 - Another Year's T-Met Exemption Certificate...

[Faker]

Tim price some arms for it and just leave it in to get sorted. Still a decent big yoke surely?

[Shite Ron]

4 minutes ago, Faker said:

Tim price some arms for it and just leave it in to get sorted. Still a decent big yoke surely?

I agree, if you like the car then it is worth repairing if possible. Buying a replacement is an unknown quantity and can often give a load more problems. Better the devil you know. If it has served you well for the last few years and you like it then it is worth spending a bit on. 

[The_Equalizer]

25 minutes ago, Shite Ron said:

I agree, if you like the car then it is worth repairing if possible. Buying a replacement is an unknown quantity and can often give a load more problems. Better the devil you know. If it has served you well for the last few years and you like it then it is worth spending a bit on. 

Someone on here wisely wrote that the cheapest car you will have is the one you already own. Good luck Tim.

[JimH]

There. I doned fixeded it.

[dome]

You can't see it in this shot but this 2008 Mazda 6 has a similar problem-the LHS rear lower arm has rotted through. As much as I like Japanese stuff they do know how to rust, especially in parts of the UK where salt is prevalent on the roads for 5 months of the year. 

[grogee]

Very much enjoying this thread and it rings familiar bells (or should I say alarms) from my Celica. Should anyone be interested, I got rid of it this way:

Google where the feckin control module is, and take it out. Mine had some half-assed anti-theft plastic covering the connector but that was soon history.

As others have said, I always take out the alarm. They're shit and just cause grief anyway. 

The reason they are shit is this: manufacturers, mainly but not exclusively Japanese, employ teams of grunts to scour the docks to fit various equipment to their cars to suit UK buyers expectations. Sometimes this is zip-on leather seat covers, sometimes it's radios and sometimes it's alarm kits. So their install quality falls between OEM and aftermarket, depending on whether it's a sunny Tuesday morning or a rainy Friday afternoon. 

I'm not sure how much this still goes on these days on modern cars. But 'dock fit' stuff is definitely a shiteing hazard to look out for and as I say the Japanese are guiltier than most. 

[bunglebus]

Can't go wrong with that red Lupo - other than not being great motorway cars. Prices have gone mad since we bought ours.

Octavia might be a good bet too

[Blake's Den]

I've been the victim of a Forester front control arm failure. Thankfully at low speed whilst pulling out of my parking spot at home.

I did replace both with second hand genuine Subaru ones. All aftermarket ones didn't have the headlight level bracket (2.5 XTen). But the whole car was one big pile of rust underneath do I got rid at Arnold Clark's. 

Last seen for sale for £1000 more than I paid for it three years earlier!

[hairnet]

The Skoda estate obvs even if you have to lurgan

[Datsuncog]

Well kids, the verdict's in: and sadly, it's well and truly phuq'd.

I received a call just before 4pm from the Mechanic of Choice, asking me if I could nip down for a wee chat.

I got a feeling he didn't just want my opinion on some new decor ideas for the customer waiting area.

On arrival, the Sub was hoicked up on high, with some unhelpful-looking fluids and a lot of rustflakes garnishing the floor beneath.

So what's the horror?

Well, obviously the front control arm shearing off I knew about...

...but in its unexpected collapse it managed to mangle the offside front driveshaft and CV joint...

 ...and smash the already-unhappy drop link.

The nearside arm, although not yet in a state of absolute collapse, isn't looking all that brilliant either.

Turns out the rear subframe also isn't looking too clever, rust-wise, while the exhaust centre section is in a bit of a state with complete detachment from the cat.

Plus, one of the rear shocks is leaking.

None of this is good news, but the real kicker is that both rear arches are mega-corroded all the way round.

I'm surprised they're so very dreadful, as new discs were fitted last summer and there wasn't anything untoward noticed at the time - yet there's now gaps you could slide your hand through (assuming you wanted tetanus).

Yeah, there's no way the MOT man's going to be smiling kindly on this sort of grot.

Had there been no rust in the mix, then probably £500-600 would have got the arms, links, driveshaft and shocks replaced, and I'd have paid that as it's a pretty decent car and I like it - but dealing with rust of this magnitude isn't something the garage wants to be in on, and I don't blame 'em.

As it stands, it's immobile, which is a bit of a bollock.

The EJ20 engine and manual gearbox are, however, in excellent working order and might make this tragic heap an appealing enough prospect to someone as a parts car. A quick squizz through the online small-ads indicates people are still asking £1000 for broken, corroded, MOT failure Forester Turbos... and not manual box ones, either.

Subaru Forester 2.0l xt auto. SPARES or REPAIRS. | in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow | Gumtree

So it's been left that the Mechanic of Choice is going to weld a section of bar onto the fucked control arm to at least support it in straight line, and possibly do something clever with a ratchet strap, in the hope of making it at least movable and getting it off his ramp (it had to be manhandled into place using a long-reach forklift truck and two trolley jacks to support the front) and subsequently allowing it to be driven onto a trailer, assuming I can find someone who 1) wants a dead Forester, and 2) has a trailer... but it will probably never be driveable again.

So that was that... and as I said my goodbyes and sloped back out into the rain, a familiar springy, insistent guitar riff snagged my ears from the radio in the corner... which was odd, as the radio hadn't been switched on the whole time I'd been mooching around the workshop, poking at the underside and taking pics.

Ah yes. Those of you with long memories may recall that, long long ago, I'd nicknamed the Forester L'il Thunder after this specific song, because of its cacophonous exhaust note. 

I turned and looked back at it perched up on the ramp, as the connection dawned.

Then the radio fell silent. And, I shit you not, I hadn't seen anyone go near the stereo in the corner to turn it on or off.

Chills, guys. Chills. Proper Christine moment.

So that's the news tonight.

[mk2_craig]

Nasty.

What part of the car are we looking at there?

[grogee]

The bottom

[320touring]

Needing a lift?

[Datsuncog]

41 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Nasty.

What part of the car are we looking at there?

That is/was the inner arches... I've more pics, but they're massive and I'll need to trim them to get them uploaded.

Bran Flakes is about right! It's some of the worst rust I've seen, and I've owned Cortinas...

 

21 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Needing a lift?

Y'know, that might well come in handy... I'll be drawing up a plan of action post-haste. Will let you know if Operation Outback is a potential goer, thanks!

[RoadworkUK]

Truly harrowing.

Utterly heartbreaking that something can look so nice on the surface but have almost totally ceased to exist in vital places underneath.

Genuinely got a cold shiver when I saw that inner arch, and another when you related the Thunderstruck / Christine tale. And I thought Halloween was just a cynical marketing ploy.

[BorniteIdentity]

I don’t blame you fucking that off - it looks horrid. Yes, you could chase it, but you’ve got to really really love it - and once the rust’s in, it’s in. 

Good luck with the search for the replacement. 

[155V6]

That looks worse than my Puma that had lived on the seafront 😲

[mk2_craig]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

some of the worst rust I've seen

Yeah that’s humped!! Indeed strange how it’s deteriorated so swiftly, wonder whether a previous owner had pasted something on top, which has finally let go on your garage chap giving it a poke?

Whatever, sad times but as others have said, you’ve done not bad out of that car. Definitely should be a fair bit of value in it when reduced to component form - shifting it whole might be slightly harder, but it’ll bring in a handsome sum either way. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Nasty.

Someone did tell me that some companies were actually cutting back on anti-corrosion measures to save money - Alfa, for one. Didn't think it was that widespread, but this looks quite the horror.

[mcmolloy1]

There's a tidy looking  '99 Laguna on done deal if you're interested. In Co. Down

[Split_Pin]

The subframe doesn't look that bad but as is always the case with rust, the inner arches do look like the tip of the iceberg.

Ive seen worse fixed, @Burnside's truly epic Cavalier thread over on the old  MK3 Cav forum is testament to that but as said, you have to be utterly committed to a car to sort galloping corrosion of that magnitude.

Even although it's not entirely unexpected, it's still a shame to see.

Whatever you do, please don't buy another one that has rust issues.....

[Datsuncog]

4 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

Truly harrowing.

Utterly heartbreaking that something can look so nice on the surface but have almost totally ceased to exist in vital places underneath.

Genuinely got a cold shiver when I saw that inner arch, and another when you related the Thunderstruck / Christine tale. And I thought Halloween was just a cynical marketing ploy.

Cheers dude - I'd expected there to be a few problems, but I hadn't thought it would be quite so utterly Donald Duck'd... Here's another pic of the nearside arch from below; you can see there's really no metal attaching the inner wing to the outer wing at all.

4 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I don’t blame you fucking that off - it looks horrid. Yes, you could chase it, but you’ve got to really really love it - and once the rust’s in, it’s in. 

Good luck with the search for the replacement. 

Hey, thanks - and you're right; I like this car but I don't really love it, the way I'd need to feel about it to start on such a major rebuild... and I've a feeling that there could only be more heartbreak lurking, if I poked any deeper. The search continues!

4 hours ago, 155V6 said:

That looks worse than my Puma that had lived on the seafront 😲

Indeed! Though we have sea views from the bedroom window, so certainly there's plenty of bracing salt-laden sea air circulating roundabout... probably didn't help matters.

Funnily enough, there was a Puma owned by someone right down on the seafront... haven't seen it for a while now, thinking about it...

3 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Yeah that’s humped!! Indeed strange how it’s deteriorated so swiftly, wonder whether a previous owner had pasted something on top, which has finally let go on your garage chap giving it a poke?

Whatever, sad times but as others have said, you’ve done not bad out of that car. Definitely should be a fair bit of value in it when reduced to component form - shifting it whole might be slightly harder, but it’ll bring in a handsome sum either way. 

No, it was a cheap car by most people's standards - £1200 - and it's done me three and a half years, so I probably shouldn't be too miffed. I knew it was an unknown quantity, and spent probably the first year thinking it was about to implode any second (funny how serial Renault ownership does that) - so in a way I'm surprised it made it this far.

It seems to have spent a fair bit of its life down on the farm, going by the history file, so there could well have been some structural mud under there that I injudiciously destroyed by pressure washing it?

Surprised to see prices so firm on these, all the same - the only manual box Gen 2 Forester turbo I could find advertised for sale was up the road, but the seller's looking £13k for it... Granted it's the most desirable STi spec and a recent Japanese import to boot, but still - I kinda feel like I might be cueing myself up here for another entry in the 'Scrapped a Cosworth' thread...

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Someone did tell me that some companies were actually cutting back on anti-corrosion measures to save money - Alfa, for one. Didn't think it was that widespread, but this looks quite the horror.

Certainly the good ol' northern climes with their salty roads helped the rust bug along, even though my dimwitted antics earlier in the year with batteries and alarms meant that it was off the road between December and the end of March, during the worst of the snow and ice.

Frustrating that even now the Japanese still don't seem to do much in the way of rust protection for European spec cars, but it's funny you should mention Alfa - as my 156 was an absolute horrorshow underneath, at less than ten years old...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

16 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

....the Japanese still don't seem to do much in the way of rust protection for European spec cars, but it's funny you should mention Alfa - as my 156 was an absolute horrorshow underneath, at less than ten years old...

Apparently the JDM cars are supposed to be worse.

The 156 was the one I was thinking of. By contrast, the 164 was well-protected.

[Saabnut]

Farm life kills cars. Driving through animal waste (usually mixed in with mud to help it stick) will spread the underside with a nice caustic mix.

[JimH]

Yelp. That really is frilly. 

[somewhatfoolish]

 

[Inspiral_Mondays]

10 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Apparently the JDM cars are supposed to be worse.

Back around 2000ish,  a colleague at work bought a JDM Mazda Eunos. It was visually far better than a UK MX5 as most of them had been barried by then, but I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen a car rust so fast. You could almost see it dissolving as you watched.

[beko1987]

Paint it all over with underseal, give it a wash and cartakeback? 

[artdjones]

Some of the European made Jap cars seem to be ok.Ive never seen more than scabs on an E12 Corolla,a MK2 Avensis or a MK1 Yaris.

[Datsuncog]

12 hours ago, mcmolloy1 said:

There's a tidy looking  '99 Laguna on done deal if you're interested. In Co. Down

Heh, I mentioned that one to MrsDC and she looked thunderous... I think my time Rennering might be done.

I still quite fancy a Volvo XC70, though decent ones seem to be becoming thin on the ground.

I also still have a Saab-shaped itch that I'd like to scratch with a 9-3 or 9-5 estate, but the Mechanic of Choice (and his brother) became highly agitated at this suggestion, as they claim spares are becoming harder and harder to track down - and so did their level best to dissuade me from any further course of action involving anything with that badge.

Mind you, that won't necessarily stop me...

 

11 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

The subframe doesn't look that bad but as is always the case with rust, the inner arches do look like the tip of the iceberg.

Ive seen worse fixed, @Burnside's truly epic Cavalier thread over on the old  MK3 Cav forum is testament to that but as said, you have to be utterly committed to a car to sort galloping corrosion of that magnitude.

Even although it's not entirely unexpected, it's still a shame to see.

Whatever you do, please don't buy another one that has rust issues.....

Yeah, the mechanic told me that he hadn't really poked any further than the arches before calling me - it sorta told him all he needed to know. I've no doubt if he delved a little deeper, there'd have been even more bran flakes littering the workshop floor... but the subframe wasn't quite as bad as another Gen 2 Forester he'd had in a few weeks before, which was completely rotten right through.

The owner of that one had only bought it a fortnight before and dropped it in to get an EML checked, so apparently that was an interesting conversation!

It'd take someone with serious skills and a workshop to tackle this kind of galloping rot (like Burnside), as well as limitless enthusiasm - none of which I really possess.

I'm guessing that whatever I wind up with next will have some rust issues to a greater or lesser extent - it's just finding something that falls into the 'lesser' category. Much as I'd love an interesting car to cherish and be proud of, since we live on the coast and have no garage to keep the elements off our cars, I fear they're only ever going to deteriorate in my so-called care.  I know I should make more of an effort, though the past lot of years have been spent re-doing the house from top to bottom, so cars just haven't had much of a look-in.

But! I've a few irons in the fire, anyway... and I'll see what the next chapter brings.

47 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

Farm life kills cars. Driving through animal waste (usually mixed in with mud to help it stick) will spread the underside with a nice caustic mix.

A check through the history file indicated that this car spent a fair chunk of its life in rural Herefordshire, before skipping over the border to Llandrindod Wells - and the owners' address does indeed appear to correspond with a working farm, so I think you could well be correct on this...

Funnily enough the prior MOT history never indicated any corrosion issues - beyond advisories for crusty brake hose ferrules - and I think I may have become overly complacent in the idea that MODERNS DON'T RUST M8.

Which is silly, because I really ought to have known better... I literally grew up doing these kinds of jobs.

Still, this Marina estate was crowning a three-car-stack in Bobby Shaw's yard less than four years after this photo was taken, so sometimes the best-laid plans come to naught...

 

43 minutes ago, JimH said:

Yelp. That really is frilly. 

Isn't it, though? 

PERFORMANCE RUST YO.

I'm going to guess your Outback's a wee way off this just yet?

 

18 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

 

Heh, it won't even drive to the bridge!

I'm hoping someone still might want the mechanicals out of it, though. The turbocharged EJ20 unit with the rare manual box really is very sweet and on the button, and I think too good to squash. There's a fair few Impreza lickers locally, who may be interested...