St.Jude's Road To Perdition - A 2003 Subaru Legacy // Good Buy

[R Lutz]

On 15/06/2025 at 06:35, St.Jude said:

The lightbulbs are great, so much better than the Osram Night breakers I’ve used before 100% recommended.

They will fail soon. I know this. 

[St.Jude]

1 hour ago, R Lutz said:

They will fail soon. I know this. 

To be fair they've already out lasted a button battery in a key fob!

[St.Jude]

So today I decided to tackle the front wheel bearing and give it an oil and filter change.

The job did not go well, oh no it didn’t. Actually it’s postponed.

Judging by the knocking I’ve been getting and the MOT history, I thought the anti roll bar bushes needed doing. So went to GSF and ordered them to pick up today - but they didn’t have them. Fine, can still do the wheel bearing.

Except when I Jack it up, I don’t think the ARBs are toast. No, it’s the wishbone.

So I’ve placed an order with Autodoc for £65, and hopefully have them at the end of the week. I did try to carry on with the bearing but to be honest I can’t really do it in situ. Thought I could. Reasoned if I’m taking the wishbone off anyway I may as well wait until then.

In the mean time, it’s not going anywhere. I can now at least sort the headlights properly and carry on with the oil change.

No idea why it’s upside down but look at the underneath:

A few brown bits, but it looks good. The plastic hasn’t even rusted away 😉

[St.Jude]

Made a slight mess of filling it with oil, but I blame the apprentice for that.

[St.Jude]

It doesn’t rain, it pours. Literally. Lovely all morning for me to do Dad things like the shopping. I get to this job and it fucks it down rain and hail.

When it eventually stopped I got to it. Old wishbone came off putting up a fight. Rounded the Allen key thing for the drop link so thought fuck it, cut it off. Trip to Euro Car Prats, came back with a drop link. Good to go!

Oh no. Ball joint cover is split and GSF are the only ones with a replacement, available Monday. I did find that a bit of superglue could put it together if I was stuck, and I nearly went that route.

Until my 14mm socket decided it had enough of undoing nuts and bolts and married itself to the 2nd to last bolt holding the wheel bearing on to the hub. I had to batter the socket off of the bolt and it eventually came off. Didn’t check the socket until I put it on the last bolt and wondered why it was spinning. It’s rounded off the head of the bolt.

Found my bolt remover tool and put it on, but the space is so tight I can’t get a socket on to it.

So I am having a good day.

I am thinking of getting an imperial socket that’s roughly 13.5mm (if one exists) and muller that on to the bolt. If that doesn’t work then I am going to have to remove the hub completely and attack it on the bench.

Also need to look for a Subaru dealer to get a new bolt from, as that one ain’t going back on.

[St.Jude]

Replacement bolt ordered by a fairly local Subaru dealer - nearly £9. So it’s nice to see Subaru pricing is similar to Toyota!

Also realised my nut/bolt extractors, well they’re not all the same. I didn’t know the ones I had could be got where they attach to a ratchet. So I’ve got new ones on order which will get me out of this bind.

The ones I have are good if there’s not much space behind and you can get a spanner on it. But I’ve plenty of room here so will upgrade the tools.

Also purchased a new 1/2” 14mm socket to replace my fucked one.

[St.Jude]

Over the weekend the mother in law decided to clean the house while we were away. I say the house, more so moved all my shit and broke my coffee machine cleaning it. Meant to be grateful she’s “helping” apparently, fuck off.

The result of this is that the 14mm 1/2” socket I purchased went walkies. Funny as it was together with the tools mentioned above. I ended up using the 3/8” socket and hoped for the best.

The ball joint I split the boot of was fixed with super glue, as the stuff really works well with the rubber apparently. Don’t doubt it as it set hard. Wrapped it in electrical tape to make sure it all stayed together to keep dust and dirt out.

Forgot/didnt realise the hole where the giggle pin goes through was corroded up. Drilled a hole through that just in case, as I had intended to use a lock nut here. But the lock nut wouldn’t take to the thread so ended up with the giggle pin. All good on that front.

Everything went back together fine. The nut extractor I got from Amazon that attaches to the ratchet worked wonders and got me out of a hole. Everything back on, took it for a spin - steering is a bit off but I know it will need tracking which will be done this week.

From the bit of a test drive I did, no more knocks. No new knocks either. But there is still a bit of a drone. So I may have more than one bearing that needs replacing, but I’m not sure to be honest as it could easily be tyre roar too.

[grogee]

Split pin

Jiggle pin

Giggle pin

[St.Jude]

46 minutes ago, grogee said:

Split pin

Jiggle pin

Giggle pin

The politics section makes more sense now.

Not even sure who I’m meant to tag in this, could be so many!

[Dyslexic Viking]

Good someone makes sense of this because I don't.

[St.Jude]

Finally had time this morning to get the front tracking sorted as it’s been all to cock since I did the wishbone.

It’s up on the ramp and as any good owner who’s had their arse bit by Japanese cars, let’s look for rust!

Looks worse than it is really. A can of clear Waxoyl wouldn’t go far wrong here.

But what about sills?

Checked behind the black mudguard thing, looks absolutely fine really. Bit orange but it’s not rotted.

Same here.

Am I right to call this a unicorn given it’s on 180,000 and this is as bad as the rust is?