OK Impreza gang! 



Searching for thoughts and input from y'all. (I don't ever post so I hope this isn't formatted terribly, apologies!)



2017 Sport Wagon 98k miles, it's been mine since August for only 3k miles. Rebuilt title I'm 3rd owner. 1st was a dealer as their fleet car, 2nd took great care of her.

Likely looking at a full front suspension rebuild. Am I crazy or is it the only reasonable thing to do if I plan on keeping this car for a long time.



TLDR: Low tire pressure -> "Holy Shit you need an alignment" (Discount Tire guys, 2 new tires purchased) -> "we can try the alignment but your front shocks are toast and we close in 5 minutes. Can you come by in the morning and look at options?" Les Schwab Guy -> Google my symptoms and AI convinces me to rebuild the front suspension. At this cars age, and if paying the labor to get in there and start replacing struts and control arm assemblies... Might as well just do all the common failure points for this age car and not have to come back and take things apart again just to redo things. Labor is huge cost here in Seattle.



\-The novel-

About me:

Mechanically interested, not mechanically inclined or equipped. Will go to a shop for almost everything, or my buddy's place (axelback exhaust easy enough). But I like knowing how things work-ish.

Don't drive much, only put 3k miles on since August. I walk to work but that could change at any time. Seattle based for now.



Bought this car as a 'get out of jail' transaction...

Had a 2017 ford escape at 70k miles, ecoboost engine with low coolant and misfires getting worse and worse. IYKYK. Spotted my lil subie on facebook, loved the look, went for test drive and loved the drive and interior, heated seats, sunroof, leather steering wheel, felt like a drivers car, for $9k. I was very interested. Then the moment of truth. My escape and the dealers mechanic/appraiser went for a test drive. She did me so well, he floored it from stop up a highway on ramp and she took off not missing a beat. She had cosmetic damage almost all corners, needed a new windshield, misfire codes along with a fuel pump pressure valve that wasn't working and made it start really hard after putting gas in. I'd been quoted $12k in repairs.

They gave me $6.5k on trade in after the test drive and OBDII review. I said thank you very much to my faithful escape for one last good ride, fuck you to Ford, and hi pretty lady to my new impreza and drove off.



The plan was simple, reliable car if you take care of it, not interested in anything else for a long time, I knew there would be replacement parts and maintenance to keep up on. I'm down. I love this thing and want to keep making it mine with little changes here and there, and I want to be driving it when it hits 200k miles. 



Carfax from previous owner was great up until it's accident (front and rear bumpers, windshield). Religious service at dealer. every 30k miles differential fluid changes. Rear brakes replaced and rotors resurfaced, front rotors resurfaced at 74k. oil changes every 5k. Rear wheel bearings replaced at 85k. New wheels and tires at 80k. 



First maintenance on my end was service/fluid change on CVT, differentials, and an oil change. Dealer did a courtesy free look over the rest of the car and said things looked good, tried to sell me new front brake pads at 4mm, I passed, otherwise all green lights.



Driving characteristics regarding suspension, some of this hindsight after reading up on the front shocks being toast.

\- bouncy on rough wavy roads at medium speed. Really just one nearby road that I notice this on, but I do notice it and always just chalked it up to the road, but it bounces like a boat on that one stretch.

\- in parking garage, 2 occasions I've felt a weird clunking when the wheel was turned all the way to the left, to the point I got out to see if my tire had just gone flat. That happened 2 times in one day and never again, but i've kept from going all the way to max turn of the wheel.

\- Always thought the turn in on the car was amazing. Sounds like that's just part of the normal experience. But after seeing what happened to my tires, i don't know what to think about what I was driving on and not noticing, I felt like this thing handled like it was on rails I loved it....

\- There was an occasional minor pull to the left, sometimes under breaking, sometimes not, sometimes on a lane change. Never nailed down what triggered it, but got used to driving defensively always ready to give it a little nudge right. 



I've been expecting the front wheel bearings to need replacing soon, and that with that job, there's lots of other suspension items located right there that fail in this 90-120k mile range i'm at. So I knew there is work to be done on the near horizon.



Cue a few days ago, I haven't driven for a few and get to my car and my tpms yells at me that my front driver is at 10psi. It was at 36 a few days ago. I crawl to a 7-11 2 blocks away and put air in. Seems to be holding just fine, and drive 60 minutes away to dinner with folks who just got back into town. After dinner and hanging out, get in car to go home, it was down 4 psi from when I parked. Drive home, appointment at discount tire in the morning. I'm expecting a nail or leak in the valve stem.



DT guy measures front tire tread remaining as 4/32 and rears as 8/32, that's weird they were put on at the same time I'm assuming, same tires, we go inside and look at tire options while the techs get to my car. 

Tech come in a few minutes later "you should come look at this" and yeah, holy shit. I cannot believe I was driving around on those, totally unaware and thinking my car was a go cart just slinging it around corners (occasionally!) The tread on the outer edge looked brand new, because it was! It wasn't even in contact with the fucking ground compared to the inside edge!



I put 2 new tires on, and drove home thinking that alignment was insane. Went to les schwab for alignment as the first available and nearby. Went to work, got a call from them that the front struts/shocks have a ton of play in them and they could try just an alignment but recomended fixing those as well, would give me a quote in the morning. I'm planning on going to pick up the car and limp back home, and coming up with an appointment at a local Subaru shop and want to have an idea of what to expect.



Cue talking to google ai about the symptoms, and it's fully on board with how amazingly smart of an idea it is to refresh the whole damn front end suspension.



I am curious about coilover options, as that would cover all 4 struts as a set. I'm not particularly interested in lowering my car at all or a stiffer ride necessarily. So that would be a cost savings all in one move if something made sense, with adjustability being something fun to play with over time, a convenience fun plus. I'm good with the KYB Strut-Plus assemblies it pointed me to as a stock replacement. 



Once I've got a shop replacing the control arm assemblies and struts, really might as well do the wheel bearings, I've read so much about them going out around this mileage so often.

Once the suspension components are fixed, I should be solid for quite a while as long as I stay on top of the CVT fluid changes, diff fluid changes, and oil changes 3-4k miles (also wanting to swap to 5w-30 because I mostly drive short trips and want extra lube protection).



Let's say I get a shop to quote $2-2.5 k for parts and labor and alignment. Do I need to chill out? Should I only do front struts and control arm and just wait and see for wheel bearings? Will I be ok on new front struts and 100k mile old rears if I don't do all 4 now?



Am I making any sense or did I get taken for a ride by the chatbot that so encourages every idea and question you present it with?



I still don't have an appt at a subie private shop, so this is all in the theoretical stage. 

Low tire pressure quickly turned full suspension rebuild?