lagwagon

I resprayed my rust repair with "color matched" paint, lol. First, it wrinkled on top of the paint from last week and I had to sand everything back to primer, second, it looks more like Newport Blue* than Atlantic Blue. Oh well. I also dropped my 10-mm inside the rear quarter and spent two sessions fishing it out. Finally got it with two magnets, one flexy, and one telescopic. I am probably more happy about fishing out the socket than the paint. *The darker color actually looks nicer, I'd say. Maybe that is what I'll get it repainted with when I get the panel cut out.

My 07 has a sunroof and it occasionally makes a popping/gear stripping type noise. I haven't had it looked at since I hate sunroofs and don't use it (and told my wife not to use it anymore). It is significantly louder than my 05 with no sunroof. Haven't had any leaks but the car is in a garage all year.

I couldn't get a can of 33A made up until this week so I used some off the shelf Dupli-color and 1K clear. I'm going to redo it this weekend with the 33A with 1K clear mixed in instead of separate 2K since the rust is coming through the panel and probably will bubble in the next 6 months regardless of what I do. I had the paint mixed at a local supply shop and wet it looks pretty close, slightly darker, so we'll see how it looks when it's on and dry. I have a carbon grill that I might spray with it as well, since the clear on it has failed. I'll have to sand that and see if I can get it smooth enough. Not looking good though as I think there are cracks through the resin all the way to the carbon.

I did the same corner on the same ABP color wagon this weekend, but the POR-15 wouldn't harden after a full day and I needed to get it done for this morning so now it's just etch primer, high build primer, paint and clear. There were 5 tiny pin pricks of rust that I couldn't grind out without going through and I don't have the skills (or tools) to do a cut out like you did. I'm hoping this gets me through the winter without any bubbling and then I can have a shop do the cut and weld next year.

Few things I did over the weekend: Took apart the glove box since it wasn't staying closed. Found out there was a missing screw clip on the lower left hand side so I stole the one off the console decorative trim piece as its still held in by the shifter surround. Everything seems to be working now after adjusting the latch loop and putting in that extra screw. Replaced the front swaybar bushings and one end link with a nice part from Great North Performance. Unfortunately, the old Kartboy end link was installed without washers and the steel sleeve is seized to the bolt and the two pieces are stuck on the swaybar. I cobbled together the best bushings and put it back together and it will go to the shop on Thursday to be cut out, or replaced with the other bar I have. Studded tires are in at the shop so I need to drop off winter wheels this morning to get them mounted. I haven't driven studded tires since the early 2000s so I'm excited to see how good they are on icy highways.

There are usually multiple manual BH5s for sale in BC and Alberta so I can't imagine incurring the cost to swap the transmission. Just buy a different car. Try to get a Rev D, and get it tuned for the fuel in the area you live (lower mainland, interior etc.) There is a company that sells e-tunes specific to these cars and BC or Alberta gas. If you are really dead set on the swap, there are threads on other sites that have pretty complete rundowns, but the wiring/electronics are not for a beginner.

Installed the KYB strut plus rear shocks on my wife’s car. Install went ok other than the bolt in the knuckle adjacent the shock bolt was the wrong way around so I couldn’t get a socket on the shock nut on the drivers side. The new mounts do not use a dog point stud so with 1/4” spacers there is full thread engagement. The new springs have a full extra coil on them and the rear is sitting 2” higher than it was before so hopefully it settles a bit but I can’t see more than an inch of settlement occurring. The rear actually sits higher than the front now (rake). Ride quality seems pretty good. Much better than what I put on the front a couple years ago. Considering these are meant for a sedan I’m not sure how well they would work in that application. Don’t sedan springs usually lower the rear of a wagon?

I recently had what I think was a bad tank of Shell 91. Within 50-km of highway driving my DAM had dropped from 1.0 to 0.0, FKL was in the low to mid teens and FKC was ranging into the low teens. I pulled 5 degrees of timing and diluted the fuel as soon as I could. I didn't reset or reflash and drove conservatively to see how quickly things would go back to normal. It took two full tanks of PetroCanada 94 to get back to DAM of 1. FKL got to all zeros and the only FKC I saw was while letting out the clutch in 1st gear. I started adjusting the timing back to zero one degree at a time. When I got back to zero, FKL went up to -0.7 in some cells around 2300 rpm so I pulled 1 degree and so far FKL has stayed at 0 everywhere. It can be helpful to watch what is happening instead of just doing a reset right away since atmospheric conditions, traffic etc. could be fine for a return to DAM of 1.0 very quickly but maybe not on average for your total driving in a given day/week/month and you could do damage while it is adjusting back down.

I ordered the newly released KYB rear "strut-plus" shocks from RockAuto and they should be here in about a week. They are listed as a sedan application and I am installing them in a wagon so we will see how bad they sag. I do have 1/4" spacers I can throw on (and probably will right away) but if they are sagging too much I may try those LESJÖFORS springs they sell, instead of going with a larger spacer. Has anybody else tried the new "strut-plus" assemblies in a wagon?

Thanks Marshall!

Hopefully somebody can help with an answer, I have searched but haven't found this - if I use the ignition retard feature from the menus in the Accessport, does that setting get held through key on/off cycles or does it reset each time the car is shut off? Also, does it reset each time that menu section is accessed? Every time I go to that section is shows zero, making me think it resets at every key cycle and also every time the menu is accessed. Thanks Cobb AP gurus!

If you are going with an OEM shortblock, check Heuberger as well. Their list price for the short block is $1936+shipping for an EJ255 so you might save a couple hundred on the short block and still be able to order the installation kit from Crawford.

My only concern with a canned tune and the 6mt is if the clutch will hold up. I've seen lots of complaints of slipping clutches in tuned GTIs and even stock Rs whereas the DSG versions seem to have little to no problems up into the 400 HP range.

Under the conditions you have described, I would look at sway bar end links (if you hadn't already replaced them) and body bushings first, then tie rods (if it's coming from the front end) or control arm bushings (if it's coming from the rear end, especially the upper control arms as they can get very noisy while still looking ok). Sometimes you can isolate the noise by pushing the top of the tire in (alternate sides each couple of pushes). Axle noises can usually be replicated by driving in circles at full lock in a parking lot, and happen regardless of bumps, so test that out as well as it's super easy to do.

If it's any consolation, even though 5mt wagons are getting more rare, I don't think they are going up in price, at least not up here in Canada. I paid $6k CAD ($4800 USD) for mine with 150,000 miles (243,000 km) Your car is pretty awesome, I would love to make my car like yours, but up here I'd be lucky to sell that car for $10k CAD, simply because it's a Legacy and not a WRX. I know that modifying cars is always a losing proposition but I can't stomach that much loss these days. Also, good choice on the VW, I've been looking at 2019 Sportwagens as they are available with under 30,000 kms for less than 23k CAD right now (unfortunately DSG is really all that's available, and most are white). Alltracks are not easy to find up here, even though it would be a slightly better ski car for the family.

I've run KYB, Koni with King springs and Bilstein B8 with STI pinks (current setup). I would say the Bilstein HDs (B6 & B8) feel like they have significantly higher high speed damping than the Konis (i.e. they feel much more harsh than the Konis). I would be shocked (no pun) if the OEM Bilsteins have anywhere close to the same damping forces as the HDs. I just can't imagine people accepting the level of "comfort" from the HDs off the showroom floor. I did have the Konis and Bilsteins installed on two different GT wagons at the same time, so I was able to drive them back to back, and the Konis were much more comfortable feeling, with the same Whiteline sway bars on both cars. I then swapped the Bilsteins to the other car and replaced the Konis with OEM stuff. Mostly the difference is in high speed damping (bumps/cracks), I doubt there is much difference in low speed damping (actual cornering/transitions). Even if there is a difference, you won't notice it on the street, unless you are getting silly. TLDR: I didn't notice much difference between OEM KYBs and Koni/King combo but noticed a large difference between both and the Bilstein B8/Pinks combo.

I'm surprised there are no Bilstein recommendations and almost all Koni recommendations. Are people not buying Bilsteins anymore? I ran Konis and OEM KYBs back to back and even with King springs on the Konis there was no major difference in comfort or handling. If those were my two options I'd just stick with the KYBs and not deal with the hassle of cutting a set of struts (if yours are even in good enough shape to do that). Where I live, it's almost a guarantee you'll need new strut bodies to cut up as anything still on the road is rusty, and there aren't that many Legacys in junk yards. JDM Bilsteins are a cheaper used option (they are usually around $400CAD here) vs $900CAD for a set of new Bilstein B6 shocks and struts with no springs, front perches or mounts.

Have Vex do the timing belt and initial maintenance, they seem pretty good about having the correct JDM-compatible parts on hand. Talk to Airboy about a tune, especially since Husky 94 is no longer available, Chevron 94 has low availability (and some mixed results) and Petro 94 seems worse than Shell 91.

Nothing I really did today but I did get a wheel alignment yesterday after replacing the inner and outer right side tie-rod ends and it seems my shake at idle is almost completely gone. Not sure why that would happen since I think I've narrowed the shake down to motor mounts. Maybe the rack was loose and they tightened it up??? In more important news, RockAuto is now carrying KYB Strut-Plus (front and rear). This is KYB's version of a quick strut type deal, fully assembled and ready to go. They are the most expensive quick strut option at about $600CAD +shipping for all four corners, but I still think that's pretty good.

To answer the question of how do OEM springs wear - I broke a front spring at about 170,000 km. It was not excessively rusty, still had 95% of the original paint. I would replace the springs, if I were you, with either OEM or aftermarket.

I removed my wood "Personal" shift knob and installed the stock shift knob. The Personal knob is not weighted and the trim ring comes loose and rattles, which is super annoying. I do like the shape better than the stock knob though so I may be in the market for some sort of round, weighted, non-heat transferring knob. Titanium doesn't transfer heat well, right?

You can do a couple of things - come up with some neoprene covers for the threaded sections, much like coilover covers, or spray the threaded sections with lithium grease periodically (the kind meant for garage door wheels works well). You could use a coating of anti-seize but that would be hand applied, not sprayed, and you would need to pull your wheels off to reapply whereas the spray on grease could be done with the wheels on. Personally, since I drive so little, I just make sure to wash my car every week, regardless of cleanliness, and spray the underside as best I can (none of the washes near me have the drive-over underspray thing or the roller attachment for the wand). This was winter #2 on KTA124 for me, but in Calgary we don't use calcium chloride, still sodium chloride and beet juice pickle spray and everything looks pretty good. If your town uses calcium chloride, I would step up cleaning and coating and maybe plan to pull your wheels every three or four weeks until you figure out how long the grease is staying on.

2005:I replaced the vacuum line from the intake to the FPR as the old one was slipping off the intake manifold with very little force. Seems to have made a difference to fuel trims and low rpm vibrations. I'm sure there are many other vacuum lines that are similarly hard and cracking internally, so I might start going through them and replacing them when I have the time.

It sounds like the sensors are failing due to some sort of fouling or an electrical issue. Fouling could be due to a very minor head gasket leak (oil or coolant into cylinders) or something that you might be doing in routine maintenance, like using a sealant or cleaner that is not safe for the sensor. Electrical could be something like a bad ground or other damage to the harness. If your mech has tested the harness and found nothing wrong, it could be a small enough section of wire damage that you might have to strip the loom back to find it.

Not specifically, I guess call it a happy alignment. I was more of a BR, Pennywise, AFI, Face to Face fan, not to say I don’t like Lagwagon (I do) but I wasn’t thinking of the band when I chose the name.