Another Colorado Legacy, 2010 GT

[pdsd16]

Starting this as a journal and forum for talking about the new (to me) Legacy GT.

 

My name is Dan and I recently purchased a 2010 Legacy GT which is my first turbocharged Subaru. Previously I have owned a 2000 2.5 RS and a 2005 2.5 RS which were great, but this car is a different beast.

 

The Legacy was purchased from the cars second owner who had the car for the last six years and from what I can tell, drove the car gently. One issue was they skipped a couple of maintenance jobs which is what I took care of first including timing belt, a boost leak, and a slipping clutch. The car has 148k, would you recommend any other preventative maintenance right now?

 

Plans/Goals:

This car to me is pretty refined, for a Subaru, so I want to keep it feeling stock, or better than stock. So smoothness and reliability are up there for me. Eventually I would like to increase power slightly, but not to the detriment of reliability.

 

Plans:

Install recently purchased Bilstein Coilover set

More preventative maintenance

Fix faded hood paint (or new hood?)

Tune (accessport, e-tune, others?)

RSB/FSB

Strut bar

rearview/back up camera

dash cam

mud flaps/skid-plate

new bulbs for fogs

Edited August 27, 2019 by pdsd16

[dgoodhue]

Congrats on the purchase.

 

FSB would have been much easier when the clutch was done. The turbo coolant line in snow area is also good preventative maintenance while the engine is out or doing the timing belt.

[A_A_ron]

Welcome!

 

You are now the proud new owner of a unicorn sleeper. The Bilstein coilovers may give you a rougher ride but you'll corner much better. Hoods are not easy to find in stock and are expensive. I would suggest you look into a high end detail including paint correction. Whiteline has a great front and rear sway bar kit. I did the install and can give you some advice on it but you'll probably have to pull the midpipe in order to do it.

[cryo]

Congrats on the purchase, they are really cool cars.

 

I would 100% spend the money on maintenance first and foremost. Suspension upgrades go a long way with those cars as well.

 

Last but not least you need an accessport as an entry to any type of power upgrades and can get a good punch with an upgraded CATTED downpipe and a OTS or custom tune.

 

We work with a lot of local LGT members and just had a 2012 here the other day for a custom tune.

 

Let us know if we can ever help you out and swing by the shop sometime and say hello!

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Dave

[pdsd16]

Congrats on the purchase.

 

FSB would have been much easier when the clutch was done. The turbo coolant line in snow area is also good preventative maintenance while the engine is out or doing the timing belt.

 

 

Hmm may wait on the FSB then. Thank you for the tips!

 

Welcome!

 

You are now the proud new owner of a unicorn sleeper. The Bilstein coilovers may give you a rougher ride but you'll corner much better. Hoods are not easy to find in stock and are expensive. I would suggest you look into a high end detail including paint correction. Whiteline has a great front and rear sway bar kit. I did the install and can give you some advice on it but you'll probably have to pull the midpipe in order to do it.

 

That is what I'm finding out about the hoods! Thanks for the suggestions, I'll have to look into that! How did your cars handling change after doing the sways?

 

 

Congrats on the purchase, they are really cool cars.

 

I would 100% spend the money on maintenance first and foremost. Suspension upgrades go a long way with those cars as well.

 

Last but not least you need an accessport as an entry to any type of power upgrades and can get a good punch with an upgraded CATTED downpipe and a OTS or custom tune.

 

We work with a lot of local LGT members and just had a 2012 here the other day for a custom tune.

 

Let us know if we can ever help you out and swing by the shop sometime and say hello!

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Dave

 

Hey Dave, thanks for the message! I have actually been reading about your shop and etuning in general. I was wondering if I should get an accessport or go the etune route with you guys, so good to know that you would recommend the accessport to start. My long-term hope is a decent increase in hp/torque (nothing too major) and ideally an increase in MPG while retaining reliability. I'm looking for used parts to grab while they're available/cheap and will add the catted downpipe to the list, thanks! I'll have to stop by the shop sometime. Cheers!

[pdsd16]

The hood on the car looked decently worn when I got it. I tried washing it, wax, car washes, nothing would make the hood shine. I took it to a couple of shops to see what their thoughts were and to get some estimates which were all a ton. I ended up figuring I would just ignore the hood, but then heard about Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and decided to give it a shot. I am very impressed with the stuff. Did a couple of coats and the hood looks almost brand new, really brought the shine back.

 

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk

Edited September 5, 2019 by pdsd16

[stewdogg]

That turned out great!

I imagine you used the compound with a polisher and not just elbow grease.

 

I used the Meguiar's Ceramic spray wax this summer and I like it more than any other spray/wax I have used. The shine lasted longer and shed water better than anything I have tried so far.

[pdsd16]

Thanks stewdogg! Surprisingly it was just by hand with a couple rags for a few hours. There are a couple spots that under certain light I can tell I could have done a better job on so I'm going to keep an eye out for a polisher or something I can borrow to do a final job eventually, but for a couple of hours and a 10 dollar bottle of lotion I am very happy with the results!

 

Also I was wondering about their spray wax so that's great to hear, cheers

[Falcor]

. I was wondering if I should get an accessport or go the etune route with you guys, so good to know that you would recommend the accessport to start.

 

Just an FYI if you want to go with an AccessPort, COBB runs a decent Black Friday deal (for COBB). That's when I got mine a couple years ago.

[pdsd16]

First big snow of the year the last few days and figured I'd update the thread on the last year with the car.

 

Last fall, I installed the set of Bilstein Coilovers which were from a member on here. Suspension wise - the car felt incredible. The set had been described as close to a bmw 5 series in sportiness/comfort. I haven't driven a 5 series, but I imagine that suspension was close/maybe better. It was so comfortable and much sportier than anything I had driven previously. I lowered it about 1 and 1/2 inches and even so it did better in certain areas over bumps. There is an area near my house, a left turn, into a right turn, with a couple of hills that if I hit too hard I will bottom out the stock suspension and make a horrible noise (did it accidentally once and never again). Even with the decrease in height with the coilovers, I had no issues here. Additionally, it would be comfortable going over the bumps. The dampening on the coilovers seemed incredible! The car felt like a true sports sedan with the coilovers on and everything felt more direct, without causing the ride to be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the driver side front coilover (and then rarely each of the other ones) had this horrible noise. Sort of a clunking noise. I looked at it with my mechanic and he also showed that when we raised the car and took weight off the suspension, and then put it back down, the strut would sort of pop the metal out above it leading me to wonder if the issue could be with the top hats or what it could be. Not sure if they need to be rebuilt again or if they just need more grease/lube in certain areas, but I took them off for fear of causing harm to the car. Eventually I will get back to trying to get that set on the car because it felt amazing, just sounded terrifying/bad.

 

At some point I installed the perrin brass shifter bushing which was a night and day difference, making the shifter feel quite nice afterwards.

 

I went for a couple of months with rarely driving due to the pandemic, however when I did get to drive, I was able to enjoy it more. No issues with the car, just a lot of fun until she started overheating in June or July. Ended up replacing the thermostat and the radiator hoses and the issue went away. This resulted in me getting an OBDII reader which is so nice to have. Additionally, I will be replacing my radiator with the koyorad as soon as possible to help alleviate future cooling issues. Around this time I also fixed the lumbar support which was a nice fix. I'm working on getting some foam to make the seats more supportive as well, but haven't gotten around to that yet.

 

When I had the clutch done last year, the car developed a sort of chirp when the clutch pedal was out, so in neutral and in gear. Whenever the clutch was depressed, even just a little, the chirping noise would disappear. I contacted the shop that did the clutch and they said that my clutch fork pivot needed to be lubricated and that I should bring it to them to have that done. I did that and the problem was fixed for about a month, then returned, and would come and go seemingly randomly for about half a year. Then a couple of weeks ago the sound came back much stronger so I had the shop lubricate the same part again, and the problem was fixed up until about a week ago (right when it started getting colder). So, I believe I need to replace my clutch fork eventually and plan to do so with the versus/billet forged clutch fork in hopes that will resolve the issue. That said, due to the install requiring dropping the trans, I will be waiting on this fix, unless the issue can cause actual damage, but it seems to just be an annoying noise at the moment. It's so odd though, I've had 2 other manual subarus and neither had this clutch fork lubrication problem. I wonder if my clutch fork needed to be replaced when the clutch was done and it just didn't get done then. In any case, I'm excited in the long term to get that fixed.

 

Today I took her for a drive in the snow and to pickup a 20mm 15+ wrx rsb from fb marketplace. I haven't installed it yet, but am very excited to. Driving in the snow was a blast as well. Love the combination of snow capability, sportiness, and comfort/luxury with the heated seats.

 

It's taking some time getting some things figured out with this car, but overall it's the best Subaru I've ever owned and couldn't ask for more.