Road Trip! OH to TX, this weekend.

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Solo2driver

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Flying up to Akron, OH to pick up a new-to-me 1997 Subaru Impreza L AWD Wagon. The plan is to fly up Saturday afternoon, arrive in the evening. Stay the night in a hotel, meet with the guy on Sunday AM and then head to the local Wal-Mart and pick up a few "things"-- oil change, rear diff oil (easy to do in a parking lot), air filter/pcv, things like that before heading back to TX. I'm going to try to make it to Nashville and stay at a buddy's house there overnight, and then make it the rest of the day on Monday back to Houston.

PS-- I just drove from Houston to S. Georgia last weekend and back (1700 miles round trip), I'm a little nuts :) But it sure was fun---- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZGmIgqr4b4&fmt=18 (SCCA National autocross...I'll drive across the country to attend these several times a year
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Cool. Good luck with it. What oil are you changing too?

I'm planning on taking a road trip from NJ to AZ soon.
 
Thanks! Road trips are a happy hobby of mine, love them.

Will probably run something cheap, cheapest/clearance Walmart oil and bringing a Subaru OEM filter with me (already had one, why buy another?) and run some Auto-RX on the trip down. After that, probably MaxLife or heck even some Castrol Edge if it goes on clearance and the Subie doesn't leak :)
 
Planned road trips this year are: Hartford -Toronto twice, Hartford- Mt Airy NC. My son and I will be driving a 1983 BMW 533i
 
Have fun and be safe. Be ready for some snow, maybe. It was nice here all week and in the 50's, but within the last two hours everything is covered up with snow. Darn weather. Maybe you will be lucky and this snow won't make it over that way.
 
Flying up to Akron, OH to pick up a new-to-me 1997 Subaru Impreza L AWD Wagon.

How did you fing your new vehicle? SCCA contacts? eBay?

Just curious.
 
Originally Posted By: levi
Flying up to Akron, OH to pick up a new-to-me 1997 Subaru Impreza L AWD Wagon.

How did you fing your new vehicle? SCCA contacts? eBay?

Just curious.


SCCAForums find, stars aligned, and things worked out. Hopefully the car won't be a huge bitter disappointment, but I think I have a clear idea of the condition of the car and the owner is another National-level driver...we tend not to mislead eachother
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, intentionally.

This will replace my other '98 Impreza I had to sell before we moved from CA to TX last year, and will be doing a lot more ProSolo's and a few Tours this season in the new car. I miss H-Stock, it's a good class.
 
Everything was awesome, only place open on Sunday was Wal-Mart...had them do an oil change (Subaru OEM filter and Pennzoil conventional), inspect everything, and peel the Blizzaks off the alloy wheels and mount up another set of Kumho 712 tires (remember those? I bought a set....9 years ago! haha).

Get driving down the road, and about 300 miles later for my first gas stop it feels like a brake is dragging. Low-speed turns and there is a lot of shuddering. Rut-roh!! Center differential is borked.

Made it to Nashville, stopped for the night. It will likely make it all the way to Houston, but will need the diff replaced. I sourced another stock "L" transmission in Corpus Christi for a good price, so I'll take a truck out there and pick it up later in the week and just swap the whole thing out.

Other than that, and the radio won't turn on grrrrrr, the car is great. Solid feel, no clunks/rattles, struts are good, and I'm getting 33mpg on the highway. I do wish it had cruise control, may have to add it later.

Pics when I get back to Houston!
 
SCCA autocross car and occasional driver (it's actually a 5-door hatch/wagon! fits lots o race tires).

Made it back just a few minutes ago, 1400 miles with a blown center differential and a cracked oil pan where the dipstick goes in....leaks 1qt/min when stationary or not running, fortunately the crack was high enough to keep about 2qts in the sump at any given moment. We'll see the UOA from this trip, I had to add 4qts as it would pour out immediately!!!
 
Must ask, did you know about this center differential and cracked oil pan before you bought this Subaru?

The reason I asked about autocross or grocery getter was due to you comment about a radio. Sounds like you don't need a radio.

Glad you made it back safely.
 
YIKES!!! That didn't work out too well. Glad you made it back in one piece. Sorry the oil pan and diff didn't.
 
This basically encompasses all of my fears of flying somewhere to buy a car sight unseen and then having to drive it back 1000+ miles. Glad you made it home without having to be towed the rest of the way.
 
Center diff failed about 300 miles into the trip....partly my fault. I had the snow tires dismounted at Wal-Mart and had another set of good street tires mounted up. The kid who filled the tires with air read on the door jamb 32psi Front and 29psi Rear. Well, I ended up with 20psi rear, causing too much of a height differential in the tires, burning up the center viscous diff pretty quickly on the highway. It's probably NOT worth going back up to Ohio and playing the blame game, but I asked him twice what the air pressure was, so I did not feel the need to check it until my first fuel/rest stop. After refilling to proper level, the pressure never changed--- so no slow leak, etc.

There was some rust on the oil pan, and the vibration from driving cracked the weld where the dipstick goes into the pan...unforseen, but I did know that I was going to replace the pan anyway...just not while nervously driving home!!

FWIW, the car had no real cost to me to get other than the airfare ($107.20 with tax, thanks PriceLine!) and the fuel/oil to get home, so I am not too disappointed. The rest of the car is fairly awesome.

note--- just found out also the center diff does not require the transmission to be removed, there is a service cover....so MUCH less labor involved. I have found 3 used ones already, and working on getting them to me.
 
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