Subaru surgery, back under the knife - Shock absorber fun....

[Marina door handles]

As some of you may know courtesy of my recent car buying threads, my old daily driver has thrown most of its toys out of the pram. About a month ago I started getting a bit of light bearing whine, this eventually became more of a full on underground train impersonation. After checking the car over I traced it to one of the rear bearings, I also discovered that both rear shocks had oil slicks running down them.

I dragged the car into the garage and over the pit and started digging into the issues, I figured I would just unbolt the hub carriers and pull the shocks out, easy right? Nope, although the body is pretty rust free for a near 25 year old car, the multi link rear suspension seems pretty corroded  in all the wrong places and unlike the front suspension none of it has been apart in years.....

No amount of hammering would free the hubs from the suspension arms, so I decided to remove the arms from the subframe.  As I examined the subframe I found a crack and a rust hole rather close to the left rear arm. This could well explain why I am getting a weird judder when turning sharp left out of junctions! 😗

Crack and hole (that sounds wrong!) circled and you may also notice that I had to get the grinder out to slice through the bolt, carefully running it between the arm and the subframe, chomping through the rubber bush before I could get the bolt..... Most the of the passenger side suspension bolts required fairly mediaeval methods to remove them, new nuts and bolts will be needed!

After much persuasion the arms came off, meaning I could drag the complete suspension units to the bench and work at them from a more comfortable angle, pin them in the vice and attack them with the angle grinder and the ugga dugga gun..... Essentially the carriers have a long bolt running through them, picking up the suspension arms at both ends.  On the passenger side one, removing the nut from the end did nothing the arms were seized to the bolt and the bolt seized the carrier...

To get it out I cut the head off the bolt, then put the nut back on and set the ugga dugga gun to do up, essentially pulling the bolt the wrong way through the carrier, kinda brutal but it worked.. 

A very crap bit of potato shop to show the offending bolt before it all came apart and I lost my enthusiasm for taking pictures...

A few days later I got back on it, next stage after freeing off all the arms from the hubs was to take the exhaust  off, drop the diff and carrier to free the crusty subframe..

Then after a brief fight with the crusty bolts I got the subframe off the diff, think it looks a bit grumpy about the whole ordeal?

But more importantly I could have a good look at the subframe in all its crusty glory..

Will it weld???

Looks like it will the metal is just thick enough.

So far so good I think, this little project has taken days and days and there was a small matter of panic buying a Honda part way through and if you were wondering were the Rover has got to...... Its just behind the Forester being ignored, excuse the mess...

And yes that is a B series engine just sat there and no it doesn't belong in either of those cars.

Anyway,  the next stage is going to be weld the subframe and make sure I am happy with the result, then fight with the subframe to diff bush remnants as they need to come out. Then drop the fuel tank (yes really) as the brake lines are getting rather crusty and run above the tank and are inaccessible. Whilst its all apart, it makes sense. 

Thanks for reading please unlike and subside......

 

[Asimo]

Lucky Forester to get all of your effort! 
I was very dissappointed when my old Subaru needed a bit of rear subframe welding at about 10 years old and it was dead at 13 years. Japanese brands seem to make no effort at all to protect subframes and suspension parts.

Compare the pristine* Triumph subframe that @SiC found under his utterly rotten Dolomite.

 

[SiC]

That was protected by decades of oil loss from the engine though! Maybe if Japanese cars leaked oil, they'd do a bit better. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Aha, the infamous Subaru long bolt! 

Great perseverance, but make sure your welding to the subframe is top notch as some MOT testers will take a dim view to subframe repairs. They're not technically allowed, but if done well enough and "appears to be as strong as original" then a friendly tester may pass it 

[Blake's Den]

Yeah, Subaru rust. I've been there before, twice! The last time resulted in me utilising an Arnold Clark we'll by any car thing to get rid of it.

[Marina door handles]

1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Aha, the infamous Subaru long bolt! 

Great perseverance, but make sure your welding to the subframe is top notch as some MOT testers will take a dim view to subframe repairs. They're not technically allowed, but if done well enough and "appears to be as strong as original" then a friendly tester may pass it 

Good point I will bear that in mind, I might show a friendly MOT tester my handiwork before I bother re fitting it to make sure I am not wasting my time. 

[Metal Guru]

6 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Aha, the infamous Subaru long bolt! 

Great perseverance, but make sure your welding to the subframe is top notch as some MOT testers will take a dim view to subframe repairs. They're not technically allowed, but if done well enough and "appears to be as strong as original" then a friendly tester may pass it 

I paid£100 for a very good subframe for the Impreza , following an advisory but three MOTs on it’s not been needed. Mysteriously, not even advisories?

[tooSavvy]

Utoober 'SouthMainAuto' did a skoob rear end...

MrNasty UggaDugga Extreme....

Those thru bolts were epic[ally] rust/fused 😵

May The Force Be With You 👍

[Back_For_More]

My slog on with both rear bearings totalled 13+hrs - luckily the long bolts were easy out..... The caliper carrier bolts on the other hand were a sodding nightmare. 

Time limits meant I did the minimim and used it ASAP..... All fine. 

Getting the bearings out of the arms was an utter *joy. 

I had the luxury of a mates works 4poster too..... Anything less I'd have been torching the fugger for sure. 

Good luck fella..... 

[Rocket88]

Do Subaru soak all their bolts in sea water before assembly?

[alcyonecorporation]

I inferred from reading your title and name quickly that you were going to drop a giant Marina door handle over Forester running gear. 

While I'll happily watch you do that, I also think it'll be a colossal ball ache. 

[Marina door handles]

Small not very exciting update, I have decided what to do with the subframe....

The more I looked at the original the more I realised it was mostly Ferrous Oxide and really not worth attempting to save, so I found a place in Derby doing used Japanese car parts and picked the shiny looking one up earlier today. The best part is that its from a slightly later car and has additional strengthening so it will easily cope with rear ends part share of a whopping 110 broken horse powers...

 

[iainrcz]

I watch a guy on YouTube that's a mechanic in the US salt belt. I've seen him have "fun" with those long bolts before.

[Marina door handles]

1 hour ago, iainrcz said:

I watch a guy on YouTube that's a mechanic in the US salt belt. I've seen him have "fun" with those long bolts before.

Speaking of long bolts, believe it or not  the drivers side came apart with some persuasion (okay quite a bit but nothing crazy) , might have had something to do with the shock absorber piddling oil  all over it for a little while, this seems to be a surprisingly good penetrant!  The passenger side one was a complete bastard and I had to get brutal with that one as detailed in the first post. Most other car manufacturers do this kind of thing better!  

[tul66]

On 3/20/2023 at 9:27 PM, Blake's Den said:

Yeah, Subaru rust. I've been there before, twice! The last time resulted in me utilising an Arnold Clark we'll by any car thing to get rid of it.

Me too. I just don't get the love for those Legacys/Forresters etc, they're all expensive to maintain rustbuckets.

[warch]

50 minutes ago, tul66 said:

Me too. I just don't get the love for those Legacys/Forresters etc, they're all expensive to maintain rustbuckets.

Japanese cars intended for the domestic market only need to last six years or so, the government mandated inspection is so expensive and rigorous that most cars won't see more than two or three tests before the cost of future tests vs the value of car makes it economically unviable (hence why they import so many used cars).

Additionally they don't salt the roads in Japan so underbody protection is an unnecessary additional cost. Think commercial vehicle, they're mechanically fine for 300,000 miles but the bodywork will be absolutely shagged after six or seven years.

[tul66]

19 minutes ago, warch said:

Japanese cars intended for the domestic market only need to last six years or so, the government mandated inspection is so expensive and rigorous that most cars won't see more than two or three tests before the cost of future tests vs the value of car makes it economically unviable (hence why they import so many used cars).

Additionally they don't salt the roads in Japan so underbody protection is an unnecessary additional cost. Think commercial vehicle, they're mechanically fine for 300,000 miles but the bodywork will be absolutely shagged after six or seven years.

Ours were made for the UK market so that's not relevant.

 

[warch]

22 minutes ago, tul66 said:

Ours were made for the UK market so that's not relevant.

 

I was talking more in terms of design philosophy, many Japanese cars built for the UK market have inadequate corrosion protection too, they just never saw it as an issue. 

[tul66]

41 minutes ago, warch said:

I was talking more in terms of design philosophy, many Japanese cars built for the UK market have inadequate corrosion protection too, they just never saw it as an issue. 

I think you've got a point there. 👍

[Marina door handles]

4 hours ago, warch said:

I was talking more in terms of design philosophy, many Japanese cars built for the UK market have inadequate corrosion protection too, they just never saw it as an issue. 

Yeah but no... Some Japanese cars are bad for this, like the MX5 (but then its supposed to be their equivalent of a British sports car so it should rust for fun right?) The Forester is 25 years old and the body is actually really good, its the un-bolt-able bits which let it down.

[warch]

2 hours ago, Marina door handles said:

Yeah but no... Some Japanese cars are bad for this, like the MX5 (but then its supposed to bet their equivalent of a British sports car so it should rust for fun right?) The Forester is 25 years old and the body is actually really good, its the un-bolt-able bits which let it down.

That's not bad for a 25 year old car of any manufacturer. I've seen quite a few newer cars with advanced subframe or drivetrain component rot, notably my then well under ten year old Golf Mk V, and my brother's Jaguar X Type. A friend who owns a Golf R (alloy subframes) fared even worse, a bolt snapped in the subframe, which required removing to sort (we just fitted a replacement).  

I do remember seeing some really manky not very old Imprezas which could only have been eight or nine years old at the time though which rather coloured my opinion of them. A mate's WRX with a knackered bottom end at 60, 000 miles was the other, he couldn't find anyone who'd even look at it let alone do an engine repair/replacement. 

[Metal Guru]

I saw a video on YouTube ( American I think), saying Subarus were the easiest cars to work on. I thought “you must be joking”, but his reasoning was , they are all the same. Know one model , you know them all. Nothing has changed fundamentally for 25 years whereas , a Ford might have 3 different versions of the same part within the same model year.

[Marina door handles]

 Update no 235783653432.1 

Todays job draining the fuel tank (because I want to replace the brake lines that run above it). Unfortunately its got close to a full tank,  the original intention was to run it dry before taking it off the road but the noise from the bearings and the sloppy handling courtesy of the shot dampers meant it came off the road much quicker than anticipated...  

Not really a fun job unless you like the smell of petrol, I kinda do but only in small doses, I am sure 4 star smelt better! Anyway after carefully unbolting the access panels (pickup and fuel gauge sender).... 

I dug out the new and as yet unused in an actual car MGB fuel pump (doesn't everyone have one of those lying around?) and jury rigged it to a car battery. 

And then set it to work, after filling four small-ish jerry cans and the tank on the lawn mower, it pretty much emptied one half of the tank and by this point my brain had enough of the smell.

Stay tuned for another exciting update......

[Marina door handles]

Progressing slowly on the fuel tank removal job. Drained as much as I could from the other side of the tank, then started on disconnecting everything underneath. Had to nick the scissor jack out of my new Honda and one out of the Forester itself to create a safe way to lower the tank. Amazingly I only broke one clip and snapped the end of one fuel line, during the process that's almost feels like a win!  Obviously I did manage to cover my self in petrol but thats normal right? 

Jacks in place.

Coming down

And out... So much space!

Tanked...

Not much to show for quite a lot of work! 

Next jobs are putting the new shock absorbers together (McPherson strut), replacing the brake lines and repairing the broken fuel evap line, will the pictures be any better? Tune in next time to find out!

 

[Marina door handles]

Well it was a good Friday to do some struts...

The best part was I had to crack out the welder... To do struts WTF?! Well thanks to an awkward part of the design, the nut that holds the strut top mount to the strut is deeply inset and the strut itself has an Allan key hole in the top to stop it spinning (as you do up the nut). None of my spanners were deeply off set enough to fit so I abused a shabby old 21mm impact socket and welded it to some angled bar...

This worked a treat....

That's pretty much it, exciting huh?

Tune in next time.......

[mercedade]

Top tool fabbing skills.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 minute ago, mercedade said:

Top tool fabbing skills.

2023 AutoShite FrankenTools Nomination right there

[Marina door handles]

Right were had I actually got to......

I decided to re watch Tools n Track's Impreza videos, mainly because Tom rebuilds the rear axle, I thought there might be some useful stuff I may have forgotten... At one point Tom clutches the edge of the fuel tank which makes a disturbing crunchy noise and promptly decides to replace it. That got me thinking, what state was mine in, I really hadn't paid it much attention as I was focused on other areas,...

Turns out my little tank is turning to filo pastry around the edges, well bugger!

Its like that around the entire edge, its all thin and crispy, so hmm what to do. I did think about scrapping the car but I figured I was in too deep and once re built, if I have really fallen out with it, it could always end up being sold??

I thought to myself what would Arthur C Clarke do and then just like something out of 2001, this appeared in my garage......

A giant black monolith my God, is it full of stars? Nope just a fuel tank.....

So that's just another £279 to add the on going tally, gulp.....

So now I focused on replacing the brake lines. The lines are covered in a  protective coat apart from were they join the unions, the bare steel has been exposed for a long time and is heavily corroded and basically impossible to separate from the unions. 

So most of it was removed with either a hack saw or a proper brake line cutter. Then the fun part trying to fab up lines in Cunifer in the same complex shapes as the originals....

 

Pretty close, I think, I do hate really messy looking brake pipes.  Excuse the Charlie Chaplin feet, never know were to point them in photos!

And pipe temporarily in place.

Progress of sorts, might be another update tomorrow! 

 

 

[Marina door handles]

Today was a fairly busy day but I did briefly get in the garage. Turns out I am clearly a bit out of practice doing brake lines, brain fade in 3.....2.....1..

So in case you haven't spotted it, how do you get a flair if you cannot get the flaring tool between the union and the end of the line, muppet! 

I have now got replace the whole new line I made yesterday good job Cunifer isn't stupidly expensive.......  Also I managed to kink the original steel hard line whilst trying to put a flair in.  So I had to cut more line off and fit another union further down.

Not an ideal start but its still progressing, sort of. 

 

 

[Marina door handles]

Well the work hit a bit of an impasse, I had a bit of a technical issue, I started to notice that my pipe flares were quite inconsistent..

After a bit of trial and error and initial assuming I was the problem this bad workmen got to blame his tools! Turns out the thread in my brake flare tool was eating itself and causing the issue, bit annoying because although I have had this a few years it hasn't had a hard life at all....

So I dug deep (into my bank account) and bought a Sykes Pickavant Flaremaster.

Its a bit of a revelation, really nice consistent flares, which means I have now completed the main brake line runs on both sides. I need to wait for new flexi brake pipes to arrive so I can complete the circuit and actual bleed and test the lines but I am a lot more confident now. Hopefully this new tool will last, it seems well made and I do have future projects in mind so hopefully it will be worth the investment.

More like it! 

Both pipes in place. yep more pictures in the half darkness....

Anyway that's all for now, might post something other than boring brake lines next time!