Dulagarl: the Lifted H6 Forester

Dulagarl · Nov 13, 2012

Nachaluva: hadn't though of that, but we now have time on our side to more seriously consider the mods to the rear suspension.

the reason is that insurance are now going to pay for replacement struts in the rear: I don't know why they weren't included in the quote in the first place since all of the damage happened at the same time. We are sourcing MY03 struts from Subaru. the reason I am going OEM is that they have a stronger strut body, and will therefore be less prone to bending.

We will therefore take our time on the modded rear end and do it next year. This will give us time to find a differenet insert to that used by kevin, since those inserts are no longer available. Once the custom struts and springs go in, I will keep the MY03 OEM struts as spares to take on something like a Simpson desert trip.

In other news, there were some isses arising from the repair job, but they'll get fixed this week. Another story is the damage done by the car transporter when bringing my car from Dubbo to Melbourne. I only got to look at the car closely whn I got it back from the repairer last week, and the issues include:

·Broken rubber seal around front right indicator.
·Deep scratches in paint around rear driver’s side door.
·CB antenna had been removed and was only loosely re-fitted. Cable had been ripped out of antenna. Will require repair / refit.
·Roof basket and bars had been removed and incorrectly refitted, lost washers (which I have replaced and I have since remedied incorrect fitting).
·End fitting of roof bar on front LHS broken (won’t stay in position, currently taped in place). This was a newly fitted part.

It's pretty annoying that they can be so carelsss. I have taken this issue up with the insurance company, and so far so ggod. They are sending an assessor to look at the vehicle tomorrow.

mr turbo · Nov 13, 2012

What ever happened to the day of, & where people taking pride in their work & care of other peoples property

Long gone by the sounds of this particular repairer.

Good luck with the assessor, I hope he give them heaps !!!!!!!!

Regards
Mr Turbo

stilson · Nov 13, 2012

That's a bugger, glad your insurance comp is playing ball.

Dulagarl · Nov 13, 2012

Mr T the list of issues is with the transporter: not the repairer. Thanks for your concern. You too stilson.

NachaLuva · Nov 14, 2012

I must say with your claims over recent years you seem to do well with your insurance company...I wonder if thats your determination to get a proper job done the way you want it done, or simply friendly, cooperative assessors :biggrin:

d_generate · Nov 14, 2012

Taza, it will be the KYB's giving you the firm ride, mine was perfect with the stock Foz struts, rode exactly like a WRX and cornered just as well without the rear sway bar fitted, they are firm springs but compliant at the same time.

Dulagurl, I rang my mate with the idea of lengthening my rear arms as I was at my whit's end with the way the car was steering dangerously with the accelerator, I told him I thought 25mm would be ideal and I'd come over with my idea on how to do it, by the time I drove 40 min to his place he had already made them lol, we threw them in and the difference was instant and unbelievable but we left the 60mm plastic blocks that I had previously put in there to solve the steering problem in place but the wheels were too far back now so I took them out and when I mounted the arms in the standard place everything was just about perfect though I think I'd go 20mm next time.

All he did was grab 4 from his pile out the back of his house and cut them so when they were welded together they were 25mm longer, you'll notice they are U shaped so he cut a piece of plate and migged that in the channel for maybe 8" to make them a boxed section which was more than strong enough, the hand brake cable fitted fine too, I think I just had to re-position it a little.

Dulagarl · Nov 15, 2012

Nachaluva said:
I must say with your claims over recent years you seem to do well with your insurance company...I wonder if thats your determination to get a proper job done the way you want it done, or simply friendly, cooperative assessors :biggrin:

It's a bit of both I reckon mate.

d-generate: thanks for that info. sounds really simple.

In other news, the insurance assessor had a look at my complaint about the damage done by the transporter, and has approved repairs. It won't be much money involved, but it's all going on the original claim. let's hope that's it for insurance for a while: I don't want any other mishaps.

Next week the OEM struts go in and some other minor issues get sorted.

mr turbo · Nov 16, 2012

Thats great to hear mate

Regards
Mr Turbo

Dulagarl · Dec 11, 2012

Recent upgrades:

new HD clutch
gearbox overhaul including:

[*]new bearings
[*]longer 5th gear
[*]new front gear type lsd (Quaife helical)
[*]new centre diff (only 4kg b/c 12 kg not avail at the time the box was opened, but can go 12 kg later without much stress)
[*]low range set replaced b/c it was rooted. Given that it was hardly ever used by me I think it was stuffed when I bought the vehicle. Currently has a 1.44 set in, but this may go back to 1.59 later.

tomorrow the second battery gets replaced.

vehicle drives differently now: less get up and go but heaps more torque. Through corners it is an absolute monster now. Seems also to rev a bit quieter which may come from repairing a broken wire to an O2 sensor.

Speaking of broken, my cashflow would fall into that category now.

NachaLuva · Dec 12, 2012

Great to hear she's getting some TLC. Pity bout the LR, not so sure you'll miss it with the EZ30R (hope I got that right) however, power isnt something you're short of! Esp if you're getting more torque :lildevil:

The LR would've helped on descents though....

El_Freddo · Dec 24, 2012

Wow mate, that seems like a very quick turn around! It seems like it was just last week we were talking about it!

Did you go for a rebuild or slap another box in there for now while the other one is being rebuilt?

Cheers

Bennie

Dulagarl · Dec 31, 2012

^ yeah it was pretty quick. Was a rebuild on my box.

Tested it out yesterday in Lerdederg. Very happy with the front diff. As for the 1.44 low range, I really don't think I can justify the expense of paying for 1.59 now. It has cost me a ****load to get the box rebuilt and fitted with new heavy duty clutch.

taza · Dec 31, 2012

What do you think of the 1.44 low range in comparison to the 1.59? Can you still easily manage with the 1.44?
What was wrong with the 1.59 anyway, why did it have to be changed?

Venom · Jan 1, 2013

taza said:
What do you think of the 1.44 low range in comparison to the 1.59? Can you still easily manage with the 1.44?
What was wrong with the 1.59 anyway, why did it have to be changed?

Dulagarl said:
low range set replaced b/c it was rooted. Given that it was hardly ever used by me I think it was stuffed when I bought the vehicle. Currently has a 1.44 set in, but this may go back to 1.59 later.

Who did the rebuild for you?

Dulagarl · Feb 25, 2013

Ok, some news on the Dulagarl.

Rear Struts:
because my KYB rear struts were bent in the goat and pig incident on the Paroo, they had to be replaced. Insurance covered this cost and I had OEM struts from a later model SG fitted. I managed to do this by finding what I think was an MY06 in the street, getting the VIN from it, and providing that VIN to the repairer.

The struts seem to have a spring seat that is about another 8mm higher than the SG model KYBs. I therefore seem to have more clearance above the tyre.

As well as that, I think I have a firmer ride in the back, and it seems less harsh. I don't have a sway bar in the rear, but the replacement struts have reduced roll in cornering.

I have no idea how much they cost, but I imagine that they were not cheap.

Insurance
So, Shannons cracked the ****s with me because I had more than two claims in a three year period. They decided not to reinsure me. people should note that Shannons have a three strikes and yer out approach, which they say is based on the requirements of their underwriter. Pretty **** really when you consider that one of my claims was hail damage, and another "claim" was for damage done by their transporter in bringing the car back to Melb from Dubbo.

Anyways, was a stressful experience, but I found another insurer called Australian 4WD insurance, which is offered by DGA Insurance Brokers and is underwritten by Allianz. I couldn't get agreed value, but I got market value plus market value of all modifications and accessories. This means that I have over $20K of cover now, and I'm only paying about 30% more than what I was with Shannons for about 50% more cover.

This week, the car goes back to the cosmetic surgeon to repair the damage done by the car transporter. When I get it back it will be going to TruTrack suspension for some custom made springs and some replacement of control arm bushes and like stuff.

Kevin · Feb 25, 2013

Not good at all of Shannons! The Allianz insurance is what I have had for many years thru the 4wd Assoc group cover. Happy to see the progress.

mr turbo · Feb 25, 2013

What a cop out by Shannons :yell:

Especially as the 2nd one, as you said, was caused by them & their negligence :eviltoyou:

It seems as though you've got a good deal (& better cover) from & through Australian 4WD insurance & Allianz.

Regards
Mr Turbo

Dulagarl · Apr 23, 2013

Some further developments.

It looks all nice and shiny again, because the damage done by the car transporter has been fixed and it got a cut and polish as well.

On a recent trip with venom, we noticed a strange knocking noise when one jumped up and down on the towball. (don't know why we discovered this, but we did). We removed the left reear strut to see if it was a fitting problem. We never got to the bottom of the problem, but did discover:

the struts when fitted didn't have the secondary dampers fitted;
the rubber at the strut top was broken.

So, today I took it to the ever reliable people at Suspension City, and they discovered that the strut tops were stuffed. Their theory was that at some point the suspension had bottomed out badly causing the strut tops to buckle and begin to split.

here is the side on view of one of the strut tops:

and here is the view showing cracks:

Subaru quoted about $300 a pair for these, but we got some of some struts from a wrecker for $150 including the used struts. I will use these to mod rear struts at some point, like Kevin's which you can read about in his "Coming Soon - My New Setup" thread.

Anyway, the damaged strut tops supports my theory about why the struts bent a couple of years ago in the Coorong: the car had had a previous adventure. Put it this way: the car has never bottomed out heavily while I have had it.

The upside of having these replaced is that I have regained about 5mm of lift that was otherwise lost.

What I don't get, is how the repairer failed to fit secondary dampers / bump stops, and how they let the damaged strut tops go unnoticed.

Anyway, the new OEM struts are now protected by extra long bump stops: when the car is loaded it will actually sit on these, helping to prevent rear end sag. The nice news is that Damien at Suspension City said that there was nothing wrong with my springs! This means the custom suspension job can wait until I can afford it.

Now I'm going to get it all dirty on the weekend, somewhere up around Dimboola. I bought some paint protection called Road Warrior Plus, just to preserve the nice shiny look for a while.

Edit: pics added

mr turbo · Apr 23, 2013

Dulagarl said:
What I don't get, is how the repairer failed to fit secondary dampers / bump stops, and how they let the damaged strut tops go unnoticed.

Missing & failing to repair things like that is in-excusable :mob:

Dulagarl said:
Now I'm going to get it all dirty on the weekend, somewhere up around Dimboola.

Now that what I like to hear :biggrin:

Regards
Mr Turbo

NachaLuva · Apr 23, 2013

It never ceases to amaze me how incompetent some "experts" are!

At least now you have it all fixed :biggrin:

Dulagarl: the Lifted H6 Forester

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