bubbagump

Daughter came home this week from school. She said the radio and heating/ac display was flashing on and off. Here is a short video of the issue right after starting the car. Is it time for a new radio/HVAC unit?

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/D3DRxtsP5iGm8czu8

 

 

 

 

 

Mine is doing the flashing thing too sporadically! I hope replacement isn't the only solution.

Received my 2015-2018 STI rack. Looks so purdy. Now I have to just be patient for all my new power steering lines to come in.

 

Also installed my GS TMIC a couple days ago. To anyone with a keen eye - I have already rectified the BPV hose issue. Sort of, I figured out how I should do it but the OEM plastic hose got pretty mangled while forcing it under the GS hose. It should hold

 

I guess now that I've got the TMIC of my dreams, it is time to start thinking VF52....mwuahaha.

I'm unfamiliar with iPhone specific images, but even from my android I have to move photos to PC first to reduce resolution before uploading.

 

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It's a solid noise for sure, not fluttering. I can feel it in the gas pedal when it does happen though. I was under the car today and nothing sticks out, for the amount it makes noise I figured for sure I would see something worn.

 

 

 

The car does have 186k on it so it wouldn't surprise me if the rack was worn out. Where did you get yours from?

From my understanding racks don't usually fail the way mine did. I would definitely investigate before buying another. With mine I could feel it by grabbing tie rod and yanking it around. I am rather doubtful that's exactly what yours is, would hate for you to buy something just because I brought it up.

 

But what could it be. Sway bar links have been eliminated. Hmmm. Clunks straight line, turning. Any other clues? Only over bumps? From one side or the other? Have you gotten under there with a pry bar yet seeing if you can get anything to move? Being that you just did struts and stuff I'm wondering if not related to that.

 

But, to answer your question - I ended up buying a brand new STI rack from newenglandsubaru or something like that. Definitely not most cost effective option. Car-part.com is a great place for used parts.

 

Pardon my rambling.

 

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Yup still clunks. I feel it has to be a bushing somewhere as it almost does it when I'm on and off the gas. I'll do all new control arm bushings and see what happens.

 

Is it a fluttering clunk, or more of a solid clunk? I recently had a fluttering type of clunk when I hit road roughness on the passenger front wheel. I traced it to my steering rack. I did not feel it in my steering wheel at all but when I took my rack out, the passenger side rod definitely had some radially play in it while the other side didn't. Granted - I think I damaged my rack doing other work, so this type of thing might be uncommon among people who don't use an impact wrench to take their inner tie rod off .

"and expensive"

 

 

 

Those pods aint cheap, lol would be cheaper just to get a custom A-Pillar cluster with all the gauge pods you want.

 

True. I have never been a fan of the pillar mounted pods though. Too obvious. The 3d printed cubby pods I've seen are ok...but not nearly as clean looking as those STI branded ones. I have started looking into piecing something similar together with parts from Defi (manf of the STI pod) or buying JDM kit and modifying. I won't go down that route until next summer though, hopefully my patience will pay off and I'll come across what I am looking for here.

Just came across Marty420's post showing his awesome STI gauge pod. I want one. If anyone has the kit I would be happy to purchase. I never knew I needed something like that so much, but I do. After some googling I have come to learn how hard these are to come across, so I fully expect this thread to sit here for quite a while.

 

Thanks!

I have never gotten a real sniffer test done, but from what I understand the uppipe cat does so little that it is fine without. The later years didn't have one in the first place. I know you can run around without a cat in uppipe and ECU is happy, as long as EGR resistor mod is done.

 

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You can get Accesstuner after paying $150 to take the certification course.

 

https://www.cobbtuning.com/products/software/subaru-accesstuner

Yep, also an option I'm considering now in light of boxkita's response.

 

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accesstuner race is v2 only. if you come across a version, Id be interested.

ap v3 requires a dyno, a shop, and verified training .

 

romraider

Mannn, didn't realize ATR was v2 only. My hopes are dashed. Thanks for reply though, saved me a bunch of time! Maybe rom raider might be worth a look. Do you know off hand, can I use it to make a slight modification to an OTS Cobb map? Or once I'm on a COBB map will rom raider not be able to dump and reload my ECU?

 

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Will be doing this swap! Hopefully this weekend if everything arrives in time.

 

I discovered this morning that my responsibilimobile (2017 Impreza Sport 5spd) has a 13:1 rack - that was the tipping point. No way in heck can my boring car have quicker steering than my fun car!

Does anyone have an installer for AccessTuner Race they would be willing to share with me? PM me if so. V3 AP; 2005 LGT.

 

Thanks!

I have a 15+ STI rack in need of a seal that I picked up off of NASIOC because it was a screaming deal, if ya feel like giving Jaylew's instructions a shot.

 

That would be awesome, I'll have to find the instructions. I am really trying to resist buying a new 15+ STI rack for $600. Money has been leaving pocket far too quickly on this car recently.

 

EDIT : After reading through Jaylew's instructions I am not sure I want to dive into this right now. The seal that needs replacing, is it in the rack section or the control valve? Control valve looks less involved to rebuild. I might end up doing whatever I need to replace entire rack now and rebuild my current one later in the summer just as a learning project. For now though it would be awesome if I could get this back together within a week.

# 1 - Not really directly car related but cleaned garage and populated tool box my fiance got me for my birthday yesterday. Made #2 below more enjoyable.

 

# 2 - Removed steering rack. Constant fluttering clunky noise, sounded a lot like a really bad sway bar linkage. Also popped under extreme steering angle while driving around parking lot. After removal have verified that the passenger side rod rocks back and forth radially in the gland while driver's side is movement free. I may have done this to myself, I am pretty sure I did. I was half expecting something to be wrong when I accidentally laid into the inner tie rod with an impact wrench. Lesson learned - stop working on car at midnight. Bad decisions are made when beat.

 

Anyhow, guess I should do STI swap at this point? It's cheaper for the rack new OEM vs. new OEM and I am not sure I trust rockauto reman for this. I have read stories about people getting wrong PN, like the slower rack meant for OBXT.

Got the GM IAT sensor wired in, collecting some data before getting into speed density. Wagon got smacked by a chunk of semi tire on the freeway, hood is dented and creased, paid for a scoopless hood because of it. Need to trade someone the AVO for a quieter catback, think I'm implementing a return to subtlety.

 

Oh man that stinks about the tire chunk! I guess it's 1000x better than through the windshield, but still. Glad it wasn't the latter.

Looks like I may have damaged mine when taking off inner tie rods. When doing one of the sides my impact wrench slipped into the tighten mode without me realizing. Should have just done with ratchet, I know...but impact was right next to me.

 

Now it seems like rack and pinion slips teeth, I hear and feel a pretty loud click when steering near lock.

 

Anyone have one that is in decent enough condition?

 

EDIT : Closed - Ended up biting the bullet on the 2015 STI swap. When I discovered this morning that my responsibilimobile (2017 Impreza Sport) has a 13:1 rack that was the tipping point. No way in heck can my boring car have quicker steering than my fun car!

Just bumping this thread hoping to find a SpecB owner who is willing to take a pic of their strut tower for me. The gap in mine has been nagging me. I have looked at a bunch of engine shots from SpecB's and it kind of looks like the gap is not there. But, none of the pictures really show it very well so who knows.

 

Or maybe someone already knows right off the top of their head... are SpecB strut tower holes a little different than regular LGT's?

Got my car back outside and drivable after:

 

- all new front suspension bushings, tie rods, etc.

- Aluminum LCA up front

- New knuckles, rotors, calipers up front

- JDM Bilsteins front & rear

- Put on my Madrig CF hood scoop

- Put on "new" front grille. Old one was atrocious.

- Polished headlights.

 

Of course, not all in one day but today is the day I post!

PM'd for the TMIC

^^Small biff, the spill considering you went to town on the suspension. Springs?

 

Yea, I guess that's true. More could have gone wrong. And nope, no springs! I bought struts/shocks already assembled. Keeping fingers crossed rears came from a Sedan, not Wagon. Or maybe it doesn't make a huge difference?

 

EDIT : Just remembered I did mess up worse than a jar of spilled brake fluid, potentially. When I went to take off one of the inner tie rods my impact wrench slipped into lightest tighten setting. I stayed on it a few seconds, easy. I thought it was weird because other side came off so easy. That's at which point I noticed I was tightening not loosening. Hopefully I did not f*ck up the internals of the rack. It seems fine with no load on wheels and motor off. We'll see how it is once I hit the road..... man I hope it's ok.

now you can add part numbers and torque specs for each bolt

 

luv paint.net

 

hahah yea I could, just about. Suppose it wouldn't be too much to add a couple more arrows and text boxes. Them vacation pics proving very useful as of late.

Preface : Yes, I went overboard with the pink arrows. I thought they would be helpful but before I knew it they were everywhere. Being I do my best work in paint.net, I could not go back and delete ones I didn't want.

 

 

Got pretty far on front suspension refresh. Both sides are in the same state. Brakes tomorrow and I should be good to go! Well, that and one heck of an alignment.

 

Did I also try really hard to drain the brake lines into a jar and managed not to spill a drop? Yep!! Did I then spill most of the jar onto the floor? Yea, maybe. Is it going to ruin my already shitty floor paint and possibly my compressor hose? Definitely and hopefully not.

 

New:

Knuckles

Inner and Outer tie rods

Ball joint

Sway bar bushing and linkages

Front and rear LCA bushings (pressed in by local mechanic, job proved too much for my friend's #2 press)

 

New to me:

Aluminum LCA's

Bilstein's (JDM GT Rev.B according to this post OEM Bilstein explainer

JDM tophats are the same as SpecB tophats.

 

My struts have an identical gap.

 

Innnnteresting. Thanks for reply! I'm assuming you've had it like that for a while and no issues? This is good news, I was really hoping to have things buttoned back up again soon!

 

I wonder.... do SpecB's have slightly different strut towers or is the gap there even on true USDM SpecB's? Any of you fortunate SpecB owners care to have a look?

 

Thanks!

I bought a complete set of JDM bilstein's some years back and am just now getting around to installing.

 

They are the ones below:

20310AG140 (front right), 20310AG150 (front left), 20365AG120 (rear)

as described in https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/faq-jdm-oem-suspension-61108.html

 

I thought I was all set as the front struts I have came with top hats. However, something does not seem quite right. The boss in the top hat seems smaller than the hole in the strut tower. Sooooo, I need USDM Spec B hats? I am confused as I read that JDM Bilsteins need JDM tophats?

 

I am a little disappointed, I have assembled struts before but it is not something I was hoping to do again. If anyone has been through this I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks ahead of time.

I wouldn't think so, always in line for something!

 

Well, in that case put me in line for the GS TMIC if you decide to sell once you find a FMIC.

 

Thanks!