09 wrx 34,715 miles

A little history about the car. I have a friend that bought is wrx new at the end of 08. He crashed into a ditch a month or two after buying it and never fixed the front bumper. It's cracked on the bottom.

 

He went stage 2 with a catless pipe and a drop in air filter. Tuning alliance did the open source tune.

 

A few months later he hit a bear on the side of the road. More bumper damage. He never fixed that damage either.

 

The turbo ended up smoking in 2010 and he ended up finding out it has shaft play and the seals were bad. So he parked at his grandparents. It say under a tree for 2 years and the last year it's been in the garage. I always was after him to fix it and get it back on the road but he is too lazy with low funds.

 

I finally offered to buy it so I can fix and drive it or sell it. Car runs and sounds fine.

 

Mods are

 

CNT catless DP

SPT exhaust

GMC boost solenoid

K&N panel filter

Hella horns

Stg 2 tune

 

Problems

 

Blown turbo

Cracked bumper

Missing inner fender

Dirty exterior

Needs tires

 

I offered him 10,000 for it and he said yes. Car has 34,715 miles.

 

I plan to return car back to stock and get the turbo replaced under warranty (I called Subaru) and have them do a 30,000 mile service. Buy a new bumper and get it painted and install it myself. Finally I will buy new tires and get it detailed.

 

Should be able to fix it for under $3,000 and that's the most I can see even if I have to buy a turbo.

 

You guys think I'm over my head with this or is it a good deal?

 

 

 

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Didn't those years have oil feed problems and blow motors? I would personally avoid it because it sounds like a turd without having factory issues.

Rough cars go with rough people. Personally I couldn't stand to own a car like that despite the cost. It's like deciding to buy a house that used to hold frat parties 24/7, you just know it's terrible underneath and things were done on a shoestring. Maybe revive it and resell it? You'd turn a pretty good profit.

Rough cars go with rough people. Personally I couldn't stand to own a car like that despite the cost. It's like deciding to buy a house that used to hold frat parties 24/7, you just know it's terrible underneath and things were done on a shoestring. Maybe revive it and resell it? You'd turn a pretty good profit.

 

That is what I was thinking.

 

 

 

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Id walk $10K for a low mileage WRX? The turbo is blown there is a good chance the SB will follow, if you owned that car and I offered you $10K for would you sell it to me? Prob not if it were sound otherwise, if you knew the pin to the grenade had been pulled you prob would however!

 

Your car is for sale, let it sell then explore that market. People dump WRX's daily in the NE and Mid Atl region there are over a hundred for sale if you want a 09 specific hey are aging and prices are falling. YOu can get better without the need to rehab

 

I bought my 09 LGT for $15.5K 81K miles clean i almost bought a grenade with 39K miles that needed "work".

Very true but I am friends with the guy and know how he is. He parked the car as soon as he found out the turbo was blown. I didn't look at the turbo yet but I will, and my other friend that has worked on the car says mild shaft play but no fins are bent. I think it's a toss up with the car but I feel it is worth 10k.

 

I started the car the other day and there was no engine noise. Sounds real smooth. I might do some work to the car before I buy it as a kinda insurance.

 

 

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Coming from someone that has owned two of these, I would be question as to why the turbo blew in the first place.

 

The issue with the engine were related to a change of materials used in the short block assembly before a specific build date- sometime in 2008- can't remember the exact date- but the new material would introduce contaminants into the oil which would lead to spun bearings- way before destroying the turbo seals.

 

Why didn't the original owner get the turbo replaced under warranty in the first place?

 

Paying over $25k for a new car and then saying he doesn't have enough cash to swap back the original DP and tune to take into a warranty claim doesn't make much sense. Plus if he was so strapped for cash, he could have had it fixed and then sold it.

 

Oh, and the factory Firestone tires on those things sucked- mine lasted all of 10 months before they wouldn't hold a seal on the rims. Ended up with Bridgestones that worked so much better, but each their own.

Very true but I am friends with the guy and know how he is. He parked the car as soon as he found out the turbo was blown. I didn't look at the turbo yet but I will, and my other friend that has worked on the car says mild shaft play but no fins are bent. I think it's a toss up with the car but I feel it is worth 10k.

 

I started the car the other day and there was no engine noise. Sounds real smooth. I might do some work to the car before I buy it as a kinda insurance.

 

 

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Well if you lay hands on it that is somewhat better. For the money its a steal but I would hate it for you if it crapped out even after the hands on restoration of the turbo.

 

I hope it works out!

Coming from someone that has owned two of these, I would be question as to why the turbo blew in the first place.

 

The issue with the engine were related to a change of materials used in the short block assembly before a specific build date- sometime in 2008- can't remember the exact date- but the new material would introduce contaminants into the oil which would lead to spun bearings- way before destroying the turbo seals.

 

Why didn't the original owner get the turbo replaced under warranty in the first place?

 

Paying over $25k for a new car and then saying he doesn't have enough cash to swap back the original DP and tune to take into a warranty claim doesn't make much sense. Plus if he was so strapped for cash, he could have had it fixed and then sold it.

 

Oh, and the factory Firestone tires on those things sucked- mine lasted all of 10 months before they wouldn't hold a seal on the rims. Ended up with Bridgestones that worked so much better, but each their own.

 

I am not sure why the turbo has blown. But I went and put the stock DP back on it today and was able to check out the turbo.

 

Exhaust side has plenty of shaft play with no bent fins. That tells me he didn't drive it long with it messed up. Which is what he told me.

 

As far as him not getting it fixed himself. Let's just say you would have to meet him. I'm not going to talk trash about him but he does not prioritize things well. He has always told me he could never come up with the funds or the time at the same point in life. Something always came up, cough cough alcohol/computer games cough.

 

Plus he didn't think it would be covered under warranty with his stage 2 tune.

 

I will be giving the car a bath and maybe a detail to make sure I can return the paint back to something nice. If it's to far gone then it won't be worth it at all unless I drove the car myself.

 

 

 

 

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About 10 years ago when I was 21, I had a couple friends who went and bought cars out of their price range, modded them (on credit cards), then something relatively minor went wrong, but they didn't have any money to fix them as they were working part time jobs and ended up selling them for a large loss. So it isn't unheard of, but you do have to know the person. I'm in favor of the getting it repaired under warranty and flipping it if you can so long as you can afford the investment. There is risk involved though, so just make sure you're willing to accept that.

Here are a few pictures of the car. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/12/uzupugy5.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/12/9u4edu5e.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/12/y3ama8u2.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/12/4y8ahu7y.jpg

 

 

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Those are 2nd gen wheels- ugly.

 

Did he leave some of the windows down to get the interior so dirty?

 

Poor scoobie.

 

If you can get away with paying only $10k and another $3k in parts to fix up, then there is quite a bit of potential. At least it is an 09 over the less powerful 08. I would also look into getting the proper 17" wheels that came with it.....

Those are 2nd gen wheels- ugly.

 

Did he leave some of the windows down to get the interior so dirty?

 

Poor scoobie.

 

If you can get away with paying only $10k and another $3k in parts to fix up, then there is quite a bit of potential. At least it is an 09 over the less powerful 08. I would also look into getting the proper 17" wheels that came with it.....

 

 

Those are the winter setup. He has the stock rims also but the tires are showing belts.

 

Yes the windows were down in the garage with the battery disconnected.

 

I had him take it out of garage to have Mother Nature give it a quick bath. I'll be taking at some point this week to get a wash so I can see what condition the paint is in.

 

 

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God it looks like I feared it would, there must be something to seeing, feeling this car out in person b/c the pics reinforce the desire to leave it sitting, sadly. Maybe a detail and wax and proper wheels tires will change the outlook.

We will see what happens. I convinced him to bring the car to the stealership and get a 30k service done.

 

They will be checking out the turbo also. It might be covered under the warranty. Let's hope it is.

 

 

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So did he drive it to the dealership with the bad turbo?!? I figured he wouldn't foot the cash to get it towed based on what we've been told about your friend.

I drove it there. Stayed out of boost the whole time.

 

Talked to the stealership today and they are replacing the turbo under warranty. They checked the oil and dropped the pan and said there was no sign that the turbo sent metal into the engine.

 

Looks like he stopped driving it before anything really bad could happen.

 

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You may get lucky on this one.

 

Is he going to honor the $10k selling price after it's healthy?

Yes, I put everything out there before we started this.

 

I was willing to invested a little money into the car before I was going to buy it. I might of lost that money but it was worth it to me to not buy a $10k piece of crap.

 

So it looks like I will be buying a 34,750 mile 09 wrx in need of a bumper and some TLC. I think this is well worth it. I will post pictures once I get the bumper replaced and a detail. That way you guys can tell me if it was worth the $10k and $1500 to get it back to good.

 

 

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I can tell you that you did your homework, got some Peace of Mind and now with some detailing and paint work you stand to get a $10K 09 WRX.

 

So are you still selling your LGT ?

I can tell you that you did your homework, got some Peace of Mind and now with some detailing and paint work you stand to get a $10K 09 WRX.

 

So are you still selling your LGT ?

 

 

No my SpecB is my toy that I play with. I plan on keeping it for a very long time. It's a car I have wanted since I saw the LGT in 05 and found out about the SpecB in 06.

 

If anything I will either sell my 03 celica GTS that I use as a DD or fix and sell the WRX for a profit. I drove the WRX home the other day and it drives great. Much more comfortable the celica and it's AWD so I will probably keep it.

 

 

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Sell both the WRX and the Celica and go crazy on the Spec B. No just kidding, flip the WRX if you can and maybe walk way with enough money to add some toys to the Celica.

I'd sell both Subaru's, pocket the cash and drive the Toyota. Maybe in a perfect world....

I'd sell both Subaru's, pocket the cash and drive the Toyota. Maybe in a perfect world....

 

 

But what's the fun in that?

 

 

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Just a little update. Car is in my hands now. New turbo and running strong. It cleaned up pretty well, a couple scratches from stuff being put on top of the car while it was dirty but I should be able to buff most of them out.

 

I will be driving it for awhile to make sure everything is fine. I should be replacing the front bumper as soon as my tax money comes back.

 

 

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