The End of an Era

Life is full of beginnings and endings, sometimes you are glad something has ended, such as Junior High School, sometimes you are upset that something has ended.

This is a story of the later.

It has been a few weeks and I still struggle to find the right words to match my emotions. Should I really feel this way about a car? Metal, plastic and glass?

Can I honestly say it meant that much to me? Does this devalue my relationships with flesh and blood?

I am not sure I can answer those questions, but I do feel both a huge loss and in the same breath feel a sigh of relief. How is that possible?

My STI is gone. I had to sell her and for much less than I wanted to.

You may have read my last article about my struggles trying to save the poor girl, after nearly 12 years of ownership I was just trying to give her a new lease on life and the entire thing backfired into a horrible spiral of blown turbos and gritty oil.

In that last post I outlined some of the options presented to me. I made the decision to take the middle option as I could not afford to purchase a brand new bottom end for the car and the shop was hopeful.

So I added another $2100 on top of over 5 grand already spent and pushed my 6 month total to around $8k. But if it runs good for another 5-6 years it is worth it right?

Here is what they did:

• New Oil Cooler
• New Oil Pump
• Oil Galleys in the Cam Gears sent out for professional cleaning
• Turbo Re-build
• Deep clean of the intercooler (oil was in it for some reason....)
• Fresh Oil Change
• Full inspection and testing

When I picked up the car the shop guys were super positive. "Dodged a bullet" was actually uttered. I spoke in depth with the mechanic who did all of the work and he was very detailed and very optimistic I could keep the car a long time.

I was on top of the world, by car had been saved from the brink and I would be able to drive her for a long time yet to come.

Is 1800 miles a long time?

I still commute to work everyday on my motorcycle, so the STI only saw a little bit of use on nights and weekends, trips to the store, etc. and occasionally down to work on days I just felt like driving instead of riding. So it took a few months to work up to 1800 miles.

My wife was out of town one weekend and I needed to use the car for something and noticed one of my tires was flat. Filled it up, but it had a slow leak. Took it in to the tire shop and they refused to fix it.

But hey, I had dodged a bullet and wanted to keep this car forever right? I went with the cheapest tires I could get at the time because I was not really interested in spending a bunch more money on the car so soon after the recent work. Just under $500. These should do the trick for the time being and the investment was worth it because I had just Dodged a bullet right?

Right?

Wrong.

About 200 miles later on a Thursday night when heading home from a meeting I heard an awful sound from the engine. Rod Knock.

Perhaps I had dodged the first bullet, but the second one hit hard, 1800 miles after the first was dodged.... 

I was devastated. I was able to limp the car home. I had a trusted mechanic come to the house and listen to the motor to confirm my suspicions, but yes, the bottom end was toast.

This was the last straw, the final hurrah. It was time to move on. I needed the money for something else and we had no more funds to put into the STI. I had to let go, and so I did.

There is one silver lining to this story. The man who bought her runs a small lot and shop and specializes in Subaru's about 50 miles away from where I live. He already had a new block set aside for such a project and was looking for a car just like mine. Because the rest of the car is in such good shape, his plan is to rebuild the engine and tune it up a bit for his brother to drive. He mentioned his brother tends to only have a car for a year or so until he gets bored and wants something different..... so I have already expressed interest to be the first to buy her back when the day comes.

But for now it is the end of an Era.

Goodbye STI.