Pleides

I work tomorrow, so as long as it's after 6 PM we should be good!

See ya in Portland in a few hundred miles!

I'm gonna push for a 7K oil change. Max Capacity told me about how he did 9K oil changes with Amsoil 5W40 Euro and had no issues. I'm thinking with my driving it'll have to be shorter than his changes since he did all freeway driving and mine is more mixed but I'm definitely not interested in changing the oil every 3K anymore, especially with how expensive Amsoil was for me. Free oil from the Audi dealer I work for is definitely the way to go, though. Even if my car burns it... well it's still free. It's also 5W40 which I should probably be running anyways. I might try running the FRAM Ultra Synthetic filter for a couple oil changes though. Gonna be nice with the Fumoto valve.

I've never DIY'd an oil change on this car (well... except for when the motor blew... that did happen, but it happened on a lift with a blown motor). Decided that I now live in a place with no HOA and a flat driveway I'll finally do it myself. Always can trust Surgeline to do it but I'm a bit of a ways from them now and these 3000 miles oil changes are killing the wallet with their pricey Amsoil. Picked up 5 quarts of VW OE 5W-40 from the Audi dealer I work for and got a nice FRAM filter for 9 bucks. Gonna do the oil change at 4K and send the results to Blackstone Labs and see what they think about extending my OCIs. I figure if Audi recommends 10K oil changes on their oil and Amsoil recommends 20K with their oil and filters that I'm surely safe to go 6-7K... right? Guess I'll let the guys in labcoats figure that out for me.

Hey you stole a vowel from my username

Even includes weight reduction "speed holes!"

I would not have purchased my Michelins if it weren't for the steep discount at the time, however I do like them for the just over a grand I spent on them after installation. They are noisier than my Falken FK510s, for what that's worth. The grip is absolutely insane on them for a street car with a chassis that was likely engineered on software older than I am, so make of that what you will. I have never been capable of pushing these tires past their limit and I did manage that with the Falkens being the novice that I am. G-MAX RS are decent tires and often have rebates and stuff and I don't think you would regret purchasing them. The Michelins might wear slower and grip harder, but the slower wear is still not worth the hundreds of dollars more. If the difference is a hundred bucks I'd get the Michelins but if you're staring down the barrel of $400 less and you're torn then I'd skip the Michelins, Contis, or whatever else are sky high in price. Life is expensive right now!

I'm so slammed with work/school right now but my stutter has been an issue for the life of the car and the AEM pump was only installed to ensure proper fueling for a tuned car. Wondering if Surgeline skipped an o-ring on the AEM pump install. The stutter was there both before and after, but it's worth a check.

Sorry if I'm just missing something from your post, but is the second o-ring just installed stacked next to the other one where it's supposed to be?

Man, thought I was going crazy cuz your car looks basically identical to mine! How ya liking the Bilsteins? My Konis have had some issues and I'm not sure I wanna replace the one that's squeaking after already having replaced another one under warranty

Is takeoff from a stop and the drivetrain jerk in stop-and-go traffic still an issue with the split case? I recall it happening a smidge less in STIs I've driven, but never totally gone. I believe the two-piece driveshaft is the culprit but I'm uncertain.

Do you notice that the car makes all the same funky transmission noises that the 5MT does on decel and that sort of thing? It's the one thing that makes me apprehensive about the 6MT split case.

Your shop, unless they've done the VA chassis 6-speed swap before, may prefer the Spec B trans. It's totally fine if you buy it - it's a road trip for me to drive from Forest Grove to Seattle and you are much closer and if ya got the funds then you can have at it. If not, I'll see when Boxkita wants me to stop on by. I will say, the VA WRX 6-speed does have good gear spacing as well. When I drove a 2018 WRX awhile back I had to hit 80 MPH to get to 3K RPM on the freeway in 6th. I'm at that at 70 MPH on the 5-speed. If that is the avenue you go and you're not concerned about launching the car or making tons of power then it's absolutely fine.

Ah shucks, it's May already huh? I was supposed to message ya about the Spec B trans. If someone else gets to it first then fair game. What do you want for it? You use the clutch for a Spec B/STi 6-speed. Pretty straightforward swap but you don't get the DCCD and the front diff is open rather than limited slip. You also have much taller freeway gearing for both 5th and 6th gear than an STi trans.

Has a vacuum leak been ruled out?

For the part number? Hard to say. I believe Cobb maps show notes from the tuner in them so maybe the tuner would have noted the injector size - not sure about open source. You either have 740 or 850cc sidefeed injectors - I refuse to believe you're running the bone stock injectors to power levels that high as you'd be at like 150% IDC. 850cc is really pushing it for drivability and flow control for sidefeeds and you may just never have a smooth car. Most people skip the upgraded sidefeeds for a whole topfeed conversion. It's kind of odd that the prior owner went through the hassle of upgrading to an STI fitment turbo and left the fuel system mostly alone. Nowadays it's much harder to do topfeed conversions with these cars due to the Cobb Green Speed changes because of EPA pressure - so no TGV deletes are allowed (which are basically a requirement to do a proper topfeed conversion on these cars), no emissions check engine lights can be deleted, CARB-friendly catalytic converters only, etc on Cobb tunes after April 2022. Opensource tunes are the way to go nowadays for these cars since they're still old enough that some tuners will open source tune them - ya just have to find one who will do it. If your car was married to an Accessport it may not be easy-peasy to just switch to an open source tune - some others might be able to speak there. I went reverse of that and now my car is stuck with the tune I got back just before the Green Speed changes went through. If you take a to a tuner... well good luck. Yes, many will have a Tactrix cable and can read the tune info but many will not be able to re-tune the car as many shops are beholden to Cobb and Accessport tuning. My shop here in Portland, Surgeline, exclusively tunes cars on the Accessport and have nearly no tuning clientele now. And yes, that cord is for an Accessport.

As others have said, those look like factory injectors, however it's not uncommon to find Deatschwerks injectors that are modified in the OE injector housing. There is a snowball's chance in hell that you're making that much power on stock injectors (most aren't getting more than 300 WHP on the most optimistic of dynos). More likely, you have these: https://deatschwerks.com/products/02j-00-0740-4 Your turbo is an STI location turbo. This car has very much been messed with as that's an overhaul on these. As Infosecdad mentioned, if your car is open source tuned then those with the chops can take a look at the map on the car and see what all is messed with. A Tactrix cable is what you want. Can you take a picture of the cable you mentioned you have that you assume is for an Accessport?

It sounds like this is your first car and you want to make it louder for the sake of being louder. For the betterment of your resale value (and your hearing), just leave this car stock and do basic maintenance on it.

Still on sidefeed injectors? They might need replacing.

Yessir, Matt visited me in August last year and seemed to miss having a turbo Subaru in his life. I hope if he does actually act on it the Outback wouldn't suffer the same fate his last one did - death by deer...

Saw this on Instagram. Good luck with your sale! My friend in Denver seemed pretty serious about buying it

Ugh, a Cayman GT4. I want a Porsche so badly with every passing day. Not helping me with the road trip drives and good shots! You stayed behind him so you could hear it, right?

Pardon my silly Instagram caption, but the car got cleaned on the first sunny, nice day I've had off for an eternity and it looks great! I can see all the door dings so clearly now!

Luckily for you the passenger side is substantially easier to get to. There are three actuators all in the same place so while you have the kick panel out, mess with the climate control settings and watch all three do their magic. You can drive around with the interior somewhat pulled apart for a couple days while you wait to replace any extra parts you found dead. As a bonus, you can finally replace that cabin air filter you've probably never replaced!

Yes, the 2009 is a whole facelift with, I believe, different emissions systems than earlier cars (EGR?) as well as traction control that can't be turned off (I think it can in your 07). My car is an 05 so apologies for guessing on a couple points here. You should get an ECU from a 2007 MY car. What was wrong with your old ECU to necessitate replacing it? A P0420 code is not a symptom of a bad ECU.