What did you do to your 4th gen. Legacy today? Vol - 10

This is precisely how I'm feeling at the moment.

 

And my car is at one of the most "reputable Subaru Specialty Shops" in the country.

 

Paying big money for horrible customer service and questionable work really sours my attitude for the entire car. (which I haven't even seen in 3 months now)

I made the mistake of telling them I had a car to drive (not needing a rental) while they were doing the work. They had the car for over 2 months to do this work (none of which is really rocket surgery, but I can't say much because I was paying someone to do it):

compression / leakdown test to check condition of my rebuilt engine with 40k miles on it

install Cusco F/R lower arm bars/braces

install KTA124 rear toe kit

install KCA313 roll center correction

install some other whiteline bushings

alignment

replace a head ground strap

F/R brakes

fix the door handle

attempt to fix my A/C (which they replaced the condenser and called it fixed but did not fix it... and they did something weird up front because my A/T fluid temps have been running higher since)

replace all the fluids (trans, diffs, oil, coolant, brake, steering)

check out the belts

replace the passenger side header heat shield

give the car a once-over for any rust issues or exhaust leaks

Investigate why / fix the GS TMIC splitter was contacting and denting the top row of fins on the TMIC

and then if possible, install a WBO2 at the Cobb DP bung and wire it to my unused TGV

They agreed to do all the work over email and gave me quotes. I gave them my build sheet and explained the engine was built. I dropped the car off and then was going on vacation for a week. First phone call I get: "your car has rod knock" ... no, it doesn't, it just has forged pistons which slap, I told you this before ... "oh... ok we'll compression test / leak down." they came back to me with doom and gloom saying one cylinder is low compression and are trying HARD to get me to do a complete teardown and rebuild. i bring up how the car barely burns oil and they are giving me some explanation about the compression changing with the stroke of the piston. eventually I say no just do the rest of the work and this is where they start dragging their heels.

Took them 2 months to do the basic wrenching (I had provided all parts except some of the fluids) requests and they tried to give it back without looking at the A/C at all and would no longer agree to replacing the handle or doing the WBO2. Reminded them to do the A/C and they say they're done. I ask about the TMIC contact and they're like "oh yeah we did that and I forgot to charge you for it but I'm just going to give you that one on the house" but they never really did it, it's in the same exact position and still making contact. After the first month I started calling them at least once a week since it didn't seem like it should take that long to do this work. They basically stopped working on my car and were doing other jobs instead.

I get the car back and it's kind of acting funny. Boost doesn't seem to be controlled properly but it's sporadic (I watch with BtSsm). Two weeks later I get a CEL for the EBCS. I look at it and it looks like someone took a wire cutter to one of the wires and went 95% of the way through it, and then it finally finished separating on its own. Such a clean cut / break in the wire and the rubber looks exactly like when I used to cut wires building circuits. Of course I have no proof of anything.

At that point with now having another thing (albeit easy) to fix with the EBCS and then my A/C going bad again and having some interior issues... my run was done.

The engine I took into school to rebuild turns out to have had a boost leak due to a hose that was shredded. Leak testing showed no other issues with heads or rings. Happy coincidence.

 

Turns out school has valve grinding machines, so can do the head rebuild at school. Buying the machines to do this is not a small investment. A quarter's tuition is $600. We'll see how excited I am about doing heads in a couple of weeks.

 

In other news, closed my part out thread because have no time to deal with it. Our house flooded in mid december and we're writing off pretty much everything. Insurance company did us dirty by denying our claim. Replacement cost value...what a crock.

Sorry to hear about that. That is a rough situation, hopefully something good comes out of it

Sorry to hear about that. That is a rough situation, hopefully something good comes out of it

I'm trying to find my inner "island" attitude. It's all good.

Been reading "positive attitude " books. The situation doesn't change much day-to-day, however, my stress level is pretty low.

Found a water damage restoration firm who's interceded for us. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't. Have a lawyer in the wings who may be able to help as a last resort.

Wrenching on a broken subaru motor seems like child's play now

I'm trying to find my inner "island" attitude. It's all good.

 

Been reading "positive attitude " books. The situation doesn't change much day-to-day, however, my stress level is pretty low.

 

Found a water damage restoration firm who's interceded for us. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't. Have a lawyer in the wings who may be able to help as a last resort.

 

Wrenching on a broken subaru motor seems like child's play now

I had a pipe break Saturday before Christmas. Hope you're not using 24/7 Flood and Fire for your restoration they're flakes. I havent heard from them in weeks and am still storing their equipment in my living room while I wait for another company to come and replace my flooring.

I wish you luck and hope everything from here on out goes smooth for you!

 

..... my run was done.

My run won't be done, but I doubt I'll be going back to TiC. That may mean I have to start E-tuning in order to keep the same tuner.

My car has never come back worse off but everything has always taken 2 or 3 times as long as it should have and absolute garbage customer service up to and including outright lies.

Shops really are absolute garbage in most cases.

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Yup, I dont use gates anymore either, I use Aisin with an oem waterpump.

 

Dave

Any reason you use oem over aisin? I thought the Aisin looked just as good quality than the OEM subaru pump. also made in japan,

Now that the holidays are over, I've had a bit more time to wrench on the LGT. Unfortunately for them, I had to evict a family of mice that decided to live in my hood liner and in the cabin air filter, so I pulled the entire dash and removed the blower motor and tossed it in the garbage. The spare one from the old Legacy will go in eventually.

Temporarily put the instrument cluster back in the car and have recently been testing the throttle body wires to make sure they aren't shorting/grounded somewhere. Very tedious process, so I decided to pause and reconnect the ECU and start the car again. Before I started it, I pulled the intercooler and put the key on "run" so I could see if the throttle body was actually opening. Opened quick, no stuttering or anything, and had the little blip when the key is turned for the first time. Everything seems to check out.

Lo and behold, the car started fine. Let it warm up, gave it a few very light revs and let it idle to see if it would hold up okay.

It didn't.

Throttle suddenly decided to start rising and it went into some sort of limp mode AGAIN where I have no control over the throttle. Killed it at 2K RPM and every time I'd start it it would be in limp mode afterwards.

Tried to clear the code with my cheap Bluetooth OBDII reader, but I believe it's one of those permanent codes that I'm going to need something more expensive to remove it with because the permanent code didn't clear. The "pending" P2102 went away until the next start.

Tracing this intermittent sort of issue is going to be a pain. I visually inspected the harness, wiggled wires around, etc, but nothing's loose or appears to be worn/kinked. Also replaced the battery as the old one wasn't going past 11.6V or so, so that was definitely cooked, and used the throttle body off the old car that was blown up. Guess I'll reset the ECU by removing the battery tomorrow and check and maybe clean some grounds to see if that's the issue.

It felt so good to have it running that one time. I'm hooked, this thing better drive someday.

I had a pipe break Saturday before Christmas. Hope you're not using 24/7 Flood and Fire for your restoration they're flakes. I havent heard from them in weeks and am still storing their equipment in my living room while I wait for another company to come and replace my flooring.

 

I wish you luck and hope everything from here on out goes smooth for you!

https://www.watersgone.com

So far, they have all the right words. Gave me 2 dehumidifiers and 3 fans on a handshake.

Made the last run to the dump with the last of my flooring and moldy belongings this evening.

My run won't be done, but I doubt I'll be going back to TiC. That may mean I have to start E-tuning in order to keep the same tuner.

 

My car has never come back worse off but everything has always taken 2 or 3 times as long as it should have and absolute garbage customer service up to and including outright lies.

 

Shops really are absolute garbage in most cases.

 

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The sad part is the shops that actually do provide excellent customer service and prompt completion don't get as much support and end up having to close their doors. To this day I consider myself blessed to have met Mike and gotten most of the work on the Spec B completed at Infamous Performance. I hope you get your car soon and everything is as it should be; good to go.

Any reason you use oem over aisin? I thought the Aisin looked just as good quality than the OEM subaru pump. also made in japan,

Honestly Its just personal preference....Thier pump is good, I just like oem on some specific components.

Dave

The sad part is the shops that actually do provide excellent customer service and prompt completion don't get as much support and end up having to close their doors. To this day I consider myself blessed to have met Mike and gotten most of the work on the Spec B completed at Infamous Performance. I hope you get your car soon and everything is as it should be; good to go.

When I decided to go back to school for mechanic training, my initial thought was to open a subie shop. I've moved on from that to working in a dealer and doing pickup work on the side.

I never got to visit Mike's shop, however, I've benefited from it and his experience over the years.

My new Fortunes finally showed up! Worth the wait, these things are super sexy. Now I have to find some time to install them. Have my ST205 Celica showing up on the 23rd and I need to get that prepped for the first Rally X race on the 22nd of February. Doing timing belt, water pump, plugs, coils, oil change, trans and dif service on a car I have no experience working on. Should be a hoot!

So pretty.

I feel like Ive passed a milestone. Managed to get all 4 FU bolts off an engine in 15 minutes. Even allowing for finding a breaker bar when the air compressor ran out of air.

Not drinking beer while using tools really does work better.

Managed to pick up a set of the middle spats that go in front of the rear wheels through the Japanese auctions. Also watching a few of the STI flexible strut tower bar auctions and debating if I want to take the chance on it. I know it will fit with the GS TMIC but I've got a Crawford AOS V2 as well and not sure if it will clear.

There's a set of white S402 fenders on the auctions currently and had I seen those before buying the killer b headers I may have tried to snag those.

Day 11 without the wagon and getting very tired of driving the XJ. Seatbelts are supposed to come in today and excited to see how those will look against the STI seats with their red stiching and headrest embroidery. I went with a slightly darker red belt as opposed to the lighter, brighter Ferrari red.

Managed to pick up a set of the middle spats that go in front of the rear wheels through the Japanese auctions. Also watching a few of the STI flexible strut tower bar auctions and debating if I want to take the chance on it. I know it will fit with the GS TMIC but I've got a Crawford AOS V2 as well and not sure if it will clear.

 

There's a set of white S402 fenders on the auctions currently and had I seen those before buying the killer b headers I may have tried to snag those.

 

Day 11 without the wagon and getting very tired of driving the XJ. Seatbelts are supposed to come in today and excited to see how those will look against the STI seats with their red stiching and headrest embroidery. I went with a slightly darker red belt as opposed to the lighter, brighter Ferrari red.

Subbed for pics.

Look at new zealand wrecking yards. They ship all over world. All their cars are imported from Japan

I feel like Ive passed a milestone. Managed to get all 4 FU bolts off an engine in 15 minutes. Even allowing for finding a breaker bar when the air compressor ran out of air.

 

Not drinking beer while using tools really does work better.

Hmm, I should try that someday j/k.

I'll try to find that famous Jeep forum post from few years back with jeeper's GF asking how to get him to not work in his jeep for that much time. One of the jem stones in that post was "beer after the work is done"...

Hmm, I should try that someday j/k.

 

 

I'll try to find that famous Jeep forum post from few years back with jeeper's GF asking how to get him to not work in his jeep for that much time. One of the jem stones in that post was "beer after the work is done"...

I cant find the pic, however I know I posted it somewhere. Me and MrTris standing on c23 cam wrenches with 4 foot extender bars holding beers. That one of the wrenches was being held the wrong direction just made it a bit more poignant. The "drama/hilarity" that came after was of epic Hicksta proportions.

Pretty excited to put these on this weekend. Got here a lot faster than I expected.

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Pretty excited to put these on this weekend. Got here a lot faster than I expected.

 

 

 

 

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So, got big plans for testing those?

So, got big plans for testing those?

Not yet. I was known to drive the back roads of moab at about 40 in my civic. Figured I'd get the big ones. Going to do some rallyx when they start up but it'll probably be a few months until I get to really test them, and the stock suspension, out in the desert.

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Wasn't too sure about the color seeing them right out of the box. The shop lighting made them seem almost too dark or burgandy but after seeing them draped over the seat I think they're going to be sssiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

At first glance I thought you were going to ratchet strap yourself to the seat

OK, someone educate me.... what's the big box structure on that skid plate for?

Looks like a rear diff protective cover, I had an OEM one on my previous outback.

Looks like a rear diff protective cover, I had an OEM one on my previous outback.

That makes way more sense. I was trying to figure out what that would be for at the front of the car.