DiscoPete

Hey everyone, I know it’s a noob question…

I . .....

2. ....

3. ...

4. In Chicago we have to do Emissions every 2 years. It’s done my Emissions Facility workers plugging in OBD2 connecter and reading from it. Will AP Stage 1 effect this?

Thank for your help

Its the same here in Maryland - inspected every 2 years using the OBDII port. My OBXT passes fine with Stage 1 installed because it isn't throwing any malfunction codes. If your "Check Engine" lamp isn't acting up, the car will pass an OBDII test.

Don't know how it would work out in a place where they measure tail pipe emissions.

 

Note, the last two Subies we have purchased have come with bad alignments which led to premature tire wear.

It may be common for factory wheel alignments to be out of kilter:

I bought a new 1985 Ford pick up truck and needed new front tires by about 20K miles due to poor aignment. No great loss - the stock tires were crap - dangerously slick on a wet road.

Recently I bought a low mileage, one-owner used Porsche. It had 20K on the odometer and I had to replace the front tires by 23K. The alignment shop measurements showed that none of the four wheels had matching toe-in or camber. The Tech said it looked like a factory "alignment".

The date codes on the tires showed that they were not the original set. IOW, the car ran through two sets of front tires in 23,000 miles. The first owner must have burnt through a pair of front tires in 12K or so, then installed new ones without getting an alignment.

It might be a good idea to assume that a new car requires a wheel alignment.

Just curious - What is to be done when these Bilstein shocks break or wear out? Can they be rebuilt without sending them to Japan or Germany?

Would it be advisable to buy a spare shock or two to keep the car on the road?

^^^^^^^^^^^

there isn't any group buy. Member rb5 researched it and found what seems to be the best deal on the bilstein kit and no group participation is required. Everyone makes their own purchase at the current exchange rate and shipping costs.

 

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe that the source for the kit is hkc, found at http://www.hkc-speed.com/index.php

Hi there - new to the list. I have a rear passenger side shock that has blown. Very interested in the Bilstein option. I have also been looking at King Springs from Australia - have not searched the site for this yet. What is the status of the group buy? How does this work? Sad to see that others have the same problems that I dislike about my car. I concur with Mike - first time Subaru buyer, last time too.

 

Thanks!

05 Outback XT 5sp manual

There isn't any Group Buy. Member rB5 researched it and found what seems to be the best deal on the Bilstein kit and no group participation is required. Everyone makes their own purchase at the current exchange rate and shipping costs.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the source for the kit is HKC, found at http://www.hkc-speed.com/index.php

You may want to look at aftermarket lower control arm bushings as well. I got AVO poly bushings and makes handling more planted. Also will be installing AVO steering column poly bushings. These combined with the Bilsteins should significantly improve the handling.

 

I think the reason why the Outback handles this way stock is that it was truly designed to be a rugged off-road vehicle. So much so that some people say NOT to mod the swaybars because you lose some of the independent suspension qualities to go over rocks etc. Don't really need to go offroad that much personally...I mostly use my Outback as a truck for hauling stuff.

Better control arm bushings - a good idea. That goes on the list.

I see that you also installed 25 mm sway bars front & rear. What brand did you select and why did you choose that over the other brands available? Did you add stronger bar mounts and end links?

Many people just add a rear sway bar. Does the front one make that much extra difference?

That is my main question, what the differences are.

 

If you look at the curb weights, the 3.0 and 2.5xt are within a few pounds of eachother, while the 2.5xt is a few hundred more than the 2.5i.

 

I'm willing to bet the valving is different, but I don't know how they would have changed it.

to me, too. Maybe someone can enlighten us.

I'm surprised to hear that a turbo adds a few hundred pounds to the car's weight. I thought that they were supposed to the light-weight solution to more power. It didn't seem to me like that little turbo and inter-cooler sitting on top of the engine would weigh that much.

Why the 5056 instead of the 5058?

Mike's car is identical to mine and he's very satisfied with his modification, so I imagine that it would work fine for me, too. I don't know enough to engineer my own suspension set-up, so I'm willing to go with something already proven to work well.

I DO know that the stock suspension on my Outback needs help. Early in my experience with the car I did a fast lane change at highway speed on the interstate and was alarmed by the way the car was pitching and rolling back and forth. I must have done it just right to get an oscillation going. I prefer a more planted road feel.

You mentioned something about the weight of the 2.5 XT vs the 3.0 engine being almost the same. Do you know of any advantage to using a different set-up? You probably know more about this than do. I'm ready to listen.

I'm doing the same as DiscoPete and going with the 5056 kit. Note, there's a typo on the p/n for the dust caps. Mike has the correct p/n in his thread, but listed the wrong one. I can confirm b/c I have all the parts already. Just waiting to pull the trigger on the BTS kit.

Thanks for that corrected information.

Many things popped up when I Googled HKC. I want to be sure that I have the right supplier in mind. The most likely of the bunch was www.hkc-speed.com/

Is that the place?

OK, I'm confused - does the HKC package include tophats, etc?

Here is the parts list supplied by Mike:

Parts list:

1ea. JDM Bistein BTS-5056J. www.hirano-tire.co.jp - Export divison; exportdivision@hotmail.com (the Company regularly advertises 128,370 Yen for the BTS 5056J Kit)

2ea. USDM SpecB top hats, 20320AG01A. local.

2ea. USDM SpecB dust cap 20320AG000. local.

2ea. JDM rear shock perch 20370AG010. www.japanparts.com

2ea. JDM rear rubber upper 20375AE011. www.japanparts.com

If I'm following this correctly,

Item #1 is the suspension kit identical to the one available from HKC.

The top hats, dust caps, shock perch and rear rubber uppers would be purchased separately. I've seen ~ $200 mentioned as the cost of those items.

Here's my summary of the latest on the JDM BTS kits:

 

• Best price right now is with HKC for $1800 delivered to your USA address, with the possibility of a small refund at the discretion of HKC, dependent on currency and individual actual shipping costs at time of order.

 

• I have one possibility with a contact in Japan i need to follow up with, but i'm not holding my breath on it being much cheaper. Will post ASAP.

 

-Branden

I'm interested in the Bilstein suspension setup.

Just to be sure - Is the kit from HKC exactly like the one M. Schneider installed on his car? If so, the part numbers that he provided for the extra installation bits are the right numbers, which is good to know.

If my participation in a group buy will drive the price below the $1,800 (delivered) quoted by HKC, I'll join the group buy.

Otherwise, I'm inclined to contact HKC for the most current information and do a deal.

What's the latest word on the group buy?

^^^^

The Cobb AccessPORT Stage 1 upgrade makes the car even better.

My experience so far: For the single day that the upgrade has been installed, I've been running the 93 octane Stage 1 map in Real Time mode.

The only hitch in the installation was that I had to disconnect and reconnect the dongle (the plug that connects to the OBD port) before the AP would marry up to the engine computer. Except for that, installation went by the book.

The Stage 1 programming brought about a nice improvement the performance. It hasn't turned into a race car, but its now much more fun to drive. The motor has significantly more pep and that occasional stuttering throttle response seems to be cured.

I don't understand why Subaru didn't configure the car like this from the factory. Were they afraid of frightening the Soccer Moms?

If no problems crop up in the next few days, I'll convert the R-T Map to the Base Map.

I was able to buy the AP from a Subaru dealer and apply Subaru Bucks to the purchase. That sealed the deal.

OK so I just read through all 9 pages of this thread of many years, and I still have the following questions, just for clarification and would appreciate some sage advice.

 

So I'm considering buying a V1 Cobb AP from VTGT, but it's for a 2005.5:

 

*First of all, am I right in saying I have an 05, not 05.5 - VIN 5*316598?

 

*Secondly, therefore, am I right in saying that it is still possible to "convert" the AP for use on my 05 by downloading something online somehow (and what is the cost)?

 

*Thirdly, how would I know if it's been unmarried from the current car before I hooked it up to mine?

 

*Fourthly, I have a MAC, so am I right in saying I would need to find a PC for all of my usage?

 

*Fifth (and finally), once maps are loaded onto the AP (from a PC presumably), am I right in saying that I'm good to go with hooking it up to the car without needing the PC again (until any other flashing/map updates) - since a PC is not readily available for me and so I need it to be easy once I finish with the PC?

 

A little long I know, and I think I have read it all here, but wanted some expert help before I dropped some dollar on something I can't use.

 

Cheers for your patience with a relative noob (certainly when it comes to APs) and for all your feedback.

I installed my new AccessPORT yesterday, making me an "instant expert" - not yet a Sage - but I believe that I can answer your 5th. question and the last part of the second one.

Once the firmware and the map programs are loaded into the AP hand-held terminal, you won't need the PC again until you update the unit. The maps stored in the terminal can be displayed and selected for installation.

The software downloads from the Cobb website are free, probably because they are useless to you unltil you have purchased an AP.

I was under the impression that the stock map was never altered, and that it would revert to the original factory map if you unmarried the AP.

As I understand it, the purchase of an AP conveys a license to install the Cobb software on only one vehicle at a time. If the AP was unmarried from from the original vehicle, it stands to reason that the Cobb map would be deleted and the stock map reinstalled, allowing the AccessPORT to be used on a different vehicle.

The vehicle's original map is downloaded to the AP during the procedure to install the new map and is available to be reinstalled.

Does the AP contain a stock ECU map, or does it copy the map from your car's ECU and save it for uninstall purposes?

 

I know it contains a "stock" map to switch to on the fly.

There is a video on the Cobb website that shows how to use the AP.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/products/?id=3268

If I recall it correctly, the user is instructed to save the existing map to the AccessPort before the new map is installed, so that the original settings can be restored if need be.

Nice! I wish mine was that color.

I've done two long distance purchases, where the cars were shipped from an out-of-state CarMax location to the one near my home. In both cases, the cars needed several hundred dollars worth of minor repair. CarMax has a 30 day repair warranty, so it cost me nothing except the time to take them in to be fixed.

Good luck!

hey ive had my obxt for almost 3 years now...just under 25k miles. whats the deal with the 30k service at the stealerships? ive seen quoted prices from 450-over 1000 usd. i am not capable of doing the work myself, nor do i have the time. if this is posted in the wrong forum, mods plz move it. what should the stealership do during the 30k service? being its a turbo, i expect itll cost more than a normal 30k service. the car is running in tip top shape (knock on wood) and im just planning ahead to prepare for the inevitable. thanks in advance.

If you get a Chase Subaru MasterCard you can earn Subaru Bucks that can take a lot of the sting out of having work done at the dealership.

I just traded my '02 Impreza Outback Sport on a '05 Outback XT today and will pick it up this Friday. I've owned a bunch of Subies over the last 25 years and loved them all.

I just signed onto this forum and I'm looking forward to talking to ya alll.

 

Don

Welcome!

I got my '05 OB XT back at the end of July. They are nice cars. I'm really enjoying mine. This is a good forum, too.

-Pete

Atlantic Blue OB2.5i

Nice color!