Sister's Gen3 Liberty "Basil"

[Subyroo]

Looks like Basil could use a bath under the hood too.

[El_Freddo]

And some panel beating, cable ties replaced with the actual clips they’re substituting and paint touch up all over!

He’s bit of a bucket but he’s solid and everything works as it should… until it doesn’t - which doesn’t happen often so can’t complain.

I forgot to add that he’s run over 484,000km! So close to the golden 500

Cheers

Bennie

[Subyroo]

Crikey! I could only rustle up 224,781kms in 13 years of owning my 2003 XS Forester.

[El_Freddo]

You’ll get there Subyroo! Basil has an extra ten years on your Subaru so “there’s still time”

For a long time now Basil sported some offroad expeditions with my sister, well one actually…

Late last year I tapped out the ding in the rear quarter that made him look way better even though he’s now got all the small little hammer marks from the inside if you really look at the bodywork. A week later I learned about a trick of putting a deflated basketball in the panelwork and inflating it. Bummer.

Anyway while at pick a part late last year I grabbed some parts to replace the story board that made him look like a real beater when viewing the LHS.

Decided to do it on the hottest day of the year so far, peak temp at 39°, under a tree on our street (no shed!) streaming the 2003 hottest 100 on double J that I missed yesterday. That helped the work in the heat! If I didn’t get stuck into it the work would continue to linger and possibly never get done.

I found some rust at the lower guard area behind the front wheel, not sure if this is normal for these models (also 20+ year old vehicle so it’s doing well!) but it turned out to be quite superficial after running the wire wheel over it and giving it several good coats of rust converter.

Here’s the before:



And after:



I had to swap the glass over due to the window tint. This task took ages as I basically had to strip the door to get it out. I swapped the external door handle over as well as it was missing the lock barrel and I didn’t like the look of it.

It’s 90% done now. Hanging the door, setting the door gaps and “tuning in” the stop point of the glass took a while. It all worked out well though.

What’s left to do now is replace a bit of wiring for the tweeter and swap that over to this door with the original door card as the other one was not the same style. The original speaker’s days are numbered too. It’s lost the outer support part that holds the cone to the outer ring. Both speakers were in the same condition. Still sounds ok, it won’t win a sound comp though.

Wiring looms were the same which was good and less work.

That’s it for now. Odometer is nearing the golden 500 with it being over the 494,000km mark now!

Cheers

Bennie

[Subyroo]

Bennie, sadly my Forester will never reach the kilometers anywhere near what "Basil" has achieved.
I swapped my Forester with my daughter, who later onsold it to a girlfriends son, last year he was t-boned and "Casper" was no more, he was written off.

I swapped over to a 2013 Honda CRV after the Forester, then a 2016 CRV and now an MY21 Honda HR-V with 110,000Kms on the clock after 3 years.

[Silverbullet]

Nice work Bennie keeping an older Subie alive. These and the early 2000's Foresters etc are the models turning up in droves recently at wrecking yards near me. At the end of their useful life or just the cost of a few spare parts to fix was more than the car is worth

High k's, a little rough round the edges, these are the cars for me I watch a few mechanics channels on YT and "just rolled in" is a great one for seeing the kind of catastrophic failures brand new cars can suffer for no apparent reason. Don't think I'll ever buy a new car, for myriad of reasons not just what might break. A car that you can fix yourself in the driveway (or in the street!) is a winner in my books.

[El_Freddo]

Subyroo apologies I locked in that your foz was a 2013 model, not a 2003 model with 13 years ownership. Sad ending but kind of good knowing where your car went, what happened to it and that it (I hope) saved its occupants in the T-bone incident that sent it to its grave.

SB, damn straight mate! I love older vehicles - this one has zero chimes etc and I’m yet to drive a vehicle that has so many “safety” features that it would be frustrating to drive. Case in point: my sister who owns Basil swapped her regular company car for another one told me tonight how it tries to correct her lane position and auto brakes in situations when the vehicle seems it necessary. She drives on country roads most of the time and one of our long practices is to hug the middle line or even keep a wheel over the middle line to give a buffer between you and any potential wildlife interaction. Her loan car doesn’t seem to like this!

Our mid-naughties Pajeros only hum at us if you leave the lights on with the ignition off - perfect for me.

The EJ251 is a great engine in my book once it’s got the MLS headgasket treatment sorted. It’s a fun engine in my book and pulls well for what it is. And in this case the factory engine nearing 500,000km is a good run I reckon!
My only gripe is the throttle sensitivity at light throttle in town or when moving through car parks - and when cold, it holds revs for several seconds before dropping back to idle or what you want in the next gear.

Small things, it’s still a good car to drive and I’m looking forward to the golden 500 and beyond, fingers crossed!

Cheers

Bennie

[Subyroo]

Subyroo apologies I locked in that your foz was a 2013 model, not a 2003 model with 13 years ownership. Sad ending but kind of good knowing where your car went, what happened to it and that it (I hope) saved its occupants in the T-bone incident that sent it to its grave.

Cheers

Bennie

Thanks Bennie, the young bloke got out of the T-boned foz with no injuries, the safety aspects of the Subaru were what attracted me above all in the first place.
Our first subie was a 2000 RX 2.5 AWD Liberty Sedan, boy that thing hugged the road, the salesman in Townsville took us out for a test drive and he threw it into a roundabout at 80k/hr and frightened the shitta out of the wife and I. Credit to his skills and the cars handling, there wasn't even the hint of twitch in the Subie, we were sold at that point.
The foz always was a little bit behind in the cornering stats, but still did an admirable job just the same. A lot of other cars (or their drivers) couldn't stay close in the twisties or through roundabouts.