gathermewool

Firstly, find a reputable mechanic. You're wasting a lot of money having all of your maintenance done at the dealer, ESPECIALLY if they're not offering you some sort of lifetime drivetrain warranty or something similar. Brake fluid: this should be done ASAP and ~ every few years. If you insist on having this performed at the dealer, MAKE SURE THEY'RE ACTUALLY FLUSHING THROUGH EACH CALIPER. My local dealer had a heckuva deal and I almost bit. I called back before my appointment date and asked what they actually did during the brake fluid change and they admitted that they only siphon out the old fluid from the reservoir and refill it. This is NOT good enough. CVT fluid: I would also have this done ASAP, if you plan on keeping the car for a long time. Ensure they use the correct orange fluid for the HTCVT. All other: follow the book. // Plugs: why did you change your plugs so early? Differentials: if you want to go above and beyond what most people do, have the differential fluid replaced. Amsoil gear lube might make you feel better, but won't perform any better than OTS fluids. With that said, something like Motul Gear 300 is the best on-paper lube. LED's: DiodeDynamics has sales at nearly every holiday. Wait until then and order everything from then. Both my '15 Legacy and '14 Forester have all interior lights replaced with DD LED's, along with their brightest backup lights, puddle lights, etc. MY FXT came with HID's; my Legacy halogens. I replaced the halogens in the Legacy with DD LED low-beams.

Thanks, guys. I'll just right on the damper.

I drove through the same sharp, right-sweeping ramp at-speed and answered my own question. The car definitely takes this turn much better with the 20mm RSB. I keep reading good things about the damper, except for a few reviews where it broke. I might have to make this my next mod. I noticed again, after taking this curve twice in the past several days, what AKI described perfectly:

You won't notice any change due to changing your endlinks. The only reason to change from stock is to add some durability. When I switched to Perrin pillow-ball links on my STI I had issues with rattling on the initial set, even though the joint didn't have excessive play or looseness. Luckily, Perrin has awesome customer service and sent out a new set immediately, which resolved the problem. The OEM has a boot-covered ball-joint, whereas I see a lot of aftermarket with open joints. The cross-section is obviously beefier in the aftermarket, but very likely unnecessary for a DD with soft springs. How can you tell? Peek under your rear end every so often to see if the stock links are still straight. If they're straight and not rattling, then they're adequate. Heck, you should check things like this after you hit a big pot-hole for the same reason. With that said, I bought my Legacy used from NC, with a nearly pristine, rust-free undercarriage, including the rear endlinks, which were easy to remove while installing the 20mm Crosstrek bar. I installed the bar before the car saw a New England winter (or maybe it was just after its first, I can't recall exactly). My FXT has experienced every winter here, since purchase in the fall of '13. That means a lot of salt, so there's a lot of rust on every fastener under the car, including and especially the well-exposed endlinks. This is the reason I've been holding off on installing the same 20mm bar for the FXT, because I'll likely have to cut the links off. If I do have to cut the links off, I haven't decided on whether I'll go OE or aftermarket. I also have two pristine OEM endlinks from my STI that might fit, but I'll have to find them, since they've been boxed away somewhere for years.

You're welcome. It has been wet the past few days, so I haven't been able to test apples-to-apples conditions. Luckily, temperatures have remained in the 40s for each comparison, so that's good. I'm going to take off the bar tomorrow, before running errands. if I'm lucky I'll be able to do a relatively close back-to-back check of my above observations (except for the pot-holes, since there aren't any near me.) Plenty of uneven roads, though. // My wife doesn't notice much change, either. She noticed the upgrade in my previous STI to RCE regular guy (black) springs and the hollow (25mm?) bars, front and rear, for sure. As far as my RSB, I do wonder if I would be able to notice a difference, if someone, say, installed/uninstalled it without telling me, i.e., a blind test. I guess it would depend on how froggy I felt like driving that day, since, as you mention, it's much more noticeable under certain conditions and probably not very noticeable at all for someone who drives on straight, flat roads every day, taking turns at pedestrian speeds, which is what my wife usually does. Heck, even I drive pretty sedately most days due to traffic; I have no desire to weave in and out of traffic or try to get to that red light faster than the guy next to me, if you know what I mean. When there are no slow-pokes holding me up and I'm feeling froggy, I do like to drive my Legacy more closely to how I drove my STI. // Now that I think about it, to have the most ass-puckering drive you can each day, just remove the FSB, install as big of an RSB as possible, and then install low-rolling-resistance tires on the rear and super sticky tire up front! It'll be as close as you can get to a RWD Legacy, with low emphasis on the "D"! lol

I'm still testing (bar on and off) which will take some time for me to come to anything close to as an objective conclusion as possible. I also ordered an SSD front strut bar for our '14 FXT to test there, as well. Major or minor changes? So, far, the changes are minor for daily driving, which includes some spirited driving, as well as taking the same turn with a moderate rise mid-turn, which puts a torsional load on the body (i.e. the front left tire rises first as the car enters the rise at about a 45-degree angle. The changes are slightly more noticeable during VERY hard cornering. 1. Very subtle/undetermined: -----The front end feels very slightly stiffer/more rigid during daily driving, hitting uneven roads and potholes. I don't have many major potholes and only hit a few while driving south of Boston on 95/93 split area. This might all be in my head, though. -----During the above-mentioned turn in my neighborhood, the one with the moderate rise, I notice what seems to be the suspension (strut) taking up the load more than without the bar. It also seems as if the middle of the vehicle is taking on more of the torsional load than the front subframe/firewall area, if that makes any sense. I'll need more time with/without the bar to confirm this, though, and rule out placebo effect. 2. Somewhat sure of thus far: -----I'm able to take the same hard right turn (~ 90-degrees) every day on my way home. With only the upgraded XV Crosstrek 20mm rear sway-bar installed, I've gotten used to a more-neutral turn at a certain relatively high (yet still safe) speed. The car is still more prone to under-steer, but noticeably closer to neutral with just the RSB. Today is the first opportunity I've had to take the same turn at speed, and the front left tire chirped throughout the majority of the turn. This leads me to believe that the front is stiffer, resulting in a bit more under-steer, but not in a bad way. I'm no expert, so it's hard for me to explain. it's not equivalent to putting on a large front sway-bar, and didn't make the car dive into the turn. It just felt more solid in the turn and predictable, though the change wasn't massive enough, by any means, to give it a, "woah!" factor, which is normally attributed to massive changes in grip (i.e., with wider/stickier tires) or with a car that's made to be on the very edge of over-steer, which will make it FEEL more like it's on rails, regardless of whether overall grip is increased. More to follow. Even if this bar is only showing improvement at the limit, that's fine and makes it worth the purchase. I don't drive close to the limit of traction in any of my vehicles 99% of the time; however, that 1% of the time where you can experience a better car than stock is where the want-to-keep-it-long-term factor comes into play. I don't feel the need to upgrade this like I did my previous STI (eff that noise....literally, it was really loud with massive amounts of NVH compared to the Legacy), but making it feel more fun during that 1% of my driving puts a smile on my face, with only minor change in NVH, mostly coming from the DWS tires, and almost none from the RSB and front strut bar. // Conclusion: So, all I have so far is what I consider a relatively minor change in front-end stiffness at this point. More testing needs to be done with the bar on and off. // TIRES!!!!!! Better bet for overall increase in performance? I suggest you buy better tires. The difference between the stock alloy wheels with half-worn OEM tires and the BBS with Conti DWS (1/2 - 3/4 worn; I don't have exact tread-depths, sorry) was a major improvement. I experienced increased grip without effecting the balance of the car. RSB! Next best: RSB - You don't have to drive AT the limit to experience a more neutral feel, since the RSB is ALWAYS responding, left-and-right in the rear, resulting in less over-steer always. This is fact.

You've never removed a hot cap in an emergency? However, like I said: very neat!

Very neat. I'd prefer a pressure gage, though.

There is nothing easy about a master cylinder brace, from what I've read; they seem to be a PITA to install.

Jerkiness is not the nature of these CVT's, at least not in my experience. The regular CVT in my '15 Legacy is not jerky and the HTCVT in my '14 FXT is not jerky.

I purchased mine from Amazon. Also, Aladeen is a reference to the movie The Dictator, in which a made-up middle-eastern dictator changes more than half of the local dialect to be his name, Aladeen. There's a funny bit where a patient has to rely on the expressive Dr's face to determine whether he is HIV Aladeen or HIV Aladeen, since the dictator changed both positive and negative to his name.

Added an SSD front strut bar - impressions to follow after I've had some time with it installed.

Installed (torqued to 185 in-lbs) and went to the store for a quick opcheck. Fitmet: perfect Initial impressions on change in handling: Definitely Aladeen

I'll put a micrometer on it and see how thick the bar ends are. I do agree that this bar seems much sturdier than the bars I've used in the past. I'll get pics of the gap between the strut top studs and the bar holes, too. I'm hoping it's a very tight fit, otherwise, I can see 15 ft-lbs of torque on the nuts not being enough to stop the bar from slipping.

I've been driving more aggressively lately to try and get a good feel for stock. There's one sweeper I want to take at a (safe) higher rate of speed than usual, before and after the install. If I can help it, I want to time the before and after as closely as possible. I don't have any issue with creaking while turning into inclines; however, there are a couple of spots that used to cause my previous STI to crab-walk (lift a wheel or two due to stiffer front and rear sways) that I want to try before and after the strut bar install, so I can pay specific attention to any differences. +1 Didn't even notice the attachment option in advanced! Pics are up in the OP. I'll take more when it's installed.

Don't get too excited, this is more of an unboxing thread than anything else. The bar JUST came in and I had enough time to unbox it and take some pictures before family arrives from out of town for the weekend. I hope to have a review posted by next weekend, at the latest. Cost: $228.55, including shipping and tax (I had saved up gift cards from various promotions, so it was actually less than that, though I can't recall if I got the gift cards for 10% savings or other, sorry). Anyway, here are the pics (I can't figure out how to embed the pics, so link only - sorry): https://imgur.com/a/zE8KFZj

Nope! Do it yourself and report back.

My previous post might have been a little misleading about which handled better. with the Premier A/S then and Ascend GT now on the '14 FXT, it handles dry and wet better than my '15 Legacy with Conti DWS that are likely halfway worn by now (I haven't checked the tread depth since putting them on in the spring and don't recall). I definitely feel the wind more in the FXT; however, the Legacy's steering seems to be dead on-center and not very responsive right away, so that I FEEL like I'm having to give more input than the FXT, which is more point-and-go-feeling, if that makes any sense. // What do you think about the difference in the tires for your '11 FXT? The Premier A/S started at 8/32" tread depth and wore very quickly. It performed well, otherwise. The Ascend started at 12/32" (massive difference), now after several hundred (maybe as much as 1000 miles), are a bit squishier for sure, but they're also quieter. They handle just fine, even if they're not very sporty. I've taken the Premier A/S close to the limit of traction (dry and wet) and they were pretty nice. They hydroplaned and pulled a bit in heavy rain near the end, even though I believe they touted their tire as performing the same all the way down to the wear bars, which is where I took them before replacement. I didn't mean to go that far, but they seemed to shoot from 3 or 4/32" to 2/32" pretty rapidly this past spring/summer.

Use the quote feature, please. This thread is a year and a half old. AKI (the OP) is still posting, but please make sure to point your question at him, if applicable. I've had some complaints myself. As for me, I've got STI BBS wheels and aggressive AS tires (Conti DWS). I don't think anyone would argue that these are soft tires. My opinion remains that even after nearly identical alignments (Legacy is at -.7* camber), our '14 FXT with stock wheels and Premier A/S tires (then) and Ascend GT (now) handles much better at highway speeds. I find that a higher-riding CUV handling better than a sedan to be contrary to expectations.

Simmer down, dude. I posted based on my own personal experience. Who mentioned a tractor? Are you saying that I should drive like a maniac on the highway? Like most of us here, we get our kicks in our DD's in on-off-ramps and on the back-roads. Besides, if you can't get at least 29 MPG in a Legacy, a large portion of your commute is city/traffic or you don't know how to drive efficiently. I can start a thread about how you should be driving if you'd like. I don't mind. // All kidding about your ridiculous post aside, I just said that I bought an SSD bar. It should be here between 13 and 20DEC. I'll let you know what I think. I also said that I'm open-minded, and will give as honest a review as possible, regardless of my own personal experience.

Firstly, I just bought an SSD strut bar, so I can say for myself, in this specific application, what I think. I think that's much fairer than comparing to the past. I'll keep an open mind and will keep the bar if I feel that it actually does help. I'm not into bling, so I got the black bar. // I've only tried two bars, which were installed on my previous '08 STI and wasn't impressed. I can't recall the makes of the bars (sorry for that - kind of kills my case), but the holes at each end were way bigger than the strut top studs. I felt no difference in performance. I didn't see any chafing beneath the bar, which told me that the strut towers were pretty rigid. I could infer from the lack of chafing that the clamping force of the nuts was enough to keep the bar from moving, but can't see that being the case at such a low torque value. I'll concede that an STI likely has a stiffer front end than my current '15 Legacy. That being the case, I'll also concede that there IS the possibility that a properly engineered bar might stiffen up the front end a bit. I still don't buy that it makes it feel like you're riding on rails, all by itself.

A strut tower brace fixing all of those problems seems very unlikely and coincidental; that is, until you report back that you're darned sure, after weeks, that it's better. My experience is that the front strut towers are very close to the very-stiff firewall. I haven't personally seen a strut bar that provided a friction fit to the strut top studs, meaning, loose, you could jiggle the strut bar. Also take into account that the torque for the strut studs is in the teens of ft-lbs, i.e., not much clamping force if the strut bar is loose with the fasteners also loose. If you got some superb bar that actually does work, then more power to you. I'm a skeptic, but that doesn't mean I'm saying you're a liar or what you're describing is impossible; just improbable.

What's it regulated to? With very little load on the alternator (e.g., driving for extended periods without the amp drawing power), I wouldn't want to see anything above 14.4VDC. Even while charging my batteries, I won't leave them at 14.4VDC for longer than ~ 24 hrs. At 14.4 VDC, when charging amps drop to nothing or 24 hrs later, I drop the voltage to 13.9VDC for maintaining 100% capacity. Even if you have the amp drawing max power, if the alternator is putting out closer to 15VDC (or higher), your battery may start gassing, since 15VDC is equalizing voltage for most 12VDC LA batteries.

I don't think it takes much power to pop a latch...

Bouncy = Oversprung... I don't find the stock struts to be over-damped, so the stock springs seem to be engineering pretty well for the stock shocks.