Ugh, what a chore....

 This Subaru will be the death of me....

A couple weeks ago, while heading to work I was driving straight thru an intersection when some dude in a CRV decides he doesn't want to make a left turn anymore and pulls out into my path.  It was a good one, 2 feet on the brake pedal and missed him by an inch. 

At the next stop sign, WHOA the brake pedal goes to the floor, major ass pucker!  There's enough residual to get stopped but its a sure sign of a leak in the lines or a popped flex hose.  Turn around and limp home.

So I redid all the rear lines as they popped at a junction under the back seat pan beside the fuel tank.  The lines are all sheathed in plastic (even where routed inside the car) but are cut back at the flare nuts and rot out where exposed.  The junction is in a place where it is protected from debris but not moisture. C'est domage.

So way we go to fix it, didn't think much of it, but when backing out of the driveway the front left tire rubs on the mudflap but I dismiss it as a bad control arm which probably broke the rubber with the emergency stop.  I drive it for a few days and yeah the backing up gets worse.  So I give the tire a kick, and WHOA it moves back and hits the mudflap.  yikes. I get the flashlight out and the top of the subframe is totally missing by the rear control arm mount and the top shroud has broken away as well.

You don't know how much I f^ckin hate this car.

Now, I like to spreadsheet all of my cars.  I like to service them, and repair them and divide the costs over the life of the car and try to get the monthly cost to under $200 per month.  I put EVERYTHING, in the spreadsheet.  If I get a stack of washers from Home Depot, it goes in the total.  I've been successful in the past with the Mk4 Jetta, the Mk1 Cabrio and even the 84 GLI sitting in the garage, even the mk5 (but it was a $0 gift from my mother so that skews it)  The Bug, Accord and Subie are way over.  The Bug for obvious reasons as it was a major restoration, and the Accord because I''ve only had it briefly and it carried a high purchase price of $5000.  The Subie...has no excuse.  It was purchased for $1250.  In retrospect, it seems that no maintenance has ever been done to it, and the fact that the underbody is still mostly black paint with minimal rust is because it was probably a hangar queen.

So, were at a fork in the road however, the rusting subframe issue is very common.  Every car north of St. Louis will eventually succumb to subframe rot if not taken out by an accident ...every one.  The subframes were never sprayed with any kind of protectant, and were painted not dipped.  The way they rust however, is similar to the bug's framehead issue where they rot from the inside out because the internal surfaces get damp and can't dry quickly.  They typically start to show pinholes in the sides that don't look drastic at all, like this; 

Notice the abundance of original black paint.  Experience would say that this frame is in good condition, but remember its eating itself from the inside out.  The top where it broke was literally paper thin...

So, in Canada there isn't alot of options for replacing the subframe.  There is nowhere in Canada where a magic amount of Outbacks drive around on dry, salt free roads so the market for used subframes is very very high and stock very very sparse.  Wrecking yards grab replaced frames off expired Outbacks and charge $700 plus for them, because they know.  In the US, its not as bad because you can get a used subframe shipped up to your local wrecking yard for peanuts as there are plenty of rust free, dry states to get a very good and cheaper frame from. And this aftermarket drives down the price of a new subframe as well, to around $500 US.

Of course I have little option.  Shipping and tariffs (gotta love those) will erase any benefit and so I bite the bullet and buy a brand new one from the dealer....$1295 plus tax.  Did I mention my love for Subaru?  

So going back to the speadsheet, this makes the Subie currently at $617 per month....basically a new car lease.  Bruh.  Did I mention I just bought a 2013 Ford Focus for my eldest daughter?  Because I like punishment...and can't pass up cheap.  Hopefully you never hear about this one, because its doing a good job...

Subaru postscript

 Yeah I'm not sold.

I thought I had the Outback squared away before the winter but that hasn't panned out.  Let me preface this by saying she's a baller in the snow!  Alot like a quattro in her handling in the white stuff, but as far as the vehicle itself, it's kinda weak.

Firstly, she likes to leak....alot!  There hasn't been a week where there isn't something dripping out.  

Secondly, she doesn't like the highway, 130 km/h its maxed out, and running for a couple hours like that and she'll chew up a liter of oil.

And then axles, they are not very strong.  Once they start clicking they'll be junk within a couple weeks of normal driving.  I used to run mk2s for MONTHS before I got around to changing a clicking CV.  I attribute that to their inner CV design.  It starts clunking and won't shut up.  The VWs inner CVs are much stronger and I never had an issue with those. (only the outers)

So, there won't be anything other than service for this vehicle.  I won't be doing the subframe or anything big, I'll just fix things until an upset limit is reached.  Once the tires are worn, she gets parted out and scrapped.

I'm also not sold on the CVT.  The shiftpoints were designed by a committee of 5 year olds, shifting at ridiculous times.  On the highway, I usually slap it into manual 6 'gear' but that goes flat on the smallest of hills. It really is terrible, I don't know how so many people defend these transmissions.  And then the CVT fluid, WOW, it costs $33 per liter and you need at least 8L for a flush, or 12L for a full dump and refill.  Like pouring fine wine in there!  I did the flush once, and will never do it again for this car.

I thought I could use the engine in the Outback for a possible swap candidate for the Bug, but no.  I won't jump thru engine swap engineering hoops to put such an uninspiring engine in the bug.  Yes it would make the Bug boogie down the road, but winding out at 4500 rpm and 1/2L per hour of oil consumptions?  No thanks.

I do like the SUV aspect though, it might be difficult to go back to cars like the Jetta and Accord.  The cavernous trunk, and high trunk floor are hard to ignore. Heiser loves the back area where he can both walk around and lie down.

On the VW front;  I had a good discussion with a VW guru with respect to the Bug, and we'll put a sump filter in and regulate the amounts of babbit in the oil.  hopefully it will clear and we can get past this.  Otherwise the engine will have to come back apart.

The Jetta; I will have to get it more weatherproofed, bodywork and paint. I'm running out of time here, I have to sh^t or get off the pot.  The garage is not moisture free and she needs a coat of paint.  She runs, but I need to get Chris at Autobahn to tweak the CIS so I can run it without lambda, he's done it before so hopefully he can do it again. She really is close I just need to focus on her for a solid month.

I've also been seeing guys on YouTube use handheld electric spray guns for car painting with pretty good results.  Canadians "Rusted Rides" and "Paintucation by Kevin Tetz" both used those guns with amazing results.  Even using Tremclad!  Time to get off my ass.