FJuan Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Me too! I'm curious if this warranty that I bought for the car is legit or is snake oil. Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk Common on now, you bought the car from CT08, there is no warranty. My wife's balls are delicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 It's been awhile since I've updated this thread! @ 73,578 miles and I've been doing a few things here and there since last months post. Today I started tearing down the front end suspension to install some Whiteline goodies and replace the front passenger axle. I had to stop work because of rain, and needing to order some replacement bolts before I put everything back together. The bolts under this car have lived a harsh life in CT. I'm thankful that none of them decided to shear off inside the front cross member. I won't be reinstalling any of the bolts I've removed so far. They are going to be replaced with some new ones. Replaced Windshield Wipers With Bosch ICONSReplaced Side Marker LED Switchback Bulbs for Regular Amber BulbsInstalled JDM Engine CoversAdjusted the Tarmac Coilover SettingsAccumulated an S Load of parts Started Installing the Whiteline Roll Center Kit (KCA313)Started Installing the Whiteline Steering Rack Bushings (KSR207) Replaced Windshield Wipers With Bosch ICONS The wipers stopped cleanly wiping off the window so it was time for them to get replaced. I picked up Bosch ICONS because they've always been good to me in the past. Replaced Side Marker LED Switchback Bulbs for Regular Amber Bulbs The side marker bulbs that the car came with are LED switchbacks. They illuminate white as a side marker and when you activate the turn signal they blink amber. I'm not a fan of the look of white LEDs as side markers and prefer the amber look, so I switched them out for some regular 3757 bulbs The switchbacks will be for sale soon. Some folks have already PM'd me about them It looks like there is a resistor (to reduce light intensity from LEDs) in the headlights wiring harness and I'll have to pull that out so to the bulbs illuminate correctly. Installed JDM Engine Covers So I bought these because I've always wanted to buy a set when I had my '06 LGT and I never did end up buying them. I picked up this set from AVOJDM.com. It cleans up the engine bay a bit. There are two covers, one that covers the power steering reservoir, and the second that covers the battery and windshield washing fluid reservoir. <insert picture here> Adjusted the Tarmac Coilover Settings When I installed the Tarmacs in October, I was utterly disappointed in their performance. I knew something was wrong with the setup. When I had these on my old '06 LGT, they felt amazing. I've been hoping that my 5-6 year old memory of the Tarmacs wasn't a figment of my imagination. I called Racecomp for some assistance on the default settings as shipped and they said, to try the middle rebound settings, adjust height as desired and work from there. That really didn't help me much at all. The rear was really under dampened and I was getting a see-saw effect when I hit bumps. I posted on the forum and got my first bit of info on properly setting these things up. I set up dampening up front at 7 clicks from full soft and I set the rears at 9 clicks from full soft. That improved the ride tremendously, but it still didn't feel right. After putting about 500 miles on it I was really contemplating on just purchasing a stock setup. I thought I had my springs compressed too far. It just seemed really stiff. I reached out to a few people to see how their height was setup. I went with some of the secret sauce from LatentWagen for the height settings. I counted 18 threads up front below the locking collar. I counted 14 threads at the rear below the locking collar. Before adjusting my suspension I fully expected to wind down the locking collars to loosen them up. Instead, I only had to tighten the rear by 3 threads. The fronts were set perfect on the first install. I also went ahead and pulled out the rear bump stops. Those three threads must have adjusted the front and rear weight distribution. I instantly realized that the feeling I was experiencing before was that all the rear end was doing a lot of the work. Now, the front end feels like it's doing what it should be doing along with the rear. It feels balanced. I'm happy with my Tarmacs now. - Springs: 400 lbs Front and 400 lbs Rear - spec.B top hats Front and Rear - Front Rebound: 7 clicks from full soft - Rear Rebound: 9 clicks from full soft - Front Height: 18 threads exposed below collar - Rear Height: 14 threads exposed below collar I'm thinking I should cut that bumpstop to about a 1/2 inch in length and put it back in. Accumulated an S Load of parts See the list HERE Started Installing the Whiteline Roll Center Kit (KCA313) I remember the hell I went through when installing this on my '06 LGT. This time I made sure I had a specialty tool to help with the job. I purchased a Snap-On BJR1 Subaru Ball Joint Remover a month back in prep for this jerb. It absolutely worked as designed. Just follow the step by step instructions that come with the tool It took me about 30 minutes to pop it off. It would have been sooner but I had to wrestle with keeping the knuckle assembly (caliper, rotor, coilover, etc.) stable while torquing the hell out of the ball joint remover tool. I wouldn't have had to wrestle with the assembly if I unbolted the entire thing from the car and put it on a bench vice. But removing the entire knuckle would have taken a lot longer than the time I had just wrestling. I used a couple of bungee cords and a ratcheting tie down to help too I didn't finish the install because it: 1) started to rain 2) the bolt that holds the ball joint in the knuckle was too corroded to put back in the knuckle. I'm so thankful that the bolt didn't break off in the knuckle when I tried to remove it. Yea... I'm not reusing that. mmmkaay? Thanks! Started Installing the Whiteline Steering Rack Bushings (KSR207) This is a pretty straight forward install. I didn't get to finish this install because it started to rain and I had to clean up. All of the bolts were used to mount the support frame that surrounds the steering rack (same frame you use as the front center jack point) were severely corroded. Two of them snapped off, thank god these were the nut/bolt combo. All of the lines and the fittings appeared to be severely corroded as well. Just to be safe, I ordered a bunch of replacement lines, bolts, and nuts. I might as well replace these now while I'm in there than have to do all the work all over again in a few years. <insert picture here> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnusonsubie Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 I'm so glad my car isn't rusty. I pulled my ball joints out without the fancy tool. 2005 Vader Wagon Material Tests on Ringland Failure Piston I should have held off and purchased a wagon instead of the spec.B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegacyDan Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 clean up them bolts with a wire bush and stop bitchin'! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 I'm so glad my car isn't rusty. I pulled my ball joints out without the fancy tool. I'm so jelly. The rust really bothers me. I want to just replace the entire bottom end. clean up them bolts with a wire bush and stop bitchin'! I'll send you the bolts so you can use them when you return your car to stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnusonsubie Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Just get a wire wheel and it will clean those right up. This summer I took apart exhaust on a ship built in 1996. Talk about rusty bolts. Took them to the machine shop and hit them on the wire wheel and they looked brand new. 2005 Vader Wagon Material Tests on Ringland Failure Piston I should have held off and purchased a wagon instead of the spec.B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegacyDan Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 I'm so jelly. The rust really bothers me. I want to just replace the entire bottom end. I'll send you the bolts so you can use them when you return your car to stock Once you pay shipping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBlack-V Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Tl;dr cliff notes please You have a rusty under carriage.... I was 0. And I'm still a zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Just get a wire wheel and it will clean those right up. This summer I took apart exhaust on a ship built in 1996. Talk about rusty bolts. Took them to the machine shop and hit them on the wire wheel and they looked brand new. If it wasn't for parts of the threads missing too, then I might reuse them. I need to clean out the threads on the front crossmember with a thread tap tool before I reinstall everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Wire wheel will accelerate the problem, even if you use anti-seize. The factory bolts are coated and the wire wheel will take it down to bare steel which will rust even worse. The amount of time you will spend trying to get each bolt cleaned up is well worth ponying up for new OEM hardware. I started using the wire wheel to "maintain" hardware on my car way back in '06 and started having to replace it as early as '10, or whenever I next had to remove the nut/bolt. Now it's all OEM or stainless depending on application. This last major overhaul I had all brackets/subframes/braces etc. powdercoated and replaced all the hardware. Well worth it. The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Good to hear, UD. Maybe I'll save the overhaul of the suspension subframes for fall of next year ---- I'm thinking that I should replace the Stanza trunk lip spoiler with something with some solid mounting... S402 trunk lip spolier Or maybe replace it with a K2 Gear trunk lip spoiler... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris GTO TT Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 I like the S402 mostly because it moves the high mounted brake light to where it should be. Then you can just remove the bulb from the one on the rear deck. 2003 Baja 5MT 2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xAgyex Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Kick ass build thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted December 6, 2015 Author Share Posted December 6, 2015 @ 73,578 miles (car hasn't moved an inch) and I started finishing up a few things that I started last week and did a few new things. I still haven't received a bunch of Subaru parts I that ordered on Black Friday so it's going to sit for another week until those things come in. 95% complete with installing the Whiteline Roll Center kit95% complete with installing the Whiteline Steering Rack Bushing KitInstalled the GrimmSpeed IntakeInstalled a Group-N Transmission MountFlashed a Stage 2 tune from Tuning Alliance 95% complete with installing the Whiteline Roll Center kit I've finished this up for the most part. The only thing left is to torque down the castle nuts, install the cotter pins, and install the bolt that secures the ball joint in the knuckle. When installing the ball joints I thought I had ordered the wrong set because they wouldn't fit in the control arm properly. It turned out that there is an metal adapter collar that I had to remove from the old ball joints and reuse. It took me about 30 minutes to figure that out after re-reading the instructions that came with the kit. The install went just fine and went as outlined in their install instructions, http://www.whiteline.com.au/instruction/Z370_KCA313.pdf 95% complete with installing the Whiteline Steering Rack Bushing Kit All the bushings have been replaced. I'm a bit disappointed that they changed the bushing color from yellow to black, but ohh well. I have to bolt the rack back in and torque everything to spec. I'm waiting on some replacement bolts that I ordered before I tighten everything down. The install went just fine and went as outlined in their install instructions, http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/install_guides/Z311-B.pdf Installed a Group-N Transmission Mount I installed this to get rid of some slop in the drivetrain. This is significantly more ridged in comparison to the stock unit. I found this video showing just how much flex is in the stock transmission mount vs the group-n one. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgzB6euRuoY]Sti Group N transmission Mount & Whiteline bushings for '14 Wrx. - YouTube[/ame] During the process of removing the transmission brace to install this, I decided to order up some Whiteline bushings to replace the very soft and mushy bushings on the brace. I ordered Whitelines Front Gearbox - positive shift bushing kit (KDT901) I installed the GrimmSpeed Intake I removed the Cobb SF intake and replaced it with a GrimmSpeed intake. The Cobb one will be up for sale soon Why did I replace it? Mostly for aesthetics in the engine bay. <insert new pic of engine bay!> Installation of the intake does require a re-tune which leads me to... I flashed a Stage 2 tune from Tuning Alliance Since purchasing the car, there has always been some hesitation under light load/partial throttle situations. I'm in a light load/partial throttle situation 99% of the time. After reading comments in THIS THREAD, I decided I should give it a try. I haven't had the chance to take the car out to pull logs and send them back for his analysis for revisions to the tune. I hope to get that done sometime next week once I finish up with working on the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatentWagen Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 A for effort and content, Peter! LW's spec. B / YT / IG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RckyMtnGT Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 you've covered just about everything in here! Looks awesome. Interested to hear your thoughts on the WL roll center kit, and the Group N trans mount. I know NVH is subjective, but no one wants a rattle trap (well...I dont, I think I'm getting old, tho). Get it rolling soon and post results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BarManBean Posted December 7, 2015 Moderators Share Posted December 7, 2015 A groupN trans mount is an amazing return on investment with zero NVH increase in my experience. "Bullet-proof" your OEM TMIC! <<Buy your kit here>> Not currently in stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhitter Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 A groupN trans mount is an amazing return on investment with zero NVH increase in my experience. Interesting. My experience was GroupN engine mounts + transmission mount increased NVH. Didn't make it rattle, but brought in a lot more transmission noise. My OBXT build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BarManBean Posted December 7, 2015 Moderators Share Posted December 7, 2015 Interesting. My experience was GroupN engine mounts + transmission mount increased NVH. Didn't make it rattle, but brought in a lot more transmission noise. Must be the engine mounts, IMO. Adding just a trans mount to my previous 5mt did sqaut in terms of NVH. "Bullet-proof" your OEM TMIC! <<Buy your kit here>> Not currently in stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 So the Group N transmission mount that I installed was for a 5mt not a 6mt. I installed the right one today. Who wants to buy a practically new Group-N mount for a 5mt, $40 plus shipping. As I went to install the Whiteline transmission crossmember bushings... I broke another bolt, inside one of the crossmembers and it ended up being a bolt I didn't even have to remove. Car is gonna be down for another week until I extract that bolt and clean the threads or re-tap. It's a bolt that holds that stupid little weight on that crossmember. Do I even need that weight? I did end up replacing the passenger side axle today. I'm going to clean up the old axle, reboot it, and keep it around for when the next one goes bad. I'm still waiting for all these stupid bolts to finally arrive from CT. It should be up and running by next weekend unless I decide to install something else and break more bolts and nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Is that the Hicksta approach? Taking off bolts at random until the part falls off? That rubber piece is supposed to be a cushion, but for the life of me I can't imagine what it is cushioning. The crossmember deflects a bit on the bench, but even then it's not bad, and when it's bolted to the car...? The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 I totally Hicksta'd it! I took it apart to practice surface prep and application of POR15. That stuff takes forever to dry and can get messy pretty quickly. I used latex gloves and still managed to get it on my hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 POR15 is great but yes - makes a mess. Why not powder coat? The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 POR15 is great but yes - makes a mess. Why not powder coat? I could have but the rust spots on the brace were pretty small. It was overall in pretty good shape so I just did some spot touch ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted December 20, 2015 Author Share Posted December 20, 2015 Too cold to do any work on the car at any length. My garage is not insulated. I did do one install today of part number... 35022VA000 Myyy PRECIOUSSS!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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