#2008 SUBARU FORESTER FORUM REGISTRATION#
Registration and Smog will be another couple hundred, but the plan is to be in it for well short of $3k when all is said and done. I broke the tensioner for the A/C compressor when I was taking it apart (plastic, really?) and I'll probably put new spark plugs in it while it's out. Total after shipping, tax, and 5% discount: 379.69 Timing Cover Gasket (Mahle): $32.79 - this might go back, it's actually in decent shape Timing belt kit, with water pump (Gates): $175.79 Head gasket kit (Enginetech, on closeout): $69.89 For the sake of transparency though, those are a straight edge (~$38 from Amazon), a set of carbide scrapers (~$33 from Rockauto) and an engine stand (~$45 from Facebook). I have picked up some new tools for this, but they've been generally inexpensive and will be useful later, so I'm not including them in my total. This also needs to be dealt with, but otherwise I think it's just the gaskets and some detailing and it will be ready to go. Right now, I'm trying to decide if I can clean it up well enough to get it smogged before I tear it apart, since that way I can wait for the title while it's in pieces and be ready to sell it when it's done. In general, it's pretty clean underneath, with the exception of a fine mist of engine oil everywhere.Ĭoolant looks good and there's no milkshake in the oil, so it looks to me like a textbook external head gasket leak. These are kinda crappy pictures because, well, it's dark out there, but here's the driver's side, with a slight leak:Īnd here's the passenger side, with a slightly larger leak: Tonight I finally got it in the driveway and up in the air so I can take a closer look. It's been parked in the street while life happened. This is going to (hopefully) go fairly quickly I currently have 5 cars, none of which share any parts, a one car driveway, and a 0 car garage, so this is going to (hopefully) go fairly quickly. I'm planning on yanking out the motor to do the head gaskets and timing belt, and hoping that the compressor is minor. They got some very minor diagnosis done, realized that it could be another several thousand dollar job, and decided it was time for a new car.įor this, I paid $2000. It also has a noisy A/C compressor, a dodgy hood latch, and the pièce de résistance, an oil leak that's dripping onto the header. Importantly, it has no rust, fairly new (late 2019) tires, and a new clutch (yes it's a stick). So what is it? Well, it's a 2008 Subaru Forester, owned since 2012 by some friends of mine, with ~160k on it. I think it will be hard to actually lose money on this one, but time will tell. I've been mulling the idea of picking up a car to flip over for a while, and when this opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it.