Introduction:
It's sadly time to put my 1992 Legacy L Sedan (BC) 5MT (271,000 miles) to bed, and in pursuit of practicality (well actually it was just $300 so I couldn't say no) I've pick up a surprisingly-pretty-good-condition-for-the-price 1998 Legacy L Wagon (BK) 5MT (204,000 miles). And then I rebuilt the engine. It will probably fail catastrophically. So needless to say this isn't the car of my dreams and I don't want to dump a whole lot of money into it, but I certainly have some plans and goals in store (what I'd really like is a 1999 Legacy L wagon in good condition, first year of the phase II 2.2L, last year before the chassis gained 300 pounds).
Driving Impressions:
On to business. Now I threw that '92 BC around a lot in the snow (my favorite pastime!) and in the rain. My friend who happens to own the same '98 BK that I do now always wanted to drive it. There's nothing special about it, he just liked how it felt. I now know what he was onto; this '98 BK is soft. It's not god-awful, in fact it's nice that it's quieter, but there's definitely less chassis communication to the driver. The average guy is pleased by this perhaps, but me? I'm scared.
I took the BK down a downward on-ramp in the rain as I have my BC, and where the BC's rear end would step out gradually; letting me know by a change in vibration in the rear; the BK holds traction. Fine, it's got a rear sway bar, the freakin' BC didn't (which I must say taught me to balance the car's weight well). But when I push the BK a little faster, then the rear steps out. I didn't feel it. I though I felt something, I'm not sure; but I sure as hell saw it as the car began to rotate.
Maye it's the tires, maybe it's the alignment? Surely it's tweaked a bit when the car was $300 from some New Hampshire woodsman. Well indeed the front tires are worn and the rear's are different and near new, but setting the pressure 36/34 F/R should keep things predictable. As for the alignment, it's likely tweaked, but even so my BC's alignment is fucked, so I know how to handle that, that's not the issue; the car isn't talking to me.
Similarly, in the dry, I plowed into an upward off-ramp at speed in the BK, moderate braking, turn, a little tire squeal, and copious understeer; and scarier still is that again I had to see it before I felt it significantly. In my BC I could feel the tires straining under pressure, not a lot but I could, and in the same situation the turn in would have been sharper and the weight shift more complete on the BC.
Plans:
For starters I planned to some chassis reinforcement. Front and rear strut braces, I might shell out for the Whiteline rear with quick-release. Ideally I'd be putting good bushings in all-around, but it's just not worth the work right now, especially for this rusty BK. Endlinks all-around and a rear sway bar are planned, as well as steering rack bushings. Most importantly I need to do more to make the rear end talk to me. I don't want NVH (noise vibration and harshness) to take a leap, but a small increase is fine. So I assume that means that locking down the rear subframe is out of the question, but are there subframe bushing kits? Strut tops? This is where I need some help, I'm not sure where to go with mods. What do you guy think?
Thanks for reading.
I'll take your advice on two piece lock bolts.