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Add a roof rack and carry a full set of spares 😁 Me fail - just noticed the date 😝

Buy a manual version.

cars been in dirty 'rally' mode for few months now due to auckland water ban (that's my excuse and i'm sticking with it ) , took it slow and did a full simple detail by hand, feeling out and taking notes of areas for paint correction later. vacuum, interior clean with soapy water on leather bits , wipe down rest. wash/dry , meguiars ultimate polish 1 pass, meguiars ultimate wax, rainx glass cleaner, rain x water repellant on glass. silicone to black out the black stuff and around the tyres. ran out of wheel cleaner so warm dish soap and some elbow grease like good old days lol. basic clean down of engine bay, car has seen some dodgy conditions and few areas really going to need to bust out DA with compound for next time but good enough for now. was first time using meguiars ultimate wax on the body , normally a big fan of carnauba gold wax for the shine but this seems nearly as good and was just so much easier to use.. bought in to it because apparently the paint protection last longer, had i know how much easier it wipes on/ wipe off then i would have switched over years ago. in the pics i see i missed a few spots wiping off the wax, better go back and fix that 😆 also damn hazy reflections, should have not been lazy and bust out the DA do it right hard to see in photos but IRL you could slap a Bluebirds badge because there are a whole lotta chips here and on the sides from driving too 'enthusiastically' on gravel roads first time i actually cleaned the number plants, used toothbrush and warp dish soap, its crazy how it contrasts buffed out some nasty scratches this side. polished the muffler cans too... not that anyone will see them but feels good, didn't clean under side of car this time but next time it's up on jacks stands will do so!

My mind is melting at the thought of buying a manual donor car to manual swap an automatic, when presumably you could just... ya know... drive the manual donor car.

Right thought i would do this write up to help anyone else that comes across this problem, basically the fault i had was my car would start normally most of the time but every now and then would not crank over whatsoever, id have to just keep trying and eventually would fire up as per normal, battery and alternator were replaced previously so had eliminated them as the issue. the car i did this on is a 1996 Version 2 WRX. Step 1: remove starter motor, can do without removing anything else but makes it way easier if you have access to a hoist so you can get it from underneath. there are 2 wires you need to remove on the soleniod, one has a connector which simply unclips, the other is the main power feed which has a 14mm nut to undo. make sure you disconnect battery first obviously. then there are 2 bolts holding the starter to the block, one is 14mm the other 17mm, once they are undone the starter will drop out. Step 2: put the starter on a clear work bench, you will see on the back of the soleniod there are 3x 8mm bolts holding a cover on, undo those 3 bolts, pull the cover off. You will see a buzzy looking thing poking out, this is the plunger, you can grab it and pull it straight out, there is a spring on the other end of it, dont lose that. Step 3: remove the outter contacts, one on each side of the soleniod housing, pretty self explanitory this part. you will see a stud that goes through each of the contacts, undo the nut on the outside of the housing and they will slide out. Step 4: You will need to reuse these studs for the new contacts so knock them out with a hammer or something, they come out easy as. you will see the contacts are actually slightly slotted, this is so that you have some adjustment to get both the new contacts at the same level so that the plunger will hit them both evenly, takes a bit of mucking round to get it right but i imagine its quite important. first time i put my new ones in the plunger was only touching one contact so obviously it wont start like that. make sure you get it as perfect as you can as this will stop the contacts arching so much and burning out. sorry i havent got any pics from here on. Step 5: With the new contacts fitted, get your new plunger, make sure the spring is either still sitting it the solenoid or swap it over from the old plunger, now slot it back into the soleniod housing and refit the cover and 3x 8mm bolts. the rest im sure you can work out