History Repeats Itself, Saabaru Edition

It was in the market for a rallycross/dirt road car, preferrably RWD for maximum sideways, when this "gem" popped up on my radar. For the un-initiated, the 92x is essentialy a GD WRX in drag, affectionately known as the Saabaru. This is my 2nd Saabaru, my first was also an 05 Aero, w/ a few extra options, that I got in 2007 to celebrate my first adult job after graduating college. I loved it, but our time was short lived, I sold it in 2008 as the world was melting down to start saving for a house. Now I find myself full circle, with a much more haggard version of that old car. At least this time around I don't need to stress about keeping it nice.

Sit rep: 121k miles, 2 owners, VA most of it's life except for a single winter in MI (that's all it really takes), supposedly T-Belt at 100k, some fender/wheel well rust (the seller was kind enough to have the interior out for inspection), all the misfires, all the leaks, none of the power. Bone stock with the exception of WRX seats. It came with the 92x seats and a spare set of WRX wheels w/ decent blizzaks.

No records or Carfax to back up any maintenance/previous life claims, but the seller seemed like good people, at $2,100 I figured it was worth the gamble. This will be a slow-going thread, I work a lot and my shop is on the other side of town so I don’t get much time there, plus I’m slow and terrible at updating the interwebs. The goal is to chronicle my adventures w/ the car and solicit some advice from you fine people. This is definitely a budget build, it’s not intended to be a daily driver, it is intended to be a fun car that can be treated with a level of disregard that comes when you don’t need to rely on it to get to work on Monday.

Here it is loaded up, ready for the 2 hour tow from Roanoke back to Charlottesville.

The tow vehicle is my 2005 Nissan Frontier. This was my first time towing with it, aside from very tired suspension, it did a fine job keeping up with traffic on I-81/64. In fact, it’s never ran better, a little exercise seems to have done it well. It averaged 13 mpg on the way home, not too bad.

Unrelated, there’s a local Saab yard that I sometimes pass on my bike. Today they had a Sonnet. I’ve never seen one in person, it’s a good looking car.

Appropriate plate:

Safe at home in front of the shop:

Time for a closer inspection:

• Runs, but not well. Idle is low, no power off the line, heavy hesitation/bucking under load, somewhat less slow under boost.
• Brakes feel wooden, might be cheap pads, might be surface corrosion on the rotors from sitting.
• AC works! So does everything else (not that there are a whole lot of features).
• I love 3-spoke steering wheels, no buttons to clutter it up.
• The tach and spedo appear to be the same size, I wonder if they can be swapped to put the tach front and center?
• Leaking lots of fluids, certainly oil, likely PS as well.
• PS fluid is very low and steering is notchy. Filling up the reservoir seems to have mostly fixed it, hopefully it doesn’t need a pump (or a rack).
• Oil is a little low, Mobil 1 was on sale so I took the opportunity to give it an oil change.
• Coolant is a little low as well, no evidence of leaks at this point, topped off for good measure.
• It came w/ a new set of plugs, NGK xxx, not sure if they are the correct plugs from the car or not, but they’re here and it’s mis-firing. Bit of a pain to change the plugs, but not as bad as expected. Existing plugs looked OK, grey ish, no evidence of oil/excess fuel/wear. Plugs were gapped to 0.028” per recommendations after 30 seconds of googling.
• Inner front CV joint boots are toasted, too bad. No clicking at this point, they’re on the back burner until it runs right. Luckily they’ve thrown all of their grease out, so it smokes, a lot.
• Not quite stock, it has a K&N filter, that will have to go.
• VA DMV just opened back up, appointments only, next schedule time is mid June. I guess this isn’t getting registered any time soon.

After the plugs, I took it for run to put in some fresh gas and fuel injector cleaner. 15 miles later, it’s doesn’t feel appreciably better. Pulled some codes, P0301, P0303, and P0304, misfires in cylinders 1, 3, & 4. Cleaned the MAF, no change. More googling, NASIOC assumes the worst, HG, ring lands, COVID, etc. We will see.

Next steps – Fuel filter, (find) and clean the cam and crank position sensors, spray some staring fluid around the engine bay and see if there are any overt vacuum leaks. I assume w/ the dry plugs that the misfire is unlikely a spark issue, so I’ll start w/ fuel.

Next rallycross is 6/13 I believe. If I can get it to run (mostly) right I’m good. I have some travel between now and then, so we will see what I get done. 

I forgot to take pictures of the work (I'll learn), so here's some from the ad instead: