ashwinearl

Car sold locally.  I'd sold the Prodrive OZ wheels separately, and the car sold for $4800.  Well below what my thought was given the rarity, and took much longer than I thought.  

@m sprank predicted this exactly and he definitely has his pulse on what these cars are going for.  I think, had I been in a southern/western location w/o the risk of NE rust, and not had that scrape on the bumper it would have sold sooner for closer to my asking.

I had several pending sales closer to $5500 but for any number of reasons, scheduling, finding different car, etc. they fell through. Selling an old car is tough with lots of flakes, scams.

In the end, buyer is happy, I am happy. Karma is very good They are Subaru people, so excited for it, appreciate it, and revere the rarity and beauty of the Legacy GT 5MT wagon.  

I have a new 2022 WRX Limited in Ice Silver and am on a new journey. It will be interesting to see how long I can go before I void the warranty with an intake, TMIC, and tune.  It's way slower, less responsive, and quieter than my tuned/modded wagon. But I do really like it.  

My Legacy GT taught me to revel in the quirkiness and embrace the flaws, which the 2022 has a few. 

 

It opened a few days ago, so assuming child locks weren't activated. I should have taken the door card off and investigated when I started to feel that this door handle was acting differently than others. 

In normal operation, when you lift the door handle somewhere in the arc you'll feel resistance of it pulling on the cable tension.  With this handle started to have a much longer dead stroke in its arc before feeling the tension on the cable.  The point that it was almost to the last of its movement and just the final few mm seemed to get the door to unlatch and open.  

05 LGT wagon, driver side rear door latch not working from inside or out.

I started to feel it going over period of a week, where it required pulling up on the exterior door handle way farther than typical and with less resistance in the door handle. But it was opening.

After this latest cold snap, it won't open. I tried from the inside too and not opening.

Any recommendations?  I haven't tried really pushing hard from the inside yet. Waiting to warm up maybe the weather stripping is still stuck to the door. I hope

57 minutes ago, Max Capacity said:

I heard from the new owner of my wagon today, He's local and will take good care of it. He knows Subaru's. It went to a good home.

Wow, you sold it?  How did you come to your decision?  I've been thinking of selling mine. I have more I want to do with it, but am not into doing anything myself on it.  Been thinking of new wrx just in terms of something that can be fun and kept stock.  

@Max Capacity you mentioned liking the stock midpipe with an aftermarket exhaust?  I saw another post of yours in an Outback forum where you said throttle response seemed better with stock midpipe. 

I am the original post and have the Xforce on my wagon. I feel like throttle response got worse after putting this exhaust on. I'd like to go back to stock sized midpipe and do a comparison.  It's hard to get anyone to consider working on the exhaust now in NY though. 

8 hours ago, Max Capacity said:

I have learned the stock midpipe, works well on the wagons. I think a new one from Summit Racing is like $300. (saw that in another thread a few weeks back).

My local muffler shop installed some Magnaflow knocks off mufflers back in 2013. Those are still on my wagon. The DynaMax tips from that year are still in great shape. I bought them from a local  "Speed Shop" after talking to the guy working there, who had them on is truck for years.

I'm thinking for wagons that is the way to go, zero drone, quiet on the highway, nice low rumble of the boxer, not too loud under WOT, but you can hear it.

The over all cost was less than or equal to the Q300 exhaust on my Spec B. Which is getting too loud for my liking after say 30-40,000 miles.

Yet those knock off mufflers and tips have held up great over the years. The DynaMax tips weren't cheap, you get what you pay for.

 

My wagon's set up is the Invidia Dp, OEM midpipe/Y pipe from the 09 Spec B, knock off mufflers and DynaMax tips. Next time I would buy shorter tips, mine are 12" but that was fine for the custom Y pipe made for the OEM midpipe on the wagon back in 2013. Had the 09's mid installed when the 05' midpipe rusted out at that Y adaptor to the OEM pipe, say back in 2019. I do still have that midpipe out behind the shed. Along with a midpipe/Y pipe from a Pro Lab Tuning exhaust that was too loud.

 

First pic, Aug 15 2013

Second pic, Sept 12 2019

In your setup is there a resonator too?  

Extending the tips did help reduce the drone in the cabin during highway driving.  What I don't know is how much they need to be extended to get benefit. Mine are a little too far out at the moment from a looks perspective

Deceleration in town, engine braking events on hills,  and back road driving where you are in 3rd, 4th with variable throttle, decel, engine braking still has this bass booming resonance.

I do have Group N engine and transmission mounts. I had more growly, angry NVH vibration compared to the old mushy stock ones. So there are other sources of noise from engine braking, deceleration. 

Hi all,

I just had an X-Force Catback Exhaust installed on my 2005 LGT Wagon (Cobb catted downpipe, Grimspeed catless up pipe) and just wanted to catalog the experience in terms of general sound, drone, messing around with extending the tips, etc... I don't have any sound clips, because when I tried on my phone I didn't think the clips sounded anything like it does in real life.  Which brings home the point I'd seen in some thread somewhere about not trusting you tube sound clips but only your own ears on someone else's install.  And consider that a wagon is way different than a sedan in terms of drone.

My current feeling is that a wagon is basically one big subwoofer enclosure.  An afermarket catback with Subie rumble will have low frequencies which will resonate (drone) in the wagon. I'll share some experience that extending the tips does help reduce the in cabin drone a little, but it is still there.

This discussion is organized as follows: reasons for purchasing, cost, delivery, install (nothing to see here paid my shop to do it), intial impression on sound, drone a city speed, highway speed, louder drone/resonance at deceleration / engine braking, then messing around with tips, issues with tips.

TLDR: low, rumbly sound, bass flutter, louder than stock for sure, quieter than most in your face exhausts, fitment is for sedan, stock tips sit inside bumpers of wagon, highway drone in wagon with stock tips excruciating, loud booming bass sound on decel and engine braking.  Stock tips are removable, Dimensions of exit pipe are non-standard 2 7/8" OD. Standard 3" tips slide over with lots of play, didn't use correct pipe clamp on one set, using another type of clamping on another. Extending tips beyond bumper help some alleviate drone but not totally. Current tips are too far out though. Like the sound more and more, but haven't tried any drive longer than 40mins yet. Want to explore addition of off-the-shelf resonators, or custom designed helmholtz resonator. Or may go back to a stock one or consider complete build from scratch.

1) reasons for purchase

Stock exhaust has been on and car has been in Upstate NY for last 8 years. A few months ago, I had a hole in the Y-pipe that I had fixed. Next month a hole crops up in at the muffler.  I've always wanted some adult-mature subtle Subie rumble so jumped at my chance to justify needing a new system.  My inspection was due end of July so needed to move on something quickly.  

In hindsight, I think I would have opted for a slower approach of talking with reputable custom exhaust shop or Subie performance specific shop to hand pick components, resonantors, and design it for my goals and wagon fitment.  

Anyway, X-force had come up a high sound quality to value. Of the sound clips I listened to of Legacy GT exhausts, I did like this one. 

It was also readily available which is a plus in these days of limited supply.  Borla was another but significantly more expensive. Both are Sedan fitment, but have heard of several with wagons using them.  X-force has removable tips, the Borla looks like they are fixed.

I got mine from Summit Racing: XForce ES-SL05-CBS - XForce Exhaust Systems. I paid $572 on sale. It looks like price has gone up to $675.  Delivery in under 3-4 days I think.

2) Install.  I took it to my shop with mechanic that works on turbo Subarus a lot. I think he knocked it out in an hour.  I did not get a chance to ask if there were any issues.  I did also get a Grimmspeed 077046 Downpipe Adapter, but they left it in the box on my car seat. So not sure how they got it installed.  As I thought the Cobb Downpipe was sized to mate with the stock piping which is smaller than this X-Force. Still need to followup with mechanic on that.

This is designed for sedan fitment. So with the stock tips, the exit was well short of the wagon bumper edge.  Many reviews say the driver side vs passenger side are assymetric in terms of where the mufflers end up, height wise and how far inward/outward they fall. I believe that is the case with mine too.

3) Initial impression: It sound louder than I wanted/had expected. The dreaded drone was there at anywhere from 2500-3500 RPM. Decel, engine braking was really bad booming in the car. But I did like the general rumbly sound of it.  If I didn't address the drone I don't think I'd be able to live with it. Wife didn't like it, but 99% of the time it is just me in the car. She doesn't love the car given all I've done to it, throwing money into it. Doesn't understand.

4) Getting longer tips:

There is a lot of discussion with wagons, hatchbacks about the increased drone. I believe it to be very true that the entire cabin is one big subwoofer enclosure.  The speculation is that when the exhaust exit is shy of the bumper it is worse. The question is can extending the tips beyond the bumper edge can alleviate some of the drone.  I believe this to be true from my experience. It does not take it all away but it does improve it some.

Next step was looking for some tips. As typical, I don't totally know what I'm doing. In measuring the X-force exhaust pipe, The OD of the pipe and the ID of the stock tips were under what I'd thought was a standard 3". They were 2 7/8.  It seems most piping / tips are sized at 3", 2.75". 2.5".  There was only like one odd alibaba sight where I saw a 2 7/8 to 3" adapter.

Anway, I first tried some LCGP 3 Inch Inlet Exhaust tip 4" Inch Outlet 12" from Amazon. These had no inner resonance screens in them so allowed for more adjustment on the exit pipe then others. They have slots on the ends, like the stock tips, and are intended to be clamped on with side hose clamp.  Naturally they did not slide on with snug fit like the stock tips. I think I made the mistake of using the stock clamps and they stopped tightening shy of snugging the LGCP tip onto the exit pipe.  In hindsight, had I used the clamps that came with the LCGP they might have tightened on there. But I'm not sure. this is not thin material.

I had some emails back and forth with X-Force on the sizing. They had intially said 2.75", but then I shared my pictures with the caliper measurements. Then they confirmed I was correct and said the sized them like that to be able to take 3" tips. That didn't make that much sense  to me but what do I know.

In frustration, I sent those first tips back and tried to look for 2 7/8 sized tips.  There was one on Amazon where the picture showed a dimension of 2.88 inches. And it came in 11 inch length: Apeixoto Resonated Muffler Exhaust Tip 2.88 Inches Inlet 4 Inches outlet 11 Inch.

Ordered those and of course three new issues. One, they are not 2.88, they are traditional 3". And two, they are not slotted for hose clamps. They use little prongs that are snugged down with a bolt. Reading the description closer after the fact, they are intended to go onto much smaller sized exhaust exit pipes.

They initally did not work on the small amount of gap between this tip ID and the x force exit pipe OD.  I ground clips down some on a belt grinder and got it to snug down.  Third issue, is these have this screening inside the pipe. This limits how far onto the exit pipe they can go. So they stick out more than I wanted.  And one side sticks out more than the other.

So I think they look funny, and though they accomplished the goal of being beyond the bumper it is too far.  I burned my shin on one this morning taking my bike out of the back.  

These tips do help mitigate the drone inside the car some. It is still there on the highway, but not as bad.  Part of it might be me getting used to it. The booming sound is still there on decel and engine braking. 

The overall rumble sound is great though and it does bring smile to my face. I think it sounds loud to me, but no one has paid any attention to it from what I can tell. 

5) Conclusions

In hindsight, I would have thought through this more and had one designed for my desires and wagon fitment. With close attention paid to mitigating drone in a wagon. Or I would have just kept fixing the stock one or look for good condition stock one.  

I say that, but then I do smile every time I accelerate.  Ideally, I can work with a custom shop to add some more specific resonators to address the drone, and extend the exit piping to a length where the stock tips would just exist past the bumper. 

I may try another set of tips w/o the resonator material but with these prong type clamps. That way I can try different distances beyond the bumper edge to see what is the minimum it needs to be to reduce some of the drone.

I may post a clip from my phone anyway just for reference.

 

 

Here is a picture of the X-force exhaust tip and where the end currently sits at my bumber.  I am not sure yet how much I have to work with on the exit of the muffler to move the stock tips out.  

I recall Max Capcity talking about after market tips that are longer, or there are these slip on tips from Amazon. That will be my first step is moving the tips out past the bumber. Next step will be vibrant resonator install, or custom fabricated 1/4 wave resonator.

As always with this car, all the warnings were there in the forums/posts about drone with afermarket CBE, but just have to experience it yourself and work through it. 

 

I just had my shop install an X-Force catback on my 2005 Legacy Wagon (Cobb catted downpipe) yesterday. Drove it first time today. I have little experience with anything other my stock, sitting in a friends loud ass WRX, and hearing other people's exhaust. Which got me here in the first place, that I wanted a Subie rumble from my exhaust

Starting it with the window down, it is definitely louder than stock.  I do like the deep, low tone, rumbly.  For the price, the sound is very nice and seems along the Borla sound and not as raspy as others.    

Based on my understanding, I would say it does drone.  Driving around town in the 2800-3300 RPM it does vibrate the air in the cabin. Highway the sound is definitely there. I got what I wished for in the that Subaru sound. But I got what I wished for and am feeling the sound waves.

I'll take some pictures of the exhaust tips as they currently sit which are closer to where the stock tips were, inside of the bumper edge.  It looks like the tips are separate and can be extended. 

4 hours ago, Enlight said:

I moved away from the shield because mine broke as well. The blanket has a better ability to contain the heat in the turbo and away from the rest of your engine bay.

any recommendations on brand of blanket?

I had a Cobb metal heat shield.  It was always coming loose, rattling, and finally broke at the a bracket very similar to this post.  Currently, I have nothing on there. It is a 2005 LGT Wagon and does have aftermarket Grimspeed TMIC.

What is the general consensus on what to use, or not use these days?

On 6/30/2022 at 3:06 AM, Shuffleboy said:

Hi all. Have searched multiple threads, and would like to have my own for this issue.

 

I'm based in New Zealand. Car is 2006 Legacy Sedan. EJ203. 4eat Auto. 172000 KMs done. Jap import. Car is in overall very tidy shape and appear to have been maintained well in Japan before my 4.5 years of ownership.

 

Over the last 6 months or so,there's been a clunking noise from the front left wheel area, notably when taking off doing a reasonably tight right hand turn. Last weekend when pulling out of a mall carpark on very smooth, squeaky seal, it really started to judder and grind, it's difficult to explain the sound and feel. This was a very slow turn.

 

I have a similar issue where I get a klunk/shudder on sharp turns slow speed, on rough pavement. I've never been able to figure out.  I've collected links to threads similar issues.  Maybe they can be of help or provide some insight:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/alarming-steering-clunk-rattle-218456.html?t=218456&highlight=steering+rack+rattle

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/popping-noise-while-cornering-65851.html?t=65851&highlight=steering+rack+klunk

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/knocking-front-suspension-106252.html?p=5458202#post5458202

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/anyone-had-front-end-clunkingi-189348.html

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/109-gen-3-2005-2009/36908-new-possible-fix-clunky-suspension-steering-box-problem.html

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/25382-steering-rack-clunk-begone-fix-inside-2.html

Just chiming in regardin the battery going dead all of a sudden. Mine did something similar recently. I drove it Thursday, from the shop no less getting tires put on. Didn't drive again until Sunday morning. Turned the key, a few lights then nothing.  It was at under 4V in the car, when I took it out it was at 6V. Rather then try to charge it, I went new battery as this was over 3 years old.

It too has been much hotter than normal. And have heard/read that high heat can just take a battery over the edge.  

Also one of your pictures shows the blue T of death. I think someone else recommended the Company 23 barbed T. I highly recommend it. 

I've also seen smoke machine prices have come down a lot. There are some on Amazon in the hundred range that look like they'd be a lot of help for you tracking down gremlins. This one  and this one are ones I was looking at.

 

11 hours ago, KZJonny said:

I believe that is the one you'd need. I had to go the other way from my 3" DP to the 2.5" fitting on my catback, which wants a doughnut gasket.

Why not trim the taper so you have a true 3" pipe the whole way? Concerns about overboost?

I'll ask the shop's opinion on that. I was just thinking for fitment issues especially with this being a wagon, that it wouldn't be good to shorten it anywhere. But I don't know how easy/hard that is. Might be a non-issue for them.

11 hours ago, Tehnation said:

depends on which cobb downpipe, old version tapers to 2.5 oem style, while the new dp's are full 3". 

It is fairly old,4 -5 years. Cobb catted DP for the 5 speed.  When I was looking the other day, I only saw Cobb catted for Automatics available.

Hi,

I'm exploring new cat back exhaust to mate with existing Cobb Catted downpipe.  My understanding is the Cobb DP is 3" but tapers down to 2.5" for easier interface with stock exhaust, which is how I currenty have it.

Is this Grimmspeed Adapter the one to get for mating the Cobb Downpipe to an aftermarket 3" catback exhaust?

 

1 hour ago, Max Capacity said:

I seem to recall someone a few months back asking about this too... I think it was in this forum.

Thanks, here is an earlier thread

Has anyone used or heard the XForce Catback exhaust?  It looks like the tips are extendable so can work on a wagon.  From what I read, see on youtube, the sound is on the low/quiet side which is what I am looking for. Cheap elements look to be peeling chrome.

This is for 2005 Legacy GT Wagon 5sp with a Cobb Downpip, Grimspeed up-pipe.  My stock exhaust has had several repair patch welds over the years, and just had a muffler rust out a hole.  So it is time.

My goal for exhaust has always been low, quiet Subie rumble.

Thanks.

Hi all

2005 Legacy GT Wagon, 5spd.

 

My Cobb turbo heatshield had broken at a bracket, so I took it off. This involved having to remove my grimspeed TMIC.

 

I didn't fully remove it just undid enough bolts hoses on the passenger side, to rotate it out of the way. The big hose from the bottom into the engine was not disconnected.

 

Anyway, two days later get a P0456 error code

Evaporative Emissions Systems Leak Detected (very small leak).

 

I am thinking I messed up hoses from the BPV to the fuel pressure regulator entity of the Legacy GT. Maybe this is a good time to make the switch to a simpler STI FPR.

 

I will check the gas cap too but this seems too much of coincidence after removing the TMIC and possibly tweaking some hose on that side of the engine.

 

Anyway, any suggestions are always appreciated. So typical with me and this car. I was so proud of myself for removing the broken heat shield by myself only to get some humble pie from the LGT.

if replacing a stock one, and planning on full recirculation, is a tune necessary?

I'm sure it's always recommended, but in case of replacement of OEM with same functionality is it required.

 

The one issue with the Synapse I was concerned about is fitment with an aftermarket Grimspeed Intercooler.

 

I like the engineering and fun noise of the Synapse.

 

What are people using with a Grimspeed Intercooler?

Cleaning MAF helped a lot. Thanks for the reminder. I should have known. I have not been keeping up on basic diligence like cleaning the MAF.

hi all,

 

2005 Legacy GT wagon with some mods and etune. It has always had some behavior where after reving, rpms fall pretty fast and go below typical idle then hunt back up.

 

Lately, this has been worse and almost seems to stall. This is similar to right after you reset the ECU and don't warm it up or drive it hard.

 

I recall somewhere someone saying this type of behavior might indicate a leak or faulty BPV?

 

regardless I think I am going to have someone do a smoke test for any leaks.

any insight would be helpful.

 

Thanks.

Thanks guys. This is an interesting idea that I hadn't come across yet in the wagon exhaust threads I've looked at.

 

I'm going to look into mid pipes / resonated mid pipes.

 

thanks again