I'm calling it quits...

[Sarra]

The Baja has been a wonderful vehicle, but the previous owners of this particular one beat the ever loving shit out of it. There are broken bits everywhere, missing fasteners everywhere, and not-so-obvious damage, and I'm just tired of fighting this thing to do simple things.

So, I'm going to sell it, and I'm leaving the Subaru scene.

Thanks everyone here that has helped me. I'd hang around to help others, but I don't think I'll be able to actually do so, but maybe I'll lurk or something.

[Guacamole]

Sorry to see you go!
Not that this'll help any, but mine's missing little things left and right: there's about 15 interior plastic clips gone that are supposed to hold in the interior panels in place, the latches to pull the rear seat down have both broke and have been replaced with and abomination of literally copper pipe and plastic cabinet handles...
the previous owner HAD a soft bed cover but the stealership I purchased it from gorilla-glued some god-awful plastic plugs over the drill holes to cover them up and now they're so oxidized they're basically pale grey and one is actually missing leaving a gaping threaded hole in the plastic liner, the liner on the passenger side looks like someone attempted to clean it with lacquer thinner or something as there's a giant 5in wide spot where the plastic has literally melted away partially, the PO was a smoker and the front seat has burn holes in the upholstery which is also torn to hell on the left side of the seat, the passenger side rear window motor squeals like a banshee, the rear window defroster has 3 bad lines that are coincidentally right in the middle of the window and right in the line of sight, the front bumper is pushed in 1/2in on the driver's side and is missing ALL of its retaining clips under the hood, the VIN plate is seemingly missing under the hood as well, the passenger front seat headrest doesn't lock on any of the extended cutouts, the silver plastic dash panels have black paint randomly splattered on them... somehow, the rear-view-mirror has a damn oily fingerprint mark off to the left side that is under the protective covering, the driver's side roof rail is cracked clean through at the back and only a single bolt is holding that part in place, the exhaust header has leaks everywhere and what's left of the the gaskets rattle like hell when driving 50mph+, every mounting bolt to the chassy is rusted to hell and back to the point where they will snap off if I try to loosen them...

and this is all what's still wrong now, after I've had both front axles, all 4 brake pads, rotors and bearings, cat-back exhaust, both headlight housings, and finally the timing belt (this is the only one that's regular maintenance though) replaced... and now one of the front and rear brakes are making funny noises...
but as long as this car/truck/thing still has a running engine, I'm driving it and I'm loving every second with it.

I'll end this post with a quote from Winston Churchill...

[Sarra]

Yeah, I got a motor mount hole that has destroyed threads in it, so right now, I'm running a motor mount with only one bolt holding it to the block.

There's a single bolt with 6 nuts holding the midpipe on to the downpipe, and it's been leaking since there's no gasket there, either... Turbo heatshield is missing. Belt shroud is missing. Uhhh, a few other things that I can't remember off the top of my head...

I'm going to buy a BMW 525i, and swap a 2JZ in it. Keep a quiet exhaust on it, but put a decent sized turbo on it... And call it good.

[w.rohr]

Yikes! BMW is a complete 180 from subaru especially the Baja.

[Sarra]

Yeah. After 7 Subarus, I'm ready for something different. The Subaru used car market is pretty much garbage right now, so many cars have been modded to death, then 'returned to stock', and then sold for a stupid amount of money.

I'm ready for something different. I want something comfortable for road trips, but has power to rip when I floor it. That's what the Baja was supposed to be, but without functional cruise control, an ECU that refuses to connect to anything via OBD II port, and missing or broken parts, and just really stupid things wrong with it, it's not worth it to me anymore to stick with it.

So, I'm going to fix as much stuff as is feasible on this thing, and I'm going to dump it on someone else. I hate doing this, because it's such a rare and odd vehicle, but someone else did that to me, minus the fixing everything feasible part.

[BajaTim]

Mmm...You guys are making me feel pretty good now...haven’t had anything go wrong with my 2005 AT Turbo since last summer (if we forget about the rear rotor/dust shield/parking brake tiny squeak which 3 different mechs couldn’t straighten out:) First year of ownership (July 2017-July 2018) was a monthly “travail”.

Just picked up a used rear 20mm swaybar to swap in and going to replace the SPT cone filter and hopefully that will be it for another year


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