Pleides

Quick update: switched the OCVs around, passenger to driver side and vice-versa, and the car behaves much more normally again. Something in the tune? Didn't reset the ECU or anything.

Well guys, I spoke too soon, I guess? Stutter is back in full force again. Weird, as the problem was completely resolved for a few days. I noticed the stutter popping up very slightly every so often so I reset the ECU thinking maybe that was supposed to be done. Now the stutter occurs exactly as it did before. What exactly is going on?

That’s the exact part number that I purchased two of from Wilsonville Subaru. I’ve read that those should be replaced if your turbo ever blows, but I’m not certain mine has ever “blown” previously, just shown extreme signs of age without outright failure. Regardless, something was wrong with both of mine because I replaced the driver’s side, drove for a few minutes, noticed it was better but figured I should go buy the other side too. Bought the other one they had in stock, installed it in two minutes, called it good. Car drives better than it ever has while I’ve owned it.

One question: should I reset the ECU afterwards? Already did, but curious.

I’ve had two Pomeranians in the car at once and had no issues, but they’re obviously a poor reference point . My 50 lb Australian shepherd prefers the rear seat down flat, but can tolerate short rides to the vet and such with them up.

I have a Perrin one. My OEM one was thrashed to hell at 205K and it made the engine move less during startup, during shifts, and under hard acceleration, and definitely worsened NVH over the stock one. The Group N motor mounts are more worth your money IMO. If you’re strapped for cash then the OEM one is honestly fine.

Wow, replaced both OCVs and the car runs like new. Can not believe how smooth it drives now. Thank you guys so much! Literally haven’t wanted to drive my car for fun because of this issue. I feel confident about going up to Seattle in a couple weeks now. Literally cannot thank y’all enough.

Thanks for all of your replies guys. Given the time of year, I have had absolutely no time to work on the car and have just been dealing with it and may need to hand it off to a proper mechanic to work on it for the time being. The theory with the OCVs is interesting. I’ve done a Seafoam treatment of the car before and I noticed that, with Seafoam in my oil, the car ran maybe 95% of the way to perfect. Could potentially have a clogged valve. Looks easy enough to do. I will definitely look into the fuel line issue as well. Thanks!

I've read through the whole master thread and tried a few things. I'm thinking it could be a grounding issue but it seems odd that it would manifest itself after modifying the car. The headlights dim briefly when pushing the clutch in and the alternator is putting out the power it's supposed to when doing a test of it. Sorry to sound dumb, but which vacuum hose would this be? Is it 17 on this diagram? http://i.imgur.com/62j7Qyc.png What also is the purpose for this? Testing the fuel system? I don't have an AP or Tactrix cable, but the car has been tuned no less than 5 times since this issue occurred by two different tuners and neither has been able to figure out the problem via tuning. I do have a catless uppipe.

Idk if you’ve sold these yet but I just had a set installed in my wagon to replace a set of thrashed OEM mounts and they really are a great upgrade over stock. I’m still learning the way the clutch engages now but there’s very little NVH difference over a worn set of OEM mounts apart from when cold starting the car. Absolutely worth the price OP is asking if anybody is on the fence.

I know there's a master list of all sorts of stumble and/or stutter stories, but I'm a little out of ideas here and could use some help. My 05 Legacy GT wagon has 209K on it and has had this stutter since I bought the car a year ago with 202K on it. The car has a little bit of a jump in RPMs by about 50-100 RPMs throughout the 2-2.8K RPM range. If I reset the ECU then the problem typically goes away for quite awhile. The stutter occurs at this RPM regardless of how hard I'm pushing the car. The PO told me that this started to occur when he modified the car. He did: Butterfly valve removal style TGV deletes A catless downpipe (that I've changed out for a catted Invidia) A Perrin turbo inlet Replaced the leaking VF46 with another one Replaced the OEM uppipe with a catless Perrin uppipe Had the car tuned by PDXTuning. The turbo has no weird shaft play, the car passed a leakdown test with 4-9% leakage on all cylinders, a pre-dyno smoke test reveals nothing, nothing shows up in logs, zero check engine lights, I've replaced both O2 sensors, the MAF sensor, spark plugs and the problem occurs every time I drive the car. It sometimes seems better for the 1 or 2 minutes after I cold start the car, but it's hard to say. I recently replaced the worn OEM motor mounts with Group N mounts and the stutter is much more annoying now because I can feel it much more. I've blasted Seafoam through the BOV vacuum line, through the fuel, and through the oil. Nothing has solved the problem, apart from resetting the ECU for it to come back later. I've had PRERacing do some diagnostics on the car. They found no exhaust system leaks or leaks in the engine bay. Spark plugs were gapped fine. The tech thought he heard possible valvetrain noise and removed the valve covers and noted the cams were worn, but nothing unusual for the mileage on the original engine. Leakdown and compression test showed zero issues at all. The tech and I drove the car after he spent a day doing diagnosis and we found the car drove almost completely perfectly and only gave us the stutter if you lugged the hell out of the engine at those RPMs. He did note that he removed the battery to check the spark plugs, which pretty much erased the problem during our drive. Their tuner Erich tried a few things with his tuning knowledge and couldn't recreate the problem since the ECU had just been reset. He's since tuned the car and pulled a bit of timing out of the car during those RPMs and the stutter still occurs. I need somebody... and not just anybody...

Sorry for the off-topic question but did you get any rub when you had the H&Rs and 235/40s?

Ignore my PM, sorry. Found some suspension elsewhere that I think will suit my needs better.

Sent a PM about the KW

Just sent via Venmo to scooby. All wrapped up!

Interested in the whole thing and PM'd you but replying here because PMs seem to be broken for me for whatever reason. Let me know if you received my reply.

I'm interested. Know that you can't link to other photo sites on this forum. Mods may remove it.

You’d just hear “pssh” if my head blew apart I was thinking about KWs but they’re super expensive and I don’t know if I’d get my money’s worth with free rebuilds. Not planning on tracking the car so maybe not the best choice for me. Thanks for the reply though!

Hey all, I'm located in Wilsonville, OR (I also frequent SW Portland) and have limited life left in the KYBs on my 2005 GT wagon. I haven't gotten to ride in many lowered cars in my time and haven't experienced much in the way of suspension in the 4th gen LGT. I'm wondering if anybody in my area has a Legacy that's lowered (any amount of drop, any suspension) that could take me around the block. I'm currently looking at an H&R spring combo with Koni sport shocks. If you have that exact setup then I'd be especially interested, but any other non-stock setup would be welcome as well. Thanks!

I've driven a 2018 Golf GTI with the AS3+ and 225/40/18 and didn't have any complaints about the ride. Apples to oranges, maybe? But the experience was fine with them. I haven't had a good set of summer tires on the car to compare levels of grip (had a worn set of Toyo summer tires on it when I bought the car but the tread was at 3/32) but I really don't have any issues with the tire and, for those days when it's below 45 where it's not causing any wintery weather and closures of the whole city, I don't think a summer tire would make sense. I mean, we're at the end of October, probably won't get snow for another two months or so, and it's gonna be 45 or less when I drive to work before 8 AM, right? And on cold spring days, it'll be under 45 and not snowing. I just don't get why an A/S tire that has alright performance everywhere is a bad thing for the typical Portland use-case. I don't have a place to store tires that would be suitable for the colder temperatures; this is just the sacrifice I have to make. Honestly, these tires grip fine for the occasional onramp fun or twisty back road. They also have less tread noise than a summer tire, or at least the ones I've experienced. The plan is for 225 width tires so I have no clearance issues, especially when lowering the car. Would you recommend wider + fender rolling? This just seems like the typical 18" tire size for these cars. I'm planning on a 1-1.25" lowering of the car, I think. What steering upgrades would you recommend, if any, and what are actually required at the 2" lower mark? I don't plan to go that low - just curious. If I go the route of a coilover-type suspension, are there any kits you'd recommend and also avoid entirely? I'll see if I can find a tire shop to borrow tires from. Les Schwab and Discount Tire are near me and I assume they'd be the ones to call for something like that.

I’ve emailed that email I think twice now with zero response. This was over a month ago with a week or two inbetween. Are they not taking in new customers?

I had just gotten back from Surgeline when I posted this. I don’t have them do my tunes because I don’t have an AP. I was impressed by how fast they fixed my axle shaft seal (which is what I was in for) but a little weirded out by the fact that they had no record of ever having performed a valve adjustment on any car that’s come through their shop when I asked for an estimate. PRE can do it for me with the engine in the car (for about $400 if I recall) while Anthony told me that, given how lengthy of a job it was (he used AllData to get an idea) it wouldn’t be worth it for a high-mileage car like mine. I know that lots of people forego valve adjustments on these cars, but it seemed odd that they’d never done one. My motor has perfect leakdown (with tight valve clearances), so I don’t really want to just say “ah screw it, I’ll save my money for when the engine blows.” Anyways. I liked the shop otherwise (and they had a shop dog!) but won’t be going to them for everything for my car. I’ll be going back for sure though.

How do you get an appointment with them then? I couldn't do so by phone or email.

I recently moved and they're much closer to me than PRERacing, who I've been using for a few months for my tuning needs and such. I've emailed HMS a couple times without response, called them and gotten a voicemail message, and both Surgeline and PRERacing have told me that HMS is closing. Any idea what's going on over there? Would be a real bummer if they closed right around the time I moved very close to them.

Lowering the car is strictly for aesthetics. Also the AS3+ for me make more sense than two sets of tires. I don’t have a place to store a second set of tires and Portland hardly ever gets any weather worth using snow tires for. If we do, the whole city shuts down. Thanks for letting me know about the sway bar. I bought spacers just in case. I’m unsure of the build date of my car. I’m assuming I could find that with the VIN somewhere? I’ve replaced damn near every piece of rubber in this car. I think the only thing left would be the steering rack bushings after my sway bushings have gone in with my new endlinks. I’ve replaced everything else with OEM rubber for comfort. I’m still running the OEM tire size of 215/45/17 and it’s very comfy. Do wider tires affect ride quality at all? I’m assuming less sidewall is the more obvious thing to worsen ride comfort. I guess I want to not feel like taking a trip to the chiropractor after hitting bumps. If that can be done with a good set of coil overs then I’d be ok with that. I’m not technically-inclined on how to set them up though. I’ve been in a well-maintained NA Legacy wagon and a few LGTs. Most were beat to hell, though the other wagon felt about the same as mine, maybe even more feel in the steering (I’m assuming that’s because the rack bushings were in better shape?). I’m normally a fairly relaxed driver, but the way the car handles from the factory is too sloppy for my liking. Just with the rear endlinks I’m already infinitely happier, and my fronts are still shot, waiting for me to install my new ones. I am not a professional driver, however, thus the whole ordeal where I don’t want to overspend on a suspension setup that I won’t utilize at all.