What did you do to your 4th gen. Legacy today? Vol - 10

[KZJonny]

On 5/24/2025 at 7:15 PM, KZJonny said:

Thought I wrapped up the CVs and driveline, plus the bash guard, etc...

Turbo and exhaust blankets are in, + heat sheild. Figured I would fill the gear oil before installing the intercooler, and started pouring it in... only to hear/see it pouring out on the floor....

Guess I either damaged the axle seal reinstalling the CV or it had just had enough from presumably 20 years of service and a couple of CV changes over the years.

Two steps forward, one step back. Ordered a new one from RA, but apparently it will take forever to get here, so fingers crossed the dealership either has one, or it will come in next day from the local parts warehouse.

Weather is garbage anyway, and there is still a stripped XT in my driveway, so it's not the end of the world, but I swear, I can taste the boost waiting for me when I finally get this thing back on the road. Old car life.

In a reversal from my usual fortunes, the local dealership actually has oil seals in stock!
So while double the price of the one that Rockauto will get to me in another week and a half, I can have it today, and it should probably last another 15 years in the car, provided I don't ruin it when re-installing the CV. Wooo!

Almost one month exactly until the ECM on the south shore of the Lake Erie, and it would be nice to have put some kms on the transmission before that, so if we find some windy roads, I can have a litte fun.

[GearJamr]

Got my new rad cap.  Radium 1.5 bar.  Perhaps overkill, but it's new, and it took some effort to get it twisted on, so should seal better than the old one that was easier to remove than a twist cap brewsky.

Old on the left, new on the right.  Ignore the colour, that's from the uv dye. 

Side view.  The radium cap on the right is clearly longer, so fingers crossed it should seal it up nicely.

And engine bay bling shot.  Levels were still pretty good even after having the young lad out driving for manual trans practice on saturday.  

Tomorrow hoping on replacing the wipers and front wiper arms with the units I reconditioned.  Assuming that goes well, will test the repaired HID kit I have, clean up the assemblies and install.

[KZJonny]

I don't mean to piss in anyone's cheerios, but..... the cap with wings should be on the turbo swirl pot, not the raditator.

The radiator is mean to have the cap that is just round..... no wings to grip on to. The pressure rating isn't quite the same. (believe it is higher?) In any case, it's all a bit academic at this point, but just so you know.

Radium cap looks very nice.  I would consider something like that purely because it is more blacker than caution tape orange, but whatever. I have 1 year old Subaru OE caps on there now, so I think I'll just keep them.

[KZJonny]

Quick survey.

Who would not buy a low mile STi 6MT with a bad third gear synchro for ~$500 USD?

Found one local to me, and I think for the price, it's worth it just to grab the fron LSD and DCCD then keep the rest as spare parts.... I mean. Throw the Spec B 6th gear on the stacks, and I get a whole second set of gears that have reasonable ratios.

I am 100% just not giving up the Spec highway gear.

[Ashtone]

Happy birthday to ME.

Quick Jack 5000. They’re having a 20% off sale right now. With 20% off this was around $1650.00.

[KZJonny]

1 minute ago, Ashtone said:

Happy birthday to ME.

Quick Jack 5000. They’re having a 20% off sale right now. With 20% off this was around $1650.00.

I LOVE mine, even tho it has been superceded by the hoist.

Nice to see that they've carried with some changes to it's layout and the splitter block. Mine is not as nice, and also pissed ATF from one connector whenever I lift with it. (Do not leave this thing overtop anything you do not want to maybe get covered in ATF one day.)

Enjoy dude. It make many jobs a pleasure instead of a pain.

[ppk326]

7 hours ago, KZJonny said:

From the second photo, I would guess that something is either straight up broken, or not mounted correctly for your low beam projector. Maybe the adjustment screw is actually just that far out, but I would suspect that you may have to either take apart and repair the lens or replace it maybe?

Plugs were oily on the tips? the outside? both? I would assume you mean the tips, but you never know, and the plug well seals are a common failure point, so it could could be either or both.

Tips and a little bit on the threads.

I went ahead and fucked around with the headlights some more, found out the clamp that holds the bulb in place is broken off and whoever did it decided universal tape is good enough (it was in its place, fwiw). I think the issue with the beam level was that the motor was seated at the incorrect angle, so when you would adjust to the correct beam height, the motor assembly would pop itself out, but after reseating it, beam looks good. At this point I should probably call the previous owner and tell him to find a new shop / mechanic. Did the rear brakes as well today and yeah... That's where that noise was coming from...

Edited May 26 by ppk326
Looked like it was written while having a stroke.

[bmart]

Any of you guys ever check the rotor temp on your brakes after normal driving? My import is HOT (550+F) on the rear, but all of my other seem normal (97F-212F). Diving into that this week. Interestingly, all of the rears are a higher temp than the fronts. 

[Gex]

No Legacy updates. Camel remains epic. Got some fresh new company in the garage however. 

[Code]

Oh my.  That’s pretty special.  Details? 

[KZJonny]

6 hours ago, GearJamr said:

Got my new rad cap.  Radium 1.5 bar.  Perhaps overkill, but it's new, and it took some effort to get it twisted on, so should seal better than the old one that was easier to remove than a twist cap brewsky.

Old on the left, new on the right.  Ignore the colour, that's from the uv dye. 

Side view.  The radium cap on the right is clearly longer, so fingers crossed it should seal it up nicely.

And engine bay bling shot.  Levels were still pretty good even after having the young lad out driving for manual trans practice on saturday.  

Tomorrow hoping on replacing the wipers and front wiper arms with the units I reconditioned.  Assuming that goes well, will test the repaired HID kit I have, clean up the assemblies and install.

Confirmed.

Part of your problem may be that you had the caps on the wrong places.

30kpa is not the end of the world, but may go some way to explaining the rad cap leaking under load.

[KZJonny]

GT is all back together and ready for shakedown. Now, to clean the driveway and get her back on the road.

Also: Slightly embarrassing realization. If you're filling the gearbox with a long skinny funnel, which you kind of have to, pouring too much oil into it can cause some to leak from the junction between the funnel and this fill tube on the gearbox.

This will look like you have a bad axle seal as the runs down the tube, and directly over the CV axle stub before hitting the floor.

On the plus side, I now have a brand-new OE axle seal on that side.

Lesson learned.

[Gex]

14 hours ago, Code said:

Oh my.  That’s pretty special.  Details? 

Bone stock 1999 R34 GTR Vspec with 17,000 miles. It’s a brand new 26 year old car. So minty. 

[GearJamr]

21 hours ago, KZJonny said:

I don't mean to piss in anyone's cheerios, but..... the cap with wings should be on the turbo swirl pot, not the raditator.

The radiator is mean to have the cap that is just round..... no wings to grip on to. The pressure rating isn't quite the same. (believe it is higher?) In any case, it's all a bit academic at this point, but just so you know.

Radium cap looks very nice.  I would consider something like that purely because it is more blacker than caution tape orange, but whatever. I have 1 year old Subaru OE caps on there now, so I think I'll just keep them.

I'm aware the rad cap is normally round.  1) it isn't the OE rad, 2) the cap that was on it came with the new rad, 3) the cap is a higher pressure rating, but for how I drive normally it shouldn't make a difference.  Maybe my impatience will bite me in the @$$, maybe it'll be completely fine.  

[GearJamr]

14 hours ago, KZJonny said:

Confirmed.

Part of your problem may be that you had the caps on the wrong places.

30kpa is not the end of the world, but may go some way to explaining the rad cap leaking under load.

I do not.  The original winged cap is still on the turbo reservoir.  As stated in my other post, the winged cap I had came with the new rad.  That said, the old cap was only rated to 16 psi = 110 kPa = 1.1 bar.  Mr Google says stock pressure is 18 psi/1.3 bar.  New cap is rated at 1.5 bar/21.7 psi.  Should cover it.

Edited May 27 by GearJamr

[Febreze Mee]

Stepped up from 235s to 265s. I'm not giddy about the wheel color, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. 

 

23 hours ago, Gex said:

No Legacy updates. Camel remains epic. Got some fresh new company in the garage however. 

Nice work! Congratulations!

[rhino6303]

7 hours ago, GearJamr said:

I do not.  The original winged cap is still on the turbo reservoir.  As stated in my other post, the winged cap I had came with the new rad.  That said, the old cap was only rated to 16 psi = 110 kPa = 1.1 bar.  Mr Google says stock pressure is 18 psi/1.3 bar.  New cap is rated at 1.5 bar/21.7 psi.  Should cover it.

 

7 hours ago, GearJamr said:

I'm aware the rad cap is normally round.  1) it isn't the OE rad, 2) the cap that was on it came with the new rad, 3) the cap is a higher pressure rating, but for how I drive normally it shouldn't make a difference.  Maybe my impatience will bite me in the @$$, maybe it'll be completely fine.  

You may be fine, yes, but it isn't a pressure thing for why they are different.

The expansion tank by the turbo has a 2 way valve, while the radiator itself has only a 1 way valve.

 

Edited May 27 by rhino6303
added info from fsm..

[GearJamr]

I drove the car yesterday and no overheating.  I'll run it this way for now.  It's not leaking and that's the goal for now.

I'm not sure why Subaru would call the radiator cap the cap for the "filler tank" and not for, you know, the radiator.

[GearJamr]

Yesterday, put on my reconditioned wiper arms with new wipers.  Cleaned the windshield, clay barred the windshield and put on a layer of rain-x.  Today plan to change the rear wiper (got the wrong size) and change the oil.  If motivation remains, I'll clean up the engine ground connections on the rear of the tgv.

[TomahawkLabs]

I rebuilt my OEM front axels with a little coaching from @KZJonny. Both axels were pretty easy to rebuild. Adding grease to the rollers really helps with keeping them put when installing the outer cup. Hopefully will get them and my new wheel bearing installed tomorrow and I can drive it around to ensure everything is good before I swap the power steering pump.

[NORULZleggy]

On 5/27/2025 at 4:58 PM, Febreze Mee said:

Stepped up from 235s to 265s. I'm not giddy about the wheel color, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. 

 

Nice work! Congratulations!

Do you have spacers? How did you fit 265's? what is the wheels and tire setup?

[GearJamr]

Discovered my hatch has decided to stop functioning normally.  Endless with this car.

[NoOne1223]

4 hours ago, GearJamr said:

Discovered my hatch has decided to stop functioning normally.  Endless with this car.

Hatch lights/wiper? If so, it's just the harness on the passenger side that needs repair/replacement! easy job, albeit mildly annoying

[Febreze Mee]

8 hours ago, NORULZleggy said:

Do you have spacers? How did you fit 265's? what is the wheels and tire setup?

 

[TomahawkLabs]

Everything started off smooth as it does. Axel came out, bolts coming out, get to the knuckle to replace the wheel bearing hub and 3/4 bolts are rounded, very tight getting any of them loose. This is a project for tomorrow after I can get the bolts extracted and some new bolts purchased (hoping the local dealer or Macs has 4 new bolts). Also seemingly drained my front differential fluid during the axel removal, need to source some new diff fluid before I can drive it. 
 

I was able to swap the axel on the passenger side in about 30 minutes. Rotated the tires as well since I haven’t yet. Interestingly I will be taking my car back to Costco to have them remove whatever is inside my tire (not the tread or sidewall, in the air space between the wheel and rubber) because I can hear a rattle coming from that wheel. Never a dull moment working on cars in the rusty Midwest. 
 

Once I get the hub bolts removed it should be less than an hour to button it back up. Gonna take these axels back to the auto parts store to see if they warranty it.