St.Jude's Road To Perdition - A 2003 Subaru Legacy // Tooled Up Gobshite

[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.