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

Like I said, there's lots of different opinions on this issue because there are so many variables. A lot of snow tires out there are more worn than the all seasons they replace. I've seen people swap their near new all seasons for their trusty old worn out snow tires expecting an improvement. As for handling, even if new snow tires do improve stopping, maneuvering and emergency avoidance in the snow, they are inferior to all seasons on dry pavement where most of the driving happens. Another thing to consider is insurance. I can only speak for myself but I've never been offered a discount for having snow tires and I always used to ask. Just doesn't enter into it. Maybe the accidents stats don't support the theory. YMMV.

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.

my co worker has an outback with a Subaru battery and when it was -27F, car barely cranked over...it was so bad that the actual cluster went out as the car cranked.

 

My car a legacy with the same power train started right up without issue but I have an East Penn battery in there... 625CCA at 0F so more than enough to turn a FB25 over at -29F

 

East Pen makes

 

Dekka

Napa Legend

 

so either one is a great choice. I the Napa legend gold this time around.

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.

IMHO, snow tires are an unnecessary expense on this vehicle and I've driven in a lot of snow. I bought snow tires and rims for our older Outback and used them for a few years but never replaced them because they just didn't make any noticeable difference over good all season tires. The vehicle was like a tractor in the snow either way. It didn't even stop any better in the snow with the snow tires. The most important factor from my experience is tread depth, not tire compound. If your tires are worn out you're going to have problems in the snow either way. All that said, do NOT use summer performance tires in the snow and ice. That is a completely different kettle of fish.

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?

The OBXT was terrible in that regard; on A/S tires it was like driving a RWD

Isn't that the fun part?

For example, at low speeds, in the OBXT, WRX or 535, coming around a corner and experiencing understeer, I give it more throttle, the front's hook up and pulls me back on track, while the DSC blinks furiously.

 

I should try it later with the DSC off.

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.

Great write up, I adjusted my parking brake yesterday and it engages at about 4 to 5 clicks now, before was 9 or 10. One small note though, the little "sprocket" or gear that you have to turn with the screw driver has to be turned in the same direction on each side, which could be a little confusing. The one on the right side of the car has to turn "downwards" or left if you are looking at it from the back, and the left side has to turn "upwards" (this is also left)

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.

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

Really? The OP took my idea and capitalized off of it?

 

You could at least give me some ******* credit for stealing my design.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/my-diy-jdm-spec-b-grille-114000.html

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 would also like to note that I replaced my belt not because of mileage, but because of time. Only 65k miles, but it was built in '04 so it was due. I was quite surprised to see that one of the tensioners (the one with the cogs on it) was already sounding like a roller skate wheel and had play in it!

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

I saw on another website there were HIR low beam bulbs as well. Would these be better than the 65w rallye bulbs?

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...

I might just have to get me some HIRs. fatbastard, do they make that much of a difference? Do you know if they have any issues with repeated on/off cycles?

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

For anyone who is wondering, this aux-in mod does indeed work for Canadian LGT's.

 

I put mine in today, the only thing I messed up on was that I pulled the connector on the antenna a little too hard and the wire came out of its connecter. I'll use one of those electrical twisties to rejoin the wires when I get back home...

 

Thanks Jazzy for the wonderful piece of electrical doo-dad!

 

Claw.

+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

Well...good luck, but your chances don't look so good considering the failure with the European radio. I would guess that it probably will not work & if so, will extend the previously mentioned refund if you can get it back to me.

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

This is something I'm also eager to learn. The earliest out-of-country shipment I have on record left the US on Nov 22, so that's only 14 business days to today. I wouldn't expect customs to hold it longer than 2 weeks, but since I've only ever shipped one thing from canada here & it took forever (first class), I'm not so sure.

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

I have a question even after reading through this post. When I get in the car and it is cold out (below 50 degrees) and I set the temp in Auto mode to 70 degrees the heat comes on and stays on for a bit. Then after it warms up in the car the AC comes on. Whats the deal with that? Does the system over heat the cabin then try to cool it?

One thing that seems to bother people is that air conditioning (AC) runs almost all the time in AUTO mode. Well sort of. The AC compressor has a clutch, and it actually cycles on and off as needed (cars have been doing this for years). It cools the air in warm weather, and dehumidifies the air in cool weather (or when defrost is activated). All the while, the AC indicator remains lit. This simply indicates that AC can come on if needed, even though it may not be on full time. In extremely cold weather, the AC indicator will stay off until the engine warms up because it is too cold for the compressor to run. Once the engine warms up or the ambient temperature increases, the AC indicator may come on, again, to indicate that AC can activate if needed.