Planet MPG, A Daily Driver

That interior is HEINOUS! When I bought the current Outback last spring, I filled a plastic shopping bag with handfuls of golden retriever fur, and was assaulted by the biggest berking silverfish I've ever seen that fell out of the dash when I was shampooing the carpet later the same week(yes, I DID scream and jump like an 8yo girl, thank you), but you had it so much worse.

I'm going to go boil myself now, that sucks.

ValuePack wrote: That interior is HEINOUS! When I bought the current Outback last spring, I filled a plastic shopping bag with *handfuls* of golden retriever fur, and was assaulted by the biggest berking silverfish I've ever seen that fell out of the dash when I was shampooing the carpet later the same week(yes, I DID scream and jump like an 8yo girl, thank you), but you had it so much worse. I'm going to go boil myself now, that sucks.

BARF. Something must be wrong with me but I think I'd prefer my mess over the one you had to deal with. Silverfish gross me the berk out.

Do i even want to know what the berkeley a silverfish is?

(edit)

Oh GOD. THOSE things. DO NOT WANT.

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: From what I can see looking down; the boot where the pinion meets the steering shaft is torn and has evidence of fluid around it and under it. Or maybe it's where the pinion meets the rack? Right above the two hardlines going into the rack.

Under that boot is just a flex joint that connects the shaft in the steering column to the shaft coming out of the rack (you should be able to slide it up with your hand - its only a slight snap-fit in place). There is no source of fluid above the hard lines unless its being squirted up there, or dripping off of something else above it... which would be odd on the transmission side of the car. I'd probably just clean the area up which will allow you to find the source should fluid appear there again.

Swank Force One wrote: Do i even want to know what the berkeley a silverfish is? (edit) Oh GOD. THOSE things. DO NOT WANT.

I'd guess the one previous owner, who I know was from a very rural area, stashed the car in a rotton old barn for quite a while, as records show that it barely racked up any miles for the last few years of ownership, and the interior was also LOADED with dead house centipides(above).

The first time I fired the fan up to high through the dash vents, I was peppered with 20-30 mummified lady bugs. There was a dried up dragonfly with a 4" wingspan on the dash... I named him Jensen(as in Interceptor) and he was my travelling companion for a few months until he cruised out the window on the highway one day.

Why'd I buy this turd again?

Cuz resurrecting turds is fun!

Fel-Pro valve cover gasket set for 91-95 aluminum covers, Moog tie rod ends and sway bar bushings came in from Rockauto. Rest of the order should be here early next week.

The weekend was off to a great start when I scored this brand new Ingersoll Rand 2135TiMax gun from Craigslist for $160. Thanks to my friend Lily for picking it up for me. It will replace my cheap, weak harbor freight impact that wouldn't even break free lug nuts.

Saturday my buddy Byron and I went to the junkyard. Made out pretty well, it wasn't half off day yet so I wasn't planning on buying much. Just wanted the aluminum valve cover and to scope out the inventory for the sale in a few weeks.
Here are a few cool (to me, anyway) cars that we saw;





Vanden Plaas, I wanted the cool tables but the wood was all cracked.

Ended up spending $276.32 but I was able to get;
Aluminum cam cover, oil cap and bolts
8 floor mats (4 for the Saturn, 4 for my LS400- 3 of which were mint!)
Switch assembly for Saturns with foglights and trac. For when I find some foglights.
2 rear door pull cups. Mine were missing/broken
2 front door weatherstripping, install looks like it's going to suck.
Hub cap, bolt covers, and lug nuts.
Rear ashtray
Pass side sunvisor
Main window switch panel
Spare tire tie down
2 emblems
Big honking bolts from rear of wagon, maybe for cargo net?
Wagon roof rack, gaskets and screws, I can't use it
2 LS400 clusters (repair and resell)
LS400 climate control unit (repair and resell)
LS400 ECU (resell)

This is what I had to do to get one of the clusters (I hate damaging things when I can avoid it, but the steering wheel is electronic and nobody takes the dash from these anyway)

Sunday we started to assess what I had and what I could do.
Old, leaky composite/plastic cover and new (older model) aluminum cover cleaned up a bit. I chipped one of those square pick up tube things, hope it doesn't affect usability. Funny thing, I was reading that the earlier style aluminum covers had 10 bolts and the later style had 11 bolts but at the yard I saw a couple aluminum covers with 11 bolts? I didn't take those because one was covered with what looked like chaulking and the other looked like it had been leaking. Plus I couldn't remember how many mine had.

Cleaned the surfaces and laid out the gasket in the sun to warm up a bit.

Uh... Asked my son for his input on what color to paint the cover, not my first (or second) choice but whatever. He thinks it's cool. Not the greatest paint job either but it's better than the stained and discolored one I ended up with after cleaning the whole thing with brake cleaner.

Put it all back together, cleaned the old spark plugs and put them in for now, added a quart of oil, installed the battery and it started up after a couple cranks. Drove it around the block, car feels good, brakes are a little mushy but I have new rotors, pads and hoses on the way. A whole bunch of water in the passenger side footwell from our recent rain, good thing the seat wasn't bolted in but hoping it doesn't rain again soon. All lights work, stereo works ok except the speaker in the door that leaks, windows all work except passenger rear, doesn't roll back up. Heat works, dust came out but no bugs, ac needs to be recharged. Hope there are no leaks or damaged components to chase down. Moonroof works! Totally surprised about that one. No excess smoke. Tranny was hard to get out of park initially. After turning the car off it seemed like the car didn't know the car was in park and wouldn't let me take the key out until I played with the gear selector a bit.

Took Weds and Thurs off because I'd rather be wrenching, even on a piece of scat

The rest of the parts came in from RockAuto.

Won't be using the sparkplugs because the Saturn forums say GM's ignition system doesn't like them. I bought Dorman control arms (made in China) I hope I don't regret being cheap and not going for MOOG.

My buddy let me borrow his rugdoctor which made the mats look tons better

Lugs falling off = damaged rotors.

My phone died so I didn't take any more pics. I was able to finish putting in new control arms, new tie rods as well as new rotors and pads on Weds. I'll be ordering a remanned steering rack tomorrow, mine looks like it's leaking. The driver side axle might be torn as well as there is a bit of grease sitting around the inner boot. Didn't replace the PCV because the one on that was on the valve cover seems to be fine after a cleaning. Installed the jy wheel cover, still missing a lug. I misplaced the new one I bought and hold on to hope that I'll find it. I know I will as soon as I buy another.

Thursday (no pics) I installed new front brake lines and put in new brake fluid, but I may have to bleed some more, new wiper blades (huge step lol) filled the washer fluid resevoir, greased the tie rod ends, replaced the intake filter and washed the underside of the car with a little engine degreaser and purple power.

In reply to DuctTape&Bondo:

A) When you order a reman rack, get one for the same year SC2. The ratio is better.

2) You will most likey regret the Dorman arms. The bushings where the swaybar connect blow out easily. They can be replaced though with Moog bushings for a few bucks though.

ProDarwin wrote: In reply to DuctTape&Bondo: A) When you order a reman rack, get one for the same year SC2. The ratio is better. 2) You will most likey regret the Dorman arms. The bushings where the swaybar connect blow out easily. They can be replaced though with Moog bushings for a few bucks though.

Thanks. Will keep that in mind, the seller I was looking at just listed it as a Saturn rack across all models. I think I'll try lucas stop leak first just to see if it doesn't do the trick. If not, I'll get to learn how to install my first steering rack. Removed a couple, sure, but never installed any.

Well if it's just those bushings, that'll be ok. I ordered a set of Moog bushings with them thinking they were the swaybar bracket bushings so I'll be prepared. As long as the ball joint and bushing to the frame hold up, I won't regret it too much.

I know this isn't the craziest or most glamorous or even vaguely remarkable build, aside from the filth it arrived in, but that's pretty in step with what the car is, and that's perfectly ok. Here are some updates from when I last posted.

Mostly working weekends and it's taking a bit longer than planned. My neighbor thinks I'm weird, especially since I've been working on cars in my driveway pretty much every weekend since before the holidays. I admit that's a little much and it's been hectic with numerous family members cars needing attention, but I enjoy the zero sum game. I try to be a good neighbor and not make any eyesores, clean up/my work gets "done" by the end of the day and I don't make noise past 8pm. I get it, I do. I live in a nice neighborhood where everyone drops their car off somewhere to get it done. Hopefully they let me be and not stick the HOA on me.

Headliner as it came out. I broke the interior light trying to take it off. Doh.

Moonroof panel came out easily after consulting the interwebs. This must have been out before three of the four spring clips holding it in were borked.

My son chose this "outdoor" fabric for the headliner. I was on the fence about it. He hates shopping so do I, we grabbed the first decent looking fabric that had his favorite color on it.

My first headliner reupholster, came out acceptable. 3m 90 adhesive. Damaged part of it when I foolishly used a wire brush to remove the old foam. Ended up putting a nice low spot which I filled in as best I could with hot glue. Worked ok, feels not great to the touch but the busy pattern helps hide the flaws.

The compound curves around the map light area was really hard to work. Lots of wrinkles there. Some spots, the glue dried before I worked it or didn't stick for whatever reason, I resprayed but didn't wait enough and they look like permanent wet spots. Oh well, I learned that I suck at this type of thing.

Got to say it looks a lot better than I thought it would given my workmanship and the choice of fabric. It doesn't look feminine like I was afraid it would and is visually interesting. I plan on keeping everything else beige and plain so it should be ok. My son thinks it's cool.

Also removed the two "My child is student of the month at some random school" stickers from the rear bumper (not shown.).My son just got "Student of the month" at his school so I'll prob throw that sticker on the window later.

A rare weekday wrenchtime, thanks daylight savings for enough daylight to crawl around after work. 30-45 minutes idling with a quart of kerosene in the crankcase. I learneded that trick here. This is some of what came out. Made in the USA Mann filter and Pennzoil Platinum from Walmart with a $10 rebate and $5 coupon off the next jug. Filter was on there good, thankfully my cap filter wrench fit.

Car is insured now, collision only/minimum legally required coverage here in CA.

Didn't get any wrenchtime in yesterday because I took my son, joined by my cousin Dave and his wife, snowboarding in Big Bear and I got to finally try out my new board. Very good day even with the short amount of time we got on the slopes. Tell my neighbor that I do go places and do other things than work on cars! That brings us to today.

Since this is to be a daily, and I'm unsure how soul sucking it will be; this!
Thanks to my friend Byron's discount at a big box store I got the headunit for under $100. Ebay the harness, antenna jack and faceplace combo for under $20. Speakers I don't know how much I paid for they've been sitting on my shelf for a year or two or longer. Will have to get an updated tally of actual cost of everything so far.

The craigslist soldering iron I just bought (weller 40w) is way hotter/quicker than the throwaway hobby iron I've had for years (the one with a very rusted and loose tip that I can't replace because the screw head is stripped.) I've got to stop being cheap and get myself a decent iron with a stand and a tip cleaner and temp adjustment. Maybe that $80 Hakko from amazon?

Anyway, in addition to my cousin David being up for the weekend, my buddies Phil and Byron came by today to hang out and help me turn some wrenches.

So as I was swapping out exhaust manifolds on my IS300 (P0430 Catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 2) Which led me to finding out my valve cover is leaking. Explains why I was low on oil yesterday when doing the pre-roadtrip checks. Dammit that's more money and a bitch of a job too.

Byron started to take off the door skin, then his gf called so Phil finished removing it. Then David came in to remove the window, replaced the door seal, put the window back in and resecured the sill onto the guide and with Phil's help put it all back together. Then the two of them moved to the driver's side and did that door seal as well. Man, friends rock! I was seriously not wanting to do that job at all. At all. Now when it rains, or when I wash the car, I won't get a gallon of water in my passenger side footwell. Hopefully. And my passenger side window works!

Byron finally got off the phone with his gf and made us ca phe su da (Vietnamese iced coffee) and Phil made us breakfast, after that break we were back at it. The IS300 was buttoned up and the code erased. We'll see if that does the trick. Byron gapped and installed the new NGK coppers I got (not pictured.)

I install everyone's stereos except my own. This is the first headunit/speakers I've ever purchased for one of my own cars. The only thing I did on this install was dremel the dash kit, solder the harness, solder the speakers and screw them in. The guys did a stellar job with the install and I don't think I could have done any better.

Byron removed the intake and throttle body so I could clean it.

Wow that was so nasty. It's a wonder my gas pedal wasn't sticking. I tried to clean the intake manifold where I could reach as well and it was coming out in caked goop. Lawdy I don't think a seafoam through the intake is going to do much. Any ideas short of removing the intake manifold and soaking it?

Also changed this out since I had access. The plug had been replaced before by someone and didn't look corroded at all. This should bring my idle down under 1300rpm. Byron reinstalled the throttle body and intake tube, I grilled up some porkchops, fried some over easy eggs and we all had dinner with some rice. Said goodbye to Dave and his wife as they left for the long drive home. Sunlight has gone, Byron moved the car to the center of the driveway so we can continue onto the brakes.

After I remembered how to bleed drum brakes- dudes, I seriously forgot how to when we did the front pads, lines and rotors, so we only bled the fronts and then I was like "how iz der air in da lines still?" and "ah man I think it be the master cylinder."

I took off the rear wheels and immediately remembered, shook my head, sometimes I'm a retard, and bled the rears. Driver's side was full of air, passenger side was full of dirty fluid. Bled the fronts again just to be sure. Hey, why do I have different size bleeders side to side? No matter, they all work. Even the rubber caps are good, can't say that for my IS300 and I've had that car since new. Fresh fluid in the entire system now, no air. My son helped me reinstall the new wheels.

I love my new impact wrench.

So the brakes bled, feel good, start the car up and the pedal is E36 M3 again. Then I get a code. WTF? Weird.
Me: "Byron, did you switch the plugs on the throttle body?"
Byron: "Nah man, they can't be switched they only fit one way and I plugged everything back up.
Phil, Byron and I then went to investigate. Did I damage the TPS when cleaning the throttle body? How? I didn't really touch it except opening it and putting it back together right away. Scratch my head a minute then noticed Byron had neglected to put the throttle cable back in. Lol! how did he move the car without a throttle cable?

My idle is around 800rpm now, where they all say it should be. Brakes feel kind of mushy and not great still. I checked the engine bay with the car running and heard a vacuum leak. This thing isn't sealing all the way. Will have to see if I can get it to seal when I have light or find one at the jy next weekend. With it pressed down I have better brake feel.

Confident there's no air in the line and that the brakes will work, took it around the block and it feels pretty good. Need an alignment. Needs to get some miles on it to see if the o2 sensor is dead like the PO claimed. Then smog and it can go into duty.

Self serve JY is having 50% off next weekend. Carpet, new seats, fogs, driver side visor, newer clear lens headlights and various odds and ends hopefully.

Here's a pic of the headunit installed. Didn't get pics of the speakers installed yet, they are on Byron's phone, but the whole thing sounds great. I love that it has Bluetooth functionality and can't wait to mess with the settings. Think the illumination will be lime/neon green to match my son's other touches. Might replace the rear deck speakers now too since I have some store credit at Byron has an employee discount.

This is an interesting thread. It sort of reminds me of my first car.

Your pic of soldering the harness makes me appreciate Crutchfield... :)

Nice work!

One other little Saturn trick. You can use the oil filter for a Neon SRT-4. It's the same diameter, but longer. Probably gives you 15-20% more filtering media and a splash of capacity. Been using it on mine for years, no issues.

In reply to slowride:

It wasn't that bad especially compared to the stuff I'm attempting to solder at the moment.

In reply to sethmeister4:

Thanks!

In reply to Gearheadotaku: Nice, thanks! Will def use that tidbit.

Three day weekend for me. Well, had Thurs off, then Monday. Got some wrenching in.
50% off day at the JY, picked up 2 pair of later headlights which have clear lenses, a passenger side fender, visors, map lights, door cups, rear seats, seat belts and buckles (which I found out don't match, doh) a splash guard for the passenger side but that might be the wrong one as well, passenger door seal, a visor with homelink from a Lincoln or Caddy? to retrofit, an ECU, climate control and fuel sender for an LS400 to resell. Hopefully. And some misc hardware.

A buddy and I went Thurs to pull everything then stashed it and another buddy went with me on Friday to pick it up with some stuff he needed for his car (fender, bumper, headlights.) I still didn't get to pull carpet or front seats but not for lack of choice, due to an overheating parts runner in rush hour traffic we got there with just enough time to get everything and pay. Oh well, next sale, I suppose.

Did some more cleaning under the rear seat bench

Tossed the old seat belts and buckles. I probably could have cleaned them but no thanks.

Now we're ready to install the JY seats I found.

They were from a newer model but comparing them at the JY, they look identical in terms of fit and size. Plus the seats I got looked like they hadn't been sat in and they had a cool locking tab in the back that mine didn't.

After a quick wipe with a cloth and some oxyclean, not bad. Seat bottom isn't very sturdy, someone had bent them up trying to remove them at the yard. Don't recall the originals being so unsturdy either? The smaller seat back won't click into place, neither did the original seat, tried bending the latch around but it wasn't going. Good thing the new seat back has that locking tab. I'll try to get it to latch again when I have time. The seat belts looked brand new, however I must have pulled the seatbelts and buckles from different model years as they aren't compatible. Bummer. Will have to pick up the right buckles next time.

I did quite a few gallons of clean water and diswasher detergent through the cooling system with the thermostat pulled, this is what came out.

It took more than 10 gallons to finally get clear(er) I washed the plastic tank too, that's filthy and I need to pick up a cleaner one. (Not shown; Also did a coolant flush on my mom's Rav4 at the same time, it was overheating on the way to the JY and turned out to be low on coolant. Stuff that came out wasn't nearly as nasty)

Managed to do this by setting it on the belt pulley and starting the car. JbWelded it, hopefully it doesn't leak anymore or I'll have to grab one at the yard next time.

Drained the ATF

Filter might have been the original. Magnet still in there, pretty nasty. Filter was completely covered with grime as was the underside of the car. Was so loose it spun freely with one finger. Put in Valvolene maxlife and it seems to shift better now. Maybe it fixed my weird intermittent shifter wrestling match when I started the car.

Gone with the broken.

Then I took it on it's first drive out of the neighborhood, drove to the recycling center and dropped off 13 gallons of used coolant. They wouldn't take my ATF though, bastids. The fender change on the Saturn was cake compared to what I did next;

My buddy was riding around all jacked up, car was in a fender bender before he bought it and then his girl rear ended someone and he wanted some help.

Nowhere near as easy as with the Saturn, but we made it work, bent crumple zones and radiator support and all. And we picked up the wrong model year headlights as well but we made it work for now until we can grab the right parts (grill or pass headlight and bucket, pass side bumper lenses)

And that's where we are now. The Saturn runs and shifts well, vibrates a bit much and first look seems that the top motor mount is shot. I still have to register it, I'm well outside the 10 days CA DMV dictates, woops. Then still have to smog.

Cool project. I'm really digging all of the "modern restoration" builds on here!

RE: Cleaning the intake manifold

They all get pretty nasty as a result of the crankcase venting. An oil catch-can will help prevent it from getting worse. Some guy on Saturn fans setup a water "injection" system that was just a line hooked up to the TB port (get a TB/hoses from an early car and use the 3rd hose) that sucked water out of a bottle or even the window washer tank. IIRC it didn't consume much water, but it basically perpetually steam cleans the inside of the entire engine.

I've been meaning to setup something like this on mine.

To clean the TB though, I usually just take off the intake, hold the TB at WOT and scrub it with a toothbrush.

Delayed update; New Magnaflow CA legal cat approved for year & model, new o2 sensors = passed the sniffer with flying colors. Failed visual due to my Saturn belonging to a different test group that has no approved cats. Eventually got it to pass.

New keyfob from eBay. Little crapbox has remote functionality now. Nice.

New anchor motor and trans mounts.

It puked coolant on me as I was parking at work, there was a crack in the coolant tank, jb weld held up until I threw on a jy replacement a few months later.

Pioneer headunit died immediately, later found out it was due to stuck sunroof drains leaking water into the center console. Got 2 minutes of use out of that thing. Parted the headunit on eBay to recover a few bucks. Used the janky oem unit for awhile, eventually threw in an old blaupankt unit from my mom's car.

TAAT Sonnax Valve body from ebay, Wix tranny filter and fluid drain & fill.

Key got stuck in ignition and wouldn't turn or come out less than .25 a mile from home, had to get it towed. Few days later with some force able to start car, drove like that for a couple weeks, left the key in the ignition with the battery disconnected or the fuse yanked for the first few days, after that, didn't bother. Just left the key in there and hoped the car was still where I left it when I returned. New ignition lock cylinder and new start switch from Amazon. Now there's one key for the doors and one to start.

Drove it to work daily enjoying the regular fuel and better mpgs than my IS300. Got lots of laughs from the headliner. Drove to San Diego and back three times (3 hours each way) drove to LA a few times. No A/C sucked sometimes.

Swapped out red lens trunk lid cover for body colored panel. Like the look much better.

Got a custom license plate frame that said something about Uranus. Planetary humor. Ha.

Used it to lug some kayaks to the dock. Used it to on JY runs. Threw a real xmas tree (me and my son's first) on top and hauled it home.

Trunk stopped popping open, zip tied black box on latch and everything works again.

New window guide clips on passenger side windows, all work now.

Car was making rattling while idling, found exhaust hanger broken, used a clamp to get it close to where it should be.

I was helping a coworker shop cars on craigslist, found a crashed but otherwise nice 97 Integra for dirt cheap and impulse bought it. Relayed the story to my coworker and how I have 6 cars now, she said she wanted the Scaturn. Hmmm... ok. MX6 will be daily, LS400 went to my dad and Integra will go to my mom. IS300 for weekend and Celica still project. Smogged it again easily, washed, vacuumed and filled up the tank.

That brings us to today, sold it to said coworker with the steering rack still leaking, no A/C and a box of oil in the trunk for about what I had in it, not counting labor because ya know, we don't charge for labor. Counting the gas and wear I saved vs using the IS300, I came out ahead and it freed up some cash. Was a good, honest little car and counts as my first time selling one of my own cars. And I think I can call this project done as well.

Goodbye and thank you my friend.