pleiadesfella

would anyone here be interested in picking up my old 07 lgt that has a built motor? it has no powersteering due to broken lines and needs brakes due to rusty rotors, so it's not worth putting back on the road considering it's a rusty canadian maritime car, though the motor still runs perfectly. I imagine some people here could make good use out of its motor and parts, as its getting no interest so far locally. one guy wanted to buy the motor off me for $1500 CAD, but ghosted me when I countered him for $1800, so here I am.

if anyone is willing to take it by trailer and keep it as a parts car, please let me know! depending on the cross-border interest, I might make a classifieds post for it here. I need it gone ASAP.

8 minutes ago, WRX USA said:

That’s a 3rd generation Outback sedan, which is based on the 4th generation Legacy.

yeah that's what I meant, an outback sedan based on the 4th gen legacy. I just worded it bad, sorry

whoa, I never knew there were 4th gen outback sedans. nice clean cars man!

7 hours ago, SubOperator said:

NAFTA only applies to cars (and other goods) manufactured in USA, Canada or Mexico. Everything else gets to go though custom rules and fees as ROW goods.

What that means is that you can buy my LGT and just have it cleared through customs without paying any custom fees as the car was made in IN, USA. I can buy your LGT wagon and have it go through similar process here but again there will be no custom fees.

But if I decide to import EDM or JDM made car from Canada, Mexico or anywhere else the car will be subject to all US custom rules and regulations. Meaning that most likely that car will never see US shores.

this is an interesting comment as I've been contemplating selling off both my lgts due to my situation right now, but I don't think I'm going to find a buyer for either in my area. at least not for a fair price anyway. does this mean if I were to sell my spec.b (which is already USDM and has an EPA label under the hood) to an american member here, they wouldn't pay any customs at all? if so, I'd consider making posts for both of my cars in the classifieds section.

I don't intend to leave the lgt game, but I can't afford to keep pouring money into my spec b at the moment. I've been getting all of its little issues fixed, but I've barely driven the car since I got it two years ago. I only put ~2000 miles on it at most, and it's been sitting for the past two winters. I feel it's a shame it doesn't get driven often as it's a great car and I love it, but I would let go of it if there is good interest here.

hey all,

I'm trying to sell my springs again. I currently can't justify the cost of installing them since my life situation and financial situation changed.

they are RS-R F012D springs I got shipped in from japan last year and they are BRAND NEW in box. these springs are designed for JDM spec.b sedans, so they'd work best on JDM bilsteins. should also be compatible with USDM spec.b bilsteins as they're the same as JDM GT bilsteins. I cannot guarantee compatibility with any other struts.

they are a very aggressive drop (1.4-1.6in drop in front, 0.8-1in drop in rear) which is why I hesitated putting them on at first due to the roads in my area and my chunky tires on wide 18s. I imagine they'd be perfect on a car running 17s or 18s with low profile tires or stretched sidewall. the spring rates are 4.38kg/mm for the front and 4.84kg/mm for the rear.

RS-R has this picture on their website as a preview for these springs, the drop in height may vary depending on your application:

pictures of the springs and box:

the price is $130 USD or $180 CAD. shipping paid by buyer. the box size is 41x30x20cm and weighs 9.5kg. I've run a shipping quote through fedex and shipping from where I am to new york only costs $60 CAD ($47 USD) for residential shipping with fedex international ground, it's not much. UPS is even cheaper I think. I can run a quote to anywhere in canada or the US, just let me know where and which shipping provider.

feel free to ask any questions! thanks!

yeah I keep forgetting to pick up some maf cleaner every time I'm at canadian tire, gotta keep it in mind! but yeah, while it may be a dirty maf I'm betting it's what the subaru shop said about the air/fuel sensor.

took it out for a drive and a wash today, was running and idling fine until right after the wash when it started idling as low as 300 rpm and shaking the whole car again. I think it's exclusively a warm idle issue as the car pulls fine with no loss of power when actually driving and it cold starts just fine too. the car was at full operating temp when starting it up after the wash, though I couldn't plug my AP in to check anything as I had to pull out of the wash bay. starting it up again after drying the car off, it idled a bit low but wasn't shaking, so the issue is really inconsistent. hopefully the new sensor and a bit of maf cleaning fixes it.

update: today I took the car to the shop for the new brakes and to get it looked over to find any issues. they reported that the car had no codes (my P0172 seems to be intermittent and random) and checked all the grounds and electrical connections and said everything was in good shape. they took it for a test drive and the tech said the car was in great shape, he didn't encounter any issues and said the car was running perfectly fine. they suspect the sudden lock may be related to a stall, but like I explained here, the car was already moving when it happened - it was not after a stop and go.

what he said combined with my intermittent P0172 (which causes unstable and very low idle revs) makes me think what happened was the car had a weird mid-drive stall due to the extremely low revs while my foot was on the clutch going into the roundabout. I didn't notice this at all, but I wasn't paying attention to the revs. the engine was running still, but I think it may have pop started after I downshifted and let off the clutch, though I also didn't feel anything like that happen. I think there's no other explanation as to why this happened since the car was idling really low right after the lock incident and constantly feeling like it was going to stall even in neutral.

I called a trusted subaru tuner in my region and told them about the P0172, and they think the air/fuel ratio sensor is the culprit as they've been seeing that code often with the afr sensor being the issue. as for the steering lock they had no clue, but I'm gonna go with the stall theory as its all I have right now.

the car still has inconsistent warm idles (when I got back from the shop today, it was going as low as 500 rpm when trying to park), but no codes right now. I'm gonna replace the afr sensor and see if that fixes it.

I hope this helps anyone having similar issues. I'd hate for this to happen to anyone else on the road.

got any more pics of the equal length header?

and would you be willing to ship it to eastern canada?

39 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

You're good dude. The advise to not go 'full send' all the time MAY not be bad, but the difference between an ELH and OE is mainly a little bit of turbo spool (faster) without everything else in place to make the most of it.

Keep an eye on boost and AFR, to make sure nothing is out of spec and get those parts swapped.

 

I also don't really think a good e-tune is particularly a risk. (Cryotune or Tuning Alliance) It just puts more responsibility on you, as the driver/owner to make sure everything is in good shape before doing a few WOT pulls. (Not on public roads, of course....)

You don't have a babysitter looking at logs the whole time. But, you get what you pay for....

that's great to hear   I'm already gonna be keeping an eye on afr and other fuel related values (such as trim) since I currently have a running rich code as you know from my other thread. I'm hoping that gets fixed either before or at the same time I put a different manifold on the car though, just for my peace of mind.

and that also ties into my concerns with e-tuning, the car will be looked at thoroughly to make sure everything is good, but with all the issues that popped up recently I should probably hold off on an e-tune for now until I'm confident in the car again.

42 minutes ago, rhino6303 said:

Your boost (and timing) is really the issue with swapping exhaust manifolds as you'll hit higher boost with lower load values. Do you have the ability to run a lower boost map? If you can, run it and you should be ok; this is assuming you stay out of high load/boost driving. If you can't change your map, you should be fine ONLY if you can keep out of boost and moderate/high loads. This would mean staying under 3.5k and slow acceleration pretty much all of the time until you can get a retune.

this is exactly the technical detail I was looking for, thank you. I don't know if the tuner in montreal used SI drive for a lower boost map on intelligent mode, but I'll likely keep the car in that mode anyway just to be safe. I already usually shift at 3.5k during regular driving, so I don't think there would be any issue regardless. I just have to pay attention in 1st when taking off as I always tend to underestimate how short 1st gear is, but even then I usually shift before 3.5k.

thanks for all the good advice and info guys, I'm gonna check some classifieds threads to see if I can get a decent used ELH at a good price as I'm not in a position to drop 1k cad on a new tomei ELH at the moment.

I hate to barge in here with a bunch of questions, but I'm tired of being a nuisance with making threads for every question and issue I have. and I've been having alot of both recently  

so today I found out my old 07 lgt has a big ol rust hole in the exhaust manifold. that's a car I need to get rid of as soon as possible but can't do so without fixing all the problems first, and the manifold is a big issue. I was already thinking of getting an aftermarket ELH for my spec b eventually, and now I'm thinking I should get an ELH now and put the good OEM manifold off my spec b onto my lgt to save on that cost while getting what I actually want.

however... its going to be a good while until I can get my spec b retuned for anything as my preferred tuner is a 3hr drive away from me and the car still needs some other problems fixed (such as an electrical issue that caused a steering lock while driving). the car is currently tuned with a stage 2 protune done by a good shop out in montreal, and the car has a catless dp which it is tuned for. would I be able to get away with installing an ELH without getting it retuned right off the bat? I've seen so many conflicting views on other forums about this - some say its fine as long as you don't drive hard, and some imply your engine will immediately disintegrate as soon as you start and move the car with an ELH its not tuned for...

I need my old lgt fixed asap and I think this is a great opportunity to upgrade my spec b and reuse my good OEM manifold off of it, but I just need to be sure I can safely drive my spec b with an ELH in the meantime until I can get it tuned. should I just start looking for an e-tuner? that's not a risk I really want to take considering the mileage of my motor (145k mi) in case it decides to chew out a rod bearing during a hard tuning run, but I might if its for the best.

I just wish I could stop chasing issues and start driving my spec b properly... especially while the weather is nice for once!

On 4/19/2024 at 10:54 PM, KZJonny said:

At a guess, it sounds like wiring. Or bad grounds/poor power to the power steering pump (for one) and maybe somewhere else causing poor running conditions.

Without a meaningful CEL. That’s at least where I would start?

I doubt it was power steering related because it felt more like an ignition steering lock, the wheel only turned a couple of degrees at most instead of just being stiff and hard to steer. but wiring/grounds seems like a good thing to check, I'll have that looked into.

5 hours ago, SoobyDoobyDoo said:

Check your alternator. Same thing happened to the wife last year in her 2006 Tribeca. Dash lit up like a Christmas tree and it quit on her. Thankfully, it was an easy fix. Also keep in mind if your sensors don’t get a specific electrical signal they’ll light up cause they think somethings wrong. I’d start there. 

yeah after some further thinking, I had a similar idea that it could be battery or alternator related as it was almost like the car thought it was turned off for a second, locking the steering and throwing all the lights (similar to how it is when the car is off but the key is in the on position). the random e-brake warning also makes me think that it was likely an electrical issue.

as for the sensors, there's likely something wrong there too since I got that P0172 code after the incident. I have an appointment on may 2 for a general checkover + front brake replacement, but I'm going to have the shop specifically check the alternator, wiring, sensors and fueling now too.

thanks for the help once again guys. I definitely don't want the steering lock to happen again as that was the most dangerous thing to happen to me behind the wheel. I don't even wanna know how it would've ended if my steering went out like that on the curved onramp I took right before it happened.

hey fellas,

I apologize for spamming this forum with individual threads, but today something very alarming happened while driving my spec b and it's got me stumped.

I had driven the car safely back from storage earlier in the week and to costco just yesterday, and it was fine. today however, I was driving out to town with my dad and just as we got to a roundabout, the steering suddenly locked (like how it is when the car is off), all dash lights came on and the car warned me to put the e-brake down (though it was already down since I started driving), but the engine was still running and the dash was still working. I was somehow able to brute force the wheel and steer out of the roundabout to a safe spot thankfully, but it could have ended REALLY badly as there was a police car right in front of me in the roundabout.

I turned the car off and restarted, all lights were gone and steering was back to normal but the car was failing to hold a warm idle properly (kept dropping to ~300rpms and sputtering) and it shook the whole car whenever the idle dropped. it felt like a misfire, so I plugged my AP in to check what was going on. all values I read on the AP were normal - DAM was a solid 1, feedback knock didn't exceed -1.40, no fine knock learning and most importantly, no consistent misfire on any cylinders. I've always had some odd singular roughness readings on cylinder 1, but today it only went up to 1 and that's it, there wasn't any misfire when revving or even when the idle dropped. I checked also checked my afr and it sticks to ~14.5 at idle and up to 20.33 when higher in the rev range, though I didn't go up to redline. I've always had these afr values since I bought the car, so nothing struck me as odd.

I immediately drove the car back home and did some further testing with the AP plugged in and couldn't get it to replicate the idle dropping or shaking, everything seemed fine. I read codes and got a P0172 system too rich bank 1 code, but there's no CEL and I think that may be due to the catless dp and tune for it. while I doubt running rich would have caused the steering lock, it would explain the bad idle that happened right afterwards. gonna try cleaning the maf and replacing the air filter in the meantime just to see if it changes anything, though like I said my afr values seemed fine. I'm hoping it's not a problem with the injectors or the tune itself.

any ideas on what could have caused the sudden lock and bad warm idle? could it just be related to the running rich code or is it something else? after seeing the OK readings on the AP, I thought it could be one of the engine mounts finally giving up but I doubt that would cause the idle to drop, leaving me to suspect a fueling issue. any help and pointers would be appreciated, thanks

took some better pictures of my front left brakes today. after seeing the rust, I decided to get new rotors anyway as it would be better in the long run, instead of having to send the car back to the mechanic again in the future for new rotors.

I followed max's advice and checked my local canadian tire, and they somehow had lgt brembo ceramic pads + blank rotors in stock for a good price, so I got them instead of ordering off rockauto. I asked about how their core returns worked and they made it sound simple enough, so I'm also going to be ordering centric remanned calipers from canadian tire too as I get a better price that way compared to rockauto.

4 hours ago, Pleides said:

Yes, I did have the cash and I believe my calipers may actually be reman'd ones off Rockauto. No issues here after 3 years. We've only very recently (like last winter) started salting the roads in the winter here in Portland, so that could be part of it.

I'm glad to hear they're working well for being remans since that's the route I'm going now. I live in salt hell but I store my spec b over the winters so thankfully that's not a worry for me. really sucks to hear they started salting the roads though, hope you get a thorough undercoat and rustproof the doors on your lgt before winter. I've rotted one lgt out due to salt and my ignorance when it came to rust, would hate for the same to happen to anyone else  

update: both legacies are home safe and sound  

the drive back from storage was quite nerve wracking as I had a tire shop in amherst try to unstick the bad caliper just enough that it would survive to drive back to moncton (around a 60km freeway drive home), and they didn't instill much confidence in me for the drive home. they said that the caliper would still be sticking though the tech got the stuck piston to move just a little bit. I was extremely nervous the whole way through and mistook a few creases in the road as the car pulling to one side due to the caliper, and as such I didn't go much faster than 100kmh the whole drive which sucked. but at the end I got home safe, and there was no heat from the front left this time, despite the much longer drive. tire guy must have done a good job, I don't know why they were so hesitant about it.

10 hours ago, KZJonny said:

Lgt calipers. Whatever brand you like. They’re really quite good, all things considered. Brembos are either for actual (regular) track duty or are just bling on the roads.

I would consider using normal ceramic pads for daily use, then save up for better pads for track/autox days.

Track pads aren’t good on the street and vice versa.

No drilled rotors. Slotted if you must. Good quality blank are all you’ll probably need. Put in fresh ones unless the rust is totally superficial. Like any amount of scoring or a rust ring on the outside is just going to eat your new pads.

Have you taken the brakes apart yet? May be just a stuck slide pin causing the b rakes to overheat. You may be finer with just a cleanup and new hardware for a few hours of your time…

yeah, I definitely did want the brembos for the bling factor too, but considering my current budget its definitely not worth it just for the bling. at this point I'm considering getting the usual lgt setup for the front and calling it a day. probably gonna go for the akebono ceramic pads I mentioned, I know they're a quality company and I've read good things about their pads both in terms of performance and drivability.

the current rotors on the car are actually slotted and drilled all around lol, last owner put them on. I didn't take a picture of the brakes today as I was tired after the whole ordeal, but I have a picture from last year clearly showing the front right brake condition. you can see the rust on both the rotor and caliper, though its much worse on the left side where the caliper is completely brown. I'll take a better pic tomorrow or the day after.

the tire shop in amherst said that one piston on the front left caliper was seized and didn't like to move, so I'm sure it's more than just a slide pin at this point. I'm just thankful they freed it enough to get home without overheating and compromising my brakes.

9 hours ago, Max Capacity said:

Yeah, unless your racing, just a good set of brake parts are fine. I hope you check out the Brakes forum below. Lots of info there.

Also think about flushing the old brake fluid out with a Motive Power bleeder or some other type of bleeder.  You don't need special, I just use the qt bottles of DOT3 from Walmart. 

Your local auto parts store will have good pads and rotors, or rebuilt calipers.

I'll take a look at the brakes forum, thanks. the fluid was somewhat recently flushed with DOT4 fluid before the car went into storage, so I think its fine on that front unless the sticking caliper boiled it bad, which I doubt since the car was braking fine today. I'll check my local napa and canadian tire stores to see if they have anything, but I think I'll only find pads and maybe rotors from them. I think I'll just have to order the calipers from rockauto regardless. and they have good prices (even factoring in shipping + customs from the us), so I may as well just order everything from them is what I was thinking.

4 hours ago, Pleides said:

FWIW, I spent the dough on Brembos and have zero regrets. I went with Hawk HPS 5.0 pads as well as slotted rotors. I believe the rotors were DBA. The way the car looks is dramatically more aggressive and the brake pedal feel is 100% perfect. I was out like 3K for parts, though.

Reman calipers from RockAuto are probably the better way to go about this on a budget. You can get blank rotors from just about any brand and some nice Hawk HPS 5.0 pads on the stock ones and get a similar experience to me. I don't track the car, so I pretty much only did it for the bling factor. They do make some noise.

it seems you went with what I originally wanted to do except you had the cash to do it . sounds like a great setup, though 3k is an insane price for me right now as I only have $1.5k cad set aside for my brake repairs lol.

would there be a big difference in getting a reman caliper vs. a claimed "new" caliper from rockauto? I was thinking of going new simply because I've read some stories about remans prematurely seizing, which is something I don't want to deal with again.

I don't think I can justify the premium for the hawk pads right now as I won't be immediately autocrossing the car, but I'll consider them down the line. would also prefer some quieter brakes for now, especially after hearing what my stuck caliper sounded like when I was driving down to the tire shop  

thanks for all your input guys, I'm also going to discuss with my mechanic to see what they think about the rotors needing a replacement and I'll order new parts from there.

hey fellas, long time no see  

after taking a long overseas vacation, I've found myself yet again stuck back in eastern canada. before I went overseas, I put both of my legacies in storage, but my spec b had developed some sticking in the front left caliper right before it was put into storage - after a 15 min freeway drive to the storage warehouse, the front left fender felt like it was on fire and there was lots of heat radiating from the rotor, alongside a nasty burnt smell from the pads. it comes out of storage tomorrow, and I've been weighing my options on what to do for the front brakes. both front calipers are quite rusty, and the front rotors also have lots of rust on the center/hub part as well as some rust on the outer edges.

at first I was going to go the sti brembo route that everyone seems to do, however I'm getting cold feet from that idea as there are no good used brembos for sale in my area. I was going to order a full powerstop caliper + rotor + pad kit for an 04 sti off rockauto, but after doing some research it seems the powerstop calipers are their own castings and not remanned oem brembos as claimed. they still seem fine, but in my research I also came to the conclusion that I likely don't need brembos and that oem calipers with some upgraded pads + rotors would be fine.

so now I'm thinking of ordering new (not reman) lgt calipers off rockauto alongside new rotors and pads. rockauto lists some ultra power (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=13714493&cc=1440457&pt=1704) and dynamic friction (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=11729445&cc=1440457&pt=1704) brand calipers as brand new, I don't know which one would be better. it says the ultra power ones are a popular choice, so I'm leaning more towards that. as for rotors and pads, I've come to the conclusion that akebono proact pads + centric blank rotors are the best in terms of bang for buck with daily drivability and performance. but I don't know for sure, which is why I'm asking here. I'm also not fully sure if I do need to replace my rotors because other than the unsightly rust, they seemed fine though I don't know yet if the caliper sticking would have negatively affected the front left rotor to the point where it would need a replacement.

what would the best route for me be? spend the extra $400 cad on the powerstop "brembo" full kit or get a combination of rotors/pads with new lgt calipers? and what would the best rotors/pads be? I do intend to autocross (and maybe track, if I'm lucky enough) the car eventually, but as it currently stands it's my summer daily that I'll occasionally hit backroads with. I look forward to what you guys have to say.

since I'm going out of the country for a while, I put my spec b in storage today - and found out that my front left caliper is sticking a bit once we got there, after my dad pointed out a strong burning smell and a very hot front left fender lol. but this is a good thing since it finally gives me a reason to upgrade to brembos when I return  

update on this: the car actually kept overheating later on. every time I'd drive to work the temp gauge would keep rising past regular operating range, though my workplace is close so it never hit the red. I took it to one shop in town and they said it was likely the thermostat sticking, but they also said they didn't work on subarus due to them being boxers, so they referred me to another shop in town which gave me an appointment for today.

after all the wait, the new thermostat was installed today alongside a fill of fresh coolant and now it's back to working like a charm. hopefully it stays that way lol.

I still do plan to get a new rad cap, but for some reason they're impossible to get at a good price in canada? they're usually listed for $30 which is great, but then the shipping is $40 for such a small part and I can't justify it. will probably get it ordered in from the dealer at some point, I imagine they would have at least a few on hand.

yeah I noticed the different pressure ratings between both the caps, I'll be sure to get the round OEM cap rated for 137kpa. I did some more searching and found a thread on the outback forums where someone had a sloshing sound coming from their dash, and their car ended up overheating in a very similar way to mine one day. my spec b also sloshed like crazy on some cold startups, but I always assumed this was the ac system being weird in some way since that's what a local mechanic told me when I brought the car in for it. a bad rad cap causing sloshing and issues with the coolant overflow tank and subsequently overheating makes so much sense now though.

I'm about to put an order in for a new oem cap, and will get an appointment for a full coolant flush asap. thanks guys  

just checked my coolant level, rad cap and dipstick the other day. oil wasn't milky on the dipstick, so I don't think any coolant mixed with oil. but my coolant level was dangerously low and I hadn't realized this before, I'm pretty sure it was fine months ago so there must have been a slow leak. rad cap looks fine to me, but I think y'all would be more knowledgeable about it. pics below

38 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

I'd be inclined to pick up a radiator/coolant system pressure testing kit and have a look at what those results get you perhaps?

The $80 it's going to cost to pick one up off Amazon is a lot less than removing and machining warped heads...

I know how much Mike hates throwing parts at problems but.... How recently was the cooling system flush and filled with new coolant? Again, a system flush and a new (OE) thermostat are not a lot of money. If done recently, the coolant can be recovered, filtered and re-used. Thermostat can be easily checking in a pot of water with a thermometer in it for proper opening temp and spring force, to a degree.... Rad caps are cheap, if age is unknown and you have any doubts. This is all just maintenance stuff anyway, so it's not as tho you end up being behind if you do it all.

you make a good point on the coolant. I'd need to check receipts to see when it was last changed, because it was not done under my ownership. though I never had any doubts about the coolant until now because I found the cooling in my spec b to be better than in my gt. I'm probably going to get a flush, a new rad cap and new thermostat like you said. not going to invest $80 in the testing kit - not that I don't want to, rather I can't justify the cost currently since we're in the middle of a move and I'm probably not going to see my spec b for a while as it's going to storage in september. would rather just throw the money at the car to get it fixed outright for now.

as for the issue itself, I'd love to give more details but it was just very strange. I just drove the car home and back again (and pushed it on both trips) and it was fine once again. AP tells me the turbo is still healthy and boosting to 20psi consistently. I don't see any smoke or leaks coming from anywhere on the car either. didn't have the chance to check the oil yet, but something tells me it's probably going to be fine too.

so from what I gather it could be the thermostat and/or rad cap going bad possibly coupled with old coolant since the car seems mechanically healthy.

thanks guys, I'll get these done soon. I was just really worried that my spec b was going to be completely out of commission since my gt also developed a bad misfire last weekend and left me stranded, so if my spec b also went I'd be carless in the middle of moving out of here. can't afford to have a catastrophic failure now of all times, so I'm glad the problem and solution both seem simple now  

hey fellas,

I started my spec b this morning then had to run to the house to grab something and when I came back I noticed the car was spewing some white smoke. normally this doesn't concern me as my car is catless and I live in an extremely humid area so there's always some condensation vapor when I'm warming up the car every morning, but it looked a bit thicker this morning. I needed to get to my workplace to grab a few cables then drive out on a job, so I didn't really have time to think about it. didn't have my accessport plugged in either.

I get to my workplace and right as I'm parking the car, I notice my temp gauge has nearly hit the red. I didn't notice anything while driving and I didn't really get on it (3500rpm at most), and I also started slowly driving it when it wasn't fully up to temp (just under the second thick line but blue light was off). I've actually had this exact situation happen to me before in my gt, but that was due to a burst radiator clamp dumping coolant. today there was no coolant trail and no smoke coming from the rad, so that's not the issue this time. with it being a subaru, I immediately thought it could be a bad ringland but the smoke wasn't bluish. next obvious culprit is the headgaskets and I thought those were toast, but...

I let the car cool down while parked at work then had to drive out on the job. the place I had to drive to is actually right next to my house, so it's the same distance driven. I plugged my AP in and kept an eye on both the AP and temp gauge. DAM was a solid 1.000 the whole time and knock values were also normal (FKL was dead 0 and FBK only went up to -2.80 due to a rough shift into third). I went up to 3500rpm while getting on the throttle and there was nothing abnormal. here's the kicker: the car did NOT overheat by the time I got to my destination. for the whole drive, the temp gauge was sitting where it's supposed to be at the middle. once I was done there, I drove back to work and once again everything was normal. I got out the car and checked to see if it was spewing any smoke and there was nothing. I did have some odd cylinder 1 roughness readings while parked at work, but that wasn't present while driving.

it's not the warmest day today (especially not in the mornings here) so I'm really lost as to why the car would have overheated like that only once but not again after another identical drive. bad hg would be the easy answer but then it should have kept overheating. the thicker white smoke on first start up was strange too, though I can just chalk that up to higher than usual condensation as we've had very warm and very rainy days recently. I want to say its either a rad fan engagement failure (the fans have been clicky recently) or blown turbo seal or at least something related, but what I'm reading on other forums doesn't line up to what just happened to me. I'll definitely check my oil later today when the engine is cold.

I'm just hoping someone here has a better idea of what might have happened lol. thanks.

9 hours ago, Infosecdad said:

Chirping sound is optional. To turn the chirp off or back on, unlock all the doors with the unlock button on the remote, then press both the lock and the unlock buttons on the remote for 2 seconds. The system will chirp to indicate the chnage has been successful.

damn, this whole time I thought the chirp on fob lock/unlock was a facelift specific thing as my 07 doesn't chirp but my 08 does. I never questioned it, and never even thought that it was something you could actually toggle. thanks for the info  

could it just be tread noise from your winters? my blizzaks are loud as hell and they make a very distinct and loud woodpecker kind of sound from under the car at freeway speeds.

new tomei type-s shift knob to replace the old and worn stock knob my spec b. ordered on the 5th and just arrived today, lol.

short review: I was a bit afraid that it might be too tall compared to the stock knob that I had gotten used to, but its height was very exaggerated in the pictures online as it was only 1 maybe 2 cm taller than the stock knob at most. if anything, it's the smaller diameter I found a bit weird feeling, but being able to fully grip the knob from the side makes shifting to 1st or 2nd so much more comfortable. rowing thru the gears feels great as this is a lighter knob, so you can feel gear engagement much more directly. the duracon material also feels great to the touch, not to mention it looks great and matches the rest of the interior and the dgm exterior. one other thing I'll have to get used to is the different feeling when pulling on the reverse lockout with my palm on the knob as this is a taller knob, so my fingers have to extend a bit further down, but this is a very minor nitpick. the reverse lockout also makes a click sound since the lockout ring touches it when pulling it up fully to engage reverse as this knob reaches further down than the stock one, but this doesn't bother me at all. overall I'm quite happy with it, and I look forward to doing more driving with it  

(note: my phone's camera makes the little top section look almost chrome like for some reason, but it's nowhere near that reflective in real life. second picture captures it a bit better. the knob is also a bit of a dust magnet as you can see, but so is the rest of my interior )

20 hours ago, silverton said:

could be the baffling inside your muffler falling apart.  the tiny welds in there eventually fail

that is very plausible since the mufflers and y-pipe are still OEM (despite the car having a catless downpipe from previous owner), they might be the original ones the car came with back in '08. but hearing this does comfort me, so I'll assume for the meantime that it's not a huge issue and keep driving the car. I'll be taking it to the mechanic soon, and it's a shop that specializes in exhaust work so if this is the case, it should be easy for them to sort it out.