stewdogg

Welcome to the fun. Have a great time digging into this forum! Check out the stickies - wealth of info. I will have one suggestion, get a skidplate. Best one is by Primative - if you chat with them they can mod it for oil cutouts and what not. I had mine modded for my AVO Jpipe as well.

 

Otherwise, hunt the build lists of many of the veteran owners - lots of thought and trial and error will have been done already. Enjoy - its a special car, difficult with support, but definitely a thrill to drive

Thanks for the nice welcome islandborn! This forum is the only reading I have been doing lately.

Do you suggest the skidplate in general or only really needed if lowered?

I really need to get the shocks and struts dealt with in this thing, it floats/bounces around the road the way it is now and that's no fun.

Welcome to the forum! You're semi close to me in Duluth! Hopefully we can get enough 5th gens around the area to have a meet some time.. I have that stupid p0420 as well. I'm assuming its the O2 sensor for mine. Do you have the stock exhaust installed still? Mine has a Borla cat back which is why I assumed it was my rear 02 sensor. Let me know what you find out, id like to know..

Thanks Nate!!

I'm in for a meet up, but you should come down south here where it's just a little warmer!

How often do you get the P0420 code? I have only gotten it 2 or 3 times in the last few weeks. I will grab an o2 sensor next time it comes up and see if that helps. Yeah, I still have an all stock exhaust.

I have some rear brakes getting dropped off today, so I will be doing that first and then on to other things.

Thanks for the heads up cww516! It does sound like a better idea to have the best of both worlds by having the option to go stock or 1" drop and get the Eibach springs.

Do you guys have a place to get the best prices on the konis and Eibach's? or a good local fella or someone on the forum to support for the parts?

Just talking about it really is making my mouth water for that Burger Huas burger. I might have to take a run up there soon, hit some twisties and eat a burger. I co-own a bar in Sheboygan and get up there pretty often. If you ever go for a run in the Kettles, let me know. I can coordinate it with a visit to the bar too and get two birds stoned at once... sorry, it's a Trailer Park Boys reference.

OH man, have you ever made the short trip over to the northern unit of the Kettle Moraine Forest? It's over by Plymouth and a pretty large area south of there. The roads are made for an all wheel drive turbo. There is a cool outlook called Parnel Tower to use for a destination... https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/kmn/trails.html

There is also an awesome burger joint towards Horicon Marsh called The Burger Haus.

https://www.facebook.com/HamburgerHaus/?rf=799164686865278

I guess you have me back to thinking about getting the Eibach springs again. They drop the car by 1", right?

Welcome to the forum. Anything on the fifth gen can be answered here. This is a unique bunch for sure, but I am sure you will enjoy it. If you want to be enabled this is the place for sure.

Thanks for the welcome BBpeik! I certainly don't need an enabler, but it helps.

I would be suspicious of a valve cover leak so soon after a alleged rebuild. Otherwise check everything you can, might be good to do compression while you have it apart just for reassurance.

 

Welcome to the 5th gen gt owners club!

 

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Thanks FLlegacy! I'm a little suspicious too, but the rest of the repairs look good. I guess I will just have to hope he drove the car before the sealant cured fully. I didn't see it till I got it on my lift either. They make it a little tough to see much on these cars without removing all the plastic shields.

And yes the Konis are worth the money in my opinion. And our shocks and struts were crap from the factory so don't assume they are just worn out, lol.

 

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Haha, mine are creaking and bouncing all over, so they are even more crap now. The Konis are sounding too nice to pass up.

With the P0420, you can usually just disable the code via romraider and everything will be fine. Won't have any issues.

Had to do this on mine. Common thing.

 

Do you have a way to do that with your cobb tuner ?

 

I can help to edit the map if you have a way to pull it.

Thanks hazard! I'm not sure the extent of what I can do with the Cobb tuner at this point. I need to do a little more research on it and figure it out.

Thanks for the offer of help, I might take you up on that later.

It could just be a bad O2 sensor, too. If the car runs fine, chances are the cat is in good shape. That said, don't let me be the one to turn you away from a new downpipe.

 

As far as Koni shocks vs. KYB, they're absolutely better. If you want to stay at stock ride height, go with the '13-'14 springs- a friend of mine has a '14 2.5i, and the ride quality is way better than my '11 was stock. I finally got around to installing my Konis and Eibach springs last spring/early summer, and I'm definitely happy with the result. I haven't had any issues getting around, but a) I have snow tires on it, b) I usually only drive it in fresh snow where the tires are an advantage and there aren't a bunch of ice clods on the road, and c) my Baja is on daily driver duty. That was something I was concerned about as well, but there are a good number of us in the snow belt (Subarus where it snows? Shocker!) who are lowered, and the only thing I've seen is that it'd be a good idea to install a skid plate. Yet another part I have sitting in my garage waiting to be installed...

 

Also, it's pretty easy to host pictures directly to the forum, although sometimes they need to be resized before they'll upload. Welcome to the party, and as bbpeik (who, for reference, has a built engine and STI 6MT swap) mentioned, we're more than happy to help you spend your money!

Thanks for the info cww516!

The car does run fine and I only seem to get the code randomly at this point. I will look into the rear o2 sensor and see if it needs replacing .

Do you scrape the front end in any driveways or anything with it lowered? Is there much of an advantage having it lowered other than it being more sexy?

What part of central Wisconsin are you from? Plenty of nice roads around here to test that Koni suspension on.

Hello

I have a new to me black 2010 Legacy GT that I purchased almost two weeks ago and it has 127,xxx miles on it right now. I'm coming from a 2002 bug eye WRX wagon. It was my wife's car and I got it as a hand me down when she bought her 2005 Forester XT automatic... she likes her turbos. She leaves them stock and I try to talk her into modding them mildly. The WRX I just left stock and used as a get to work vehicle, but rode my motorcycle more than anything.

While looking for a new car I came across this bad boy and now I'm really digging this thing. The WRX was fun, but could really get on your nerves after about an hour or so on the rickety roads around here.

The story of the car as I know it is that it was owned originally by a machinist and he must have put some machines in the back seat because there are some ink stains randomly around the back of the car. I got most of it out while detailing the car after I got it. The car is in good shape with no major dents or damage to the inside of the car. The driver's seat is cracking a bit on the left side seat bolster. I have a friend I will go see about fixing the seat. I will ask him about adding some more structure to the bolstering at that point too.

The machinist decided not to change the timing belt and at ~122,000 miles the belt slipped and some valves got to meet each other. The mechanic he brought it to bought it from him and did the valves, heads, timing belt and clutch. The mechanic then sold it to the kid I bought it from.

The kid I bought it from put a Cobb tuner in it and decided after 9 months and ~4,000 miles that he wanted a pickup truck again. Said he drove his dad's pickup more than the car, so I got me a 5th gen Legacy GT!

The current mechanical condition of the vehicle:

I had a bit of a rumble in the car that I could feel in the seat of the car and steering wheel. Seemed to happen after 40mph and got a little different with gas, but no different with the clutch in. I ended up finding a bolt missing in the driveshaft connection to the rear diff output. I replaced it and the vibration has gone away.

The right side valve cover is leaking and I will be replacing that next weekend.

I ordered a new plastic front under shield from CARiD, it was $46 delivered and got here in a day. Part of the shield on mine was missing.

I'm getting the damn P0420 code for the catalyst system and I'm wondering if when the timing belt went it got the cat dirty? I will monitor the o2 sensors and see if I can figure things out a bit more. I suppose if worse comes to worse I will just have to get a new aftermarket cat and a new tune.

The banjo bolts on the turbo oil lines look like they have slow leak, but not an active leak, so I will keep an eye on them and replace the washers when I can.

It needs new rear brakes. I ordered some slotted and drilled rotors from Performance brake... I will find out it they are any good. I think someone sprayed the brake calipers red too because they don't look like a factory job.

The suspension is shot due to the miles and I have been reading for two weeks about power and suspension mods. I think I have come to the conclusion to do the Koni drop ins with the stock springs or the 2013-14 Legacy springs. I live in WI and I'm afraid I will regret dropping it in the winter. I also noticed that it just makes it on my 4 post lift at the current height. Are the Koni's really worth $350+ compared to the KYB's?

Sorry about the ridiculous first post, but there you go.

Oh yeah, I will post some pics as soon as I choose a hosting site, again.