James' Subaru Liberty 3.0R-B Wagon "SKD55S"

[applegeek897]

My carepackage arrived from BCW today,





Got a bunch of nice new genuine items



Genuine Oil filter





Genuine H6 radiator cap





Genuine Washer-bottle





Also grabbed an overflow bottle cap but I didn't realise it was a different unit for the H6





Goodbye bye non genuine rad cap





Goodbye old washer-bottle cap





Why bother with these little things? Because I already needed to do an order with Benny and they were so cheap so why not clean the bay up a bit.

[applegeek897]

Picked up some DAMD goodness from Garage 88 toady.





The excitement was real.





So happy with the look and feel of the unit, a brand new wheel is such a nice thing.





Seems so well put together with nice touches.





Only thing left to do now is install it. This wheel is a post face unit so I will have to do some electrical conversion to make everything work, does not look like it will be to hard though. I have a post facelift wheel, airbag, controls and clock spring on the way which will make the conversion possible.

[applegeek897]

Today was the day to throw the DAMD wheel in. The old wheel had seen better days years ago. It was well over due for replacement. Even to the point where it was actually starting to peel on the right side.





Even the media controls were completely haggard.





Started with some pesky torks T30 screws to remove the airbag.





With the airbag and horn connector off the airbag came off with ease.





The 17mm bolt came off with some help from a big pry bar. Looks so strange with no wheel.





I also picked up a normal momo wheel from a post FL GT that I could rob the controls, airbag and wiring from to use on the new wheel.





The cruise control needed to be removed from the old wheel so I could steal the connector from it.





The same deal for the media controls / horn





Everything was then spliced together to make it all work. I did purchase a post FL clock spring as it might have been a better option but this worked perfectly.





All sorted, time to get it in the car.





Airbag on and done, man what a difference. Certainly something I need to get used to though. This total cost of this was about $800 but that included also getting a another wheel to do the post face conversion. A hard number to stomach but a no brainer once it's actually on the car.

[Kei-86]

Quite a difference there, much tidier. I'm surprised to see so much wear on the original wheel though, but then I don't know the mileage it's covered.

[applegeek897]

Quite a difference there, much tidier. I'm surprised to see so much wear on the original wheel though, but then I don't know the mileage it's covered.

350,000km's mate hahah it's a few k's from diving to the moon.

[Kei-86]

Wowsers, that's a lot of miles for a 12 year old car. Mines only just coming up on 310k and that's 22 years old.

[applegeek897]

Wowsers, that's a lot of miles for a 12 year old car. Mines only just coming up on 310k and that's 22 years old.

Haha yeah man it's pretty funny, my daihatsu was 15 years old when I got it two years ago, had 39,000km at that time ahah. Only up to 56K now.

[Kreuzart]

Love the liberty wagon mate.

[applegeek897]

Love the liberty wagon mate.

Thanks man, it's getting there bit by bit.

[applegeek897]

Another 5,000km (ish) another service.



Penrite HPR10 10W-50 has been the choice for the last couple services and it's been great.



Oil drained and filter off, goodbye Ryco!





Hello Subaru genuine goodness.





Ben was nice enough to supply a new sump washer gasket with the filter.





I also finally after like 4 months correctly put on the passenger eyelid, the shape was so far off but with some help from a heat-gun, everything was sorted.





Finally matching with the other side, pity the bonnet is so bent...





I've also ordered some Tein Flex Z Coilovers would should be here tomorrow, fingers crossed.

[applegeek897]

They're here!



I'm ready for the pleasure.



Man they are almost more art then part, oh and VERY green.



They were also nice enough to supply a bunch of nice stickers.



Also included was a nice damper adjuster and really nice set of c spanners.





Install should happen tomorrow, I'm just so keen!

[applegeek897]

Install time, started with just doing a basic setup, get a rough height, although I'm flying completely blind and just did what I thought would be good.



Car in the air ready for the install.



I thought the front would be more involved so I started there first to get it over and done with, wheels off.





Time to pull the struts off.





Holy shit balls those bolts were on tight, but with lots of arm juice it came off eventually.



Strut bolts and brace next to come off.



And out it comes, goodbye old bastard.





Coils in, rinse and repeat for the other side.





The guessed high seemed to work pretty well for a first go, I might go a slight touch lower but that can be done when it goes in for an alignment at Heasmans.



For the rears just about everything had to come out to get to the rear strut tops, and even then they aren't great.





Onto the rear now.



Wheels off and struts out, these took not even a quarter of the time to remove.





Coils in, it was fairly hard with one person, trying to get everything to sit right but it went in eventually.





The rear settled a bit more after a drive. I set the dampers 8 stops down from the hardest setting, which was the recommendation from Tein. It actually seems more comfortable then the old suspension, although I take that more to the fact that this has 347,000km less then the old stuff. Everything will get another spanner check in the morning as well as a wash and a small photo shoot.

I'm so happy I finally did it, well overdue. I didn't go for the usual MCA or Shockworks, but after the recommendation from Garage 88, so happy I went this direction.

[applegeek897]

Didn't get the angles perfect and the light was very different the next day but heres a rough idea of the difference.

Fronts, before and after.





Rears, before and after.





And full side, before and after.





Certainly some more fine turning to do, but man I'm happy with the result.

[applegeek897]

So the suspension has had a good chance to settle and damn, the front was scrapping bad, totally my fault on the setup, the is my first time after all. The drivers side even got to the point where it was damaging the actual got, something needed to be done asap.



This wasnt going to stop the car being ever practical though.



I raised the front to at least help things to start with. Unfortunately both Sydney Guard Rolling and Heasman were booked out for either a few days or more then a week. I was able to get SGR to mine on Monday evening which help sort the front out quick smart. I opted to only do the front as there was HEAPS of room in the rear, wasnt worth the extra 75 bucks a corner to do it. Big props though he did an epic job on the car, true professional.



With the majority of the scrapping being sort it would still do so under hard compression. So the car was put away until it could go to Heasman and be properly setup and aligned.



Man they worked absolute wonders, the front was raised just enough where you almost couldnt tell yet it wont at all scrape. Of course the alignment was completely out.

Man what a difference it is too drive. I havent had a proper chance to give the car a proper fang due to the weather, but still. Sooooooo happy.

The guy who did the work did mention a few concerns with the car, mainly the timing case leaking oil, which I am aware of and from what I understand is a very common issue. Despite being very slow and no reason of concern, it has been dripping onto the lower coolant hose, which has now started to swell. I will keep a good eye on this but its something I will look at replacing very soon, Id love to do a performance rad while Im there but its a bit of an effort having to modify it, oh well, time will tell. He also just said diff bushes and laughed, they also need doing.

[applegeek897]

Since the suspension tweeks the car has been driving incredible, certainly the best it ever has.

The car also got a long overdue wash today.



I've ordered a lower rad hose to replace the bulging one before it blows. I'd rather avoid the head gasket going on this if I can. Also have some new rear diff bushes on the way. The current ones are completely non existent. I decided to go with OEM replacement ones and then get some whiteline inserts to add some stiffness. I've heard they are pretty shit to remove, I suppose I'll see.

Next up on the list of things to do on the car will centre diff refurb with a transmission and diff oil change, it's really long overdue. After that, thanks to my tax return I'll be doing a Brembo front conversion (if they fit). Going to get a set of brand new calipers from Rising Sun Subaru, or BCW if he can supply them. Dixel Type-M pads, Hel lines front and rear, and then either DBA T2's or Dixel SD's. I'm unsure which ones for now. I'll also be getting the black removed in favour of a nice red to match the current look.

Once all that is done I'll be doing a complete revamp on the audio system in the car with a very healthy dose of sound deadening, which it really needs badly. This will be in preparation for my trip to Phillip Island for MotoGP in October.