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just thought id say hello , bought a classic Subaru impreza turbo 2000 awd in feb, 192k on the clock with a 80k ish engine, the advert made it sound great i paid 4k for it drove it back home from Poole to Bedford very thing seems fine drove it to Ipswich and here and there again every thing seemed fine then i took it to Richard in PR which alot of you chaps on here use, he had a look over it , looks like theres probably 2k of work needs doing maybe more , the chap i bought it off tried to do things him self but i dont think he new what he was doing he didnt even know what the dump valve was when we looked at the engine he pointed at a manual boost controller and said theres your dump vavle , that should of been the warning sign right there
biggest issue i had with the car was with Richard couldn't believe when he looked at the front pass brakes , the guy had broken the spring off in the pins and left it like that , Richard said at any point they could of fallen out and the pads would have dropped out and i would of been without brakes ,and i have done quiet a few miles from poole to bedford he said ive paid way over the odds for it
the guy bought if from manchester and i think he got advice to how much work there is to do and he got rid of it quick and i came along not knowing a thing about what im looking for and bought it
oh well at least after the 2k bill ill hopfully have a good one just the rear arches to do when/ if they go
any one know a good garage do do loads of work thats not going to rip me off? thinking of taking it to northampton to newman and dreidy
i did take it to hust in bedford but i got charge 80 pounds to take a back box off and put another one on which i thought was a bit much as it was only 2 bolts and 20 min job if that , then i went to another garage to put the one i had on it back on as it sounded better and he charged £30
Hi, i take it your based in the Bedford area so not sure how far your willing to travel, I'm not far from Ipswich but have always used Xtreme scoobies at boreham near Chelmsford to take care of my scooby, never had any issues with Paul's work the last 5 or 6 years.
Other than possible arches , what needs doing ? you have subaru4u , Richard at Fb tuning , plus there is a place in Watford who work on subaru’s , i can’t find details of them but maybe some one can assist on here
I've used Newman and Reidy a couple of times in the last year - they are friendly but I would pick and choose what you use them for (or agree in advance what parts will be used or it will be genuine parts).
For my classic I've used Maple Leaf in Daventry, and often supplied the parts myself, using their labour. Always fair and sensible, but I would check if Curtis is still there when booking in, as he knew classics really well.
Last edited by Flat4x4-again; 06 March 2020 at 02:12 PM.
be quicker to type whats right with it haha, all fluids need changing, rear dif leaking, rear main engine seal leaking while that is getting done been advised to change the clutch at the same time, cam belt , new brakes front and back as dont trust what matey did (would like to go grooved and spotted but thats a mine field) hand brake only got 2 clicks left new leads and plugs window wipers some time rest fully but mostly dont go back all the way im sure there will be more lol
A definite ramp job , and a subaru specialist as it will save you time and money plus parts sourcing , as above my choices subaru4u or fb tuning both very good , yes worth doing clutch at the same time , a lot of the fluids are straight forward , where is the diff leaking from the back or sides ?
the rear dif is totally covered in gunk so it could have been leaking form any where , ive tinkered with cars all my life but the jap scooby is a whole new ball game to me always been into fords and the 2 cars to have were mondeo st200 v6 and the scooby 2.0 turbo and now i have both lol , im not fussed about spending the money on genuine subaru parts i just want it all done and then i should end up with a good one ,its a shame i got burnt buying this one but thats life move forward not look back, im going to the one in Northampton on weds and have a sit down chat and see what he comes up with
Last edited by kingfisher75429; 08 March 2020 at 09:18 AM.
only thing with fb tuning is he dont supply the parts he said you get every thing and ill put it on and as im new to scooby's i would rather drop the car and the person just do it all, yes i know im sounding lazy but im no spring chicken any more , the old getting on my back in the cold under cars days are long gone
Following on from my earlier post, you might end up with a rather large quote on Wednesday if you ask them to quote on everything - be prepared.
Not sure this helps but like you I've had lots of cars (on my 101st) and just occasionally i've cut my losses and decided its good money after bad.
I bought a car once for £1500 and it needed £2k spending on it to make it worth £2k again and it would never have been worth more.
i hear what your saying i not had as many as you bt im close to the 50 mark, the money side is never been an issue with me im not saying im a millionaire im saying i buy a car enjoy owning it driving it tinkering with it then sell it on for some one else to enjoy it ,so far im 4k in if i sold it as it is id be lucky to get 2k so if i end up spending another 2k i know it will be a decent car and maybe in another 5 - 10 yrs ill get my money back lol
Yes. For what its worth I took my classic out of the garage for its first run since October yesterday (you tend to get paranoid about protecting wheelarches!).
Reminded me after 5 minutes why I still have it.
- still great performance despite its age
- traction, steering, roadholding all top notch
- sounds intoxicating
- you are connected to the car and have no electronic 'filter'
Enjoy and good luck on Weds. Post back here what they say?
wipe the diff down so you can find where the leak is , a lot of stuff can be done by you ie all the fluids plugs , and a lot of the jobs are not that difficult to do and will save you a lot of £ , cambelt i would not do , the diff maybe a long term slow leak and may just need a top up
just had a 2nd hand stainless steel de cat pipe fitted as middle cat had been badly welded bodged , when the car is on idle i hear no difference but when you drive it o m g i cant stop smiling lol
decided to go to the 2 Subaru garages in Northampton shire, Newman and Reidy and then maple leaf,
any way
wish my luck lol
One thing Newman & Reidy do is a very good value fixed price service deal on older cars (£75?)- and they will stamp your Subaru service book if you ask nicely.
I've used Maple Leaf a lot over the years but that's mainly been down to Curtis who has lots of common-sense with classics - but I'm not sure if he's still there and the labour rate has crept up a fair bit - so if you have labour intensive jobs you might want to get some other quotes.
been had a long chat with james at newman, he siad the best thing to do is have the car on the ramp for a couple of hours to go over every thing and see what needs replacing or adjusting , i got a good vibe from him , he didnt seem like he was going to rip me off and do stuff for teh sake of it he siad if alot of things need doing best advice is to leave it with them for a couple of weeks and they will do a bit here and abit there between other jobs that wya he can charge less per hour rate, its booked in for the 28th so still got time to make my mind up what to do
just got off the phone to curtis going to see him at 4 , he going to put it up on the ramp and have a look, i got a really good vibe off him over the phone so even if it comes to more money than newman i really want a guy who knows his stuff and cares about these old cars , a big bonus is he owns one the same colour , thank you flat4x4-again for your recommendation ill keep you posted on the out come
on a side note i past 2 hawkeyes on the way there and they both put there hand up , you dont get that with mk2 mondeo drivers lol
HI all, brought a impreza gx about 6 months ago to sample a car I've been wanting for so long. Can honestly say that the only disappointing thing is the lack of a turbo. I did buy it also as project car and so far it's gone to plan, new rear bumper (due to previous accident damage before I got it), new cat, 5in cobra sport stainless steel exhaust, new drive belts, new timing belt and pulleys. Recently serviced and found that it looked like it hadn't been service for a very long time. However it drives superb and best of all has 82k on the clock on a 52 plate. As I mentioned earlier however now I'm looking at getting a wrx/sti. Anyone have and ideas on what the asking price of mine could be. Would be interested looking for a hawkeye next.
[QUOTE=kingfisher75429;12074220]just got off the phone to curtis going to see him at 4 , he going to put it up on the ramp and have a look, i got a really good vibe off him over the phone so even if it comes to more money than newman i really want a guy who knows his stuff and cares about these old cars , a big bonus is he owns one the same colour , thank you flat4x4-again for your recommendation ill keep you posted on the out come
Good morning scooby fans, its been a while!!! so i thought id do a little update on my scooby, so if u can remember i took it to 2 local scooby specialist and they both ripped into it , gave a long list what it needs doing so following advice on here i took it to Daventry for them to have a look around the car, he had it up on the ramp for over an hour and said yes there's a few things that need doing but nothing like the other 2 guys said, he said look at it as a 5 yr old project do bits that need doing here and there , as it was on the ramp for over 1 hour he said if u look at the floor there's no oil drips so dont panic over the oil leak as its only a small seepage, and after all the great advice and checking over the car they didnt even want any money !!! so i booked it in to do the cam belt and full service and other little bit buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut as we all know the virus hit the uk and borris shut us all down and made us work form home so with lock down and restrictions on and off in 2020 the car sat on the drive going no where until last week end :-)
so here how she stands today....
full mot
just need some welding every thing else pasted
oil change
both front callipers changed as one was sticking when i was driving it last yr
rear dif oil changed
new hand brake cable and rear shoes ( nearly 400 quid !!)
straight thought middle section exhaust ( sounds like what a scooby should sound like)
so now it going to be my daily to work and back and enjoy it for what it is
bring on the sunshine
Last edited by kingfisher75429; 22 February 2021 at 07:30 AM.
there's no actual rear dif leak , its not wet/moist just looks gunky and needs a clean up, i think i was told a few porkies from the other guys to get some wonga out of me as i said i knew nothing about Subaru's ( could be wrong but that's how it feels)
i had welding done both sides near the rear jacking points and a small hole up near the top mount of the rear suspension
next job is cambelt and looking to change/up grade intercooler as most of the fins are flat/damaged and i cant un flatten them
and then new rear calliper's one side has the original one and one side has one off a bug eye/blob eye so need to find what's evolved changing it back to the original one
once lock down is over ill take it to scoobyclinic for a health check and rolling road see what bhp its running ( unless any one recommends any one else as its a 2 hr drive from me)
the rear arches are starting to show some bubbles ( 1 yr ago not a single bubble) but nothing for me to worry about just yet
06 March 2020, 07:25 AM
new scooby newby
so following advice on here i took it to Daventry for them to have a look around the car, he had it up on the ramp for over an hour and said yes there's a few things that need doing but nothing like the other 2 guys said, he said look at it as a 5 yr old project do bits that need doing here and there , as it was on the ramp for over 1 hour he said if u look at the floor there's no oil drips so dont panic over the oil leak as its only a small seepage, and after all the great advice and checking over the car they didnt even want any money !!! 
