I've found a black '91 4eat turbo sedan for sale that I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy. If anyone cares to help me decide feel free to put your two cents in, Matt (or anyone ).
I currently own a white '93 L 5-speed NA sedan. It has fairly serious rust issues. The wheel wells are rusted to the point where one more winter might take a heavy toll on them. My front mud flap on the drivers side is barely hanging on. The rear doors, trunk, front quarter-panels and the rocker panels are all deteriorating. All said and done it could cost $700 to fix it all at an average body shop. I keep it covered nicely with white rust inhibiting primer. The car has 178,000 miles on it but the engine is still pretty sound except for a valve cover gasket leak. The turbo is a nice looking car and it grabbed my eye as soon as I saw it. The body is in fair condition. There is some rust around the wheel wells but it's not near as bad as mine is. The interior could use cleaning but it's in good shape. There's an oil leak around the valve cover gasket area but I didn't really check it in detail. The guy rebuilt the tranny recently himself and it seems to run well. I did feel what seemed like slippage in 4th gear when I got on it but it's hard to tell having driven a manual all these years. I figure maybe I'd paint it and get rid of that damn white pinstripe. Then I could slap my rims on it and it would look sweet. The car has 163,000 on it with a current inspection and the guy wants like 1,000.00 bucks. I could drop probably 600.00 in it and come out with a nice black machine.
I'm also wondering how bad the tranny swap would be. I've searched through the bbs and turned up a bunch of stuff on the topic and I still can't decide if a 5mt would be better or not. If only I could swap my NA tranny into the car, then I would pretty much commit to it. I dunno...
One thing I love is the seats in that beast. You sink down in it. After driving that car, I felt like I was sitting high in my L.
Last edited by Tleg93 on Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hmm, Don't let the 4eat scare you, there's nothing wrong with increasing your driving experience and skill. Having just finished an auto-man swap I can tell you it's not hard assuming you've got the right tools. Would I recommend it? Right now no, but then again I'm having some minor problems that wouldn't have occured had I planned just a smidge better. If it were me, I'd fix the 93 to be in good condition then sell it, and buy the 91 or buy the 91 and slowly fix the 93 then sell or something. A jig for a great car sounds like a deal to me. I'd go for it assuming you've got the money.
Rio Red 90 Legacy LS AWD 174k
Liquid Silver 92 SVX LS-L 88k
[url=http://folding.amdmbpond.com/FoldingForOurFuture.html]Do you fold?[/url]
I'm on First and First. How can the same street intersect with itself? I must be at the nexus of the universe.
Hmm, the price is certainly right. And a little bit of rust and stuff isn't that big a deal considering the price and the future swappability of parts.
But I'm a little wary of the idea of a guy rebuilding a Subaru 4WD 4EAT himself shortly before the car being offered for sale. That transmission doesn't seem like it's really simple to rebuild, and it's a huge amount of effort to put into something you're about to sell for chump change. Also, the torque converter ought to always be locked in 4th gear, so if you thought you detected transmission slippage that's a little worrisome.
I would at least take it for another test drive to get a better idea about the transmission. Maybe take someone along who owns a Subaru 4EAT if you know anybody. Find out for sure if it's slipping or not. Also see if you can verify somehow that the MPT clutch is working (I think at least one board member had his 4EAT rebuilt and lost drive to the rear wheels).
If any Subaru can take advantage of the 4EAT, it's a turbo Subaru, so you might well find that after driving a 4EAT sport sedan for a while you don't actually want a manual.
But you should be able to swap the non-turbo 5-speed in as long as you get a stronger clutch for it (they're plentiful) and drive with mechanical sympathy.
"Just reading vrg3's convoluted, information-packed posts made me feel better all over again." -- subyluvr2212
Thanks for the reply, Vikash. It turns out I might take a job down near Baltimore so I may opt to keep what I have for the time being. Thanks for the tips and all. At first I was digging the car but the more I thought on the way the car was driving when I tested it out the more I began to doubt whether I really want to inherit any problems. I'll still think on it a bit.
depends on what you want. if you're worried about inheriting any problems, dont do it, there'll walways be issues with new cars that you dont realize til several hundred miles down the road
Laurel Tuning Stage 15
92 Touring Wagon 5MT 16G
[quote="NICO I WRX U"]the streets are my track[/quote]
Well, like I said, the price is right, but I wouldn't trust the transmission. And like you said, at that price you could afford to spend a good chunk of change on it. Matt's idea of swapping in another turbo 4EAT sounds pretty compelling, since it should be a very straightforward job.
"Just reading vrg3's convoluted, information-packed posts made me feel better all over again." -- subyluvr2212
Oh, and thanks to everyone else too. I don't want to leave out anyone. I was talking with my bro about it. He was a Toyota salesman for around 15 years. He seems to think I should just buy a car that's more expensive and not even think about getting a car that has 160k on it with rust and possible tranny issues. He says all I'll have will be problems and my gut is telling me he's right. He's always pretty negative about older cars and Subarus in general so I don't know. Truth be told I'd rather have a standard shift than an automatic after driving a standard for years it's hard to go back to letting a machine control shifting.
I'm not big on project cars due to the fact that I have nowhere to store an automobile. I won't be able to even work on my car soon. They frown on working on autos in the street.
To really fix the rust a rough guess is $2k and that may be conservative if you want it done right. Then too, it still wouldn't be as good as an original with no rust since the welding heat is more likely to bring the rust back.
Steve
Midnight in a Perfect World on Amazon or order anywhere. The first book in a quartet chronicling the rise of a man from angry criminal to philanthropist. Midnight... is a distopic noirish novel featuring 'Duchess', a modified 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
Really, you think it would cost 2k. Are you referring to the car I'm looking at or are you going on descriptions of the rust. That 2k price tag seems a bit high to me. In comparison, my car has a worse rust problem and Maaco quoted me at $750 for a paint job and body work. Regarding the heat of a torch encouraging rust; Is it better to just putty it up then?
Maaco either closes at the whisper of an INS raid or they're talking about plastic. Metal replacement is not cheap. Plastic is a decent temporary fix (like a year or two in corrosive climates - and where else would you need to have this done? - or to possibly rip off unwitting buyers). To me there's no point as I'd just save my money and get a new car in a year than put plastic on. I was basing my guess on the descriptions of rust for the car you're looking at. If your current car has rot in the same places, just more of it, it may not cost much more. Rust is always worse than it looks in northern climates, even more so if you're not experienced with rust. The one good thing about losing so many beloved cars to rust is a good ability to asses repair cost (at least in terms of go/no go on a buy). My estimate is for sill replacement and wheel arch rebuilding, front fenders, and paint. Somewhere here used rivets and adhesive instead of welding in new panels, and hell that holds the Lotus Elise together, but getting the right adhesive would be important as well as finding someone to do it if you weren't going to do the job yourself. PLastic is a very temporary repair that is not any help structurally - it is really only cosmetic and in some instances can even hasten rust further. Replacing the metal is the only way to really fix the repair, but after-maintenance will make all the difference as to how long the rapair lasts. The original metal was galvanized also, while the new stuff will not be.
Steve
Midnight in a Perfect World on Amazon or order anywhere. The first book in a quartet chronicling the rise of a man from angry criminal to philanthropist. Midnight... is a distopic noirish novel featuring 'Duchess', a modified 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
Thanks for the detailed information, it helps out. The descriptions Stupidru gave of the rust were perhaps a tiny bit overstated. I didn't see any holes and there was no rust under any of the windows. It's all the usual spots, wheel wells and behing the mud flaps. I'm sure that once someone started grinding away the metal there may be no metal around the rear wheel area that's untouched by rust but a lot of it does look like surface rust. I need to take someone who is a little more experienced with me to go have a look at it once more.
A magnet and a little discrete poking with an awl is a good way to get a better idea, too. Think like crud - where would tires/rain/snow get you to live. Gutters, wheels wells, shelf like protrusions in the wheel wells, under window trim, etc.
Steve
Midnight in a Perfect World on Amazon or order anywhere. The first book in a quartet chronicling the rise of a man from angry criminal to philanthropist. Midnight... is a distopic noirish novel featuring 'Duchess', a modified 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
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