My new (to me) 96 Impreza Outback L

[Taiden]

Well, I went out and bought a 96 Impreza Outback L today in NH. The car seems pretty solid minus some rust on the a pillars. I'm going to attack that tomorrow most likely.

It's got 220k miles on it, runs great, clutch seems to be good, the brakes are good, interior is awesome. Tires are BRAND NEW.

I paid $750 + $100 to have it towed 60 miles to my house.

I have a wishlist for this car, so if any of you guys have this stuff laying around, let me know.

WRX rear end (with correct gearing for my stock tranny)

a not rusty hatch

driver's side fender without rust

a bigger rear sway bar

a windshield with no cracks

a friend with a sandblaster who can sandblast a box full of parts for me

ALSO START UP VIDEO: LINK

TTIWWOP!!!

 

[MAINIAC XV]

Good luck with your new ride.

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

nice find. from looks of the cargo area you are already squirrelling away some Scooby goodies to freshen her up.

 

[Taiden]

just added a quick startup video

Battery was unplugged for a while. I know newer soobies idle rough for a while if the battery is disconnected bc they have to relearn their fuel trims and whatnot. Are the 96s the same?

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

get the code off the transmission (on white tape above starter area) and I'll search to see what the gear ratios are and what diff you'd need to fit

 

[IBratmanI]

Looks like a good buy, Where is the rust??

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

MY 96 Imprezas with 1.8 and 2.2 AWD both had 3.9 final drive....so a WRX limited slip will work. you'll probly need differeent axles at least, maybe even different rear knuckles tho

 

[Taiden]

get the code off the transmission (on white tape above starter area) and I'll search to see what the gear ratios are and what diff you'd need to fit

I'll snag them tomorrow, I appreciate the help.

MY 96 Imprezas with 1.8 and 2.2 AWD both had 3.9 final drive....so a WRX limited slip will work. you'll probly need differeent axles at least, maybe even different rear knuckles tho

Maybe I'll just save up for a whole WRX rear end with disc brakes etc. Maybe I'll weld the rear diff (LOL). Maybe I'll leave it the way it is.

The rust is all over in the form of dime sized bubbled.

It's also rusted through on the flat part (thank god) of the hatch.

One of the fenders (thank god it's not the quarter) is rusted through near the rocker panel.

The quarters have almost enough rust to lose the rear bumper, but not quite. I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to do there.

The a pillars have significant bubbling but I just tried to put a finishing nail through them in the worst spots and the good news is there is still enough good metal there to warrant a basic strip smooth and repaint.

 

[Taiden]

868002

AB-TY752VABBA

Tranny codes on sticker

edit: found it online

US Impreza EJ22E (AWD) MY96 TY752VABBA 3.900 / Viscous Center (4kgf) / Open Front Diff

edit2: seems that all the US WRX between MY02 and MY05 have 3.900 rear diffs.

 

[Taiden]

Is $200 shipped on a 03 WRX rear diff a good deal?

 

[Taiden]

I figure I'll start posting my rs25 / DI thread over here.

 

[Taiden]

Well yesterday I decided to get crackalackin on the stupid things.

1) the doors locked randomly... electrical gremlin

2) funky smell inside

3) the headlights are reversed... when one is high the other is low and viceversa haha

4) driveshaft was out from towing

1. I pulled the driver's side lock position switch (which had a big nissan emblem on it which is cool because I've been a huge nissan fan since the beginning), pulled it apart, and lo and behold... there was a line of metallic dust mixed with dielectric grease that was causing it to short. Quick job with a paper towel, threw it back together, locks work perfect now!

2. apparently someone spilled chocolate milk all over the back seat and it dripped under too... had to get my clothespin out and the shop vac and get all i could up.. shampooed everything, seems to be better now... but not 100%... I'm going to need to go after it again later

3. Someone had wired in a new H4 headlight plug on the drivers side but did a **** job, and reversed the lo/hi wires... So I pulled it apart, cut out the burned parts of the harness, rewired it up and now everything is good.

4. got under the car and put the driveshaft in. It was really easy, I can't believe those little 12mm bolts actually keep that thing in place. I wanted to locktite those nuts but I didn't. I wanted to check on here what people do, I can always do it later. I had the car up on jackstands running in first gear watching all four wheels spin. WAY TOO COOL!

 

[Taiden]

Today I got the car registered for a whopping $175. I've never spent that much money on registration ever. It was really strange.

I'm not sure if I should count that towards my total. I think I won't include it, since it's not a physical change to the car itself.

I also bought a new doughnut gasket for the cat to midpipe flange. The previous owner covered it in RTV red and it's leaking like a beeyotch. That's another $12.59.

COST THUS FAR: $862.59

 

[Taiden]

I threw a code on the way back home today... so it was off to autozone!

P0141 - P0141 02 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 1 Sensor 2)

P0340 - P0340 Camshaft Position Sensor Circuit Malfunction

I had just fixed two big leaks in my exhaust so I'm hoping the secondary O2 sensor code won't go again.

I'm going to do some research on the camshaft position sensor code. I've driven the car five miles varying RPM and load to try to get it to trip but it hasn't. We'll see if it pops up again tomorrow when I take a longer trip.

In other news I cleaned up all the factory grounds and put in new plugs.

My old plugs were practically welded in and the electrodes were very worn. The gapping on the old plugs were 0.047", 0.053", 0.047", 0.053". I gapped the new plugs (NGK Coppers) all at 0.044"

After cleaning up the stock (****ty) grounds and putting in new plugs, all my cold engine hesitation and misfires went away and the car is very smooth. I'll be making a grounding kit tomorrow to try to get a little more performance out of the electrical system.

My plan is to make these four grounds out of 10 gauge stranded copper wire:

-Alternator to chassis

-Intake manifold to chassis

-Block to chassis

-Battery to chassis

I will also ground the MAF directly to the chassis. This is a common mod done to Nissan MAFs and it can't hurt my MAF subaru, so I'm going to go for it.

COST THUS FAR: $873.05

 

[Taiden]

sounds like you have a bit of a timing problem... hit it with a timming light just to be safe... if the error stilll persists then check into lower end and a cam replacemet... don't do anything though before you check timing

I'll put that on my list of things to do.

How do you put the OBD2 Imprezas into timing/idle adjust mode?

Forget it, I'll just search.

Today I made a DIY grounding kit for my GF. It would have been $10 except I got too much wire. I bought 15 feet and ended up using 7 feet.

All wire was 8g stranded copper wire from Home Depot. The insulation is gas and oil resistant, or so it states.

Alternator > Chassis

Intake Manifold > Chassis

Block > Chassis

Battery > Chassis

FINISHED (stealthy eh?

):

Alternator ground:

Battery ground:

Each of those fasteners have a ground behind them (alt + intake mani):

Block ground:

VOLTAGE BEFORE - WARMED UP @ LOW IDLE WITH LIGHTS/RADIO OFF

VOLTAGE AFTER - WARMED UP @ LOW IDLE WITH LIGHTS/RADIO OFF

:hide:

:hide:

TOTAL THUS FAR: $890.91

 

[Taiden]

Lots and lots of updates from the last couple days.

I got a 98 OBS front bumper from 98Wagoon which was in awesome condition. Of course, the first thing that happens to items in awesome condition when they enter my garage is they get cut into pieces.

I also got a set of Hella 500 driving lights in the mail the same day as the bumper (overnight free shipping???), so that really motivated me to get out the dremel, angle grinder, and drill press.

Photos tell 1000 words I'm told so this is me telling over 10,000 words. I wish college papers worked that way.

The OBS bumper:

THE HELLA 500 INSTALL:

100w xenon bulbs (wish I did more research on 100w h3s before I bought these)

hella 500 driving light

100w bulbs installed in the light

bumper beam drilled

hardware

bumper modification

1/8" thick flat bar steel (this stuff is heavy friggen duty)

my god that's thick! (that's what she said)

ALL LIGHT OUTPUT PHOTOS TAKEN AT 1/[email protected] and at 25 feet

LOW BEAMS

HIGH BEAMS (no hellas)

HIGH BEAMS WITH HELLAS

COST THUS FAR: $1034.47

 

[inski]

excellent

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

Moving along really well. Can't beat that price.

 

[Taiden]

Pics of the lights in daylight