Notorious

The bolts on the front and rear of the LCA had half a turn left in them and it solved the issue for now! I torqued them down to spec last I remember but I guess not enough. No noises now for the first time in about a year My goal of one or two track days this year is getting closer. I just have to install the Moroso steel oil pan and pickup and replace my cam seals at the shop under timing belt warranty. Also not so patiently waiting for the arrival of the STI genome exhaust and rear sedan tail light garnish.

Wagon all day, coming from a sedan owner. I didn’t see the appeal when originally purchasing the car but I regret not finding a nice wagon. As others have said, you can always swap it down the road. Having driven other people’s Spec B’s before, I also think the suspension and interior is over rated. The best appeal to them is the 6speed. But of course both cars you look at won’t be the same exact condition on top of the manufactured differences. You mention 220k kms on that wagon. I’d get it compression and leak down tested first before purchasing as well as getting it inspected at a shop that works with Subarus. Not sure how many shops are in your area but it may be worth paying the current owner to drive it an hour or so to the shop and getting it inspected on your expense. I give this same advice to everyone trying to buy a used Subaru.

Installed the JDM coilovers today. Way too hot to work but I got it done. I only lowered it another half inch or so from the lowering spring height. Just a few hiccups during the install but not too bad. Accidentally stripped one of the dampening knobs but I believe they’re replaceable and more or less universal among all KYB manufactured coils. The bad news is that my creaking steering noise persists. I thought it was strut related but it must be related to the control arm. Need a new set of cotter pins and will retighten the ball joint and tie rod. If that doesn’t help I’m at a loss. Also test drove it on full stiffness on all 4 corners (because one corner is stuck on full stiffness indefinitely until I fix that knob) It rode fine, not too harsh but of course as expected it is way too bumpy on worse roads. But steering was incredibly responsive. Took a roundabout at about 35 no problem. My confidence in driving will be much better once this noise is gone. Odd thing is, it happens when I brake and reaccelerate... IE stop and go traffic with no change in steering angle. I’m thinking it might be the front control arm bolt not being tight enough...

If you’re looking for aftermarket whole assemblies, there’s isn’t much out there aside from the Depo headlights and custom JDM units.

I’ll try to check but I assume it can’t pop out if that 14mm bolt is holding it in place right? I’m just tired of self diagnosing this issue. I might just take it to the shop and pay the man and forget it. I used to like to take turns at a good amount of speed given my suspension setup but the creaking noise scares me when I’m driving in any direction other than straight.

It seems like I’m getting a clicking noise from the drivers side ball joint area. I replaced both ball joints already with the Whiteline kit. I wonder if the knuckle needs to be replaced? I’m at a loss as to what is causing the clicking. It’s not the sway bar, I drove around without one and the noise persists. CV axles were replaced as well. I get the noise when braking and accelerating at low speeds but primarily needs some steering input to cause the click. It’s almost a creaking noise if that helps.

Got it running last night, stretched her legs for the first time in 7 weeks and some change. 19.5 psi of boost never felt so good after all this commuting with the Accord. Took her the long way home. I still have a leak at the midpipe connection, need to maybe try a double gasket or resurfacing the flanges flat on the mid pipe. Still got some creaking in the suspension up front but I’ll revisit those issues after I install the JDM coilovers. Waiting to find rear control arms up for sale before I install everything. It was a good night nonetheless. Had fun driving the car and feeling one with the road again. Haven’t driven a manual in 7 weeks aside from driving my lady’s Miata once or twice.

Lift kit for the wagon so those rocks just fly under you? In all seriousness I’d give vinyl a shot. You can order it on amazon for $10 for a good sized roll of clear stuff. Double layer it maybe.

As someone who has done this way more times than I care to admit. My go-to is a crowbar I bought from the dollar tree (yes, they have those there) I’d wedge it between the control arm and the knuckle and use a rubber mallet and pull out my strongest choice vocabulary and go to town. Heat would help. Typically let it soak overnight in PB blaster to get the job done.

Sad to say it’s been almost 7 weeks since the last time I drove my car. The accord sucks. Life has been piling on and I have a long list of things I need to get done on it still. Hopefully it’ll be back on the road this week. Need to get the cam seals replaced, fenders rolled and pulled to run 265’s, JDM coils to be installed, and I’m still buying parts for it even though I haven’t been driving it... It may seem like I complain a lot about the long list of things to be done but really it’s more of a frustration from not being able to make dreams a reality yet. I’d rather be in this position than be done and bored of the car. Stock Headers, Up pipe, Down pipe, front bumper, and some FMIC piping has been removed tonight. Going to try to make a final push tomorrow to get it done before it gets too hot outside. Supposed to be 109 this weekend.

OEM catless with low miles (from a new STI owner on NASIOC) or a new Invidia which would be the same price as a used Grimmspeed which can potentially have some wear at the flanges. I’ve been running catless Invidia since almost day 1 of owning the car, no issues. Heat wrapped it and high temp silicone sprayed over for added protection and insulation. Worth noting that it is strongly advised to get a protune after going catless but if you leave the stock downpipe you shouldn’t have issues but it is definitely still recommended.

LEDs are typically a better bet for stock projectors because they aren’t designed for the excess heat produced by HIDs, but I’d look into DiodeDynamics YouTube video about choosing LED bulbs and why some are far superior than others. More LEDs doesn’t equal better performance, smaller and higher power LEDs that are very close together spacing wise are much better choices and most closely resembles the light source location of a halogen bulb filament. That being said, HIDs will be much brighter and project much farther despite this.

Make a new thread using this link here: https://legacygt.com/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=10

You could check the connections to the unit itself under the passenger headlight. Or reach up through the fog light under the bumper with the weather guard folded out. FYI: it has a constant power with an alternating ground, so that ground connection is probably rusted or something. Alternatively the unit itself is just going out but I suspect a bad ground because you mention the rain. I used to have accessory LED lights wired up to the beeper using a relay off that ground so the accessory lights would come on every time it beeped. Ripped it out a few months ago because the lights took a crap.

I sent you a PM about all your brake pads.

Lots of variables to factor in. Cost of the paint, skill level of the shop, and the amount of prep necessary is a larger determinant for cost. Expect to pay $1000-$1500 for a decent job.

I really like Subaru’s own Urban Grey Metallic. Used almost exclusively from 2005-2007 only. My old Hawkeye wagon was that color and I miss it, both the color and the car.

No worries, I’ll dig through the photoset after work but there is some poke. It can be fixed easily with some slight fender pulling but it’s not necessary right now. Once I get it on coils maybe by the end of the year, I’ll pull the fenders and it’ll be super flush maybe. It looks fine the way it is now. The tires are stretched slightly (should be running 255 federal or 265 width) I’d assume with a 265 there would be clearance issues in the front for sure. I didn’t need spacers to clear the Wilwoods, just about 5mm of clearance between the spokes. Rear fenders are currently unmolested, getting some rubbing on very hard bumps. Camber is at -1.5 front and rear but that’s going to change once I get a couple more suspension parts.

Went out and snapped some pics of the new wheel setup. Enkei NT03's 18x9.5 +40 wrapped in Federal 595 RS-RR's 245/35R18. Federal's run wide so it's effectively 255 width. I need to roll the rears a little more but everything should fit just fine, I might even leave my weather stripping on. Also got an alignment last Saturday. For those that didn’t read my older posts, when I bought the wheels I couldn’t decide between the two colors so I got both. Pictures don’t do justice how good the silver looks in person. I’m at a 60/40 split towards silver right now. We’ll see how much more gold grows on me. By this week I'm hoping to get all the aftermarket stuff back on after getting my smog done last week. Also need to diagnose some suspension noises in the front. I have a feeling it's sway bar related.

You’ll be paying more doing your EJ20 route when considering the shop hours for the modifications and finding someone who will be able to tune it for you. You’re also again very limited in the mods available at that point. Whether you do the work yourself or not, the EJ25 method is easier. There was someone on here from Texas I believe trying to sell his Outback XT with frame damage for pretty cheap. Engine is perfectly stock. Maybe consider looking for him and renting a trailer to pick it up. Might be already sold I’d rather get a used EJ257 than a used EJ20 any day. It’s easier to compression test an engine already in the states than one that’s probably still in Japan or Canada.

JDM EJ20’s are not worth the hassle. A lot of modifications will be necessary to get it to work properly. You’re also taking a risk with getting an imported engine and the condition of those things vary greatly. I had a buddy import one and paid it all in full just to find out there’s no compression in two cylinders... Get a new EJ255/257 shortblock and rebuild the heads. There’s a lot of research threads and info on the forums, just gotta search it up. I prefer using google rather than the forum search feature.

In my opinion, any build is limited only by creativity and funds or other priorities. I may finish a “stage” of the build and keep it there for a while, but if funds allow I will probably change it up again. That being said, I don’t think I can ever finish a build unless funds run dry and that will be the only deciding factor for me to call it finished. If I don’t have the ability to allocate more money into the Legacy because of other priorities, it’s time to move on from it at that point.

Gold = 1st place racecar. But also reflects more heat.

Have you looked through all AF learning parameters? A-D? I’d upload a data log

I have Cardon HD axles up front with no issues for 10k miles so far. Manual transmission though. Automatics tend to vibrate with aftermarket axles. I’d rebuild your OEM ones, that’s the cheapest and most effective option. I ordered them on rockauto and took a gamble. Figured if I run into issues I still have my OEM ones out and available to rebuild.