2002 WRX Winter Beater

I am Saabless. Picked up the new winter beater yesterday:

2002 WRX wagon.

I had been looking for another Miata for a winter beater, then got send the CL ad for this last Monday. Call the seller he's the second owner, it's totally stock, meticulously maintained (Royal Purple from new, top end rebuilt, timing belt, clutch, etc 50k miles ago, etc). Needs tires and a battery but is a solid runner. It's been sitting since July and is on a donut spare. I think about it for a few minutes, call him back, and hit the road... to Maine. Left at 8PM on Monday, was handing the seller cash at 12:30AM, and got home at exactly 4AM, and went to work at 7:30.

Yesterday went back armed with a battery and a wheel to pick it up and drive it ~4 hours home.

On the road:

15 miles later:

Dead battery. E36 M3. PO had the alternator rebuilt but had some kind of issue with it, so he took the rebuilt one out and put a used one in. He gave me the rebuilt one so I decided it was worth a shot and swapped them in the gas station parking lot.

Then...

made it the rest of the way home without missing a beat.

Rather pretty drive too.

Oh, and there's this:

Drives great, runs smooth, shifts smooth, no noises, everything works. Amazing. I believe it's also the cheapest WRX I've ever seen that didn't have a blown engine and structural rot. Not quite in Challenge budget, but damn close.

I kinda like it.

I still miss mine, even though it was finicky and liked to nickel-and-dime me. And you got a Aspen White one!!! I have always wanted a white wagon.

If you are using it as a winter car, make sure the fuel lines in the engine bay have either had the fuel line TSB performed, or replace the rubber and double clamp them yourself like I did many years ago. You will thank me when it's 10 degrees out and raw fuel isn't puking all over your hot engine.

Sounds like fun

I have to admit... I like the WRX a lot more than I expected to. Haven't been able to do much with it, but I did spend a little time cleaning up the exterior.

Starting with the hatch and rear bumper. Pushed out as much of the dent as I could and painted both, as they both had plenty of issues. Have yet to wetsand/buff it.

Before:

After:

Some quality factory Subaru paint... it's probably a bad thing when masking tape does THIS.

Restored the headlights.... Before:

After:

Quickly buffed it... possibly for the first time since it left the dealer lot?

Other than that it's just been driving.

And a little hauling of Saab parts.

And rescuing a Volkswagen (Direzza Z2's... steep, narrow, winding driveway... not the best combination)

And a little of this...

My WRX, which was essentially unmodified aside from a bugger rear sway bar and brake upgrades, was as much fun as any car I've every owned. It's nice to have a car that you don't need to go easy on when the road gets wet and slippery.

I really like the styling of the new WRX and STi (cuz I'm an oddball ), but I may like the bugeye body style the best.

I have been thinking a little help in the suspension area might be in order, would be nice to cut down on the roll and push.

Was never really big on the bugeye... but it's growing on me

Throw on a bigger rear sway to kill the push, I used the Whiteline and it was amazing the difference it made. Do the end links as well at the same time.

Uncoiled wrote: Throw on a bigger rear sway to kill the push, I used the Whiteline and it was amazing the difference it made. Do the end links as well at the same time.

If you can find an early WRX sedan rear bar they are much bigger than the wagon bar.

NGTD wrote:

Uncoiled wrote: Throw on a bigger rear sway to kill the push, I used the Whiteline and it was amazing the difference it made. Do the end links as well at the same time.

If you can find an early WRX sedan rear bar they are much bigger than the wagon bar.

2002 Sedans had the 20mm rear bar. They are probably tough to come by these days. I had one of those and a STI-replica eBay rear strut bar and it was magic.

Went for a drive...

Of course, at some point during this drive my girlfriend looked in the back seat and said those magic words...

"What's all that water?"

Huh?

Oh

Which, of course, leads to this.

That's a bit too much water!

Yikes, that is a lot of water! What's the culprit?

There's a spot of rust above the windshield on the drivers side, barely visible in pictures. That, combined with apparent drip marks down the interior A-pillar trim on that side led me to believe the windshield was leaking. A common Subaru issue anyway.

For the time being I took the rubber seal out and filled that seam with The Right Stuff gasket maker. Looks like hell but thus far the floor as remained dry. Once summer rolls around and I have another car to drive I'll have the windshield taken out and take care of the rust properly.

While the carpet is out I decided to replace it. 277k miles of wear and what seems to be a history of owners not big into detailing really does a number on Subaru carpet, evidenced by the gaping holes and staining. As of now, the carpet is still in a brown truck in Oregon.

I also ordered some Stinger RKX36B Roadkill sound deadening. I'll be doing the entire floor while it's taken apart and eventually the doors when I replace the speakers.

For now I finally made it to the junkyard for a drivers mirror that's not held together with duct tape and a hose clamp and duct tape and a front tow hook cover.

Love this thread!

Got the sound deadening on the floor. Very impressed with the difference... noticeable before I even got out of the driveway! Still have some left over to do the doors, too. All the more excited to get a carpet in it now.

\

Like! I just finished up replacing head gaskets and timing belt on the 03 TS that I picked up recently as a winter better / dog hauler. Kinda wishing it was white like yours though, very nice!

Ugh. WANT.

Carpet finally showed up. Cleaned it and put the interior back together. There's definitely something to be said for being able to clean every piece individually

Old vs new...

Back together...

Compare to how it originally looked...

Can I add to yet hijack this thread and inquire about what early 2000 Subarus are like to live with?

This car is right up my alley!

They're all rot box tin cans that will puke headgaskets immediately... if they haven't already. Twice. It it's turbocharged then, in addition to all that, it's been abused to within an inch of its life and is also about to grenade everything.

Basically.

That being said, I really like this thing.

^The wife and I are Subaru people to the core, and I'll agree with all that.

We have a 116k mile '04 Forester XS slushbox that got warranty head gaskets at 62k and has otherwise required literally nothing since new but tune up bits, brakes, tires and fluids. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, it's going to want wheel bearings, oil seals, exhaust gaskets, and o2 sensors galore all at once and I'll be screwed.:D

Sweet Rex, keep it up.

Pretty sweet car. In much better shape than my 03 TS.

Love the white.

My 06 WRX had Konis, RCE wagon springs, a Whiteline anti-lift kit and a few bushings. It was great but I wish I had started with appropriate swaybars.

Edit: Wow, haven't updated this in quite a while.

Have a couple ice racing pics:

Back in April-ish the stock exhaust rotten in half, so it got a cheapo eBay 3" cat back.

And, for fun, here are a few pics demonstrating the extent of the mud season mentioned below:

It's important to note that none of that was intentional, just from commuting.

/edit

Update time.

Unfortunately, after the winter and a BRUTAL mud season in Vermont, the car fell into a bit of a state of disrepair in the summer. Nothing earth shatterying, just a whole bunch of wear stuff. Unfortunately life got in the way and I was too broke to do anything about it. The car sat pretty much all summer, only being driven locally every couple weeks. Then I drove it up to my parents house, putting more miles on it in two days than I had in probably the previous two months. I kept thinking to myself how great it was running. Right up until a traffic light turned red and the brake pedal went straight to the floor.

Limped it back to their house, left it, and started getting parts together. Still have some small stuff to do, but the heavy lifting is done. Parked it there in September, drove it home yesterday (Halloween). I put probably close to 1000 miles on my Miata driving back and forth to their house to work on it.

Done so far:

Energy Suspension Polyurethane front control arm bushings Energy Suspension Polyurethane rear trailing arm bushings Gorilla Offroad strut top spacers (1" lift) 4 Wheel brakes New rear brake hard lines Brake fluid flush with ATE Super Blue LR caliper bracket RF spindle RF inner tie rod RF tie rod end RF steering rack boot RF axle LR strut mount Center driveshaft Air filter Fuel filter Alignment

Needless to say, it's driving better than ever.

Couple of crappy driveway shots for the occasion:

Picked up an Invidia catless downpipe and Invidia Q300 exhaust locally. Still not on the car...

But painted the wheels and got snow tires on. 215/65-16 General Altimax Arctic, stock size is 205/55. With the tires and lift I now have 11.5" of clearance at the front bumper. Also picked up this gigantic Thule box for a song, but it's significantly bigger than I expected... not sure if I'll keep it yet.

While it sounded awesome with the Q300, I did concede that it was LOUD. When the novelty wore off I ended up swapping it for an OEM STi cat back - much happier.

Added two pairs of Hella 500's... driving lights and replaced the OEM fogs. Being able to see at night is pretty neat.