Matdaymon's DeForester MKII: The Ghost

Finally got my hands on another Forester!

It's an automatic 1997 SF5A T/TB (JDM) in two tone Green on Silver just like the first one. Sand/brown interior, just like the first one. And full of dog hair, just like the first one :lol:

Only differences between MkI and MkII is lack of rear spoiler, this one has factory Foz wheels and it doesn't have a passenger airbag.

Picked it up for $2k off TradeMe this morning.

Needs a hell of a cut and polish and a mega service to flush out whatever gunk the previous owner was scammed with (he was an admitted non-mechanically minded person). The coolant system will take a lot of effort and is #1 on the to do list.

So tomorrow I'm off to SCA to pick up some new spark plugs, oil, coolant, air filter, oil filter, roof basket and anything else that takes my fancy with the money I saved when I got it for less than asking price.

Will take some photos tomorrow of the process and how it looks at the start of the process.

The plan *currently* is to chuck in some KING springs to raise it up (if anyone has the part number for Forester SF springs I'd appreciate it), just them on SG struts front and rear and hopefully chuck on a set of all terrain tyres.

Hopefully it'll make a great beach basher for fishing trips and get me through my parents often flooded road in the coromandel.
 
Click to expand...
Took it out for a fang on some gravel roads up in the Hunua Ranges. Turns out there is a whole warren of Mountain Biking tracks up there!

Mint views of the valley and some small muddy areas to play in.







Very much loving this car - even with it's coolant allergy.
 
Well today was both fun, disappointing, and a triumph.

Started off at Mum and Dad's and cruised down the valley for a play with the dogs, Old Man Dogbone, and The Shadow.

Then we decided it was time for an adventure and hit the road to the headland/lookout above Whangamata.

Explored a few forestry road and let the dogs have a good run and got the Foz nice and grubby. Quite pleased with the Maxxis Bravos and tried a couple of really soft and muddy side sections.

Drove home and found steam coming out from the bonnet... Not again!
Turns out one of the small hoses coming off the waterpump decides to give up.
One trip to the local mechanics and $5 later I had a couple of bits of straight cooling pipe.



Got home and after a bumfight getting the hose off it was seemingly all good to go. After a test drive 200m down the road all was not well and I parked up on a steep but of the driveway. A call to my handy mate and a lot of water into the system it bled the airlock that was causing my headaches out from the heater and all appears to be well. Took the mrs for a quick drive and splashes about in the local ford (she squealed) and got a bit of mud on it.

Looks like my temporary fix should be good for the 90min drive home tomorrow.

Took some video of the adventure with the dogs which you can check out at your leisure on YouTube (don't know how to share videos on the forum)
 
Last edited:
Well it looks like I've solved the majority of my cooling issues. I replaced the majority of the pipes and did a full flush with a heap of citric acid.
Took her for her maiden trek into the unknown by heading on a surf casting trip with some mates to the beach, one of the few you can drive on here.

She handled it like a champ. I didn't even have to sit down the tyres.
Decided to try change my diff oil since they would have taken a beating on the beach but the rear diff didn't want to play ball. Now have a rounded fill bolt and no way of getting it off. It looks like someone may have used lock tight on both as even my breaker bar wouldn't budge them. Gonna have to find a new back plate to replace this one I think.

Anyway. 13 weeks into ownership and I'm still loving it. Might look at the 50/50 AWD mod next as well as a roof basket for stowing sandy gear... It might have the sand coloured interior but it's still a ******* when sand gets inside.
 
Looks great on the beach! :biggrin:

Ahhh, the diff plugs, what a joy they are! You can buy a diff plug tool so the plug isn't damaged, I got mine ordered in from a local tool shop for $20. Its a 13mm male square socket. If its really stuck, put a jack under the breaker bar for extra leverage
 
More progress has been made on the Mk II!

Finally managed to change the diff oil - ended up buying a set of ToolPro socket heads of various weird shapes. Then I painted it red (see the WHYDTYC thread for the pic) along with the brake calipers to add a bit of colour under the wheels.

Also drained the 4EAT and replaced the fluid with some fresh ATF, as well as sucked out the chocolate milk (what it looked like) out of the power steering reservoir and refilled with fresh ATF also.

Will probably do the trans again in a week or so to try get as much of the old fluid out of it as possible. Already shifting noticeably better after the first fluid change too!

We've had some fantastic weather here lately so the Mrs. and I have been thinking of some mods for camping.

First plan is to get a double sized foam mattress to cut to the shape of the boot so we can sleep in it. We just fit lengthwise so that's good. Will be getting a roof basket for extra storage for when we go sleeping in it.

We're also looking at getting a khaki tarp to make an awning out of since I'm not going to pay $400 at SCA for a ''proper'' one. Not sure on what size I should be looking at so if anyone knows a good size I'm open to suggestions. I'm currently thinking along the lines of 1.5m x 2m ..


Still can't believe I've got my dream car already. :discomonkey:
 
Has new a fun couple of weeks with the Foz. Went exploring to Slovak spot for off-roading with my best mate and his Safari.





Drove to the Coro last night and had the CEL light up briefly. Pulled code 22 out of the ecu today so hoping it was a one time thing.

Next on the to do list is fab up a bash plate for the sump and also one for the trans since I seem to bottom out a fair bit. Hopefully Santa brings me front lift springs or a roof basket ...
 
Yeah hopefully was just a bit of mud falling on it or something . It was in the middle of the Coromandel hills when it happened and it only came on for a couple of corners.
 
Gotta love coromandel :ebiggrin: you're wagons looking much more serious with the recovery points and the A/Ts! nice work!

I have had an incident once with my freinds outback where we pulled off the track to let some horses past and he bottomed the trans sump on a stump which blocked the pick up and lost all drive :sad: had to mcguiver it to get it home but long story short, bash plates for the win!
 
Thanks Legover.
Another fun thing happened on the drive over... The drivers side windscreen trim popped off on the hills. Felt like an absolute badass winding down the window and catching it just as it fell off.
Pretty sure my fiancée and her friend aren't looking forward to the drive home later though... They weren't very impressed with that, plus CEL and the left rear wheel nuts randomly loosening yesterday.
 
matdaymon said:
The drivers side windscreen trim popped off on the hills. Felt like an absolute badass winding down the window and catching it just as it fell off.
Pretty sure my fiancée and her friend aren't looking forward to the drive home later though... They weren't very impressed with that, plus CEL and the left rear wheel nuts randomly loosening yesterday.
Click to expand...

What else could possibly go wrong! :rotfl:

Seriously, just give all the wheel nuts a check...

And yes, that's pretty badass lol :monkeydance:
 
Well since my last post here I've got about 1000km under my wheels thanks to the yearly Christmas road trip to the Coromandel to visit my parents.

Somewhere along the way the windscreen trim flew off and nearly hit a couple of Banditos who were behind me, but thankfully it missed them and didn't cause any unwanted carnage. Going to probably just silicone it up rather than try get another in good nick from the wreckers.



Under the Christmas tree was a roof basket from the future Mrs (She's definitely a keeper) which as well as making the Foz look pretty badass has fixed the annoying whistle from the Thule roof racks.



Mum and Dad's place is in a Valley just outside of Whangamata, complete with gravel road and tourists to dodge. All around Whanga' there are heaps of forestry tracks and I went for a mosey around a few of them. Seriously, I can't believe how capable this little car is and it keep surprising me in just where it will go when I'm feeling brave.



The car now has a fair few battle scars from trees in some of the narrow tracks but other than the obvious lack of ground clearance the only other issue I had was the inability to safely descend the steeper tracks I found.



One of the main things I wanted to get done was a bit of fishing with a mate and unfortunately the weather has been ****e and we only got one afternoon of surf casting done before it all packed in. The weather cut the trip short since the river next to the road to Mum and Dad's floods regularly and I haven't managed to do my intake mods any further than a snorkel-ectomy so we bailed rather than run the risk of getting stuck down there.

Hopefully once the weather gets better over the next few days we'll be taking the cars down to one of the beaches here in Auckland for a serious fish now we're back.

 
matdaymon said:
Somewhere along the way the windscreen trim flew off and nearly hit a couple of Banditos who were behind me, but thankfully it missed them and didn't cause any unwanted carnage. Going to probably just silicone it up rather than try get another in good nick from the wreckers.
Click to expand...

great pics. Maybe one of your pesky Kea's got to it!
 
Haha no Kea in the Coromandel thankfully!

Went to Mitre 10 and got some bendy pipe (Gutter Witch) and beat it into submission to fit in the guard pointing towards the driver instead of forwards. It ain't the prettiest but it will serve for now until I can afford to do a proper snorkel on it.

Weather improving over here so hopefully Subie v Zook beach fishing is on !
 


Well Subie vs Zook beach mission was a success! While I didn't need the V6 Escudo to tow me out I had a few issues with the engine getting a bit warm and my knock sensor karked it on the beach setting the CEL off.



Thanks to the team on FozTrek (where I post most of my stuff while out and about) I've learned that airing down should help me keep the engine cooler since it was revving its nuts off to keep momentum on the soft sand above the high tide mark.

Never got stuck though running 38 psi in the tyres (road pressures on my Maxxis Bravo 771s) so I was quite stoked.



The reason for the beach mission was for a surf cast so after driving then 9kms down Kariotahi beach we finally got to the mouth of the Waikato river, NZ's longest river, where we were targeting Kahawai for the smoker.

After not catching anything for a while and the tide going out we moved further down towards the mouth of the river and after dicking around with trying to light a fire unsuccessfully the fish came on the bite and we all got our Kahawai, while I managed to catch a snapper much to the Zook boys annoyance.



Lots learned from this trip. Mostly that I can head down to this spot whenever I like so long as I have half a tank of gas (the beach munches fuel in the TTB), but it has given me some direction on what to do next.



First up is I NEED to replace my steering rack bushes since the beach driving is making them even more rooted. Less than $40 from the local Repco thankfully and only a few minutes of spanner work to swap out. While I'm in there I'll hopefully grab an air compressor so I can pump up my tyres on the beach and save them the 10+ kms of abuse driving to the nearest servo to the beaches I fish off.



Next is I want to get some front lift springs in so I have a bit more clearance in the front end, while I also want a light bar so that when I'm hooning back down the beach after dark I can see more than 20m ahead of me :biggrin:

Last up is some work lights mounted to the rear of my roof basket so that when it gets dark I can see what I'm doing. Have a nice big cut in my hand from trying to get a hook back from a fish :furious:

Oh and that dead knock sensor? My mate who was driving the zook mentioned it to his co-pilot who works at one of NZ's best Subaru wreckers, Strong for Subaru, and they've sourced me a brand new unit on the cheap so long as I organise more fishing. #winning :monkeydance:
 
Looks fantastic, Mat.

Hopefully you will get all the lurgies out reasonably soon.

BTW, be careful about the 'silicone' you use on your car. Like household detergents, some varieties eat steel for breakfast, lunch and dinner :puke:.
 
Hmmm seems the beach bashing was a bit more hard on the steering than I thought. The steering rack now has a rather noticeable leak dripping onto the driveway. Bugga!






Since it is a Warrant of Fitness (WoF) issue this is going to jump up my to do list ahead of a few other things. Worst case scenario I pop over to the wreckers and get a replacement. Could even go for a quicker ratio if that ends up being the case.

Still well worth the fun I had on the beach!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top