Bought this in July 2012 off a squaddy in Catterick:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Not bad for the price, but had been Idle for 11 months, and only in the country 18 months before that, so
no rust or nasty stuff underneath.
And it's a rare twin sunroof model.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Done about 80k miles when you work it out.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]It was on some fairly nasty wheels, and a set of brand new tyres, the cheapest linglongs money can buy.
All in all, fairly solid car that needed a good clean, and some modifications!
This is what I've done, in no particular order:
Got some shabby 18" wheels, and had them refurbished, the gold is nicer than it appears in the picture:
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Got a set of Uniroyal Rainsports to go on these, but not fitted them yet, more wheel stuff later.
Modified the inlet manifold to take an inlet air temperature probe:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Fitted a remote oil pressure sender for a new gauge setup:
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Got ripped into the interior to do a lot of small wiring mods, add some gadgets, and fit a twin amp ICE system:
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2x 300w amps under the front seats, Alpine G speakers, sub in the bootspace in my custom built box:
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Also fitted some security, and a tracker.
. . . and used it as a shed:
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Got another set of wheels and tyres, these are on it now:
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Fitted the new gauges, and digital inlet temp and voltage displays, painted the horrible fake wood dash trims in
a nice Pewter colour, and fitted a nice leather gear lever gaiter.
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and a shiney blue knob.
Fitted a 3-port boost solenoid, relocated from inside the wing, to beside the primary turbo:
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Modified the gear lever to a short throw shifter:
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Fitted a second hand H&S secondary downpipe, decat mid pipe and backbox.
Had to fabricate hangers for most of it as H&S don't seem to believe in hangers:
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Heat wrapped and protected the downpipes:
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Found out that the backbox was off a saloon, so 4" too short!
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Fixed with a piece of 4" SS tube:
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Blasted, ported and painted the exhaust manifolds:
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Removed the front calipers:
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Test fitted some better ones, but I didn't have any wheels to fit over them at the time, so took them off again:
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. . so fitted 4-pots instead, and HEL hoses:
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Fitted some shiny Zerosports bits:
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Tore the rear brakes off
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and fitted new/refurbished/modified trailing arms that can now take 2-pot rear calipers.
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[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]fitted some Nissan Skyline calipers:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Found out it has uprated CUSCO anti roll bars front and rear, and a completely shagged set of adjustable drop links on the rear:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Binned them and fitted standard droplinks.
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Fitted a rear roof spoiler, and fitted reversing sensors into the rear bumper:
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I think that's probably enough brake lights.
Changed the solenoid box for one I refurbished in silicone hose:
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and a new battery and some unnecesary alloy bling:
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and a new air filter
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more shiney stuff:
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I had a bit of help fitting the strut brace:
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complete with built in brake-stopper:
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Changed timing belt and all pulleys, fitted a good used radiator, flushed the PAS fluid, and a dozen other little jobs under the bonnet:
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and replaced the whole bonnet, to get rid of those nasty external bonnet catch lock thingies.
added more horn:
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you can never have too much horn on.
Fitted a used HRC fuel pump:
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it didn't work.
Bought a new 340L versin and fitted that.
And changed the filter
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Blasted and painted the wipers, and got some fancy new blades:
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The tyres are too small, only 205/45x17:
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need some 225/45-17's, but thay will do for now.
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Got some stickers, and some polish:
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Eventually, 3 years later I took it for an MOT.
First time I had driven it since I drove it about 8 miles home from Catterick 3 years earlier.
Failed!
Airbag light suddenly came on, and didn't go off, and emissions were way too high.
Reset airbag light, and that fixed that, probably something to do with swapping the steering wheel for a much newer one.
Got a new Lambda sensor from ICP and it flew through the MOT this time.
After about 50 miles, I noticed a terrible clunking when reversing, seemed to be a front outer CV joint, so
I got a new driveshaft from ICP.
This didn't fix the clonk, and it was now worse when the car was hot.
Diagnosis was now a failed centre diff.
So I had this delivered:
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2002 Forester S-Turbo box and diff. 70k miles apparently.
It has an oil pump built in, and pipes for a cooler!
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Back to work:
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It's a bit of a chew on to change the gearbox by yourself, on axle stands, but I got there in the end:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]the engine crane lifted the box into position for me:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Checked the clutch, but it was almost perfect, so it went back in.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Anyway,
it's a happy ending!
The car is a pleasure to drive, and I'm enjoying every trip out.
Next job is either new 17" tyres, or fit the 18" wheels.
I also have a 'Bob Rawle' mapped ECU to fit, which should take it from standard 280hp up to something around 330.
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