Dropz and his Pearl.

[teK--]

That's a decent list of things to fix/touch up, but by the time you're finished she will be better than new

I also upgraded the puny battery soon after buying as well.


You said you were going to tackle the door actuator; DIY repair? :

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10479&hilit=+actuator


Also if you are still keen on a pads upgrade, I have some for sale:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12026


Ultrex also do a great replica STI lip. for much less than genuine.

[Dropz]

Yeah the DIY is how I fixed my LHR actuator

Thanks for the offer but I won't be doing pads until I do rotors. Get them all at once.

Thanks for the info on the lips, I'll search them up!

[Dropz]

Mini update; I just fixed my RHR actuator and have fixed a bit of the bonnet protector that was painted a bit roughly and had marks. Also painted my grille black looks good. I'd love to do the headlights but I'm not game to pull them apart just yet.

[Dropz]

Update: Took her into work tonight and did a wheel alignment. With the state of the rear bar (mismatched colour) and the fact I'm rocking -1.4 degrees negative camber on both rear wheels tells me this cars been rear ended.

But moving on, I'm very happy with the final alignment, drives straight and tyres seem a bit quieter.

I did get my mate to do a real quickie on Saturday for the cruise but he didn't touch the front camber, so I had pretty close to 0mm toe all round, and camber was +0.3 FRH and -0.6 FLH and the tyres were very noisey. From the initial measurement it's obvious the car hasn't had an alignment in quite some time, it had -2.0mm toe on both fronts and rear was just as bad.

So from that I thought I'd play with my fronts a bit more and get the rears spot on 0mm toe. Now my fronts are 0.9mm toe in on both sides, and -1.1 degrees of camber on both sides. Coming home I tested her out a bit and it felt great through the corners.

Also on the plus side she felt pretty gutsy tonight, felt snappy on take off and engine braking felt stronger than usual, but I reckon that's just the cold, dense air as of late.

I need to have a fiddle with her on the weekend, when I started it up this morning the idle was rough and when I gave it a little rev (2,500-3,000rpm) there was a small cloud of blue smoke (not huge, but enough to spark curiosity). I'm still unsure if this may be oil still sitting in the mufflers and exhaust from when the rings were shot causing it to burn oil pretty bad. But then that would not really explain why it is smoking once the engines been started.

[Dropz]

Update; I got an OBD2 cable off eBay the other week, it works great! Can't do a whole lot with it but its enough to check trouble codes and check engine rpm, coolant temp etc so that's pretty handy. I've also noticed a bit of a rough idle lately, it seems to be sparking good on all cylinders (visual test with a test plug and lead) so I'm pulling the injectors out tomorrow and my mates going to flow test and clean them this week at trade school, saving me near $150! Hopefully this will help, if not I will have a more serious look at spark, possibly the coil pack.

Not a whole lot else to say, it's still dragging my lazy bum near on 500km a week and keeping a smile on my face each time I see it. She won't be working as hard this week as I'm on annual leave so hoping to clean my shed a bit and give her a good thorough clean inside and out as well.

She will be getting tinted in the next month or two through work thanks to the oldies (present for my upcoming birthday )

I'll also be removing the black bonnet protector this week. I have my moods when I like it and dislike it, so I think it's time to have some time off. I dare say it'll be refitted later this year.