New-to-Me '04 SV6: General Help & Maintenance/Aesthetic Suggestions

[Dechlan Tutty]

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure if this is the right spot to be posting this, so point me in the right direction if not!

Anyway, I bought myself an '04 SV6 (Auto) a couple of months ago to replace my 1st car which was a very unreliable BMW 320i (Only thing I miss is that it was manual ). I bought the car with a little over 163,000 km's from a used-car dealership that serviced it before sale (probably just a basic oil change) and now it's just clicked over 169,000 km's. I was told, and am inclined to believe as one of my mates knows the salesman, that it was owned from new by an older lady from a town where a small highway drive is necessary to get to the shops, etc. so it's had a pretty easy life (until now.... )
It also came with a 1-year third party warranty as part of the price deal I got.

A condition of the 1-year warranty that came with it is; I need to have it serviced within 6 months and 10,000 km's by an authorised mechanic, so I'm gonna tee that up quite soon. After that service, I would like to do all the work on the car myself (possibly with some help of my mates, mum's partner, etc.) so I know what has and hasn't been done and that it was done right.

Now I finally have enough time to start looking into doing some mods and fixes as I am currently in my uni mid-year break.
I have only really started with cleaning and adjusting the handbrake, painting the brake rotors and calipers black (not the pad contact patches though) and just yesterday I put in an aftermarket head unit (JVC double din).

I am wondering, what things I should look into doing both mechanically and aesthetically?
Things I have in mind at the moment include:
- fixing the aerial that won't fully extend
- fixing the glovebox that falls way further than I imagine it should
- possibly flushing/bleeding brakes (just as preventative maintenance, they are currently working fine)
- drilling out PCV type vent on rocker cover (I have heard this is a possible reason for timing chain issues. Mine doesn't have this issue yet, so I wanna prevent it as much as possible)
- tinting windows
- upgrading to LED headlight bulbs
- plasti-dipping badges black
- new rims (when the tread is gone on the current set of tyres)
- etc.
Any other suggestions?

Also, are there some common issues/threads I should know of/look at before doing anything to the car myself?
- I found a VT-VZ Service/Workshop Manual online for free, so I'm going to be referring to that for a lot of my work too.

Again, sorry if this is the wrong spot, and any help is much appreciated!

 

[rambunctious]

Re the warranty.
Have a really good read of the warranty document because a lot of warranties from yards don't cover you for much at all.
An example or 2

Partner bought a VT years ago with 3 year warranty.
Noise in rear so we had a read of the warranty document.
Covers for wheel bearings but not diff.
Read further and not worth the paper it was written on.

She then bought new ASX with 5 year warranty from Mitsubishi with extra 1 year from Cricks provided she service the vehicle at Cricks
but when we read the extra year warranty, it covers for 5 events in that 6 th year up to $1000 each event which is so so depending on the event.

So do your own sums and see if it is worth even starting to have the car serviced as opposed to doing it yourself.

 

[Dechlan Tutty]

The warranty is decent, especially for a commodore as it covers up to $2000 4 times, and DOES cover diff, transmission (not user error), engine issues (apart from timing components, e.g. timing chain, as it is a known issue on those cars) etc.

I'm quite happy to have to pay for someone to service it the first time as my mum has offered to pay for it (big win! lol) and I feel as though the warranty is worth at least something.

Thank you for the suggestion though!

 

[Fu Manchu]

Not much else can be done to them without unloading huge coin.
Thicker sway bar.
19’s on it.
Intake spacer/insulator.

Glovebox is an easy fix. Replace the rubber grommets on the side. There is also an adjustable clip available to help. It’s on eBay.

Do a top end clean on it with Subaru Upper Engine Cleaner.

Give the throttle body a clean.

Clean all the gloop out of the intake pipes.

Clean the engine bay.