2006 WRX TR 150K too many miles?

[ffrcobra1654]

I've been looking for a couple of months now and found a 06 WRX TR. Its only a couple of miles away so that's a real plus. it's a light hit front left. Still runs and drives. Looks to have been well taken care of. Everything I need is there and undamaged I think. Hard to find these cars with low miles. I could rebuild the block or run it till something goes bad n it. Would it be better to go lower miles? This has really nice looking brakes with new rotors. pretty sure all suspension parts are good, and a lot of good body panels I could sell. I'll be able to get a good look at it on Tuesday. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Doug

[Hindsight]

What part of the country? If it's in a rust area I would say no way. If not, I'd say maybe. Really just depends on the price and how much you could get for the parts, and how important it is to you to have low miles. You have to consider the transmission as well.... will probably need a rebuild now or soon.

[Zach34]

My 2005 WRX STI spent all of it's 135,000 miles in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The brake rotor dust shields were somewhat rusted and the long bolts in the rear spindles were a little tough to remove, but otherwise I was surprised at how little rust the rest of the drivetrain had. They may look worse in the picture than they actually look in person. All the main suspension bolts are in good shape and perfectly re-usable.

20141212-donor teardown-8938.jpg

When you go to look at it, try to get a good look at the back-side of the rear spindles. There is one long bolt that attaches both lower toe links to the spindle. If there is a ton of built-up rust scale on it where it goes through the middle of the spindle, that's a bad sign.

The only spot I had trouble with was actually the drain plug on my 6-speed transmission (5 speed may be different). The drain plug is forward-facing on the 6MT and is low enough to catch all kinds of road grime and salt. The plug rounded off immediately when I put a wrench on it. I had to cut the flange off of it with a dremel to extract it without damaging the aluminum.

I had several of the small screws on the turbo heat shields snap off - heavily rusted. I knew I wasn't -re-using those parts, though, so no big deal.

A few of the small bolts holding the front fenders on broke from rust when I removed them. The fender itself was rust-free.

[Hobby Racer]

My 2006 WRX donor had 165K on it. I didn't know it at the time as it was a salvage car and I could not check the mileage, but it was cheap! If you are only looking for good cores for the drivetrain (the block, trans and brakes), mileage does not matter as much. If you want to simply use the parts "as is", look for a lower mileage donor.