silverton

The modules get extra triply unhappy when the battery slowly drains like that..  Do a cap discharge; disconnect the neg and touch it to the positive for 30 seconds and try to start it.  It will crank long but hold through it should fire.

I use a 12mm socket on a 1/4 ratchet... do be careful with those connectors, they break if you look at them wrong.

I don't have much professional experience with 3.6's but one did come through with a single cylinder misfire, replaced a bunch of stuff....ended up being the ECM. Before you buy anything swap coil positions just to see. when were the spark plugs replaced?

good luck!

Tire tread depth, generally measured in 1/32nd of an inch increments.  3/32" is the maximum allowable difference between tires on a Subaru.

Not likely you're issue here though as all yours were new.  I do wonder, maybe try taking the car to a performance type shop for an alignment, I know a lot of them outsource that stuff, but ones with in house alignment machines exist.  a "normy" shop can't figure it out, and honestly having worked at one, there aren't too many smart people at the dealerships.  they generally have one person who does all the diagnosis and the rest of them just turn wrenches. I know you mentioned an independent shop, was it a subaru specific one or just any brand?  if it wasn't subaru specific i would try to find one of those instead.

chains are generally good for the life of the engine.  if you regularly have hard tapping noise that subsides real quick from the engine on cold start you may need guides/tensioners, otherwise... that's the point of a chain, to not worry about it.

1 hour ago, Flaris said:

Good idea! Also she/her (shockingly, I know). I'll make a new thread for it, though I was largely just reporting what I had done/what I had yet to do given the theme of the thread. I'll check NAPA for some decent caps, though.

As for what I'm doing today goes: Fighting with the rear upper caliper bracket bolt and cursing the piston dust seal, y'know, normal brake things.

Nothing beats OE, and it's $10 and some change out the door. https://parts.subaru.com/p/Subaru_2007_Legacy-25L-4AT-Sedan/Cap-Radiator-Radiator-Cap/49251974/45137AE00B.html

NAPA wants $12 plus tax, crazy.

Unless you've swapped the car, your 2007 Legacy GT should have an earlier EJ255 in it, which is intake avcs only. 10-12 ej255 legacies are dual avcs.

1 hour ago, blusubado said:

by no means will it give you more power in any way what so ever. you will lose a couple horsepower if anything. it burns at a different rate than your engine is tuned for. if you have a knock from using e87 then you might want to take it to the dealer for a tune up

17 hours ago, dgoodhue said:

Cobb did some testing with the ascent motor and found that at WOT the stock tune was not pulling timing so there would be no HP gains at WOT.  Cobb did find that that tune did occasionally pull timing from detonation at part throttle and higher octane clean that up. I assume the Legacy 2.4T motor would be the same. 

if higher octane cleared up that pre-det, there must be improved something.  pistons, rods, and bearings dont like detonation.

I doubt Cobb is doing these things on a 'busted' motor, so I doubt a 'tune-up' would correct it.

On 12/20/2023 at 9:52 AM, blusubado said:

well you'll lose performance by using anything other than the E87 fuel that the engine was tuned for. higher octane doesn't mean more power. it just means higher resistance to knock 

higher resistance to knock = more power, or at the very least more efficient power

Yeah, I actually wasn't sure how much it could be disassembled, but good job figuring it out! Someone around here (forums) ought to be parting one of these out and have one for you.

Parasitic drain can be annoying, easy to find hard to fix.

I still believe their function is the same as I've described, I don't have a lot of experience with pre-01; where those two loose wires are brown.

13 hours ago, Tom Pearl said:

Can somebody please explain how exactly cheap tires correlate to the specific issue I'm having? Like I said, the steering wheel is a few degrees off-center to the right. So when I’m driving straight and let go of the wheel the car starts drifting to the right. It seems to me, and I feel most people would agree that the off-center steering wheel is a much more likely culprit than cheap tires.

I know this thread has been a bunch of people saying "it's the tires" and you just say "it's not because they're new".  If you're so certain that it's not, and all these mechanics are telling you everything about your car is fine, what do you think it could be? 

If the alignment is true.  What's left? The only thing that touches the road. Any kind of deviance in the shell of the tire will make the car do oddities.  How much QC do you think there is in a tire that's $60 your cost? I'm actually not finding these Primewell's on Firestone, Discount Tire, or Tire Rack at the moment; at least not in my size of 225/50R18. I actually can't find Primewell's from any reputable site, and no I do not consider amazon or walmart a reputable site.

https://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/blog/tires/primewell-ps830-850-tires/   firestone carried this tire for less than three years. article written in 2020 with a dead link to the products.  Not a good sign, they probably warrantied so many of them due to complaints just like yours.

14 hours ago, Max Capacity said:

Oh dear, I bought all of mine direct from Fumoto, support the company, not someone who wants to build another rocket for rich people. 

Yeah buddy!  I haven't bought anything from amazon since 2017.  brick and mortar or the company itself.  My fitbit died just under a year of use, and I got a new one after they asked me "where did you buy it" "fitbit.com" "alright, new one is on the way!" didn't even ask for proof.

2 hours ago, snow05gtRI said:

I was mainly linking for the model number.

https://www.fumotousa.com/cars-pickups-subaru-2005-legacy-2-5l-4-cyl-

It was the same between this 2005 4 cylinder and my 2017 6 cylinder, all subaru drain plugs are the same thread pitch.

You may have some luck disassembling the switch and cleaning the contacts, otherwise check with local junkyards or ebay.

Cool!  Replace the multiswitch.  those two loose wires, i didn't notice earlier, one is brown, the other one is kinda taped up but will also be brown, but that is to reprogram keyless remote and/or stop the lights from blinking when you disconnect the battery if you don't have a fob. at one time they were connected to a button but it is small and fragile so they're gone most of the time with only the loose wires remaining.

Given the information provided, I would start with a new combo switch.

Looks like that car had a bit of water in it... given that those electrical plugs shouldn't ever have mud on them like that.  the green one is the dealer check connector and should have a matched color friend, the black one i'm not sure.  If you don't have a second green plug then those two wires are likely for that.  if you do have the second green plug those two wires are likely for reprogramming keyless entry.

I'll assume by top-tier you mean chevron, shell, etc and not arco.   you should probably also be using premium, even if it calls for regular.

injector cleaner every oil change seems extremely excessive, maybe do it every 30k or 60k if you feel you absolutely need to. but fuel is not dirty (it's not the 70s any more), especially if you're getting top tier, and the fact that gasoline is a pretty aggressive solvent just on its own.

Have you done any diagnosing of the car yourself?  Or only the mechanic?  If your mechanic came to a diagnostic conclusion on why the car was overheating and was wrong, they're basically on the hook to find it for free. A lot of those parts just seems like someone was throwing new stuff at the car and hoping something stuck.

It is head gasket failure and a good mechanic would have known that before charging you $1500 for diagnostics and a slew of parts. The tip off is that it will idle and stay at temp (where you say it never goes higher than 208 attached to a computer) but then over heats after 7 miles.  Textbook head gasket failure.

Just to be sure the ECM is working, when you turn the key on, engine off; is the check engine light illuminated?

One of the funnest cars I've ever owned was that Escort GT.  I put a short shifter in it and replaced a bunch of the suspension bushings with delrin, had big plans to do the 323 turbo thing but never got around to it. My over zealous shifting made me do a couple third to second shifts when I needed fourth.... RPMs shoot up so fast and the nose dives hard; it's just wild, lmao. It only let me do that twice before Uncle Rodney had to come ruin the fun.

I figured things just got warm and clearances got weird so some speed sensor wasn't happy. Not an LGT, but probably close enough? it's a 3.6R.  I actually think in the video above i had slapped the shifter into manual without realizing it and was stuck in 5th.  I had thought, even though i had it all turned off, eye sight was doing some behind the scenes throttle management to save itself; else I would have been much closer.  That's why i hope my buddy shares the videos he took with me cause i do get much closer. 

I hadn't even been at a track in over ten years, my only track experience is auto cross with light chassis cars, my 1991 escort gt was a friggin hoot. So it felt good for my buddy to say "you can drive!"

if you have any kind of scan tool what do you get for engine speed when cranking?  if it's 0, it's the crank and cam gear, especially with it being a jdm motor.  As far as grounds go, there aren't too many ways to mess it up. The main harness generally grounds to the intake manifold, and doesn't need to be touched to remove the engine/intake manifold, and the battery is grounded to the top starter bolt, if that was loose you shouldn't even be able to crank it. Sometimes there are two auxiliary grounds but they don't do much, and a lot of cars are either broken/missing and they still run.

a buddy of mine had some private track time at evergreen speedway for some drift practice.  got to take my car out there a couple times while he and his club were taking a break/changing tires.  my buddy's opinion of my car wasn't very high' "power to weight ratio" kind of thing. Until he couldn't keep up on the freeway, he's like alright, but i bet it can't turn. Few months later here we are... holy shit, even I was impressed with it.  the car never gave me any surprises, but of course pushed like the barge it is. I only got maybe 7 laps in but was able to do the mini oval with entry speeds around 60 and exit speeds around 75-90. My buddy had a death grip on the door card but afterwards he said my car was legit. LOL  For reference these drifter guys were entering the same corners at 60. 

Funny thing while I was out there I got a christmas tree of lights in the dashboard related to the abs, even though i had eyesight and traction control off.  Soon as I drove off the track it was all better.

I got to play chase car too, at my friends encouragement.  It did seem a few of the guys out there were not comfortable, totally understandable.  It was not my intention to ruin any of their fun. This was the only video taken with my phone, hopefully the ones with three or four guys going in tandem will be shared with me from my buddy, sorry he can be a bit obnoxious

I bet the cam and crank gear triggers are different. what market did the 206 come from?

the 15-19 legoutback has a coolant gauge.  the previous generation did not, I believe it's an MPG gauge where the coolant gauge should be, this could also be market dependent, i can only speak for the USDM. The 2011 Forester XT has a cluster with a temp gauge, a 2011 base doesn't have a coolant or mpg gauge, depending on trim level; NA 2.5's got the same cluster as the turbo. The 2018 Forester, AFAIK, only has the coolant light, no gauge.

All this directly speaking of whats visible in the instrument cluster.  I know the forester has a snazzy multifunction display that will likely show you coolant and/or oil temperature.

On 12/11/2023 at 6:54 PM, KennyMcRae said:

The rear defrost works, the bulb is just blown.  I’m guessing from when the jumper cables got reversed.

Just one though huh?  You don't think it could be that the car is 25 years old and... well, how many bulbs you have kicking around that are 25 years old and still working?  If it's anything like the bulbs that were in the switches of my three year newer car, they're bulb #74.