How many Km on your L RX Turbo ATM .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 8:01 pm

Hi all , just curious to know how many miles the RX Turbos here have steamed .

My poor old Bus Ellie had 249000 when I drove it home from Werribee Melbourne a bit over three years ago . Today it clicked over 343000 so thats 94 I've driven the old girl for .
I always reckoned anything over 100000 would be good from an old car and I'll probably see 110000 if I run it out of this its last year - with me anyway .

So , how many Km's have the other RX's here done ?

Cheers A .

GOD · Post by **GOD** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 8:13 pm

Might also be interesting to know how many engines have powered each RX body. (Not having a dig - I'm up to four and counting).

Dane.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 3:02 am

Cheap Grief GLTA had 188,000 ( as did my wagon) when I got it, now about 237,000. Think it was original engine that got it to 188, then 25,000 on my import, 27,000 or so on LTurbos old resurrection, and about 3,000 so far on the import since heads went back on with genuine no need to retorque gaskets

T'subaru · Post by **T'subaru** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 8:03 am

my 89 rx has 347994 km's....216234 miles on the clock. It may see another mile or km moving it around the property ea82t powered before my son and I convert it to all ej power/drive train as his first car.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 3:48 pm

Well Ellie's now at 349,200 which works out at 218,250 miles . It would have been in the low 249's when I drove it home from Melbourne and I remember it turning over 250 just south of the old toll gates at Waterfall approaching the Sydney metrop .
I figure I must have put 100,000 Km on it since I bought it so I don't feel so bad about the money that went into the engine and gearbox etc .
Its a vastly better car to drive than the one that left Weribee three and a bit years back . More guts and reliability and luv the AWD difference it got along the way . The handling difference is huge and makes it far more enjoyable to drive than the way Subaru had it .

May is when it's due for rego and it won't be getting it from me . Its future will be either in someone else hands or lots of hands it I have to part it out . I've liked this car and although I overcapitalised it in a big way I learnt a lot from developing it too . It never got the computer or intercooler upgrades that I would have liked because in my heart I knew I was in too deep financially , it had to stop somewhere because I doubted anyone would pay even a third of what it owes me .

I need a bit more time to tidy up loose ends on what will become my daily driver and I'm thinking of advertising it at the Brindabella Motorsport Club (BMSC) website . Maybe someone who wants a cheap rally car basis or some of the tasty hard to get bits may buy it and put it/them to good use .

Till then its daily duties and we'll see haw many more miles I can rack up .

Cheers Adrian .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:19 pm

Well since then I've racked up another ~ 10 250 km taking it to 359 450 km or 224 650 miles . From the 259 000 Ellie had when I bought it thats ~ 110 450km I've driven the thing .
I think I have about 47 500km on the engine I had built so I'm slowly getting value back from the money spent .

A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:27 pm

Musta changed yer mind about reregistering Ellie back in May eh? Cheap Grief will be due for its 250,000km oil change soon. Spat an 18 month old Chinese Bosch MEC717 coil a month or so ago, replaced with correct spec genuine newie.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 12:12 am

Yeah , for the first time in my life I cheaped out on 6 month rego and insurances . I guess what drives me is trying to justify/get some return from the money it cost me . Maybe the bred into me if and broke don't throw it away thing keeps it in my small fleet . It certainly keeps the miles off the Skyline and Lancer though eventually that will change .
I spent a day cleaning/washing/polishing the old girl and it came up surprisingly well for a 25 year old car .
Its proving very reliable touch wood and even manages to keep its coolant where its supposed to be .

Cheers A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:25 am

My feelings are that if a car (with a few exceptions) was serviced as intended everythng would last longer, but as the owners get a return on their invstment, the value falls,it becomes the second car or traded in, shuffled around between owners who then try to get their monies worth again (like spend zip until time to sell) then on to the next....as a result no one keeps track of oil change intervals or quality (nah, it's got a filter, why new?), coolant/ anti corrosion stuff turns to orange, water pipes corrode, hoses get hard yet never inspected or replaced (at $20 for a little hose TIMES THREE, NO WAY!!) ... then someone like us comes along and wants improved reliability with some fun on an old dinosaur and throw twice the estimated first thought to get there and end up wanting a return for our investment

For you EJ advocates, I worked out just on three grand for an import EA82T, welded heads serviced,VRS, new genuine valve springs, new after market HVLA's, new dizzy vac can, new gen coil .... and about $500 on three spare engines - all with cracked heads or rooted valve guides, glazed bores, blown ring (still went like the clappers) or death rattle (still did 25,000km before a steam event likely to be the turbo not the engine)
Oh, yeah, another $250 for the pristine TourWagon I bought for parts OUCH!! like mint 5 speed box, steering wheel, rack, seats, donk etc

Got 60,000km of fun so far .....

like someone here said when I was pondering its purchase in 2006.... Cheap Grief

sammynb · Post by **sammynb** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 12:25 pm

Somehow missed this thread the first time around.
When I bought the Turbo Sedan, I know I shouldn't refer to it as an RX although it is now manual and runs coil overs instead of air suspension, in '98 it had 161000 kms on it and was 100% original.
Between '98 and '05 it was used as the daily driver, except for those moments when it was off the road for suspension and transmission conversions.
By the time the original engine let go at the end of '05 and ever since, the odometer hasn't moved from the 243000.
I feel guilty everytime I look at him as we pile into the imprezza.
One day he'll go again.

btw discopotato03, when you feel it's time to let Ellie go, let us know, we might be interested.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:56 am

auto turbo L Series sedans are known as 4GLTA by Federal Transport Dept

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:58 am

Will do , I think theres a list of its specs here somewhere if not I'll post them .

Cheers A .

sammynb · Post by **sammynb** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:31 am

steptoe wrote:auto turbo L Series sedans are known as 4GLTA by Federal Transport Dept

NSW rego papers list it as a LEON82A just to confuse the issue even more.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:50 am

When LTurbo Thomas formrly 4 speed auto 4GLTA was 'em paid off for an accident the insurance company could not find any indication of what it was or thought it was a grey import or something????

sammynb · Post by **sammynb** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 1:24 am

steptoe wrote:When LTurbo Thomas formrly 4 speed auto 4GLTA was 'em paid off for an accident the insurance company could not find any indication of what it was or thought it was a grey import or something????

Um, mine's a 10/85 build, originally a 3 speed auto. 4 speed auto is luxury, so much so our 2003 wrx has one! (The missus can't drive a manual and it's her car before anyone makes derogatory comments.)

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:47 am

Hi all , just back from a round trip to Bathurst . What else do you do at 6PM on a Saturday ?
Ellies now at 365,500 ish and I want to see 370 odd before rego is due again in November . By my calcs that would be 121,000 Ks in my hands or a bit over 75,500 miles .

So done a western leg and looking forward to a south coast one , and south and north .
For an 'tawd bus it did very well up the mountains and better that it should have , aherm , up Victoria pass . Close short gearing is the thing to have in the hills .
It didn't miss a beat but of course it wouldn't with a boot full of tools and two 10L water containers - just in case .

Cheers A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:38 am

Someone said speed cameras appear on Mt Panorama, surely you took her for a bit of a blat in a 60 zone ? To try out the gearing uphill of course

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:51 pm

I didn't go to the circuit , is it open late at night ?

No , better up the western flank of the great divide with my quite accurate speedo telling me 90 km/h lies up the straight past the bottom "loop" .
Steep rise , cold air , good 98E10 , naughty car .

Moonie bridge up north has steepish climbs and the Hume has a few down south ie the one out of Gundagai and the Mundoonan Ranges .

Pending .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:41 pm

Circuit? Adrian, it is a two way public street when not a race track - it is 'open' 24 hours a day !

Hills - try the Moonbies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbi_Range between Tamworth and Armidale, though there is bound to be a fixed camera or two along there now

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:58 pm

Yes I know its a public road but I don't think peoples residences are dotted right around it . Its never occured to me to drive around it at night and its no great secret that its a victim rich environment .
Mt Panorama is a better drive in the daytime and usually opens the eyes of those who've never been around it before , especially how steep and tight it is on the way down .
Racecam doesn't do it justice and neither does any vaguely original L Series . The best local legal rally spec RXs had 190 horsepower where OE Evie has on paper 276 . It woulde be a far safer car to to push around the mountain than Ellie .