Alert! Alert! Another 1st Gen wagon saved. 

Though this is a post facelift model, she deserves some love. 

 

Older gent owned her since the late 90s, he passed on. Family friend drove the car and blew it up. Sat for a year and was given to me free of charge.

 

Dropped an engine in it, threw new pads and rotors at it (front and rear), new radiator, replaced the ball joints, in the middle of tinting all the rear glass yet. 

 

The 4 speed auto operates in limp mode more often than not and I'm fairly certain it's a faulty TCM. 

The interior is a little dirty but it's pristine. With a good steam vac the interior will look new again. 

The body is pretty straight, ding here, little spot of rust there. 

 

The clear coat is flaking off in some spots unfortunately. 

 

But I love the storage room and it's a lot easier to cart my kid around in than the 2 door Impreza. 

Needed yet:

Front coil spring (drivers side is broken)

Resolve transmission issue

shocks front and rear

Fix exhaust leaks

Find roof racks

Tint remaining rear windows

Find nice 16" alloys (looking for the later model legacy snowflake wheels)

 

 

Replaced the TCM with an unknown junkyard unit, same part number as the original, all is well. 

Kinda inclined to crack open the O.G. computer and see if I can spot anything wrong. My suspicion is it has a cracked solder joint somewhere that would intermittently make contact and allow everything to function properly. 

 

It's so nice having more than just 3rd gear. The original computer would cause all sorts of random problems as well, sometimes it would get stuck in 1st, sometimes it would lock the torque converter and I wouldn't be able to stop without the engine stalling, it wasn't pleasant. 

 

Sounds like a good goer. These were everywhere over here and now they’re hard to spot on the road these days, even seeing a Gen 2 is hard going, sedans even rarer. 

Good save in my book. Bust open the original TCU and see what’s up. It’s bin good as it stands so you’ve got nothing to loose I reckon. 

A set of rims and some lowered springs set these off  

Cheers 

Bennie

On 5/17/2023 at 4:34 AM, el_freddo said:

 

A set of rims and some lowered springs set these off  

Cheers 

Bennie

What springs do people typically use to drop these a bit? 

This wagon has definitely been fighting me a bit, keep having to replace things, but that's how it usually goes for a car that wasn't driven much or maintained and then just starting to throw the miles at it. 

 

Either the rear caliper itself or the brake hose is failing (or both) as the brakes are dragging on the right rear. 

Had a coolant line develop a pinhole. Replaced most of them with silicone hoses. 

I took a crack at the TCM board, I can't see anything obvious. Gonna have to look at the joints with a magnifying glass. 

Front left window starting to jam up. Regulator has sounded bad since I got. Old man that owned the car before me basically soaked everything that moves with white lithium grease so the regulator in that door and all the guides are all gummed up with 20 year old dirty sticky grease. 

 

Do some research but I believe the STi pink springs from the GD platform were a popular option, as were king springs but I don’t know what’s available through them anymore. 

Impreza struts could help too but I’m not certain on this. 

Cheers 

Bennie

The pinks I put on my 06 wrx wagon dropped it about 3/4 inch. But, I dunno what the free length of them or my original springs was.

Thanks for the suggestions on the springs. Now that I threw some wheels at her finally (not exactly what I'm after but the price was right and I hate steelies) I may need to bring her down some. 

So weird seeing this with a flat roof. All of our wagons over here in Oz have the “high roof” with the bump just above the front seats. That’s our standard roofline here! 

Some inspiration for you: 

The pic on the trailer isn’t its actual ride height, it’s strapped down nice and tight giving it that awesome lowered look. You can see the roof bump too   

Cheers 

Bennie

I would like to take a moment to thank this early model legacy station wagon for it's one cargo cover retainer, the roof racks, and the windshield wiper switch I snagged from it. Thank you for your service. 

Edited June 29, 20232 yr by l75eya

Been a bit! Nice old school photo dump coming up! 

 

Oem 1st Gen legacy roof racks ready to go!

Test fit of the racks and also some later model Forester wheels

After installing the racks I naturally had to tie something to them

Couple planks of wood and a door frame. Funny enough that's a Subaru next to me getting wood strapped to it's roof too.

The Dodge 4.7 V8 I think would have been a bit too heavy for the roof though.

Barely evens squats (that engine is around 600lbs) 

Ran this 30 miles back to work over the mountain doing 80 with the AC on. 

Plenty of room to spare!

Last weekend, trip to see family in New Jersey. Myself, my partner, our 2 year old son. Loaded with luggage, (to the point that the rear seat was split folded to fit more spoob back there from the floor to the ceiling could not see out the rear window) and two roughly ten foot tall cast iron porch supports on the roof. 

 

Clocked 596 miles in 4 days. Ice cold a.c. helped through the 90 degree heat. 

One of the things I had crammed in the back of the wagon was this roll of thick foam padding my father gave me when we were in Jersey. When he offered it to me I had planned on using it to line some tool box drawers but then I got to thinking about just how much it a pain it's been to keep laying out moving blankets on the floor in the cargo area to protect the carpet any time I need to load stuff that's dirty. So I got to work. 

I didn't have much time to make it fit perfectly and at the rear of the car it wasn't wide enough to cover the whole floor...

 

But despite the exterior of the car being a little rough and the edges, the interior of the car is pretty damn nice. Not perfect, but nice enough that you wouldn't want to ruin it needlessly. So this padding should help a bit in the protection department.