What did you do to your Outback today? V3

[funnyman06]

Just picked up a Borla catback for the outback. The invidia I had was AWFUL, your ears bleed when in the car and your brain was actively scrambled. Luckily I had saved the stock exhaust but it wont pass inspection, rear flanges at the mufflers are bowed and its a pretty significant exhaust leak. Plus there is a hole in one of the mufflers. Fingers crossed she doesn't drone on the H6 Wagon. Thanks to @chestercopperpot for the exhaust.

[KZJonny]

Ordering a new ball joint for the OBW again. Got the death shimmy when I hit expansion cracks on the highway. Not impressed; my invoice shows I ordered that MOOG ball joint in May of '22.

Roads here aren't exactly great, but they're not THAT bad. No way a properly installed and torqued joing should fail in under 2 years and maybe 10k kms. I don't even drive the car in the summers...

Maybe too early to cry wolf and all, but I personally haven't been having luck with MOOG for a while, and initially figured I got a blue Monday part once in a while, but I suspect I am done paying their prices and expecting quality aftermarket. I'll swap over to something different from now on. Mevotech Supreme maybe or whatever. I'd say OE, but the car is nearly 20 years old and it's just the salt-eater, so it hard to justify the spend on all OE stuff, when most of the aftermarket I've been getting has held up just fine for the application.

Edited January 5 by KZJonny

[xt2005bonbon]

my 05 has 180k+ miles and I only changed these once. Used OEM stuff though.

[KZJonny]

15 minutes ago, xt2005bonbon said:

my 05 has 180k+ miles and I only changed these once. Used OEM stuff though.

Yeah, I get that. The GT gets all the good stuff. ‘555’ ball joints or something good. No expense spared (ish)…

Still, I am sure when I figure out the ‘cost’ of my labour + 2x ball joints + shipping etc… probably could have bought a set of Subaru ball joints.

 

[kzr750r1]

Company 23 Fluidamper wrench finally arrived.

Another set of "race" accessory belts in house. Gates is making them black instead of blue. Overkill for sure.

Radiator is here. Hoses were replaced last year during motor rebuild. Find one spring clamp in the stash and use it. Killer B cooling inlet is a bitch to get the spring clam installed but I did it before... Well do it again.

Need a couple more ATF hoses to replace all in the loop from the bad clamp job the Transmission shop "helped" me with.

Have all the other ATF hoses, clamps and a new ATF filter in house.

Next is make decisions IF I'm going to put wheels on this unit with the new tires. Existing tires are getting close time.

Hoping in the end the initial warmup NVH will be less with this Fluidampner in play.

Edited January 9 by kzr750r1

[kzr750r1]

Well chock up the Fuidamper to the list of things that should have been done a long time ago.

New belts are smooth as well. Using the Gates RPM version... Kevlar reinforced units are now black, not blue.

Less alternator/steering pump noise present.

Zero feedback or learned knock on my errand run yesterday with mixed in town and freeway.

Feels smoother. Go figure.

Nice to see the timing belt in good shape and no belt material chazeled onto the idlers.

Edited January 12 by kzr750r1

[KZJonny]

22 minutes ago, kzr750r1 said:

Well chock up the Fuidamper to the list of things that should have been done a long time ago.

New belts are smooth as well. Using the Gates RPM version... Kevlar reinforced units are not black.

Less alternator/steering pump noise present.

Zero feedback or learned knock on my errand run yesterday with mixed in town and freeway.

Feels smoother. Go figure.

Nice to see the timing belt in good shape and no belt material chazeled onto the idlers.

I've got no skin in that game, but I've definitely recommended the Fluidampr after installing one in my car. It was kind of shocking how much smoother it idles, and I can only imagine that it's doing an equally good job up in the high RPMs where resonant vibrations are likely causing you even more problems. Glad you're enjoying yours.

The odd times I'm living up in the top of the rev range, the last thing on my mind is usually paying attention to how much vibration I can feel through the driveline chassis tho... 

Edited January 12 by KZJonny

[kzr750r1]

It was the low RPM use that I noticed the most. Less NVH, belts didn't hurt either.

Daughter is about to use it to go to work. I'm hoping for a solid report later tonight.

[xt2005bonbon]

She'll get the DAM to drop, you'll see

 

 

Juuuust joking

[kzr750r1]

Keep looking on Craigslist for a decent H6 OB for her. There are a few but most are very high mileage and/or people giving up on small issues.

I need to blow the car apart and finish some activities for long term.

[xt2005bonbon]

Just get her a used crosstrek. no?

[kzr750r1]

Worthy of consideration. Not really interested in CVT or Direct Injection. But seems this ship may have sailed unless I'm looking for a trailer queen.

Drove friend up to El Dorado Hills Toyota to pick up a one owner Scion Xb.

2012 with 75K on the clock was 12K out the door.

[xt2005bonbon]

That's still a lot of money...

I think there are some Crosstrek with manual trans no?

Edit: looks like 2023 was the last year to get an MT for the crosstrek

Edited January 29 by xt2005bonbon

[kzr750r1]

This would fit the bill but don't have that much scratch to throw out there at the moment.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/ctd/d/fremont-2009-subaru-impreza-outback/7703559549.html

[xt2005bonbon]

That's a lot of money for NA. Low miles though..

[kzr750r1]

Anything I'm finding under 100K miles is 5 digits for passenger cars. Seems the same on the entire west coast no matter the brand.

[xt2005bonbon]

Getting ridiculous

[kzr750r1]

Finally found the wheels I've wanted on the car. FastWRX had them in stock apparently.

Ground shipping so it will be a min before they arrive.

Rota Gravel 18x8 +48... May need a 3mm spacer on the front but will see.

Going to spoon on some Pilot Sport A/S 4 245 45 R18 once they come in.

Now looking for a new set of lock lugs.

Edited February 10 by kzr750r1

[kzr750r1]

Just spoke to their tech rep about my plans. Wheels are tracking to be here Friday. Time to get my tires ordered. Then get ready for another alignment true up.

Had some question if a spacer was needed. Went with the 3mm to cover basis, just in case.

So in addition to the lugs needed and covering basis some GT spec (since I've upgraded) Hawk Ceramic pads.

FYI they have the Subaru All weather rubber mats in stock as well. I had worn a hole in mine under the go pedal. Wanted to pull the carpet set before it goes that far.

[jonnyt88]

My 5eat OBXT came with an M/T tune on it.   Over the last couple months I've finally put some time into it.

Got a 5eat base tune on it, then went Cobb Stg2 map....... which then re-enabled the codes for the secondary air pump bypass I didn't know it had...

A buddy thought the engine was replaced at some point with a 12ish WRX engine, so I yanked the DP and yep... VF52.

So now I need to acquire a base tune to utilize a DP + VF52 while I sort the other things out,  get the car inspected, then likely get a proper tune on it.  

Fun fun fun frankenwagen 

 

 

Edited February 14 by jonnyt88

[kzr750r1]

So the air pump codes were bypassed for a delete or bad pump?

Of course Cobb Stg2 is now going to enable all monitors.

That's how there complying at minimum with EPA.

If you don't have a tuner around get ahold Cryotune.

Just get your car in good shape before hand... He'll send you a basemap for your setup and fueling. Do the revisions and fabam...

Edited February 15 by kzr750r1

[jonnyt88]

12 hours ago, kzr750r1 said:

So the air pump codes were bypassed for a delete or bad pump?

Of course Cobb Stg2 is now going to enable all monitors.

That's how there complying at minimum with EPA.

If you don't have a tuner around get ahold Cryotune.

Just get your car in good shape before hand... He'll send you a basemap for your setup and fueling. Do the revisions and fabam...

The air pump was deleted.

I asked over on RomRaider and supposedly ECUflash can't read the Cobb map on my car.  But if that is the case then how can the car read the map? 

I know Cobb has their own map formats that you load onto the AccessPort to make it "user friendly" and proprietary, however the AP must load them into the car in a manner the car can read.  So I'm thinking I can pull it with ECUflash.  Save on lappy as Cobb-Map --> Disable codes,  then load it back on the car.    However to unmarry the access point I may have to relad the "Cobb-Map" I pulled back into the ECU first. 

Long term, I will likely do a Cryotune, but kinda hoping to do the Cobb tune for now.  My Catback flange is breaking off, rear mufflers are rusting out,  Need tires before next winter, and I have 1.5 ebrakes.   Also my inspection expired so I'm hoping someone will let this stuff slide...       

Luckily Jet Ski / porch repair projects are still a few months out.  

[KZJonny]

1 hour ago, jonnyt88 said:

The air pump was deleted.

I asked over on RomRaider and supposedly ECUflash can't read the Cobb map on my car.  But if that is the case then how can the car read the map? 

I know Cobb has their own map formats that you load onto the AccessPort to make it "user friendly" and proprietary, however the AP must load them into the car in a manner the car can read.  So I'm thinking I can pull it with ECUflash.  Save on lappy as Cobb-Map --> Disable codes,  then load it back on the car.    However to unmarry the access point I may have to relad the "Cobb-Map" I pulled back into the ECU first. 

Long term, I will likely do a Cryotune, but kinda hoping to do the Cobb tune for now.  My Catback flange is breaking off, rear mufflers are rusting out,  Need tires before next winter, and I have 1.5 ebrakes.   Also my inspection expired so I'm hoping someone will let this stuff slide...       

Luckily Jet Ski / porch repair projects are still a few months out.  

Effectively, "no" to the above.

The maps are locked to viewing, and you can't edit a COBB map to disable codes. The access has been removed from AccessTunerPro if you ever had it in the past to begin with. Just because the ECM can 'see' it, does not mean you can.

I also suspect that Cryotune will require that the 2ndary air pump is installed and functional to tune the car. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I was told expicitly that I cannot use the rear O2 sensor spot to input AFR data for tuning, becuase that sensor MUST be in place and functioning. (this was like, weeks ago, so very recently)

 

Perhaps this is different if the same people are savvy about tuning on OS, but if you want to work with a COBB tuner now, you've got to have all emissions gear in place and functional.

[kzr750r1]

You'll have to talk to Cryo over the phone and see if he can go OS, believe it was an option a long time ago... All depends on what state your in and intended configuration AP delete may be an issue, dunno, they will. These guys have been getting pinched pretty hard. Call. Talk to them about your goals and options. Was really happy with our interaction.

[kzr750r1]

Alignment check up tomorrow afternoon. Going to test some more for rub tonight and confirm no spacers needed. Lock to lock no issue only seen some possible rub under compression on the rear inner fender that I may live with for now.

It's tight! But looks like this combo will worK as I've hoped.