Replacing the PAS-Pump

I wouldn't say this was a very advanced job, but it does get fiddly working in the confined spaces so the instructions are quite detailed. Also be prepared to contort your arms into horrible positions and make sure you have a socket-set with at least 5 inches of extra reach AS WELL as a 12mm and 14mm open-ended spanner, with as low a profile as possible.

PROCESS:

1. Slide the finger-clip down the rubber-hose that enters the top of the PAS-pump. Slide the hose off the metal-pipe on the pump and plug the end of the hose.

2. Remove the two bolts holding the pulley-cover in place using a 10mm wrench, then loosen the bolt on the right-side alternator bracket using a 12mm wrench a couple of turns so the pulley-cover can be slid out. Turn the pulley-cover over and push the plastic-stud that holds the throttle-cable clip out of its hole.

3. Using a 12mm open-ended spanner, loosen the far nut on the throttle-cable where it sits in the bracket as far as it will go so the cable can be pushed back and lifted out of the bracket. Swivel the cable so it clears the PAS-pump area and fasten it with a cable-tie.

4. Using a 14mm open-ended spanner, loosen the union-bolt that attaches the metal-pipe to the port on the left side of the PAS-pump. Only crack the bolt off a couple of turns so no fluid spills, but the bolt can be removed easily once the pump is no longer fixed in position.

5. Remove the bolt that is threaded through the long adjusting-bolt that moves the alternator up and down. There is no need to slacken the adjusting-bolt - once the holding-bolt is out, the alternator should drop down fully anyway.

6. Lower the alternator until the belt becomes loose enough to be slid off the pulleys.

7. Remove the 3 bolts holding the PAS-pump in place using a 12mm wrench. There are 2 bolts to the front of the pump, beneath the pulley, which are easy to find, but there isn't a lot of room to turn them. The third, to the rear-right of the pump can be accessed from above, but you'll need at least 5" of reach on your ratchet.

8. Now the PAS-pump is free, remove the union-bolt from the pipe on the left side and lift the pump out. It's best to wrap a cloth around the union-bolt when removing the pump to catch any PAS-fluid dropping into the engine, although the pump shouldn't spill a lot anyway. **Plug the end of the metal-pipe.

9. Install the new PAS-pump, replace the pipe/union-bolt and insert the 3 bolts holding it in place.

10. Slide the new belt into position on the 3 pulleys. Lift the alternator until the belt is tense and replace the bolt that holds the adjusting-bolt in place. Now tighten the adjusting belt to the torque mentioned in the Workshop Manual [here] or just until the top stretch of the belt can be moved about 5mm up or down.

11. Replace the rubber return-hose and finger-clip to the top of the PAS-pump.

12. Snip off the cable-tie, swivel the throttle-cable back into its natural position in the bracket and retighten the 12mm nut on the far side.

13. Add PAS-fluid to the pump and allow it drain into the system and air to come out until the fluid reaches the measuring-scale on the cap.

Wing-Mirror Fixed!!

The wing-mirror had obviously been knocked off at some point in the past and it was held on a by a massive wrap of strong tape that looked ghastly. I recently decided to replace that with nicer looking black-tape, but it just wasn't up to the job. Rather than chuck loads more tape on I decided it was time to just bite the bullet and fix it as I can't lacquer the car this weekend.

The metal mount has sheared clean off, but there's no damage at all to the wing-mirror casing and the electric swivel still works so it seemed a bit of a waste to buy a whole new unit [starting at about £30 on eBay for a used one] when there's probably a way to fix it. The metal mount is only alloy so I figured it wouldn't be hard to drill a hole in both parts and get a bolt through. There's plenty room in the casing to hide the bolt and for a real tidy touch I drilled through one of the existing screw-holes on the door-mount so the bolt-head is also hidden away, which also made drilling a lot easier. The screws only hold the plastic-casing onto the mount and there are 3, so I think I can afford to lose one.

Hiding the bolt-head means the work I've done is invisible, but I had to use a 4mm bolt to fit the head up into the existing screw-hole. Even a slim steel bolt won't snap easily, but I would have liked to use a fatter one just to reinforce against those wheelie-bin knocks as it can't swivel inwards, but it couldn't with the black-tape anyway so I'll have to carry on being careful. I was beginning to think the job was suspiciously easy when I hit my first snag - tightening the bolt without the nut spinning around. To do this I had to remove the mirror-glass and motor-bezel to make a small gap to slide a spanner through and grip the nut. The plastic around the nut was still very constricting and the spanner had to be poised perfectly on the edges of the nut to get a few turns before it gave and had to be repositioned, which was frustrating but I got there in the end so money well saved.

As you can see from the ice on the windscreen my fingers were numb and blue but I think it was worth it to finish both this and the spotlamp in one weekend. It may not swivel or be as sturdy as a replacement, but its just as good as the black-tape and the mirror looks positively brand-new, so if it lasts me for as long as I have the car then result!

Bolting down the Passenger Footrest

The alloy-plate in the passenger-footwell has become an annoyance as people always seem to find a way to kick it around and wedge it under the seat so its time to fix it in place. I've been hesitating because I'm reluctant to start drilling holes and screwing through the cabin-floor in case I hit something like wiring or a fuel-line, but it turns out that floor carries on flat to the engine-firewall and the bit the slopes up for the footrest is just a thin steel false-floor.

I think it's worth noting in case I decide to remove the heavy false-floor later and completely replace it with my slimline alloy job when I decide to get the weight down. It's only held in place by 4 bolts and I don't think it stiffens the body enough for the softer metal not to work just as well. For now though I've just plonked the alloy over the top. I took one bolt out from each side of the false-floor and fixed down the alloy-plate through the existing holes with 2 more allen-head alloy bolts. I countersunk the holes in the alloy-plate, but the heads are quite deep so they only fit flush to the bumps not the plate itself.

New Koyo Alloy Radiator

FAULT FINDING:

I check the coolant level reasonably regularly, but one night the temperature-gauge went upslightly over the norm and after a while kept on rising so I banged the heaters on full blast and managed to limp the car about 2 miles home. Next day I discovered that the coolant had nigh-on disappeared! I filled the system back up with water - it took about 5 litres - to check for system failure and ran the car fortheweek,butthewater level stayed up and no sign of a leak. With no obvious evidence of failure my dad immediately suggested the head-gasket was blown and the coolant must have slowly gone through into the cylinders :( The mechanics at work backed up his claim and said that, because of the boxer-engine with a cylinder-head down either side, it was a nightmare job that needed the lump lifting out to do. I reckon I could do it without lifting the engine, but it would involve removing almost every other item from the engine bay. Rather that though than forking out for a professional to do it - I shudder to think how much that would cost. This could have been a killer blow for the Scoob, but all the other symptoms of a blown head weren't there - no oil in the water, mayonnaise in the oil, loss of power or rough-running.

At this point, with the levels staying up in the header-tank, I had to add coolant to the system to stop it rusting up, so I drained the water out, flushed it out with more water to get rid of any floating crud and re-filled it with a half and half mix of water and 3L of Halford's Advanced engine-coolant, which wasn't cheap at £24 (£7.99 per litre). I then checked the header-tank daily for a week with no change in the level.

Another two weeks of harder driving went by and I checked the coolant again. This time there was a definite drop in the level - the tank was only about a quarter full so I'd definitely hit a problem. Now I spotted the radiator. Its always looked battered but showed no signs of being split - I guess the old leaking coolant couldn't be seen as well as the fresh bright-pink stuff. By the look of the pink patches though, the radiator had burst in three places so it had to be replaced asap and I didn't know whether to be gutted over this or elated that it wasn't the head gasket...

NEW RADIATOR:

I had intended to put an all-alloy racing radiator on at some point, but these cost £130-£300 so to fit one now would kill my chances of buying brakes and stuff any time soon and I've got to move forward with the car. The OEM-spec radiators are all-alloy themselves [although not as chunky obviously and in a mild-steel surround] and less than half the price so it was a no brainer really to get the leak fixed. I scored one for £50 including next-day delivery off a guy called [dilley3613] on eBay - laughing. It's no cheap Chinese piece either, this is made by Koyo in Japan and, although its not quite as sturdy as the original one, its still looks a decent-quality part.

Fitting it was not a hard job at all. You only need a couple of spanners and there's not a lot to undo. There's plenty of space to work in a

nd the radiator lifts out clearly. Our only setback was the two bolts holding the radiator top-mounts were rusted so tight they snapped on the way out so we had to drill through and put a new bolt in with a nut underneath, which took ages. The top-mounts are all that hold the radiator on so check them for rust and WD40 them for about a week in advance to try and avoid the hassle.

PROCESS:

REMOVAL:

1. Jack the car up and remove the front under-tray by the two 10mm bolts on either side and the two 12mm bolts front and back. Lower the car.

2. Remove the radiat

or/header-tank cap to release pressure from the cooling-system.

3. Drain the cooling-system by placing a plastic-tube over the spout of the drain-valve at the bottom left of the back of the radiator and opening the valve. Drain into a clean bucket if you're re-using the coolant as I did and cover it straight afterwards.

4. Disconnect the fan wiring-socket by sliding a screwdriver down the slot in the connector until the two sides can be pulled apart.

5. On MY97/98 model cars the overflow-pipe from the header-tank is a thin metal tube that runs along th

e top of the radiator - later models won't have this. Disconnect

the overflow pipe from the system by removing the finger-clips and sliding off the rubber-hoses at each end.

6. Disconnect the rubber-hose from the overflow pipe at the top-left of the r

adiator by removing the finger-clip and sliding it off.

7. Disconnect the two large hoses from the top-left and bottom-right of the radiator by opening up the jubilee-clips with a flat-screwdriver. They will be sealed on tight, but should wiggle off easily once the seal is broken by pushing against the edge gently with a screwdriv

er. [It's worth putting a tray underneath the lower hose when you disconnect it as there will be a bit of coolant still pooled down there.]

8. Remove the two 12mm bolts holding the radiator top-mounts in place and tilt them up out of the bushes on the radiator.

9. Now the radiator can be tilted back, remove the single 10mm nut holding the PAS-fluid cooler in place. This is the two pipes that run over the radiator and

down the front. There is no need to disconnect the hoses from the PAS-coole

r as it can be tilted well clear for the radiator to be lifted out.

10. Slowly lift out the radiator, working the lower-bushes clear of their mounts.

11. Separate the fan and overflow-pipe from the old radiator by removing the two 10mm bolts at the bottom of the fan and the three 10mm bolts along the pipe at the top of the radiator. Also remove the top and bottom rubber-bushes to be reused.

REFITTING:

12. Bolt the fan and overflow-pipe to the new radiator using a 10mm wrench and re-insert the top two rubber-bushes.

13. Replace the bottom bushes to their mounts on the chassis. [The pins on the radiator are easier to use as a guide than putting the soft bushes on first and having to force them in.]

14. Lower the new radiator into the engine-bay, pushing the guide-pins firmly into the bushes.

15. Bolt the PAS-fluid cooler back into place, with the pipes over the radiator, using a 10mm wrench.

16. Push the pin on each top-mount back down into the bushes on the top of the radiator and replace the two 12mm bolts.

17. Push the two large rubber-hoses onto the new radiator [a tiny bit of washing-up liquid might help] and tightly secure them with the jubilee clips.

18. Push the rubber-hoses back onto the overflow at the top-left of the radiator and either end of the header-tank overflow-pipe. Replace the finger-clips.

19. Refill the system with 6.5 litres of a half water/half coolant mixture using the spout next to the battery or the header-tank and letting it run through.

20. Replace the header-tank cap and the front under-tray. You're done!

Quickshift Install

I've fancied a quickshifter, which reduces the throw-distance of the gearstick when changing, for a while now and the stock shifter and ball are quite worn and a bit sloppy anyway so the car benefits all round.

I really wanted a Kartboy shifter [www.kartboy.com], from a tiny little american company specialising in go-karts and now making parts for Subarus. Their shifter for classic Imprezas is now discontinued :( and finding one is nigh on impossible, even on import. The next one that caught my eye is GoFastBits one [gofastbits.co.uk/WRX5spdShifter], which features adjustable brackets so the throw-distance can be set to preference. I can't find this on eBay though and it's a bit steep @ £138+VAT from good old Demon Tweeks, but the real turn-off is when I Google this part I find people talking about them being prone to snapping...

eBay was awash with cheaper [and cheaper looking] alternatives though and in the end I decided on one in the lower end of the price spectrum from a small firm called 800bhp Tuning for a piffling £23.50 delivered, which doesn't look great and isn't that nicely made, but is a sturdier looking design like the Kartboy and, for that price, not so much of a worry if it snaps, although its a 10mm thick steel bar so I doubt it'll snap too easy anyway. The pic shows the stock-shifter on the left next to the more compact and shinier short-shift.

The fitting process was actually very quick and easy, even though the instructions provided we're pretty vague and the photos weren't of an Impreza dash, but we did have one nasty little snag that caused a lot of frustration, so if you don't the same fuss make sure you have a set of O-ring pliers handy...

PROCESS:

1. Screw off the gearknob. Gently prize up the edges of the centre-panel around the gearstick until it comes out along with the rubber gear-gaiter. It can be easily forced clear of the dash centre-console and handbrake panels without having to remove them.

2. Remove the 6 crosshead screws that secure the metal baseplate down and lift the plate clear. [The shortshift instructions said to remove four 10mm bolts from the baseplate at this point. I am not sure what model Subaru this refers to that the kit fits, but this shifter only covers Impreza models 97-00 and these will have 6 screws, not bolts.]

3. Remove the long nut and bolt from the shift-rod that holds it to the shift-arm bracket using a 12mm wrench. The shift-arm is able to move around quite a bit when it is free from the rod.

4. This is where things get a bit tricky. You'll need to get right under the car so lift the front and make sure its secure. [Use ramps if you have them. We still don't so we used those large concrete blocks again. I'd hate to get that far under with just axle-stands.] Locate the base of the shoft-rod under the car, behind the prop-shaft. There is a metal O-ring that holds the plastic base of the rod down and this is where we had all the trouble. This will probably be a lot easier with a pair of O-ring pliers, but we spent ages filing down a pair of needle-nose pliers to do the same job. Once the O-ring [second photo] is off, the plastic base should pop out with the shift-rod.

5. Remove the upper O-ring from the plastic base [much easier off the car] and pull the shift-rod ball out of the base.

6. Grease the ball of the new shortshifter [we used the Castrol LM grease again], put a little more into the plastic base and snap the shortshifter into the base. Replace the upper O-ring.

7. Push the plastic-base back down into its mount and replace the lower O-ring. This was a nightmare for us again. You'll need a second person here to hold the plastic-base down so it doesn't push out again every time you try to put the O-ring on. [Getting the O-ring back into place was impossible with my makeshift pliers - it just wouldn't hold the ring at the rightangle. In the end we removed the rubber-boot entirely and dad had to push his fingers through the gap from inside the car to guide the O-ring onto its seat successfully, a brilliant solution albeit long come to.]

8. Raise the shift-arm to meet the shortshifter bearing and replace the 12mm nut and bolt to the bracket, tightening it to a snug fit, but allowing the shift-rod to move through the gears easily.

9. Replace the metal base plate and the 6 screws. We had trouble here too, which wasn't mentioned at all in the instructions. The gap in the metal-plate comes down diagonally at the top left and most shortshifters work by lifting the shift-arm up a bit. The higher angle makes the arm come into contact with the diagonal edge of the plate, so we had to cut that away to give the arm space to move freely [in the right photo above].

10. Replace the plastic centre-panel and the gearknob.

I'm leaving my centre-panel and gaiter off for now until I've re-designed it a bit to better display the shifter, involving a bit more of my carbon-fibre. [My carbon wind-diffuser and other bits are coming along well too, all will be revealed soon!] The shortshift has definitely reduced the throw by about half and the car is singing through gears, not bad at all for the money. The gearknob itself has been raised nearly an inch too, which is weird at first, but with that thinner stick it gives a real race-car feel to changing gear!

Steering-Rack Boot Replacement

The O/S steering-rack gaiter, which is a rubber boot that holds grease around the rack, was leaking and this was an MOT failure so before turning to any Subaru garages I shopped around online and got a pair of the boots for £12 from PartsFromJapan.co.uk, who have an amazing selection of the smaller, rarer parts and, with a little help, managed to get the O/S one on in under an hour.

PROCEDURE:

1. Jack the car and get the front wheel off, on the side you're doing the boot on obviously.

2. Take off the front under-tray by removing the two 12mm bolts on the centre cross-member, two 12mm bolts beneath the front lip and the two 10mm screws at the sides.

3. Linked to the hub, just behind the front-edge of the brake-disc is the track-rod end, which runs up into the steering-rack. You can see the rubber-boot over the far end of the track-rod, covering its join to the rack-body. [Mine was split totally in half as you can see below and had seeped grease everywhere.]

4. Using a 17mm open-ended spanner undo the locking-nut holding the track-rod to the hinged mount on the hub. The nut is facing the hub not the rack so if you're facing the brake disc it un-tightens clockwise. The track-rod will likely rotate and move up and down on its bushes so hold further down the rod with strong-grips [or a funny sized spanner if you have one, we got one to fit but its not metric and doesn't have a size printed. I also ended up bracing this against the thick hub-frame to get enough turn on the big spanner to crack the nut.]

Once the locking-nut is turned only slightly, it should allow the track-rod itself to turn freely, anti-clockwise, out of the hub-mount.

5. Open the finger-clip holding the near end of the rubber-boot and slide it off the rod. Undo and dispose of the clip or tie holding the large end of the rubber-boot on to the rack body. Cut open the rubber-boot and slide it down off the track-rod. [Mine had been split, and the rack exposed, for quite some time so I cleaned off all the dirt and grease I could with a rag - thankfully no gravel has got into the steering!]

6. Re-grease the rack and smear a few blobs of grease around the inside of the new rubber-boot. [We used Castrol LM Grease we had lying around. I'm not sure what Subaru suggest, but any thick engine grease will do.]

7. Slide the new boot over the track-rod end, working the narrow part over the locking-nut, and up into position. Replace the clip/tie from the large boot end with a cable-tie, then slide the finger-clip back down the rod and re-fasten it. Screw the track-rod back into its mount and tighten the locking-nut hard anti-clockwise. Replace the wheel and front under-tray.

This is a relatively simple job, done in an hour with just a few spanners and would no doubt cost plenty at a garage, let alone one of the 'Subaru' ones!

MOT Update - 2 weeks to go!

The test looms near and wow there's a lot going on in Scoob world! - I've spent over £1000!!

Got about a fortnight to go now until the current MOT runs out, however I'll have to get the car back into Seaview Motors by next Friday (11 June) to qualify for a partial re-test, where they only check what the car failed on [and any other faults that have arisen this week will be ignored!]

Just over a week and I've sorted all but the few mechanical problems.

Heres the checklist so far :

1. N/S Headlamp Aim - The 98 model Scoob features electronic headlamp-leveling [for when you're towing a caravan] so the beam for my O/S headlamp can be raised with the flick of a switch. The N/S one is off a 94 Scoob though, with no fancy leveling and simply had to be raised the old-school way by shining the lights onto our garage door and adjusting the beam up manually with the ratchet behind the light-lens.

2. Number Plate Lights - Luckily the 'broken' one only needed a new bulb, the socket was just hiding away in the bumper so I replaced both bulbs with 'Heavy-Duty' 12v-5w mini-bulbs @ £3.99 from Halfords. The other socket had worked its way free of its mount so I just screwed it back up with a 10mm long self-tapper. Simples.

3. Foglamp Not Working - This got fiddly! We took the bulb out, which looked blackened so we chucked in a replacement to find this wouldn't work either. After much deliberation over whether the switch or wiring may be broken we reached for the Multimeter... I first downloaded some wiring diagrams for the rear lights and as my dad and I got our heads around them we discovered that the two wires that run to the Subaru fog-lamp were not connected to anything on the new twin-clusters. I chopped the wires from the fog-lamp on the new clusters and fed them directly through the connector and into the two terminals that had previously been blank. Hey presto! Instant fog-lamp! Its a great feeling to know I've finally given the car a fog-lamp it never had before, but weird how she sailed through her last 2 MOTs with these lights on - no mention of the friggin non-existent lamp! Dodgy!

4. ABS Warning Light On - I downloaded a "Diagnosis Checklist" for the ABS warning light - a whole 50 pages by itself!! We grabbed the multi-meter and managed to work through the major components [PCM control-module, power circuit, etc.] with no results. I've deduced it is probably one of the tiny ABS-sensors on the wheels, which are nigh-on impossible to replace, so for now I decided to just take the bulb out of the warning-light in the dash. Had to take the whole dash apart to get the gauge-binnacle out, but all in all the job took less than an hour.

5. O/S Steering Rack Boot Split - Found the part on a great site called JapaneseMotorSpares.co.uk, who have a superb stock of all those niggly, hard-to-find import parts. A pair of the boots cost £12 delivered and arrived the next day, absolute bargain, so I will have to get around to fitting the other one seeing as I have a spare. We got the boot on very easily in about 1 hour - I'll cover it in a post soon as.

6. N/S Rear Shock Absorber Leaking - I went a bit mad here. A pair of OEM [Kayaba Racing] rear shocks was the obvious direct replacement and cheap as chips @ £115 - but I didn't buy those. Instead I plumped for an entire adjustable coilover kit from JDM badboys Tein, which was a bit pricey @ £655, but you get what you pay for - these are the real deal!! Me and dad fitted the rear two on Sunday, but its a complete kit so the front ones will have to go on soon. Watch out for the post!

7. Emissions and Noise Excessive - This was the real problem-child. Quik-Fit, National, even large local stores like Chester Exhausts don't exactly shift many of these standard systems, so the cheapest price quote I could get for a full system, fitted while I sip coffee was £819. Ouch. The next option was to buy the OEM system separately and fit it myself. All I could find new was a real budget model 1st and 2nd cat @ £240 together, but still a rear pipe would be extra.

Scoobynet chums suggested I just shell out for a sports-cat for about £250 and have done with it, which will pass the MOT while hardly decreasing the power or noise. This originally seemed expensive to me, but after the OEM shit I guess not only is it the best value-for-money, but actually the cheapest option too lol. I tracked down a nice Prodrive 100cpi sports-cat that should fit straight onto my Peco centre-section... I hope, and its a bit below the average @ £235 delivered, although it is a used item - off a V4 STi Prodrive to be exact :) Hopefully this will get us through the test - I will have to hope it kills the noise a little bit or I'll have to buy a bung...

The deadline is Friday and the Prodrive cat still hasn't arrived so fingers crossed!

Pre-MOT : The Verdict.

The current MOT runs until the 22nd of June, but after being told by the dudes in National Tyres the other week that my rear-shocks were kaput, I decided to get the car in as soon as possible and find out what the damage really is.

The last MOT was done at Seaview Motors in Liscard, Wirral and as Village Motors in Wallasy [where I stupidly kept taking my BMW] are the most knit-picking test-centre in the world, I thought it couldnt hurt to give Seaview a try if they know the car.

The test cost £45 quid, which is a whole £20 more expensive than Village Motors, but if I'd taken the car there I then it would be for sale right now...

Here's a scan of the test-sheet itself. Im amazed it didn't fail on anything more serious!

What I'm most surprised at is that the brakes came home A-ok - the discs at the back are pretty worn! The bane of my life with the BMW was rubber-bushes all over the place - only pennies to buy, but an absolute bastard to fit. Subaru obviously know this then and fit superb ones to their chariots! [unless I was just right to trust Seaview garage to be lenient... ;)]

Ok so a few things on there, but it's not the end of the world. here are my intentions:

1. Headlamp - It's off a MY94 Scoob so it doesn't fit the grille right and this pushes it down to aim for the floor. I had to cut a slice out of the grille to fit it this far... so more will have to go if need be to tilt it up.

2. Number Plate Lights - Pennies to replace the bulb and a bit of glue to stick it back in place - done.

3. Rear Foglamp - Someone hasn't fitted the twin light clusters at the rear properly, leaving off the wires to the fog and reverse lights. Should be an easy fix when I find the wiring diagrams.

4. ABS Warning Light - This is a tricky one. There are 65 pages in my workshop-manual devoted to diagnosing problems with the ABS light. I'll be checking all the basic components with a circuit-tester and the mechs at work can run a diagnostic machine on her, but the tiny brake-sensors are very hard to replace, so if thats the case I might just cut the wire to the warning light.

5. Steering-Rack Gaiter - A rubber sleeve that holds grease round the steering-rack has split. £10-20 for a new one and its a doddle to fit, provided nothing has seized.

6. N/S Rear Shock - Was well chuffed when only one of the shocks failed after the National guys said both were wrecked - best to replace both though anyway! A replacement OEM pair [Kayaba Racing] is a snip @ £115 for the pair from camskill.co.uk. What I really want though is a full set of coil-overs for the car - and it has to be Japanese. I fancy a set of the TEIN Super Sport kits, usually costing a grand, which are going for £650 on eBay - I could just afford to take this giant leap so fingers crossed.

* 7. Emissions and Noise - The exhaust is the only bit that baffles me [no pun intended!]. I can fit a bung to make it quiet, but emissions is a different story. I'd suspected the CAT had been removed and wasn't surprised to hear it would need to be put back on for the MOT. I can slap on a brand new budget unit [down-pipe, CAT, front-pipe] for £120 from a great site called Cats-Direct so no worries there, but now the problems begin. Will the OEM front-pipe fit onto the 3" custom centre-section? It can be adapted to fit as long as its the right length to meet the join but, even with the CAT on, the custom straight-thru centre-pipe and back-box might still fail the emissions test.

So will I have to splash out on a full standard exhaust-system? Guaranteed pass and my fuel economy will certainly improve no end! The car would also be peppier at low revs and the engine idle more nicely and generally be more sedate. Lets not forget that I'll be dropping about 20bhp though! And what can I do with my beautiful 3" s/s turbo-back system? Bin it?

Decisions, decisions... I've been preparing to spend some money for the MOT for a while now so lets wait and see.

Replacing the Fuel Filler-Pipe

There was always a strong smell of petrol at the back of the car, which I put down to the exhaust system, and the petrol gauge worked very poorly, barely moving upwards with £20 in the tank. After a couple of weeks I noticed a giant pool of petrol under the car while filling up and was relieved to find it was only leaking from the feed pipe to the tank while filling up and not the tank itself. It figures, seeing as the bare steel pipe itself passes straight through the open rear wheel-arch!

I got a quote of around £200! from my nearest Scoob service-centre to fit a new pipe so I turned to the forums and found many people quoting similar figures of £180 and £190 even without fitting! eBay was a different story, with used filler-pipes going for as little as £30 in poor condition to £60+ for one as-new. I went for the latter, with a mint example off a Jap WRX @ £58 delivered. The import part differs only from my UK original in having no nozzle adaptor for our fuel-station pumps or inner-flap - it's just an open pipe to the tank.

I wonder how long before the new pipe goes like the original, which was in a sorry state as you can see below. As well as the U-bend leaking petrol, the nozzle had rotted away so much that daylight could be seen through it looking up through the wheel-arch. I take it the problem had been around for some time too - over the years it's been fixed with a welded metal plate, metal body-filler, a rubber-tourniquet, about six different types of tape and pasted in red Hammerite - all without fixing the leak!

The fitting was really not a difficult job, provided you have basic home-garage tools. Apart from a few time consuming snags we were able to get the new pipe on in about 2 hours, making it well worth the money saving!

I couldn't find a how-to-guide for this job online, so I have written this one for Scoobynet:

* The filler-pipe and fitting procedure are exactly the same for ALL models of classic Impreza from 1993-2000. *

REMOVAL:

1. Lift the car and remove the driver's-side rear wheel. [I used a trolley jack and put an axle stand under the trailing arm.] You can see the filler-pipe exposed in the wheel-arch where it passes through the body and snakes down to the fuel tank.

2. Remove the plastic protector from around the filler-pipe by first removing the one or two screws holding it in place using a 10mm wrench. [Subaru provide suitable spanners with the car's toolkit, but some of the screws and clips are quite hard to get to without a socket-set with some reach.]

3. Open the fuel-flap and remove the fuel filler-cap. Remove the three 4mm crosshead screws holding the nozzle of the filler-pipe in place, shown below. [Mine we're seized on so tight that I eventually stripped the screw-heads and had to drill them out. These little screws are made of some remarkably hard steel and I ruined several HSS drill-bits while barely cutting the screws. In the end I bought a HSS-CO bit for £8.99 from my local B&Q, which did the job with plenty of oil - so make sure these screws can be removed before disconnecting anything else!]

4. Squeeze open the finger clip at the top of the vent pipe and slide it down out of the way. Slide and twist the rubber vent hose down off the filler-pipe vent. [Or if it is too badly corroded as mine was, it may be necessary to remove the rubber-pipe from the vent-pipe on the chassis first and retrieve the rubber-hose once the filler-pipe has been removed.]

5. Underneath the car, just as the filler-pipe passes under the rigid cross-member, you should see the start of the rubber-hose connecting it to the fuel tank and the jubilee-clip. Loosen the jubilee-clip using a 10mm wrench and slide it down onto the filler-pipe. Press the edges of the rubber-hose to loosen its seal before the filler-pipe is unfixed. [It is difficult to loosen the jubilee-clip without a socket-set with about 10cm reach. The jubilee-clip is also hard to keep in place when it starts to open, but its awkward to get two hands into the gap and you may need someone else to reach in through the wheel-arch to grip it.]

6. Remove the one or two screws that hold the filler-pipe onto the chassis using a 10mm wrench. The filler-pipe should now be free to move around and held in place only by the rubber-hose joining it to the fuel tank. [Mine only had one screw and the head sheered off so was forced to drill out a new hole in the bracket and insert a 4mm nut and bolt.]

7. Slide the filler-pipe out of the rubber-hose now that the pipe is free to rotate. The pipe’s U-bend retains a cupful of petrol so hold a container below the lower spout to tip the contents into. Lower the filler-pipe until the nozzle is free from the chassis and the filler-pipe can be removed through the wheel-arch.

REFITTING:

Reverse the removal procedure to fit the new filler-pipe.

It is unnecessary to replace the black plastic that surrounds the nozzle of the filler-pipe, although most second-hand pipes I've seen come with one. It contains the opening mechanism for the fuel-flap and a drain-pipe that are both inside the bodywork and very tough to get to so it’s not worth bothering, although it might be worth replacing the steel mounting-plate within the plastic-surround if you get a new one with the pipe.

The new pipe was bare metal, probably good for the remaining life of the car, but I sprayed it with a quick coat of zinc-primer anyway before fitting and rubbed some copper-grease over the main rot point on the base of the U-bend.

I also replaced the three 4mm screws I drilled out from the filler-pipe nozzle with some much milder steel ones, bought for 50p from a small hardware store.

Power Steering Whine / Workshop Manuals

There has always been a whining noise from under the bonnet while turning the car at very low-speed, even though the steering feels fine. I first checked the power-steering fluid level, which was just under the maximum, so with no Hayne's manual available for the Impreza I tracked down some manuals on the internet from a great site called PDFTown. Links below:

MY97-98 Subaru Service Manual - http://pdftown.com/PDF-Subaru-Impreza-1997-1998-Service-Manual.html

I cant find a more detailed Subaru workshop manual for my MY98 car, but there is one for MY99-00 cars and most of the parts and fitting are still identical - http://pdftown.com/Subaru-Impreza-1999-2000-Workshop-Manual.html

All other Subaru manuals are here - http://pdftown.com/Pdf-eBook/Subaru.html

After a bit of research the most optimistic explanation I could find was that the V-belt, which drives the power-steering pump and the alternator, was loose. This is simple enough to tighten up by winding a tensioning-bolt, which I did to the recommended 8mm play in the belt, even though mine is a little cracked and worn. We also fed a little oil into the centre of the power-steering and alternator pulleys and turned the engine over for a while.

This has certainly improved the whine, but it can still be heard inside the car when maneuvering. It could be a failed bearing in either of the pulleys, or the power-steering pump or alternator itself so only time will tell. At least the steering is functioning flawlessly...