EPIC FAILS: Anyone been let down by their Subie?
- Thread starter Tweaksta
- Start date
El_Freddo
Forum Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2008
- Messages
- 2,399
- Location
- Bridgewater, Vic
- Car Year
- 1988, 1990
- Car Model
- EJ22'd L series; Targa Brumby
- Transmission
- Locking FT4wd 5spd Manual, 4.111:1 diff w 1.59:1 low range & front OBX LSD ;)
Hehehe... Well:
The main ones I can remember - first when I purchased the vehicle, thought it had blown head gaskets, well, it did but it also had a cracked cylinder!
Then the following happened - usually due to the age of the vehicle and some things that needed to be seen to that I didn't think of before hand:
On our return from Perth in 2007, one of the hottest days I remember driving in from Adelaide my lovely brother blew the side out of the radiator - old plastic end tanks will do that. We were barely at Tintanara in SA. Got towed home with RACV total care (thank god!):
Then I blew a couple of heater cores, but I wasn't far from home when that happened. The other real bad one I remember was Good Friday doing a reckie for a trip out in the Wombat Forest. I remember a squeaking sound and thinking it was the alternator on it's way out. Lucky we were headed on a down hill run out of the scrub when the engine stalled - chewed a cam belt. I managed some phone reception and got me a ride home with RACV total care again
The squeaking was the demise of the cam belt - dead tensioner:
Then this one a week before my wedding - my fault:
Lead to a failed bearing on an idler pulley in the cam belt system. I was more worried about the wheel bearings that were noisy as sin. They all completed a round 700km trip to and from a 1st aid course in Gembrook (from Lakes Entrance) - after several trips from Benders to LE to move us down there about a month after the sinking happened. 3 wheel bearings were contaminated, one rear was good, so that's a spare now. Here's the idler pulley that failed:
^ I thought I was running out of fuel after dropping my wife off at work. I put a jerry can in and limped her home to find this! She didn't start again after being put in the shed! Very lucky!
And the last one - a blown clutch half way up the Tambo river roughly halfway between Lakes Entrance and Mt Hotham. We were living and working at Hotham at the time, some might remember this story!
Here's where we had Ruby Scoo picked up from, then delivered to a mate's pero's joint where I was lucky enough to use their shed over the winter to get her going again:
This is the clutch disc, 19 pieces in total, presuming the bit missing was in one piece - we never found it though. Not much fun:
Probably the last one really wasn't something that stopped us, just something that really, really concerned me - and I wasn't done with her just yet. She spent the best part of 6 months on a rotisserie as many will remember - to sort out a captive nut issue on the radius rod plate. Well worth the effort in my book.
Here's the plate removed after finding it flapping in the wind so to speak:
I must admit that there were times that I was ready to give up on her, but when I had something else lined up I was over that phase and just couldn't let her go. The big turning point for me was the dropping of the EJ into the engine bay, she's been a much different vehicle since then (for the BETTER!!).
This is why I encourage those that are "over it" to push through, they're usually glad that they did.
Thanks for reading the essay! (now) GOOD TIMES!!!
Cheers
Bennie
The main ones I can remember - first when I purchased the vehicle, thought it had blown head gaskets, well, it did but it also had a cracked cylinder!
Then the following happened - usually due to the age of the vehicle and some things that needed to be seen to that I didn't think of before hand:
On our return from Perth in 2007, one of the hottest days I remember driving in from Adelaide my lovely brother blew the side out of the radiator - old plastic end tanks will do that. We were barely at Tintanara in SA. Got towed home with RACV total care (thank god!):
Then I blew a couple of heater cores, but I wasn't far from home when that happened. The other real bad one I remember was Good Friday doing a reckie for a trip out in the Wombat Forest. I remember a squeaking sound and thinking it was the alternator on it's way out. Lucky we were headed on a down hill run out of the scrub when the engine stalled - chewed a cam belt. I managed some phone reception and got me a ride home with RACV total care again
The squeaking was the demise of the cam belt - dead tensioner:
Then this one a week before my wedding - my fault:
Lead to a failed bearing on an idler pulley in the cam belt system. I was more worried about the wheel bearings that were noisy as sin. They all completed a round 700km trip to and from a 1st aid course in Gembrook (from Lakes Entrance) - after several trips from Benders to LE to move us down there about a month after the sinking happened. 3 wheel bearings were contaminated, one rear was good, so that's a spare now. Here's the idler pulley that failed:
^ I thought I was running out of fuel after dropping my wife off at work. I put a jerry can in and limped her home to find this! She didn't start again after being put in the shed! Very lucky!
And the last one - a blown clutch half way up the Tambo river roughly halfway between Lakes Entrance and Mt Hotham. We were living and working at Hotham at the time, some might remember this story!
Here's where we had Ruby Scoo picked up from, then delivered to a mate's pero's joint where I was lucky enough to use their shed over the winter to get her going again:
This is the clutch disc, 19 pieces in total, presuming the bit missing was in one piece - we never found it though. Not much fun:
Probably the last one really wasn't something that stopped us, just something that really, really concerned me - and I wasn't done with her just yet. She spent the best part of 6 months on a rotisserie as many will remember - to sort out a captive nut issue on the radius rod plate. Well worth the effort in my book.
Here's the plate removed after finding it flapping in the wind so to speak:
I must admit that there were times that I was ready to give up on her, but when I had something else lined up I was over that phase and just couldn't let her go. The big turning point for me was the dropping of the EJ into the engine bay, she's been a much different vehicle since then (for the BETTER!!).
This is why I encourage those that are "over it" to push through, they're usually glad that they did.
Thanks for reading the essay! (now) GOOD TIMES!!!
Cheers
Bennie