What did you do to your Baja today?

[06Suparu]

Its easy enough to make the crossmember. Its slightly over 36 inches wide. Home Depot sells 36 inch long metal. Its a pain taking everything out though. It was a learning experience lol. My advice is to start with taking off the passenger rear tire. You need to get to the fuel filler pipe and its bolted behind the plastic inner fender.

[06Suparu]

And the lift is in. I see a fuel leak. Its probably the fitting i put in to replace the rotted vent line. I will fix that tomorrow. Also replaced the driveshaft with the Outback wagon i have for parts. That solved the shutter when i drive. Just need an alignment now and replace a leaking trans line at the radiator.

[06Suparu]

So close to done. Had to replace the radiator because the trans fitting had a small hole close to the radiator. Decided to put another bottle of CLR in and run straight water for a month or so. Put new rotors and pads on the front. Just sprayed a gallon of black Fluid Film under it. Looks all pretty under there now lol. Cant get it alignes until July so i think its safe enough to do it without them thinking im a dick. I think i will put my all terrains on it after the alignment. Oh and a windshield since my snowblower decided to play a game with it last winter.

[new_2_soobaaroo]

In the past few days, worked on getting ready to change clutch:
- Removed axles (The inner CV boots are ripped, so I'm wondering if the 2" ADF lift that was installed on my Baja before I got it is putting too much angle/stress on them. Love the ride height, though.)
- Brake dust shields crumbled in the process, so new ones are on order. I hate NY rust.
- Started removing transmission bolts.
- Removed intercooler to get access to top of engine.
- Removed radiator and a few things up front, as a timing belt change is about due anyhow. Might as well do it all at once.
- Trying to figure out where my coolant is going to/leaking from. No clear sign of leaks, except everything near the lower radiator hose is covered in old, dry antifreeze. I'm thinking water pump is leaking, but I haven't gained access yet as the timing cover bolts are so rusted that I can't get them free. Just rounded off further. Did I mention I hate rust?
- Discovered that right side wheel bearing is very loose. Yay! More work to do.
- Also need to replace the lower radiator mounts, as they are almost non-existent. I hate rust!!!
- Was working on removing the starter when it started to rain.

[06baja-kco]

Made a rear spoiler/ cargo extender for plywood sheathing and such. Just two knobs to unscrew for removal. Cargo area of the bed mostly unaffected. Works great and looks sporty though I generally remove it when not needed.

Like the mods.. curious as to what you did with the vapor canistor when you cut off the lower side panels?
Would love to see more pics of the details.. I am working on doing similiar mods...
What size tires are you able to run?

[06Suparu]

Brand new struts and springs front and rear. 2" lift. Tacoma struts for the rear. Its about 2" higher in the rear that my 05 with stock Baja springs and struts and 2" lift.

[new_2_soobaaroo]

In the past few weeks, what started as a clutch replacement on my (new to me) 2005 Baja turbo 5 speed has become:
-new stage 2 clutch, pressure plate and light weight flywheel
-new timing belt kit with water pump and tensioner
-new timing cover bolts (because most of the old ones were too rusted to re-use)
-new head gaskets and new head bolt studs
-new polyurethane motor and transmission mounts (studs broke on the old trans mount taking it out, and all of the old mounts seemed rather loose)
-new all aluminum, 2 core radiator
-new heavy duty front axles
-new wheel bearings, seals, and outer tie rods
-new brake backing plates
-new battery box and hold down (old one was MIA)
-new lower radiator mounts (old ones rusted beyond usefulness)
-various new bolts that either broke, stripped, or were missing to start with

I think that's all the new items. Feels like I purchased a new car one piece at a time.

Finally (mostly) back together and running. Unfortunately, it is now throwing P0301 DTC, cylinder 1 misfire. And I noticed a tiny coolant leak from the rusty hard line between the turbo reservoir and the overflow tank. Hope I don't need to tear too much back apart to diagnose and fix it.

I still need to reinstall the lower splash shield and a few odds and ends, like the grille. Also needs exhaust from cat back, which was missing when I bought it back in June. AC compressor is set up as well. The fun just never stops.

[dease42]

Been working on a suspension refresh - was installing a new lift when 2 of the rear subframe bolts snapped. We're months later, and I'm finally getting it back together. The delay gave me time to work on a couple other things and blast and repaint a lot of the underside.

Tasks in progress:
- Clean and repaint subframe, diff, brackets, arms and lift blocks.
- new rear adjustable arms
- Locking Center Differential mod with switch.
- Front / Rear Camera installation and wiring. (not shown)
- Light bar custom mounted on bumper.
- Rust and dent repair on the hood. (This has been such a learning experience, but dude.. I am bad at this. Mad Props to the body folks).
- Custom grill (and no, it's not because I mis-measured the width of the light bar.. it was for safety's sake. Really...)
- Custom switch board in radio cubby.

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[dsmguy]

Wire brushed away any of the minimal surface corrosion from the underside of the Baja, then primed and painted everything including the spare tire for the heck of it. Hoping to keep this minimal-rust car on the road for years to come!

[dsmguy]

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I replaced the torn front inner CV boot on the passenger’s side of my Baja this weekend. I don’t work on Subaru’s much, but noticed that these axles are retained in the trans by a little retaining pin. The passenger side retaining pin was kind of blocked by the O2 sensor and looked like it might be hard to punch out, and I saw this YouTube video of a guy re-booting a Subaru axle by leaving the axle cup in the trans (and I’ve been wanting to try this method just to validate it), so I thought I would give it a try… it worked well! It was somewhat tight reinstalling the new CV boot and tightening up the new boot clamp, but not that bad at all!

While I was in there, I replaced the lower balljoint since my balljoint boot was torn anyways.

Here’s the YouTube link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bf8uRTjfx ... ZW1lbnQ%3D

[dsmguy]

Yes, I know this makes me officially an old guy, but I took some joy in installing these child seat protector mats to minimize the leather seats from getting dimpled and rippled up from the kid seat. Only time will tell…

[20Baja06]

Yes, I know this makes me officially an old guy, but I took some joy in installing these child seat protector mats to minimize the leather seats from getting dimpled and rippled up from the kid seat. Only time will tell…

Is this only a base cushion protector? I’d be interested in a review after some use.

[dsmguy]

Yes, I know this makes me officially an old guy, but I took some joy in installing these child seat protector mats to minimize the leather seats from getting dimpled and rippled up from the kid seat. Only time will tell…

Is this only a base cushion protector? I’d be interested in a review after some use.

Yeah, this is only just to protect the base cushion from marks or crazy indentations from forming from the tightly strapped kid seat. No backrest protection. I like that they are a nice grippy rubber material and they don’t let the seat slide around like the fabric-based mats.

When I first started shopping for this, I saw that WeatherTech makes one, but it was $40+ $12ish shipping and I couldn’t see myself paying over $50 bucks for this, so I got this Britax brand mat used off FB Marketplace for like $12.

I’ll circle back in awhile after I put a few month’s use on them, and hopefully report that they did their job to protect the seat. We’ll see man

[gsxrdoug]

I'm new and just got a 2006 Baja n/a, so the only thing I have done so far is get it home "that was exciting" and detailed the inside. Will be trying to get rid of a few gremlins in the engine and transmission. The body is in pretty good shape no real rust just up front by the roof racks will cut out and weld in patch metal. Plan on doing a complete brake job as well, they SUCK.
Codes I've pulled are: Drum roll:---- P0328, P0122, P1700 and P0107.
Looked them all up and I think I can fix them all relatively easy but any advice "tricks/tips" greatly apricated.

Question I have a 05 Subaru Forester 2.5 with 43000 miles on it but salvage title this baja has 150,000 miles on it though the previous owner did have the head gasket replaced, I'm thinking of a Engine-trans swap and then dumping the forester. What do you guys think?

[Twempie]

Some wanker broke my rear driver's side window just before Christmas. Not easy to find a replacement because "they don't make those anymore".
FYI: I found the glass here:
https://www.diyautoglass.net/index.html
And had Big E in Burien (just south of Seattle) do the work, highly recommended based on my experience: https://seattleautobodyrepairs.com/?utm ... medium=ads

Before and After: