DCAWD.com

Hey guys. Was just suggested to sign up on this forum from a member on my other forum http://www.saab92x.com. I'm also on NASIOC under the same name. I currently live in Falls Church but am moving in the next few weeks over to Arlington to be closer to work (Pentagon City). I'm fairly new to AWD cars as this is my first! It's a 2005 black Saab 9-2x Aero. If you aren't familiar just think of it like a WRX Wagon, because that's exactly what it is! I know I know...I went when I first heard about it as well. They are great cars only made from 2005-2006 in very limited numbers. You can check it out on Wikipedia. I've had the car going on 2 years now and have made a few upgrades, currently stage 2 and love every bit of it! I'm not new to the car seen and have had a lot of different cars. I try to do most of the work on my car myself but would love to meet some other people who are handy with tools to tackle some bigger future projects.

Ask me anything.....

FIRST! j/k

Welcome to the boards! A lot of our senior leadership is off tooling around in the mountains (I hope their pinky toes freeze off ). But on behalf of those who work for a living, WELCOME!

We know the Saabaru VERY well. Do you have any pics of yours?

Welcome to the group.
We are very familiar with the Saabaru.
One of our Founders has a 92x Aero, and other members have them as well.
Make sure to come out to a Meet.

Guess I could add some pics:

License plate moved:

And the 180SX! (aka 240sx)

Looks good man! Looks real good. Is the bike yours too?

Thanks Libra Monkee! Yeah the R6 was mine . Her name was BlueLightning....unfortunately I sold her about a year ago. I've been riding since I was about 9 years old (my first 50cc), mostly Yamahas. We had a lot of fun together but I came to realize I have almost no self-control when it comes to driving a race bike on the street. I was very confident on the bike, well let me be honest, I was too confident and spent most of my time riding on 1 wheel. I never had a accident or run in with the cops (knock on wood). I sold it to buy the 9-2x so I could have some safe AWD fun. Would love to get one of the new gen Yamahas in the future, maybe an R1 but I've got some growing up to do first.

BlueLightning Pics:

I sure do miss her....

Really?! My old STi was named Blue Lightning. After the SECOND engine blew up on me I didn't have the heart (or the money) to bring her back from the dead again and I decided it was time to get something not quite so high maintenance. So I got and Inifiniti G35x I call the Hate Machine.

My bike was an SV650 naked. Great bike but I didn't start riding until my mid 20s so I was overly cautious. So much so that I ended up laying the bike down once. Ironic ain't it? Anyhow the bike was totaled but I rebuilt it but never registered it again. Because of that, the apartment I lived in at the time had it towed. After I recovored it, I took it up to my parents house in Philadelphia where it now sits. Waiting for me to reregister of sell it.

Nice! Welcome!! Another Sabby in the house. I've also got an 05 Aero.

Welcome BlkSaabaru4Me!

Welcome to the boards/group! Some great cars you have there!

We've done pretty much everything at this point, so if you need help, just let us know

I twas that Lad that recommened this site....glad you made it over and hope to see you at the meets. Like I said these guys/gals are full of knowledge and experience. Enjoy!

You car is my car's twin:

Welcome! I saw you on the road this morning, I think you noticed me trying to see if you had a front mount.

Welcome!

willkommen

Thanks everyone for the warm welcoming! Hope to make it to one of the meets some time soon. Got lots of work to do on the Saabaru. Just picked up a new front and rear bumper that need painting and will be ordering a new hood soon (damn deer). Along with that I'll also be doing quite an extensive tune-up with my 105K service that will include: water pump, timing belt, tensioner, idlers, cam/crank seals, thermostat, spark plugs, accessory belt, and 11mm STi oil pump just to name a few.

Also will be doing some Plasti-Dipping if anyone is interested in having anything painted shoot me a text 540-840-0911 (Jonathan). Just picked up a pro car kit from dipyourcar.com and plan on doing some accent pieces, trim, and wheels before doin some whole car projects here in the near future.

Those are some great plans! Have you done a timing belt service before?

Sabre wrote:Those are some great plans! Have you done a timing belt service before?

I have not done a timing belt on a Subaru before. Have done it on some other vehicles. Unfortunately though I will not be doing this myself, I'm planning on getting it all done at IAG Performance. I recently moved closer to work (Arlington) and have lost my driveway where I did most of my work as well as room to store my tools. Let me know if you would recommend a shop closer to Arlington with the same level of Subaru experience as IAG and pricing ($79/hr).

I have a farm about an hour and a half away in Madison County where I will still do most of my work but for something like this I would want to have a store near by (closer than 45 min.) in case something happened or a tool broke. From what I've read the cam seals can be a little bit tricky and I'd hate to get stuck out in the country with no car and no ride to a store (or internet for that matter).

Any advice or recommendations is appreciated!

Bilbo Automotive (Dave, aka prorallycodriver, family owns it), and if you want a dealership to do the work or are buying a car, Don Beyer (Matt, aka Thermobox, works there). Both highly recommended

Called Bilbo Auto this afternoon. Very friendly and knowledgeable about my Saab/wrx and the maintenance I wanted to do. Price seemed more than reasonable so here's hoping that the work is quality as I don't trust others to work on my car (do most stuff myself). Will be bringing it in next week and will update you guys when everything is done. They are also located close by to me and next to the metro (I work in pentagon city) which is a huge bonus and means I don't have to take a day off just to get it done!

Thanks again for the referral.

Excellent! I know sometimes they run specials for us DCAWD folks, so you might want to mention you're with us.

Let us know how it goes

After a few delays, had a leak in my power steering pump so had to order a new one then they found another leak in my steering rack and had to order a new one of those as well, I finally got my car back just in time for the weekend! So along with all the things I mentioned before (water pump, timing belt-Gates racing, tensioner, idlers, cam/crank seals, thermostat, spark plugs, accessory belts, 11mm STi oil pump, and catless up-pipe) they also replaced my power steering pump and steering rack. Holy crap that was a lot! Anyhow, everyone that I spoke with was extremely helpful and knowledgeable and they worked with me through the entire process since I like buying my own parts so I know exactly whats going on my car. All in all it was a great experience and I will definitely be going back to them in the future. I probably saved a few thousand dollars by not going to the places that I was looking at before (Mach V, IAG Performance, Dealership).

So after getting the car back I re-installed my downpipe (3") and re-flashed back to Stage 2 (had the stocker on for emissions/state inspection). Then I went and got my 2012 wrx wheels installed (17x8) with some Nitto Neo Gen all season tires (225/45) which I basically got for free with the purchase of a set of 05' STi BBS wheels (17x8). Pics will posted later.

Side Note: Debating on whether I'll be cleaning, painting, and then selling the 05' BBS wheels 5x114 (silver- for now) or having them re-drilled to fit my car (5x100). I'm going to talk to some good machinist/wheel guys in the area and see what they think about the cost and feasibility of re-drilling. If anyone is interested in purchasing PM me.

Monday morning parking lot shot. Will get better pics later. Excuse the iphone crapiness.