pleiadesfella

hey fellas, it was finally warm enough to warrant having my windows rolled down today, so I got the chance to hear what my spec b sounds like a bit better. while the exhaust tone with the little pops on each shift are great, I noticed a sound almost like a belt going bad and squealing/chirping on deceleration. its not audible at all with the windows up, which is why I noticed it today. its more noticeable on deceleration in gear but that's only because the engine loses speed slower while in gear. when revving the car in neutral while stopped, I can still hear the same chirping as the revs are dropping but for a very short time. it's not present at all when accelerating or idling. all values on my accessport are reading normal, and I don't feel a loss of power either. I've seen people on other forums with similar noise issues mention that the chirping is most noticeable when the sound reverberates from walls or parked cars. this is exactly my case too, I could hear the chirping reverberate very loudly while driving by parked cars in a parking lot. I first noticed it while driving on a street with buildings on both sides, and it didn't seem as loud when there weren't buildings or cars around. a quick google search on the issue leads me to believe that its one of these things: -belt on the engine -clutch master/slave cylinder (I did make a thread about crunchy shifts before and it was suggested that I get the master cylinder changed, but the mechanic I took the car to didn't say anything about it, not to mention the noise also happens in neutral with my foot off the clutch) -clutch throwout bearing -something exhaust related (maybe downpipe, wastegate or even exhaust hangers apparently) with how many things it could be, I'm unsure if its safe to keep driving it as is. I will take definitely take the car to a mechanic, but it might be a week or two before it can be looked at - which is why I'm here. I want to be sure that its not going to cause something catastrophic with the engine before I continue driving it. I know its very paranoid behavior to be afraid of a little chirp possibly causing a massive engine issue, but it is a turbo subaru so I don't want to take any risks I'd appreciate any input on what this noise possibly could be, and if it would be okay to keep driving the car with this noise present. thanks!

got out today and took some better pics of the car in preparation for the sale listing. also got pics of the most major body flaws too. I'll post some of the pics here in case anyone is curious about the condition of the car.

oh... 2.5i... I COMPLETELY missed that part. I just assumed someone asking for a clutch recommendation would have a gt they're trying to get more power out of . this is what I get for trying to read 2 things at the same time... op, just invest in suspension/chassis components and maybe get a catback if you want to hear your shifts and harass your neighbors. an uprated clutch in your case would be useless, regardless of the clutch feel. I mean if you have the money and really want it, go for it, but it would be wasteful just for clutch feel.

be careful what you wish for. I bought my spec b with a bully stage 2 clutch and for the first 3 months of ownership I was dead set on ripping it out and putting an oem spec exedy back in. a new clutch will have a break in period, and depending on the material of the clutch you may have to deal with very shitty engagement for a long time until it breaks in. last owner did not break the clutch in fully, so I had to finish the job while learning to drive stick at the same time and it was awful. the bite point was at the absolute top of the pedal and had absolutely no range, not to mention that it was extremely stiff. it was an on/off switch where I had to take my foot almost off the pedal to get the car moving. this is because its some half kevlar half organic clutch, with the kevlar part causing the long break in and shitty engagement during the break in period. it acts much more like a normal clutch after it was broken in, but even to this day I will have a very juddery go from a stop every once in a while due its engagement characteristics. just had one today at a 4-way stop. I'm still not completely happy with it and its making me want to test drive a stock sti to see if the stop/go and shifting experience would be any better. maybe an aftermarket clutch would work better with your driving style, but you'd really have to do your research on all the different clutch materials and their characteristics. same with the brands of the clutches - some brands will have stiffer pressure plates than others. for your case I want to recommend a stage 1 full organic aftermarket clutch, but I don't want to give any firm suggestions as I have not tried any for myself. good luck with your search

yeah the transmission issues are the real kicker for me. wish they just weren't a thing at all and that I could sell the car at the price I want with a clean conscience, but I would fully disclose the issues to any potential buyers. the transmission has lasted 2 years longer than I expected it to, so it might not be a major issue at all but it sure is annoying when trying to get up to freeway speeds. I could never get a proper diagnosis either, every mechanic I've taken it to with complaints about slipping said it was fine somehow. drives me crazy because I know its very real. I guess my intention would be to sell the car to someone who would be able to utilize the engine and any other parts off it to the fullest, or someone who just wants an okay beater to get around in. I'll list it at $6500 cad including the set of ts9s and see how it goes from there. worst case scenario, I'll have to figure something out with symmetrical and see if they can at least sell the engine for me since they have many strong connections with the local subaru community here.

if you mean fixing the rust and sending it back to me, sure! on a more serious note, I thought that I could probably make a combo deal with the car and the old enkei ts9s I took off my spec b and am also trying to sell. would $6500-7000 canadian ($5000-$5300 usd) be a fair deal for this car with its built motor and the sets of ts9s and stock wheels on good winter tires?

I'm definitely looking to have a great time out west if I do end up getting a job there . I know for sure it's gonna be better than living in the middle of nowhere, new brunswick. and if I don't get a job now, I'll store the spec b and figure something out after my vacation. me and my father were actually going to do a roadtrip with both the cars and a uhaul trailer if I did get a job in alberta, but at this rate bc is looking more likely and my dad's starting to doubt his ability to pull through due to his age. for now I'd just want to get there safe and sound and as quick as possible, but I would love to do a crosscountry roadtrip later. once again, thanks for your generous offer and advice, glad to know there are still good people in this world

that sounds like a great time and I really appreciate the offer, but I unfortunately can't afford to have a second vehicle. my plan is to either move out west (not much use for an obxt there ) or vacation out of the country for a year, and in both cases the second car is illogical to keep . I got a quote today from MVS canada to see how much it would cost to ship both cars by rail from moncton to vancouver, and it was 5 grand. I would much rather sell the auto and use that money to ship only my spec b out west, it just makes more sense to me. and if I can't find work and end up vacationing instead, I also don't want to pay $1100 to store it while I'm gone. the question of "why don't you swap your built motor into your spec b?" might come up, and the truth is that was the whole plan when I first bought my spec b last year. however, the stock engine in the spec b is holding up really well and seems to be well maintained, and after driving it for a while I realized how much I loathed the piston slap in my forged engine and how long I would have to warm it up on cold mornings so it wouldn't sound like the engine was killing itself while driving. I know slap is normal with forged pistons, and it might sound like I'm exaggerating with how bad it is, but it's REALLY loud on my car for some reason. much louder than most examples on youtube, and the slap doesn't fully subside even when warm (though it does quiet down by alot). I'd also have to swap some mods over from the spec b motor to my forged engine since the spec b is tuned. and if it does end up blowing, I'll replace it with an RA shortblock this time .

trust me, I've been scouring canada wide kijiji ads for legacies for a while now. I think I know what you mean by the prefacelift wagon example, the silver 05 automatic wagon for $5500 in london right? honestly I wish I could buy that to swap my motor into that instead lol. I just haven't seen a single ad where the car is a poor condition automatic but the engine is a low mileage forged build, so I don't have much to work off of. as much as parting out and junking the body is a good idea, I unfortunately don't have the means to do a proper partout since I live in an apartment with no garage and no tools . I wonder if I could ask symmetrical to part it out for me. hell, even if they just sell the engine for 3-4k and give that money to me, I would let them keep the rest of the car lol.

hey all, I swear there was a "what is my car worth" thread somewhere, but couldn't find it. moderators feel free to move the thread to a different category if I'm in the wrong place. tl;dr: I want to sell my automatic 2007 gt in relatively poor condition with fading paint, peeling clearcoat, underbody rust and bad rust on rear arches but the engine was rebuilt in 2019 with forged pistons and new internals - only ~15k kilometers on rebuild. how do I price the damn thing? so I'm looking to sell my 2007 5eat gt limited as I will be moving (or vacationing far away) from this hellhole soon, and I won't be in the position to hold onto both cars. the problem is, I have no clue on how to price it because its backstory and current condition are a little... odd. this was my first ever car, and I bought it for 4000 canadian dollars back in early 2019. as you could probably tell from the price, it already wasn't in stellar condition when I first bought it but it was in better shape than it is today. the thing is, this being my first car and me being a clueless idiot back then, I didn't know how temperamental these engines were and ended up spinning good old rod bearing #3 while trying to double the freeway limit after finally getting my summer tires on (told ya I was a clueless idiot back then ). so after being unable to offload the car as a shell over the summer, I decided to get it rebuilt at a reputable subaru tuner in my region - that being symmetrical autoworks. I knew it would cost me, but at the time I had no other choice and needed to get back to having a car soon since winter was coming. after some back and forth, I ended up getting the engine rebuilt with 100mm wiseco forged pistons, oem sti forged rods, 2019+ sti nitride treated crankshaft and king race rod bearings. fyi I didn't end up paying extra for the wiseco pistons over oem pistons as they misquoted the price of the piston rings as the price of the pistons when I was first inquiring about build pricing. now this obviously means that the block was split into halves and rebored at a machine shop. heads were also machined at the same shop. they also installed a new vf40 (not the oem vf46) since the stock turbo had shaft play and probably had metal in it. parts that could be reused were reused (old intake manifold, intercooler, etc) and everything else was replaced with new original oem parts. this rebuild ended up costing me $8000 canadian (front brakes also had to be replaced since calipers were sticking due to the car sitting for so long). as much as I am grateful for symmetrical's work on the car, the engine has very audible piston slap on a cold start, and while it does quiet down after being properly warmed up and driven, it never really subsides. I thought I could deal with it, but at this point I do regret going with the rebore and forged pistons. however, this has caused 0 issues in the last 4 years and the car has always remained drivable and reliable. the car is still running the stock tune, and is completely stock with exception of the engine internals. by late 2019, I had spent a grand total of $12k canadian on this car, most of it being the rebuild and brake repair costs. at this point I kind of resented the car and didn't have much money left over while paying off the repair debt, so I never bothered to get it undercoated. this caused the already existing rust to build up badly over the last 4 winters I've been through with it. don't get me wrong, the rust isn't bad enough to cause any structural issues with the car. since it keeps passing inspection, I assume there are no holes in the floor and rockers. however, there is a bad rust hole in the passenger side rear arch which my father closed up with jb weld since we needed a quick fix at the time. the rust on the driver side doors is also getting very bad on the bottoms of the doors. the underbody also doesn't look flattering - the control arms and sway bars have a nice coat of rust on them as well. the paint is also bad. the whole front end of the car and a small front section of the roof have faded paint. the clearcoat is peeling badly on the rear bumper. I think the grille has been plastidipped black by the last owner and its been chipping away. I am also unsure if this is an accident car or not since the hood seems to be slightly misaligned. there are several scratches, dents and dings all over the car, with the most noticeable being some dents with scratches on the rear driver's side door and a brown stained dent on the right side of the rear bumper caused by hitting a dumpster. I also think the transmission has been going bad for the last 2 years or so, as it shift shocks somewhat often and seems to slip at low rpms. I cannot get up to freeway speeds without full throttling and letting it drop gears to reach 4500 rpm. unsure if this is all a TCU problem (doubt it because I had it reset in 2020) or an actual mechanical problem with the transmission. the mileage is ~227k kilometers. interior is in okay condition, just needs a good cleaning. so, with all of these considered, how do I price the car? I don't want to give it away for cheap considering the engine build, but at the same time I fully understand that I can't get even close to what I spent back since the car is a rusty automatic. I've been thinking of starting it at $6000 canadian (so around $4500 usd) and maybe taking offers from there, but I'm really unsure. I will try to get up to date pics of the car later, but for now I will post older pics of it and its flaws. it does look worse now than it did back then, but that's mostly due to the rear arch rust and door rust. congrats if you read this all the way through

took some nice-ish photos of my admittedly dirty spec b today. wish it was clean, but ah well unfortunately only had my phone on me as I went for a spontaneous backroad drive after work since the weather was nice for once, so the pics look a bit blurry. maybe after I get the car detailed, I'll come back with my camera to this spot.

give your car a good lookover and see if its even worth spending thousands to fix. I made this mistake with my rustbucket gt I bought for $4k and paid $8k to get rebuilt, and I've lowkey regretted it since. your car is auto, and if its rusty and high mileage, I'd say junk it or part it out. sounds harsh I know, but I wish someone would have told me this years ago when I blew my motor. I could've gotten something in much better shape with the grand total of $12k I had to spend. maybe it would be worth fixing up if it's a wagon since they're harder to find, or if its a sedan in exceptional condition. I think at this point someone needs to make a flowchart on what condition lgt would be worth repairing lol. I know you're going to be doing the work yourself, but you also have to consider the time you have to spend fixing the engine properly and if it really will be worth it for an auto lgt in the end. what you're going to end up paying for parts will also likely be higher than $2500 - that'll get you an RA shortblock and maybe turbo at most. in any case, best of luck

gotta get me a set of these on my next tire change

hey, I still think my tires were a pretty good deal for what they are and OP, don't fret over all the choices and pricing. as long as you choose a reputable brand and do the research on the model of tire you're getting you'll be alright in the end. there are some people in my area who throw out the stock dunlops/yokohamas mounted on oem enkeis/bbs on their stis in exchange for garbage like ESR wheels combined with cheap shit tires like ironman or whatever. as long as you're not like these people, you'll do fine. when I say I got my bridgestones for cheap, I mean I just got a great deal on what is normally a pricey tire. keep your eyes peeled and you'll find the right deal for your use case eventually. also just to clarify, in my last message I meant I got a set of potenza RE-71RS, not RE-71R. my fault for typing in lowercase like a lazy idiot . the RE-71R is out of production, the RE-71RS is it's replacement. there's a 1000hp s15 in japan running this tire so it can't be all that bad lol.

heh, you're in the same boat I was a couple of months ago. I ended up getting a set of bridgestone potenza re-71rs from costco since they had a crazy deal going on back then (they were the cheapest tire available in the size I needed somehow). most user reviews for this tire say that they're "autocross only" but this is untrue, I use them on my spec b which is currently my daily and I love them. I switched to these from a set of really worn (and oversize) indy 500s, and it was a night and day difference. despite being a high performance tire, they were very comfortable even on our terrible freeways, and are very smooth and grippy around corners. they're not too noisy, just a slight tapping sound at freeway speeds (my bridgestone blizzak winters on the other hand sound like a whole woodpecker in the car at above 60mph). unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to push them in the rain. it's been raining here the whole week and I did end up on my favorite backroad the other day but I was stuck behind a cr-v going the speed limit the whole time . however, most reviews for the re-71rs also say that they're superb in the rain, and I wouldn't doubt this even for a second. just beware that these are a 200tw tire, so you'll go through a set faster than indy 500s and ps4s. I don't do as much driving as other members here, so these tires will definitely last me a long time but they might not for you. the only michelins I ever had were a set of winter tires which I only used for a month before I lost them (long story about that one lol), so I can't say for sure that the bridgestones are better or worse in any category than the pilot sports. in fact these are the first new tires I ever got that weren't winter tires, so that might be skewing my judgment a bit. but I'm for sure happy with them

well, the controversial styling and the low power are the deal killers for me, but different strokes for different folks if you want one go for it, don't let a dude on a forum stop ya! I hope you do enjoy it. as much as I'd also like to own a brand new car some day, the styling of most modern offerings are a complete turn off for me (alongside the unnecessary drivetrain changes some cars have...) I can't say for sure how you would go about listing it here without a price, I think it would be best to consult the site moderators about that and see if it's allowed for you to gauge offers from different people without giving your own price. if you want pointers on pricing, you can check sold examples on bringatrailer or cars and bids - or even craigslist and autotrader ads of other lgts in comparable condition to yours, then price it accordingly here.

man, I wouldn't get rid of a 4th gen like that in exchange for a new wrx but I guess you can't ruin your marriage over a car what does the wife say about a used VA generation sti instead? I'd say that's a better tradeoff than getting a new VB wrx. as for the sale, I would say get the exhaust fixed and the scratches buffed out, then if you're looking to auction the car you can try cars and bids. its basically a bringatrailer clone but free to use for sellers. don't waste your time on ebay motors, lots of sketchy stories about it. you could also try your luck with selling the car in the classifieds section of this forum, but it wouldn't be an auction format. good luck

lol if that's "extremely badly rusted out" to you, then you REALLY wouldn't want to see what my 07 gt looks like. my 08 spec b has similar rust on the rear control arms as yours, and its considered a very clean car by east coast canadian standards. the rust on the diff does look bad on your car, but if it works, diff rust doesn't really matter as much as subframe rust - especially considering they're easier to replace than subframes. and KZJonny is right about the exhaust, not a big deal since you can get an aftermarket catback quite easily. the exterior pics of your car look absolutely great compared to my gt. you barely have any rust at all on your rear arches, and your clearcoat looks good save for the strange scratches that could prob be buffed out, and the slight paint fading on the bumpers. I'll send pics of the rust on my 07 gt, you'll be thankful about your car after seeing them the second pic is the rust hole I have on my rear passenger side wheel arch covered in jb weld (and road salt...) as it failed inspection due to that hole and I needed a quick and cheap fix at the time.

alright, so I got my gear oil changed to some fresh motul gear 300 today. the mechanic gave me no report on the clutch cylinder, so I assume all is well with that. some of the crunchiness seems to be resolved now (though the shifter has the same notchiness as before and had a bit of a crunch going into 3rd today, but I think that was just me being lazy with the clutch). what I find more surprising is that the power delivery now feels much smoother in lower gears, namely 1st and 2nd gear. the car used to feel a bit jolty in those gears, but it now feels much smoother at low speed. shifting into 2nd also feels smoother than before, since I usually had to force it in a bit and really had to make sure the revs had dropped fully to let the syncros catch up - otherwise the car would rock back and forth due to what I assume are the syncros trying to match drivetrain speed to engine speed. syncro engagement in 2nd is better now, though I don't want to say its "much improved" just yet. I'm overall happy with the gear oil change, but I was honestly expecting some of the notchiness to go away as well. I guess I'm just glad that there were no problems with the clutch system, though if I do end up going down to my subaru tuner this summer I imagine they'll give it a much more thorough checkover

welp, while I didn't put my springs on yet (some of you might have seen that I am trying to sell them due to newfound fear of potholes ) I did get my gtc01s and new tires on today, and I'm absolutely loving it. on a bit of an unrelated note, I never realized how much the near bald firestones and oversize wheels made the ride and handling so choppy. I did kind of have my doubts going with an aggressive tire like the potenza re71rs after reading the reviews for them, which usually said how these were an autocross/track specific 200tw tire and would be terrible as a daily tire on rough roads, but after driving them back from costco today I am LOVING them. the ride is so much smoother than I expected, even over our 3rd world roads, and the grip is simply nuts. everything is so smooth and precise now, I can't even believe it. the wheels look great too, I hated the poke and stretch the old wheel and tire combo had so much. I no longer feel any sort of contact/weirdness at full lock turns, and I feel much more confident while turning the wheel overall. I took a few pictures, but the more I look at them the more I'm starting to doubt the idea of selling my RS-R springs and putting them on anyway because the ride height looks even weirder with the slimmer wheels lmao. just gotta find a place to get them put on for cheap because for some reason my subaru tuner quoted me $660 to install them, which is just insane compared to all the other estimates I've read online. I was expecting something more around the $200-300 ballpark. I think I'll have to shop around for a good rate that won't break the bank. anyway, here are the current specs and pics: wheels: enkei racing gtc01 18x8 +48 tires: bridgestone potenza re71rs 235/40/18 (got a killer deal in this specific size at costco) stock jdm spec b rev. c suspension and absolutely no spacers (peep the evo parked next to me. that's the type of low I want, especially on the front)

yeah the more research I do the more it seems like it could be a clutch master or slave cylinder issue. doesn't seem like that bad of a fix, I'm just thankful nothing is wrong with the transmission. I did a bit of a longer trip today and drove 96km (60mi) to costco and back, and the car was still pulling fine through the gears. but once again it did almost stall today while trying to back out of the parking lot, and second gear clicked while shifting into it at a low speed. coming back into town I also ended up revving it to 3500rpm while trying to get off from a hill stop and it was quite strange, there was somehow no burning smell afterwards but the car also didn't lurch forward like crazy. I'm definitely getting it looked at during my gear and diff oil change one thing I should mention is that the car had a brake fluid leak caused by a loose line on the rear when I first bought it. I did get it fixed last fall with a full fresh dot4 fluid flush, but I'm not sure if this would have affected anything with the clutch system too. thanks for the input guys, I'll update when I get everything looked at and hopefully fixed

car was in storage for 4 months during the winter. and yeah, I do plan to change the oil for sure, but I just thought the sudden onset of crunchy shifts was a bit strange - though I drove the car this morning and it was better than yesterday somehow, but it was still a bit stiff going into 3rd sometimes. you might actually be right on the clutch related diagnosis since the clutch on this car has always been strange. it's some weird canadian brand stage 2 clutch that's half kevlar and half organic, and from what I could tell the last owner didn't really break it in properly, as it was an absolute PAIN to drive at first (clutch was extremely stiff and the bite point was at the absolute top end of the pedal travel, like at 1cm of travel). two weeks before I put the car in storage, I noticed the clutch behavior started to change and it became a bit less stiff and the bite point was actually more towards the middle and had a much wider range - like a normal clutch should. I figured this was the clutch finally breaking in, so I didn't think much of it. however, after getting the car out of storage, I've had some moments where the car nearly stalled with the clutch pedal fully pushed down, and this only happened while backing out of a parking spot while turning. I took my car to the local mechanic recently for a post-storage checkup, and they said everything was fine (this was before I noticed new crunchiness). I asked them about the near stalls I've had and they said it could be slightly clogged injectors since it sat for a long time. at this point I don't want to believe there's anything majorly wrong with the car since it does drive and pull thru the gears as good as I remember - save for the stiffer shifting in lower gears. I hope new gear oil does solve my problems, but I will take it to a reputable subaru tuner somewhat soon for a better diagnosis.

hey all, I recently got my spec b out of storage, and I've been having a great time with it. however, I'm starting to think its time for a gear and diff oil change as I'm starting to struggle to get the car in first gear (crunches a bit), and going from second to third also requires more force than before. so unless the syncros decided to slowly die while sitting in storage, I can't think of anything else than either needing new gear oil or a new transmission in case I really did mess up too many shifts on a high mileage transmission lol (I did learn how to drive stick on this car ). I have no idea when the oil was last changed (or if it was even changed at all), I'll have to double check the maintenance receipts I got from the last owner to see if I can find something about it. so, would I just be good to go with fresh oil or do I have a bigger problem? thanks

while I was looking into this swap, I found this video to be very helpful for wrapping my head around the easiest way to go about it. I hope it's helpful for you as well, tho you may have already seen it by now lol.

I haven't used any of the sites you mentioned, but I checked all of them and if I were to go with any of them, it would be wheelership or factory wheel replacement, they seem decent and trustworthy enough, though it may be worth contacting them beforehand to confirm their availability. you should keep in mind that these sites are selling replicas of the oem wheels, so they're not necessarily the exact same as the oems, tho they probably are pretty close, and are likely the best option for buying brand new oem style wheels. personally what I would do in your situation is to scour local craigslist/fb marketplace ads to see if there are any decent used sets for sale. you could also try ebay if you find a listing trustworthy enough. that way you're getting real oem wheels, but at the cost of the unknowns that come with buying used wheels. I would suggest to not buy any wheels that have been cracked or bent then repaired as their structure is likely compromised and not necessarily what you would want to replace your current wheels. however, if you find a decent set locally then you're probably going to save money compared to the other options. or you could do what my crazy ass did and order a used set from japan from a used parts site like croooober or auction agent like buyee or jauce. if you're going to order from japan I would strongly recommend to use whatever option is provided to remove tires off rims if they already have tires mounted, since shipping costs become insane with tires mounted on rims. I recently ordered a set of enkeis from croooober, and while I'm still waiting on them to arrive (which is going to take a while with ocean shipping and me being on the east coast), I trust them as they were responsive in their communications to me. with overseas used parts sites, always read descriptions and compare them to the posted pictures carefully. sometimes they overstate damage, sometimes they understate. it's hard to take any precautions without seeing the wheels in person, so this option may not be for you if you're not willing to take a risk. I'll finish this off by saying that you should always do your own research and come to your own conclusions. this is just my 2 cents on your situation, and like all things on the internet, take it with a grain of salt. happy shopping