288 replies to this topic

[allpaw4]

So the leather door cards from the B4 are finally in. No difference really, but at least the interior looks complete now.

Rear strut brace got installed when I did the suspension the other day, forgot to take a photo, looks a lot nicer than the previous install, but could have done better really. Either way, works well.

 

Probably fit the rear bar and towbar later next break. Couldn't be arsed today.

 

Been looking at car audio stuff lately, as the mac stuff from the B4 doesn't seem to work - probably something to do with the dash illumination not working too, but if I'm going to change it out, I'll do it properly. Always been a fan of Alpine, and have had their gear previously. Thinking of a setting up a basic system from them, probably one of their ILX-702D units, and probably coupled with some half-decent speakers. Not going for stupid high quality gear for SPL comps and such like, just want something that sounds good for relatively cheap.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[Barbbachello]

I have basic 6.5" speakers, stock tweeters, nice Android Auto/Carplay headunit and a pioneer under seat sub. Plenty for my needs. Littttle bit boomy cos of the wagon but would be nice on a sedan

[allpaw4]

Yea, thats what I'll be looking for, although probably without the sub to be honest. As much as boom is good, its not what I'm after at the moment. The ILX unit has apple carplay and android auto, plus a dedicated GPS aerial to assist the phones GPS, so it should be a great little unit.

[allpaw4]

Some progress - Alignment got done yesterday. Toe was a fair bit out, and the rack has a bit of play in it apparently, although I'm not surprised by this, I owned the car that the rack came out of for the better part of 15 years (it came out of the B4 - was easier to leave the racks in the crossmembers for the conversion on this car), and I can say it never got touched while I owned it. Either way, everything's now within spec, with a few little adjustments to get it nice. Very happy that I wasn't too far out with my budget alignment when I changed the suspension over.

Changed the rear bar and the towbar over to the 50mm square hitch. Nice to have towbar wiring that wasn't put together with bloody line taps. God they are bad... proper plug on the genuine loom. Rear bar looks a million times better, save the scratches on the centre of the bar from the storage shed roller door. Better small scratches than missing/flaking paint. Side of the car looks much better, damage from the previous owner isn't anywhere near as noticeable. I'll get some pics once its had a bath, possibly tomorrow...

 

Seals rocked up for the brembos, but not sure I'll get to those this break, want to try, but got a fair bit going on with other stuff.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[allpaw4]

Photo of the rear now - a lot cleaner and no longer has missing paint and scratches on the side! (At least on the plastic, if you look at the photo you can see the gouge and rust still) Super happy that this is cleaned up. Looks so much nicer. Just waiting on the front bar now, is in a container, just got to wait for it to arrive.
 

 
Brembo seal kits do not mention anything about separating the calipers Jase. Have opened both kits and read the destructions. Not going to worry about rebuilding them this break, got a bit of other stuff going on.
 
B4 boot may end up on this yet too - the rear wing is pretty well gone on this paint wise, and the drivers side mount is beginning to get to the point where it's about to snap off. Easier to change the entire boot over than change the wing on its own. Then it might actually have a semi accurate badge on it!!!
 
Cheers,
Ben

[RX25SE]

I gotta admit Ben, for a daily, this is pretty friggin cool.

[allpaw4]

Thanks Jase, its had its ups and downs, but its seriously fun to drive. I have several regrets to various things over the years, but buying this car (and the B4 before it) is certainly not one of them.

Hows your beasty going?

[allpaw4]

Well, a few new bits rocked up this morning, mainly because why not...

No real need for them really, but having a brake pedal that isn't just a cut down auto pedal will be good.

Yes, I know the accel pedal is fly by wire, but there's a little roll pin that holds the rest to the pedal. I'll just change that over...

 

Probably fit them this arvo when I finish all the housework stuff that needs doing like vacuuming and mowing the lawn etc.

[RX25SE]

Hows your beasty going?

 
Mines going well. Coming up to 2 years after the HG change (hopefully I won't have to that again), since then it's just been regular maintenance. 
 
Only thing left really is I need to re-machine the rear shocks, I got the rear ride height a bit wrong so it needs to come down 10mm.
 
About to order some stuff from Partsouq, might just have to throw in a MY08 honeycomb grill because I can.

[MrSober88]

Really makes me want to buy another one and do it all over again, I kinda miss my old GEN III RX that I did the WRX conversion on.

 

Looks good mate.

 

Good to see the site is still kicking along, Been awhile since I have been here.

[allpaw4]

Well thats some good news Jase, glad they held in. Did you do the job properly and remachine things or just slap new gaskets in? I'm thinking that my issue stemmed from the fact that I didn't do the machining. When you say the rear shocks need machining again, is that for some saggy butt spacers? Just not understanding what needs to be done... Mmmm, I've grown fond of partsouq over the past 12 months... they have some nice stuff available.

Cheers dude! Do it! We need more conversions! Theres nothing wrong with improving the Gen 3 masterrace lol
It has somewhat died a bit compared to what it was like a few years back, but theres still a few of us left keeping it alive.

I never ended up changing the pedals over, ended up spending some time with the missus instead. Worry about that next week when she's at work and I'm on break. Will post up some pics once I'm done.

Cheers,
Ben

[RX25SE]

Well thats some good news Jase, glad they held in. Did you do the job properly and remachine things or just slap new gaskets in? I'm thinking that my issue stemmed from the fact that I didn't do the machining. When you say the rear shocks need machining again, is that for some saggy butt spacers? Just not understanding what needs to be done... Mmmm, I've grown fond of partsouq over the past 12 months... they have some nice stuff available.
 

 

Yea, I went all out on the HG job. Machined heads, replaced stem seals, copper coat on the gaskets, new timing chains, guides and tensioners. The catalyst for the job was the timing chain cover leaking oil, once all that was off, the heads just needed unbolting. 

Engine is now super dry!

 

 

I looked into 'saggy butt' spacers but I don't like how they work. As mine has OEM Bilsteins, I machined a new circlip groove further up the shock tube to raise the lower spring mount. Works a treat and zero cost!

 

 

 

I worked on the fact the rear needed to go up 40mm to fix the sag and pull the rear alignment back into line, but it seemed just a little too high once the struts went back in.

I'll machine another groove 10mm lower than the last one and that should be spot on.

 

[allpaw4]

Holy crap, thats a pretty insane job Jase! Nice work, I don't reckon you'll have too many issues doing it properly like that. The fix for the struts makes sense now that I see it too. Much better fix than spacers. Keeps the piston in the right place, rather than further down the barrel.

In other news, while installing the new pedals, had a good look around at why my illumination on everything around the dash doesn't work. In between the centre console and the glovebox/passenger airbag is a sizable slice in the wiring loom, looks like its severed 3 or 4 wires, and damaged a few more. Honestly surprised that the old girl runs without blowing fuses. Probably worry about fixing that much further down the line, as its full dash out to get to it, and I'm not really looking forward to that.

Mac stereo doesnt work because I must have been daydreaming when I put all the B4 stuff in. Forgot to put in the 13 pin round plug cable that goes between the head unit and the amp... not sure how I forgot that, but explains why it powers up and everything, but I have no noise...

Once I get the accelerator pedal changed over, I'll post a pic of it all.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Well. Quick trip to the storage shed this morning to grab the 13 pin cable for the mac system, and hey presto, I have sound again! Missing the front speakers, but that's probably my fault when I spliced the door looms across. I followed the colours, as the B4 plugs were a triangular plug, whereas the RX ones were a square. Suspect I've cocked up the wiring in the splices, so I'll just run a some new ofc pair I have in the shed as new wiring and splice it into the output connector of the amp. Could be the slice in the dash loom thats caused this too, but my money is on the splice job.

 

Edit - after looking at the FSM, there were a couple of wires that didnt match the door loom, so they were left out. Turns out the wire colour changed between mac and standard audio systems, so the mac wiring stops at my splice. Probably should have looked at the FSM rather than jumping straight in and splicing. Oh well.

Thinking of getting rid of the footrest from the pedal set too. My big arse feet keep snagging the rest as I put the clutch in, and its getting annoying having consciously think about how to put my foot on the clutch everytime I change gears...

[allpaw4]

Still haven't gotten around to sorting the brembos. Parts rocked up a few weeks back. Was intending to deal with them last week, but got busy with home stuff. Not much has changed really. Still haven't got the accelerator pedal swapped yet, but I have removed the pedal from the gen 4 drive by wire setup, but thats it. I'll get to it hopefully this break coming.

Cheers,
Ben

[RX25SE]

GenIIIs might have a smaller footwell? My size 12s dont hit the footrest.

Do GenIVs and GenIIIs have the same pedal box?

[Barbbachello]

GenIIIs might have a smaller footwell? My size 12s dont hit the footrest.

Do GenIVs and GenIIIs have the same pedal box?

Unlikely given gen 4s are DBW

[RX25SE]

Yeah, good point.

[allpaw4]

No, different pedal length, but the brackets on the clutch look identical, and would probably bolt up, but that would then put the clutch pedal pad lower than the brake pedal pad, and that would drive me nuts. Cant put the gen4 brake pedal itself into the gen3 bracket either, as the pivot pin is a different diameter as I found.
Yea, I think they do have a different footwell Jase, only reason they would have longer actual pedals. Theres about 10mm difference. Unsure about the bracket on the brake pedal, as I never got that part, only got the actual pedal itself. Accelerator is most certainly different, mainly due to drive by wire, but the pedal roll pin is slightly larger on the gen3 pedal compared to the gen4. Also, gen4 pedal is locked on the rod, whereas gen3 has the spring loaded pivot on the rod. Not a lot of difference, but enough to be painful...

[RX25SE]

Ah, ok.

 

Reason I asked is, I had this silly idea of grafting a GenIII hill hold to a GenIV.