SchwarzeEwigkt

I’m not planning to rallycross my 3.6R. Between the fact that my driving skill does not match my enthusiasm and that my big ‘ol white Legacy would probably seem like a hippo trying to tap dance out there, we’ve got a complete non-starter! I’m just looking to reduce the jiggly-butt syndrome that seems to be inherent in the stock setup. It sounds like the braces are probably overkill, but they’re not that expensive and couldn’t hurt. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The oil in you spark plug tubes isn’t blowby. It’s leaking around the spark plug tube gaskets. They’re constantly soaked in the oil being pumped into the valve cover to oil the cans and other valve gear. If it was coming from inside the cylinder, you’d have two major problems. First, your spark plugs would be loose enough to allow the gas to come out, which would mean you’d have have compression issues at the very least. Further, you’d hear it when you (tried!) to run the engine. Second, there’d need to be enough oil getting into the cylinder for that to happen, meaning your rings were shot or you were somehow getting a whole bunch of oil in the intake stream or through the valve stem seals. Likely, it wouldn’t run at all and if it did, it’d run really badly with tons of blue smoke out the back. Luckily, that’s not the problem at all! As for catch cans, I can’t remember the exact reason why they’re so much more useful on turbocharged cars than naturally aspirated ones, but suffice it to say there’s more oil vapor in the crankcase gasses of cars with forces induction engines. You certainly *can* put a catch can on an NA engine and it’ll definitely catch some oil that normally would get injected into the intake air stream. A friend of mine put one on the 6.4L HEMI in his Charger. He said he’d empty about a shot glass worth of oil from it every two or three weeks. The engine was pretty new, though, so more blowby would be normal there. Will a catch can reduce the amount of oil that ends up in your intake tract? Probably. Is it worth it? Up to you, but good catch cans cost quite a bit. Personally, I feel like if you’ve got enough oil vapor coming out that you need to go out of your way to separate it out, you’ve got bigger problems than a catch can will solve. Plus, you’ve gotta monitor it; it gets full, you’ll start sucking that oil up there anyway. I figure there’s a reason why you hardly see anything like that on production engines. It’s probably because it’s really not necessary. Closest thing to a catch can I can think of is what BMW does (did?) with their overcomplicated execution of their PCV. Several of their engines have a “crankcase ventilator,” known colloquially as the CCV. It does the same thing as a traditional PCV, but includes a nautilus shaped oil separator thing and some sort of pressure equalizing diaphragm. They’d collect crankcase vapor, condense the oil out, then route it back to the intake tract to burn whatever didn’t condense. The condensate would get routed back to the oil pan via a tube connected to the bottom of the dipstick. It reduces emissions. When it works. In practice, the oil separator would get sludged up in colder climates and clog. That’d cause the diaphragm to tear and put full engine vacuum on the dipstick, which would suck the oil out of the pan and deposit it straight into the intake manifold. You can imagine the smoke show that would make, I’m sure! Often, the dipstick tube — which was double walled, with the interior space for the stick and the annular space reserved for collecting what came out of the oil separator — would clog due to that annular space being kind of narrow, meaning the oil condensate would have nowhere to go but into the intake manifold anyway, so the whole purpose was defeated. If that didn’t happen, the half-mile of hoses and tubes connected to the stupid thing were made out of the very best plastic the Bavarian beancounters were willing to spec, so they’d regularly cause vacuum leaks which would lead to an increasingly lean mixture and eventually a check engine light that’s maddeningly difficult to diagnose correctly. Ask me how I know! That catch can might be more worth it on purely direct injection motors, that is ones with no port injectors. Since you don’t have gas with detergents getting sprayed on the intake ports and valves, any oil that gets up there is liable to stick on there and turn into nasty carbon deposits you’ll have to scrub or walnut-blast out later. My dad has a newer BMW with a DI turbo-four in it that he put a catch can on specifically for that. Apparently, German DI motor’s are famous for coking up and needing a decarbonization every 30k or so. I don’t know if the FA and FB motors with the DI heads also have a port injector for cleaning. There’s hope they do, since Toyota puts a cleaning port injector on their DI motors and Subaru probably cribbed their DI tech from Toyota when they did the partnership that became the BRZ. Er, yeah. I typed a lot there. Rambled, even. TL;DR: It’s definitely not blowby, it’s just your spark plug tube gaskets. Catch cans probably are a waste of money for an NA car. Maybe less so if you’ve got direct injection. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve been eyeballing RSB upgrades myself. My car’s meant to be a comfortable DD; I’ve got a different one got canyon carving. I was probably going to get the 19mm STI bar. What I’m wondering if I really need to get the braces too if I’m going with that bar. I can’t find any info on when they’re actually needed besides “it’s a good idea if you’re running a big bar.” They wouldn’t be a hardship to install if I’m already down there and I’ve got an impact gun handy. I just want to make sure they don’t end up just being so much chassis jewelry. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve been using Gummi Pflege to condition door and window seals since I bought a couple bottles of it years ago when buying some other stuff from Bavarian Autosport. The bottle looks quite a bit like that 303 stuff linked above. The stuff I have is probably my the same stuff with a German label. It always seemed to help with sticky door seals, especially ones prone to freezing to the door frame. I put some on the door seals on my Legacy last month to help with the seals sticking badly enough to confuse people trying to open the doors that don’t get used much. Seemed to help out quite a bit, though it didn’t completely fix it with one application. I plan to apply another coat to the door seals and to the window seals having noticed that they stick if I don’t open them for a few days. I’ll let you know how I do. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Look closely at the whole grid too. My sister once borrowed my old ‘97 Outback Wagon back in the day and crammed the back full of stuff. When she slammed the hatch shut, something scraped against the defogger grid. It didn’t work after that. The whole things a circuit made from resistive paint that heats up when you run a current through it. If it gets scratched, it’s just like when you scratch the traces on a circuit board and sever them. I was able to find the breaks due to them being a slightly lighter color than the rest of the grid, but you can find them with a multimeter too. If you turn the defogger on and set your meter to read voltage, you can measure the voltage between two parts a few inches apart. The voltage should be fairly small. If it’s large, there’s a break someplace in between the probes. They make a conductive paint you can use to bridge any gaps to make the circuit contiguous again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Practically every car I’ve ever had that the spark plugs went through the valve cover needed spark plug tube gasket and valve cover gaskets some time between 75k and 150k. My Ford, my Chryslers, my BMW, my Audi, my Subarus all needed them. I can only think of one that didn’t, which was my ‘05 Forester that got new valve cover and spark plug tube gaskets when the dealer replaced the head gaskets at 80k to fix the inevitable leak. I don’t know that it counts, but it’s not leaking even as it sits dead next to my house while I blow off selling it. It’s a materials science thing, not a Subaru thing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If it isn’t a common failure then why do a recall campaign for it? You don’t replace parts that don’t fail for free for no reason. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I might call them about it if the terms of the warranty aren’t acceptable to me. And it’s true that lots of things are covered by state inspections but not covered by manufacturers, but normally those things aren’t defective and covered under a partial recall campaign. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s not a luxury item when it’s required by your state safety inspection. It is in my state. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, that’s some crap. It’d be nice if NHTSA actually had some teeth and could force a recall or dictate the terms of one. The parts on the automatics are the same. So what if people with auto’s use them less? The parts are still defective. You can bet that an extended warranty will have terms like 10yrs/100k, which means the earlier ones will have already aged out. I’m already at 92k, so I’ll be out before this time next year. Frankly, that amounts to an empty gesture. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve got a new K&N filter meant for an older (2003?) Legacy 2.5GT in the box just lying around. I assume it’ll work in anything with an EJ253 in it. Free to a good home. Assuming you consider “in your airbox” a good home for it. [emoji23] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some people claim that the filter lets larger particles through than paper filters or washable dry media filters. I’ve yet to see any data on that, but it is what they say. Me personally? I’ve had K&N or similar oiled gauze filters on four cars. Two of them seemed to be a little peppier with them and suffered no ill effects for years. One it made no difference at all. The fourth had an aFe cone filter that dripped oil — over the course of more than a decade — onto a hose below the airbox and wrecked it. I replaced it with a newer model aFe dry filter and didn’t look back. I don’t know if it made a performance difference because the car came like that. I didn’t have MAF or intake fouling on any of the cars because I was careful not to over-oil the filters. If you’re not replacing the intake to let more noise out — seems like most intakes do nothing or even reduce performance — you’re better off just using a quality paper filter and replacing it regularly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That’s great news! Frankly, this is why I have a policy of taking apart, lubricating, and reassembling my brakes annually once my cars get over 75k on them. It helps scare off problems like this. I’ve had pins stick too many times causing a brake to get stupid hot and then not long after have the caliper go, presumedly because the heat fried the piston seals. It’s sucks enough where it’s worth the two hours every summer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Are your calipers able to move freely on your slide pins? If they’re binding, that could cause things a pad to jam against the rotor. I’d like to say it’s not common for the pins to get contaminated and corrode all at the same time, but it could happen and is relatively easy to check. Next thing I can think of is whether all of your caliper pistons are moving freely. I’d imagine you would have noticed this, having to retract them when you replaced the pads, but it doesn’t hurt to double check. After that, I suppose there could be something causing the master cylinder piston to bind in the bore, but I’d imagine you’d be having other problems as well. That’s not usually how master cylinders fail. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah. The interface is awful and it’s super grumpy. I mean, it does work more or less. I guess. But it sucks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cool. I was planning on doing a iDatalink Maestro box anyway, which adapts the steering wheel controls among other things. I had read bad things about the Axxess box anyway. You having trouble with it just makes it even more obvious that I should avoid it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey, that’s pretty cool. I went to Best Buy the other day to mess around with these and see which one I like the interfaces on the best. The Panasonics seemed to be the easiest to get around in, with the JVC’s next. Didn’t try the Kenwoods. I was really surprised at how crappy the interface on the Sonys was. It was fast and responsive, but it was terribly designed and looked like crap. I did hear back from Crutchfield about maintaining the USB port and using the factory mic. He said the USB port can be maintained and suggested a harness to do it, but he said people often have connectivity problems with CarPlay when they do that and that it’s be better to connect directly to the head unit. I wonder what’s up with that. He also said using the factory mic in our cars is a no go and you really have to use the provided one. I might just move or remove the factory mic and mount it up there in the panel and route the cable through the trim. I guess at this point I just need to assess exactly what I want, pick stuff out, and start saving my pennies. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmm. I had run across another head unit they paired with the Maestro thingy. I remember seeing that it did all that engine monitoring stuff, which might be nice. Especially if it reads codes and stuff. I’ve got a reader that’s halfway decent, but it’d be nice not to have to dig it out. I’m assuming that there’s an app on the head unit that talks to the Maestro thing to get the ECU data. Is that what that picture is of? Sounds kind of neat, especially when it comes time to diagnostics. I had been looking at one of the Sony head units and was gravitating toward that since the SWC interface unit they paired it with (Axxess?) was *far* cheaper for the whole combo. Might be you get what you pay for here. I’ll definitely want to look into the sub-harness to maintain the USB and aux. I’m kind of done with having cables draping all over the place. Either way, this one has CarPlay, which I’ll definitely use given my proclivity for iThingies. I’ll have to swing by some places that have head units like this and see if they’ve got one I can mess around with. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve been digging around in earnest since yesterday for info on installing an aftermarket head unit. I’ve got a ‘13 3.6R Limited with the non-nav HK stereo. I’m finding that it seriously blows. What is it with Subaru and crap radios? Anyway, I’m not sure the exact model or head unit I have; I’ll have to go look at it later since the car’s out in the parking lot. I’m having some difficulty really nailing info down, but I think I’ve got most of what I need besides a few questions. I’d like to levelset myself to make sure before I go much further down the rabbit hole. I’ve not really found a definitive source of info for this stuff all in one place and some of the info is contradictory. I think. Might be just me... Note: I would like to keep as much of the original equipment the car has now as I can in terms of ports and things. * It looks like I should be able to use most any double DIN radio as long as I get an adapter plate. * Crutchfield seems to be offering all the harnesses and whatnot I’d need to make this work. * The SWC controller they sell at Crutchfield sounds like what I’m going to need to keep the steering whee buttons working. * Most of the stereos I’ve seen have a microphone you’ve got to mount someplace for phone calls. I’d like to use the factory one, but it seems it’s weird. The factory mic in the roof has an amplifier built right into it and if I can’t figure out some way to attenuate it, it’s going to come in super hot and be all blown out once the head unit does it’s own amplification. I was thinking about either building a passive attenuator and putting it between the head unit and the mic to pull the signal down a bunch or even putting a mic of the same type as the head unit expects (I’m assuming some kind of condenser mic) in place of the factory one and reusing some of the wiring for the factory mic. I haven’t yet seen anybody solve this problem satisfactorily, but it doesn’t seem too awful. * I’m fuzzy on how the HK system works. I hear there’s an amp someplace. I know the HK system has a different connector or something. Does the amp power all the speakers and you route line-level signals to it along with an enable line, or is the amp just for the sub? Also, is there just the one subwoofer, the one on the rear parcel shelf? I saw something about there being something maybe under a seat. * I did find ae64.com and read all kinds of useful stuff there, but one of the sections not yet filled in there is the section for my car. Figures I’d be the lucky one. * Crutchfield’s kits don’t seem to include provisions for keeping the factory USB and Aux ports. It looks like ae64.com carries harnesses I could use for that. Does this seem consistent with what people are seeing? Anything you fine folks can add or clarify would be grand.

If it were me, the first thing I’d do is lift up the offending corner, take off the wheel, and look for anything obvious. After that, I’d loosen the upper caliper bolt and remove the bottom one, then swing the caliper up and out of the way. Then, I could spin it and check for binding. That’d work out if it’s something to do with the service brake — some interaction between the rotor and the pads, like the rotor being warped or having a high spot — or something further in. If that didn’t pan out, I’d take the caliper and bracket off and have a look inside. If the hub turns without binding, it’d have to be something with the parking brake. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to know! I want to get one for my car, especially since I’ve noticed that if I’ve got the windows shut, between the engine being as smooth as it is and it being so quiet, I keep thinking it died at stop lights. Look at the tach and it’s still purring away... $500 isn’t in the budget right now. Maybe if I get the silly raise I asked for it work, it will be! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wasn’t that because when you lifted it the cable would be too short and lengthening it somehow would have been a pain? Seems like a fairly practical matter. You’re right that it wasn’t a great idea, but I could see why you’d do it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That would be the oil level light. If the level on the stick was actually correct, there’s something wrong with the sensor. The 2013 service manual seems to indicate that the sensor itself is on the side of the block right above the oil pan. It doesn’t *sound* too hard to replace, but I’ve never done it. You could either just ignore the light and check the oil level regularly (which you probably should do either way!), it you could replace the switch if the light bothers you enough. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AT Legacy here. I set mine when I’m parked on a hill. I did have the Hill Holder or whatever they call that turned on for a little while just so that my parking brake got actuated from time to time to make sure it stayed limber. I’ve since turned that back off because I’m assuming (with little evidence) that they fail more often when they get used. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You’re talking about the low oil pressure light, right? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk