Pezimm's 2007 Forester

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:44 pm

Sorry to say mate, but WE TOLD YOU SO (long ago to do this)!!!

Looks schmick - will it be allowed offroad again? It will get scratched!

Cheers

Bennie

Bumpty · Post by **Bumpty** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 8:29 am

pezimm wrote:And some poser shots:

Cheers,
Pedro.

WIT WEW
very well done!

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:20 pm

I got tired of sketchy mobile signal while on the road, so a new antenna was on order. I decided on this one: http://www.telcoantennas.com.au/site/CD2195

Here it is installed:

Routed the cable around the engine bay and into de cabin on the driver's side. I was careful to silicon the cable around the rubber shroud to keep dust/water out:

You may also have noticed that the roof basket is back on. This is in preparation to my upcoming Easter road-trip. More on that soon.

Pedro.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 6:55 pm

Looking good mate!

Enjoy the Easter trip! I'm looking forward to photos!

Cheers

Bennie

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:06 pm

A little teaser from my Easter trip to start off with. Any guesses where the shot was taken?

A full trip report will come in due course when I get some photos from the better half.

Pedro.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:27 pm

Flinders Ranges?

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:41 pm

Silverbullet wrote:Flinders Ranges?

Well, that lasted a whole 20 minutes... I really need to come up with harder riddles going forward!

But, yes, it is the Flinders Ranges indeed! And what a wonderful, beautiful place! Makes me feel a little jealous of South Australians to have it at their doorstep.

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:47 pm

Haha he beat me. Flinders Ranges has a very unique look!

I would go a step further & hazard a guess at the Razorback Lookout

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:30 pm

NachaLuva wrote:I would go a step further & hazard a guess at the Razorback Lookout

And you would be correct!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:08 pm

That's awesome - and as per the late night text last night, I'm Jelly!

Will you be leading a Flinders Ranges trip sometime in the next 12 months or so??

Cheers

Bennie

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:45 pm

El_Freddo wrote:Will you be leading a Flinders Ranges trip sometime in the next 12 months or so??

That's not a bad idea... We need to find a window of opportunity when there's a bit of water around the park, that would make the tracks I went through very interesting.

I'll give it some thought and put up a separate thread.

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:55 pm

In my experience even in winter & spring it still doesnt rain much there. But when it does you often get enormous floods!

I would be in, I used to go there 3-4 times a year, but havent been now for about 5yrs. Been missing the place!

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:17 pm

Tidy-up Thursday:

Cleaned-up the battery tie-down and gave it a coat of paint as it was full of battery acid crystals from the previous unit:

Also touched-up the edge of the front fender that had a bit of paint chipped out a while ago, not a great job, but it will prevent rust and this is not a show car, so it's ok:

And had a good look at where a tiny oil leak was coming from:

You can see how it's coming from under the side bearing adjusting nut. I had the car on a hoist at Lucas Automotive a couple weeks ago looking at that leak. We cleaned the oil on the diff case and I wanted to see how much had come out since, seems to be getting worse.

Bigger and better things, the car has just rolled past 190,000km and I'm now looking forward to the milestone in another 10,000km. I have been thinking about how long am I going to keep the car and what to do with it.

Thoughts at this stage are:
- I'll keep the car for the time being to see the 300,000km come up (better stick with the devil I know?)
- If I'm going to have to fix that leak, why not fork out some hard earned and get a better front diff? I know choices on the 4EAT are limited, but there's a Modena torsen I wouldn't mind...
- While drive-shafts are out, I might as well service the inner CV boots and get new ones before the current ones fail.
- With a nice front diff, I won't be able to leave my rear diff standard, so maybe a clutch pack LSD??
- After doing all that, I'm thinking of replacing my lift kit with a 2-inch one and return the springs to regular height. This would give me another inch of down travel, keeping the wheels on the ground

What do you guys think??

Pedro.

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:57 pm

Is that oil def coming from the diff seals? Diff oil has a very distinctive "stink" to it!

If you get new driveshafts, be careful which ones you get, there are many stories of aftermarket ones not being up to the job. Another option is to get the factory CVs reconditioned, where they put in oversize bearings. This seems to be a good approach.

A front helical diff will do wonders, esp if backed up by a plated rear LSD. But I've been discovering its the front diff that's the most important one on loose or uneven climbs.

A 2" strut lift will work better than 1" blocks & raised springs, giving you more droop & also more compression as standard springs are softer, but you will notice more body roll. A stiffer RSB would help with that.

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:16 pm

NachaLuva wrote:Is that oil def coming from the diff seals? Diff oil has a very distinctive "stink" to it!

Yeah, mate, pretty sure. The photo I posted doesn't show it properly since it had been cleaned up a bit, but while the car was on the hoist I could see it clearly...

NachaLuva wrote:If you get new driveshafts, be careful which ones you get, there are many stories of aftermarket ones not being up to the job. Another option is to get the factory CVs reconditioned, where they put in oversize bearings. This seems to be a good approach.

I'm not planning on new shafts, just CV inner boot kits and some grease packs to freshen the driveshafts up for another 200k kilometres...

On the diffs, I think I've got my plan worked out for the front, as I said, there's not a lot of options for my transmission. But for the rear, there might be a few good options to consider.

Cheers!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:35 pm

Damn - lost the post I was going to make

Basically - go the front LSD with a helical as it's maintenance free...

Leave the rear diff until later, it's easy to do at any time so there's no rush. Also as Matt said up front traction is more important and I've found that to be true with only a front LSD at the moment in RS...

Only going to see the 300k mark? What about the 500k mark?

Also, you need a snorkel - just saying

Cheers

Bennie

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:27 pm

El_Freddo wrote:Only going to see the 300k mark? What about the 500k mark?

Also, you need a snorkel - just saying

Cheers

Bennie

Let me get to the 200k first, then 300k... After that, who knows?!?

Snorkel might be on the plans too...

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 6:44 pm

Slight setback... The Modena diff is not available anywhere!

I spoke to David at Modena Engineering and we worked out that he only ever produced 10 of them (talk about hen's teeth!) which went to the US. I contacted the people in the US that ordered them - Flatirons Tuning - and they sold the last one last month!! UNLUCKY!!!

Anyways, I'm gonna touch base with David again and see what sort of fortune he'll ask to fit a clutch pack in his design and make me a diff. Not looking good...

I suppose I could always do a manual conversion?!?!

Thoughts?
Pedro.

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 7:38 pm

Nooo...don't do a MT conversion, your AT is better...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:03 pm

pezimm wrote:I spoke to David at Modena Engineering and we worked out that he only ever produced 10 of them (talk about hen's teeth!) which went to the US. I contacted the people in the US that ordered them - Flatirons Tuning - and they sold the last one last month!! UNLUCKY!!!

How's the timing on that one?! Crazy!

pezimm wrote:Anyways, I'm gonna touch base with David again and see what sort of fortune he'll ask to fit a clutch pack in his design and make me a diff. Not looking good...

Best of luck with this. Also ask McNamara Diffs in Dandenong if you don't have any luck with Modena Engineering.

pezimm wrote:I suppose I could always do a manual conversion?!?!

You're kidding right?! Do a manual conversion for a front LSD - that's either dedication or blunt stupidity!

Keep the auto, you know you love it!

Cheers

Bennie