coco26

Thanks for that link, I remembered seeing that thread a long time ago but forgot about it. I can definitely believe it was just poor work, after reading that thread I'm not sure how they managed to get it so positive. I was the second to last car before they closed, so they very well could've just measured it and called it good. I got the 1 year deal just for this reason - I can go back every day until its good for free... So I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning to get a fresh, non-busy, technician.

I thought it would be louder after breaking in, but it actually has quieted down a bit. Got an alignment yesterday. I noticed the tires were getting pretty warm so I was expecting everything to be pretty off after the inch or so its lowered right now. Almost everything is now within spec (no idea about beginning numbers) including rear camber, which I was surprised about (Stock max is 1.7, I'm at 1.5). The only thing out of spec is left front camber. Stock range is -0.8 to +0.3. The right side is good at -0.4, but the left is "maxed out" at +0.3. Any ideas why this could be so different between sides? Any info about camber bolts is appreciated before I start shopping for those. On a side note, I've always had loud tire noise, that sounds like I'm driving on big knobby tires. It's been consistently present across three sets of tires, so I know its not that. After the car was lowered, but before the alignment, it quieted down a lot. Now that its aligned, its back again. Could this be because of that front camber?

Best way to clean is just hose it down in MAF cleaner? I was thinking about resonators, I'll have to see where it can fit that large of a diameter. So far I'm ok with it.

New year meant it was time for a makeover. It was a busy month, I did many things: Bayson R V-limited Front Lip I struggled to get it installed by myself. Granted it was about 50 degrees, but the fitment was good, not great, in my opinion. How much that would have changed with heat, I'm not sure. Overall, still satisfied. TapTurn Flasher Love it. I treated myself to the strobe pack, and it satisfies my inner child. I struggled to get the stock unit unclipped, and ended up just zip tying the new one to the harness that goes by there as mounting. Eagle Eyes Headlights with VLED bulbs These were a fun project. Initially I was bothered because every advertisement said the high beams were 9005 (H11) bulbs, but these housings had H1's instead. Exchanged bulbs and all was well. Low beams went in fine, High beams stuck out the back big time. Long story short, I made custom dust caps to fit the bulbs out of some plastic cups. They work great. Next, I wanted to use the U-bars as DRLs, and add them to the TapTurn's arrival/departure lighting feature. Through the use of some relays, I was able to get what I wanted: Ubars come on with arrival/departure lighting, and are on when driving as DRLs. They maintain their parking light functionality as well. Relay #1 is triggered by any source switched by the key, and supplies 12v to the Ubars for use as DRLs when the car is on. When the car is not on, it passes the 12v to Relay #2. Relay #2 is triggered by Relay #1 (when the car is off). It passes voltage from the turn signal to Relay #3. Relay #3 is triggered by Relay # (when the car is off, and the turn signals are on). It passes 12v to the Ubars for use with the arrival/departure lighting (TapTurn turns both turn signals on for a set amount of time for this) The stock DRL resistor provided a perfect mounting spot for the relays. I had to add diodes to each headlight harness on the Ubar wire so that the car didn't think the parking lights were on all the time. Front Bumper Not really a mod, but I was happy to replace my bumper that was badly beaten up by rock chips. It made a noticeable difference in appearance, even from a distance. Tein Coilovers My intention for these was to get off of the stock struts asap, and use them to pick a height I liked, so I knew what springs to shop for when I could afford koni's. I added a 1" lift kit because I wanted to be able to maintain the stock ride height for winter use. They are the cheapest coilovers on the market....and so far I really like them. The ride isn't hard. On a scale of 1-10, with stock at 5 and 10 being solid struts, I'd give these a 5.5 on hardness. They completely eliminate the "boing" you get going over bumps stock, which was my goal. Magnaflow Catback It's going to take some getting used to. Its much louder than I was expecting, both inside and out. Cold starts are a little rough on the ears. At normal idle, its silent. Up to 2250rpm its a bit drone-y. After that, its mostly quiet inside, and I presume its still just as loud outside. Its a very smooth sound compared to most Subie exhausts. I'll just have to adjust my cruising rpm up to that 2250 mark, and I think I'll like it. Biggest downside so far is that the y pipe is now the lowest point on the car. I still have decent ride height, and its rubbed a few speed bumps already. That will be annoying. Rear LEDs and Quad Brake Light I swapped all the bulbs back there to LEDs, and did the quad brake light mod. I used amazon-grade bulbs to save some money because they're easy enough to change of they break. In the first week, I only had one instance of dash lights coming on. That was after driving 10+ minutes with my parking lights on. Since then, I've tried every combination of parking lights and headlights, and haven't been able to get the dash lights to turn on again. I got resistors just in case, but I'm not going to install them unless I need to. Reverse/Rear Turn Signal Tint From "Premium Auto Styling". I like the look, but its not as "wow" of a change as other things. I wasn't very impressed with the fitment, as they were slightly too tall, and way too wide. The height was whatever, because it just covered the seam between the clear and red plastics. I started at the outside and worked toward the trunk, and ended up cutting about 3/8" of material off to make the end flush with the housing at the trunk. My cuts weren't the prettiest. AEM Dry-Flow Air Filter I had a gift card and was enabled into swapping my K&N filter for one of these.

Well I didn't do it, but got my coils and exhaust installed. The magnaflow catback is much louder than I expected, and the coils feel surprisingly good for how cheap they were. That completes my New Year makeover, so I'll add a write up for everything I did in my build thread soon.

Owners can cry Lemon Law for just about anything and get their car bought back. Being that its gone 110k, I doubt it was anything major, and it was almost definitely fixed to go that far.

Feeling discouraged after failed coil/exhaust install. Turns out you can't do much with one socket set while working out of a storage unit. Also: socket sets don't have "rust" sized sockets. Taking it to AWDTuning next week to let them use the proper tools. They'll have two black GT's for a day if islandborn's is still there...

I just had a new front bumper painted at a place the Subaru dealer recommended. I knew it was high end, but I figured it was worth it to have it done right. I come to pick it up, guy asks if I want to see it before they wrap it up. He takes me back to one of the garage areas..... P1 and 720S sitting next to each other, in a matching aqua metallic color. My Subaru bumper was honored to be painted in the same shop.

Been accumulating bits and pieces for a few weeks now. All will get installed over the next few weekends, hopefully: Cheap Anzo Headlights - with DRL mods and led headlight bulbs. Tein Coilovers - not expecting much, just using as a temporary solution until I can afford konis and as a way to gauge which height I like. New front bumper with v-limited lip - Cracked the original bumper, that was already in line to get repainted because of rock chips. Led bulbs - converting all exterior bulbs to led, including tapturn flasher. Magnaflow catback - Have plenty of go, just need more show...

I'm officially in Frisco! For the next 8 months at least... Before the roadtrip down here:

So not necessarily good news, but relieving nonetheless: apparently my initial inspection wasn't very thorough. I went to the car wash, and was able to stick my head under the corner. The corner piece that was folded under definitely broke some clips I'll need to replace to constrain it. I worked my way back and saw the bottom of the wheel well liner was loose. Turns out it split, down the middle, all the way up to where the airbox is. It came out from behind the edge of the bumper where its usually tucked behind, and was flapping against the tire. Not sure how any of that happened, but I tucked it back behind the bumper and driving is back to being floaty as a cloud. Glad its nothing metal, just another $50 worth of plastic. Edit: Not even $50. Got it from rockAuto for $13.

So I made the mistake of assuming how a new (to me) car and tires would handle in the snow while messing around. Turns out its the polar opposite of my previous car, and I took out a reflector. Not the plastic stick kind, the metal sign post kind. It cracked the front bumper, which isn't the end of the world because I was planning on having it repainted at some point anyway. The snow also folded the plastic cover in front on the tire back so that it was almost under the wheel. I now have a shake above 40mph. I initially thought it was that plastic piece hanging down that was just flapping around, but I tucked it back where its supposed to be (not clipped in, so not completely eliminated) but its still happening. It arbitrarily varies in severity from just noticeable to so bad that it affects my vision. Both the steering wheel and speedometer needle shake proportionally. I won't be able to get to a garage to check for bent wheel, etc. until this weekend, but other than bent suspension components, I'm about out of ideas.

I have a bluetooth adapter I use with my phone when I'm curious about things, I was just looking for a more permanent solution (and a challenge for me). This just so happened to be free too.

Will do. Hard to find apartments with garages...

Updated with new pictures. In other news, I got an internship in Texas, so I'll be moving to Plano in January. This means the mods schedule has been significantly accelerated, given that I don't have to plow through snow anymore. Priorities: coils, wheels, then exhaust.

Thanks for the tips, I'll likely replace the tophats either way because salt. Here's a typical forum style question: Is there an amount of drop where bushings/control arms/etc HAVE to be changed to keep alignment settings reasonable? I know it depends on the amount of adjustability I want, but from what I've read its around 1" where camber gets hard to keep near-spec.

I've been browsing as much as possible, but I had an idea that may or may not work for what I want. What I want is a less floppy suspension and a very slight drop, for as cheap as possible (but still done right). My original options were either tein coilovers or the diy koni/eibach setup as detailed on here. I consigned myself to spending the 1k+ for the koni setup, based on the fact that the teins dropped too far (1.4" minimum). Then I had the idea: Why can't I get the teins (half the price of koni setup) and add a "lift" kit? Combine the 1.4" drop and .75-1" lift and I'm right where I want to be, now with the added feature of adjustability. I know the tein lineup is cheap for a reason, and I'm not expecting them to last long. I just wanted to post this in here to see if there was something I was missing.

I'm currently working on a custom screen to put in the cubby in front of the shifter. I'll try to use this post to post updates of my progress. Concept, inspired by a system created by a friend: I've always wanted more gauges, but don't want to clutter up my dash with pods and such. I want to add extra lighting and other things, which require switches. I don't want to drill holes for this in interior panels to preserve originality. I have a raspberry pi laying around from another project, why not make a screen for digital gauges? Why not make it a touchscreen so I can have buttons instead of physical switches? While I'm at it, I might as well add auto lock/unlock if its easy. Design: Raspberry Pi 3 connected to touchscreen, mounted in cubby space Lights/relays/etc connected to GPIO pins on RPi Connector to OBDII port to get 12v and ability to watch for CAN messages Custom python/java code to run everything Goals: I'd like to have footwell lighting, but don't feel like paying for the subaru kit. It should be pretty easy to control some led strips with a button, and I should be able to set it so that they turn on when doors are opened too. I'd like to have some gauges, like boost, IAT, etc. This should be pretty easy to display with the appropriate CAN messages. 9/5/17 The screen is coming today, so I'll be able to start really getting into it now. To be clear, I'm a mechanical engineering student. I'm not an electrical engineer, computer engineer, or any other kind of person that knows how to write code. It'll be a while, as I have to teach myself Python first. 9/29/17 Slow progress as expected. I got the screen up and touchable in the first day, works pretty well other than the fact I have to manually calibrate it (guess coordinate numbers to use as screen boundary). I got the hardware to do the footwell lighting (led strips and digital relays) and tested it with a power supply. I've been plugging away at what will actually be displayed. My ideas change weekly, but currently I have the buttons in the middle as: power for colored lights, power for white/entry lights, color selection, and brightness adjustment of the colored lights. I faked some numbers to be an example of what I have so far. 7/27/19 Still hope to finish this someday. When I left off (last July), I was able to read CAN messages. Next step is to send the messages requesting the data, and intercept the return messages.

I decided its finally time to document my endeavors, both in an attempt to give other people insight to my ideas and help me keep track of everything that I've done. I'm not planning on doing anything too crazy, but the mods will be coming fast and furious in the near future (when I have income). Please suggest anything that I haven't thought of! History: Car was originally owned by salesman at the dealership, and was returned when he was fired. An older man drove it for the following 5 years, all dealer serviced. I bought it in April 2017 with 45k miles. Car: 2011 Legacy GT Crystal Black Silica All options, other than interior lighting Currently at 87k miles Engine / Transmission: XRT Stage 2 Tune AEM Dry-Flow drop-in filter NGK Iridium Plugs Milk jug delete Magnaflow Cat-back Invidia Catted Downpipe SouthBend Stage 2 Daily Clutch Verus Forged Clutch Fork Verus Billet Pivot Ball PDM TSK-3 Kit Perrin Shift Stop Perrin Short Shift Adaptor Perrin Solid Brass Bushing Brakes: DBA T2 Front and Rear Rotors Carbotech 1521 (Bobcat) Front and Rear Pads Suspension: '15 WRX 20mm RSB '13 Legacy 26mm FSB Tein Street Basis Z Coilovers Gorilla 1" Lift Kit Koni Front Strut Inserts - 1447 Koni Rear Shocks - 1055 H&R Springs Whiteline Rear Lower Control Arms Kartboy RSB Endlinks Exterior: LED Bulbs: License plate, reverse lights, taillights, turn signals Quad Brake Light mod Gorilla Mudflaps Subaru logo projectors in door lights Grille de-chromed with 3M "Deep Black" matte vinyl Bayson R V-Limited Front Lip Eagle Eye (Anzo) Headlights ---Custom DRL wiring Reverse Light Tint Ebay Roof Spoiler Interior: LED Bulbs: Center dome, front reading lights, trunk light Red Cupholder lighting TapTurn Flasher Sunlight sensor TSB Repair Custom aluminum shift knob trim ring Wheels / Tires: Winter: General Altimax12 215/55/17 VW Exor wheels: 17x7 et38, plasti dipped black + graphite and silver metallic + gloss-ish Summer: Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 235/45/18 XXR 527 wheels: 18x8 et42, Chromium Black Muteki Black Lug nuts Winter mode, Summer mode, and Original picture:

Thanks for the tips. I'll keep looking in the meantime.

Interested to see what you end up doing here. Just found a nice set of 2012 wrx seats that I imagine are equally as difficult to mount. Slightly off topic but do all subaru seats have airbags? I don't see an srs tag in the pictures of these like our stock seats have.