amason

I've jacked under the front diff many a time, doesn't seem to have caused any damage. For the back sides there's also a couple of pieces of random metal near the pinch welds, that might work for you as well

So if you mostly drive on plowed wet or dry roads, don't get snow tires, get performance winters or the Nokian all-weathers I mentioned earlier, and you'll have the best of both worlds. Since my summers aren't getting worn during winter I'm not sure how the tire company comes out ahead (although I suppose the rim company is happy), and it means I don't have to compromise on summer performance either. Win/win.

I've got a battery I got used, and made fit. Synthetic oil (semi-synthetic would work too) makes a big difference, and I use a battery blanket and block heater for really cold starts (-15C/5F), unless I'm not near an outlet, in which case it's always started anyway, although not as happily/quietly.

TO doesn't get real snow . But it'd be sensible to get an all-weather tire like a Nokian WR there, as there's plenty of cold/wet/slush. I was on my brand new Conti ExtremeContact Sport (excellent wet tires) for the first snowfall this past winter, and it was dicey. OP: I think I've been in one CVT Subie, and wasn't paying attention, but is there no Neutral position? Isn't that the fun part? You lost me there, I've never had that experience, but I don't have DSC (or anything else). Yes, why not play around with DSC off and see if you like it better? I turn off the traction control in every car I ever drive, just 'cause. My little form of protest.

This is not correct, at least on my '05. The barrel adjuster on one side is reverse threaded, so you turn them both up (close side of the cog wheel / screwdriver tip) to tighten.

Results of my winter-long experiment: No grenaded diffs, and I didn't crash. Happy to have evenly-matched summers on now, and new winters next winter.

If one had two equal sized tires, one that was 1/8" smaller in circumference, and one that was one 1/8" bigger, and had a manual Suby with an open front diff and rear LSD, what would be the optimal tire placement? Feel free to ignore handling, and only consider centre diff health, unless you want to comment on handling too. My guess: equal sized tires at the rear, and tires with a net 1/4" difference on the front, so that the front two averaged out to the size of the rears, the open diff didn't get chewed up by the difference, and the centre diff saw equal sizes at both ends. Downside would be having the smaller front tire wear faster than the rears, so things would get worse with time. I realise one could just buy new tires, but there are some cases where new tires would be worth more than the rest of the car, in which case one might try to limp by. Thoughts? Thanks, Andy

1700 lbs. of shingles for the garage. It was a short trip, and my rear shocks needed replacing anyway. Mudflaps were dragging!

If you'd read this thread, you'd see that a) he spent a lot of time/money purchasing and testing different options before b) someone else posted something like "other guys have been using Crown Vic grilles" without giving you your due credit or linking to your thread (in which the pic links are dead btw), so that may have been where he got the idea but why he didn't give you your oh-so-important credit, and c) he's been super open throughout the whole process, posting a how-to, posting pics of the steps in the ones he was building, etc. He's not making cash hand over fist here either, but rather putting in a ton of effort for others' benefit. In short, I don't think it makes sense to get all huffy about this when everything about this community is awesomely open. -- Andy

I was at 170,500km (belt replacement interval 168k, which I realized), but also at 9.5 years (8.75 years, which I didn't). The cogged tensioner fell off (spun through the timing belt cover and landed on the undertray). Especially annoying given that I had the timing belt kit in the garage waiting for nice car-fixing weather. Andy

Just wanted to add another source for LEDs: dx.com If you search for "31mm festoon" instead of "3175 LED" you'll get more results, although the second search brings back some cool arrays with 3175 connectors. Lots of options starting at around $2.50 shipped. Andy

Just did front left at 160k kms (for the second time, pretty sure it was one of the 3 that were replaced under warranty before 100k kms). Thoughts/observations: - I had the same experience as the poster who thought it was winter tire noise. I guess it fails so gradually that it sneaks up on you. Found it when swapping summers back on, and finding the wheel still loose after tightening lugnuts. So quiet now that I can't believe I didn't notice it earlier - the dealer put the wrong bolt in for one of the 4 hub bolts. Too short, 17mm head, and threaded the whole way, so it tried to rust itself into place. I will be bringing this to their attention - the bolts for the caliper bracket are similarly threaded, and always seem to get themselves well stuck, despite my using anti-seize religiously - thx for the pointer about the rotor trick, I'll be using that someday I'm sure. For this one I just hammered on the half-removed bolts, I guess it wasn't very stuck due to having been changed already. I also always forget to use my air hammer/chisel, probably because it never seems to work when I try - found stuck caliper sliders, and didn't have time to fix. Damn those things - to get clearance to work on it, I removed the shock (about 5 minutes work if you put it in with anti-seize last time), and rotated the knuckle far enough down to get the axle out - I had a spare (used) one in the garage, from the time I had to get a new-to-me knuckle. Yay to keeping extra crap around! Might just order up another one, seems likely I'll be needing it someday... Andy

Thanks for the link frank_ster, submitted a report. Andy

I had no door lock actuator, door lock switch, or reverse lights. Found 6 wires broken, 5 more on the way, and 3 intact. Does anyone know why there are 2x light green/black stripe? I can't figure it out from the wiring diagram, and I cut them apart before noticing. Mostly fixed now anyway, wish I'd figured this out before someone opened my unlocked and unalarmed trunk and took my stuff. Oh well. Andy

They won't fit. Those replace 9006 bulbs, which aren't compatible (even with trimming) with our H7 low-beams. They do fit in the fog lamps on Outbacks though...

Yet another vote for HIR's. Got mine in Dec. 2005, and they've been burning brightly since then. I drive on backroads a lot, and pretty much put my high-beams on every time I get the chance (so they're often on for a few seconds until someone comes around a corner). I suppose I should flash ppl in front of me more often as a bulb longevity test I ended up with 4 bulbs, and thought I'd keep 2 as spares, now I'm thinking I should sell 2 and keep the stocks as spares. Hey TSi+WRX, did you end up doing a DRL switch? It occurred to me when reading an old post in here, that unless you want your low-beams off and fog-lights on, you don't need to, just put the headlight switch in the middle position, and you'll have running lights and DRL's. You'd still need the fogs to come on independently of course... As far as legality goes: some laws are better than others. DOT lighting laws are thought by some to be of the less good variety. As long as you're being responsible about aiming/dimming/etc., I would expect you to have no issues. I haven't been busted yet... Edit: for that. Andy

A couple of tips from my experience: Use anti-seize compound when putting stuff back together and you should have no problems the next time around. Also, for the top strut nuts, if you don't have a pass-through socket, I just used a socket with vice-grips so the allen key could go through the socket. Worked great for removal, and I had to just eyeball it for torquing on installation. Andy

+1. Mine's in and works great. Now I just have to get something more useful to connect to it... And as far as the battery connection, I wouldn't bother, there's not much risk of doing any harm while working on the stereo. Andy

I think our radios are damn near identical, I've had mine out and it sure looked a lot like the pics I've seen here of the back of the US unit. I'm sure the stereo is NA wide (remember, Canadian market Legacy's are still built in IN). Anyway, tonight might be the night, the race between Claw and I is on... Andy

Ya ya, I'm working on it... (if it was to me that is). I got it about a week after it was shipped, or very slightly less, and there was no duty assessed (no extra charges/tax/whatever, I mean like $0 to pick it up at the post office!). Actually, the problem is I'm not working on it at all, or it would be done by now what with the great instructions, but I will v soon, and I'll let you know in a post here. I don't expect that our radio is any different though, I don't foresee any problems. Andy

Back to the idea of a CD that will keep playing, I was thinking about a low-tech solution: A really big scratch. I think it would just keep skipping, but since I'm not listening to the CD I wouldn't care. Do y'all think that would... - work? - cause any noise when it went back? - cause any long-term harm to the CD player? Andy

The answer was right there, read the last couple of sentences in this paragraph... Andy