2006 Legacy Limited weight reduction.

[TheRoulette]

I'm not trying to turn it into a track car or anything, but I regularly drive 100+ miles a day for work and would like to maximize my gas mileage. Are there any cheap/free weight reduction mods I can do to shed a few pounds? 

[BoozeRS05]

Lighter wheels and low rolling resistance tires. Also idk if your hood is aluminum or steel. The OEM exhaust could be trimmed down in places and/or reduced to a single exit. SpecB front and rear control, and trailing arms are all aluminum, and would also improve ride quality.

[TheRoulette]

1 hour ago, BoozeRS05 said:

Lighter wheels and low rolling resistance tires. Also idk if your hood is aluminum or steel. The OEM exhaust could be trimmed down in places and/or reduced to a single exit. SpecB front and rear control, and trailing arms are all aluminum, and would also improve ride quality.

The hood is steel, I'll look around and see if I can find an aluminum one. My exhaust is already single exit so not sure how much that'd save. How much do the SpecB parts usually go for? 

[KZJonny]

Wagon or Sedan? Assuming this is a 2.5i Limited, and not a GT?

Pull the rear seats + spare tire and assocaited tools. Keep tire goo on hand instead.

If you haven't done so lately; new plugs + couple tanks with Berrymans B-12 fuel system cleaner, fresh air filter, maybe plug wires (if 2.5i). If you don't have great spark, you are losing fuel economy.

 

For serious? Even NA Legacy/Outback are full time all wheel drive. No way to get around drivetrain losses, which is probably the biggest thing and adds a lot of weight to the car. If you don't really need AWD for your work commuting, sell it and get Fit/Yaris/Micra, etc... I got an old Yaris to drive while I am repairing my OBW and am getting like 6.5L/100kM driving it like it is stolen every day. Best the OBW could do was 8.X L/100km on the highway and 10+ with mixed city/highway.

Fuel saving alone might pay for half the car in a year or two at 100+miles a day.

[TheRoulette]

2 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

Wagon or Sedan? Assuming this is a 2.5i Limited, and not a GT?

Pull the rear seats + spare tire and assocaited tools. Keep tire goo on hand instead.

If you haven't done so lately; new plugs + couple tanks with Berrymans B-12 fuel system cleaner, fresh air filter, maybe plug wires (if 2.5i). If you don't have great spark, you are losing fuel economy.

 

For serious? Even NA Legacy/Outback are full time all wheel drive. No way to get around drivetrain losses, which is probably the biggest thing and adds a lot of weight to the car. If you don't really need AWD for your work commuting, sell it and get Fit/Yaris/Micra, etc... I got an old Yaris to drive while I am repairing my OBW and am getting like 6.5L/100kM driving it like it is stolen every day. Best the OBW could do was 8.X L/100km on the highway and 10+ with mixed city/highway.

Fuel saving alone might pay for half the car in a year or two at 100+miles a day.

Yeah 2.5i Limited sedan. How easy is it to pull the rear seats? I really just use them for storage. I just got new plugs and wires a few weeks ago and got about a 5mpg boost according to the on board sensor. Fuel cleaner and air filter is a good call, I'll see about grabbing them come payday. 

AWD is a  must for the winter to even be able to get out of my driveway, and I got this car for a *fantastic* price with low mileage and have fallen in love with it quick, so looking more to get the best out of it rather than trading it in. 

 

[KZJonny]

2 hours ago, TheRoulette said:

Yeah 2.5i Limited sedan. How easy is it to pull the rear seats? I really just use them for storage. I just got new plugs and wires a few weeks ago and got about a 5mpg boost according to the on board sensor. Fuel cleaner and air filter is a good call, I'll see about grabbing them come payday. 

AWD is a  must for the winter to even be able to get out of my driveway, and I got this car for a *fantastic* price with low mileage and have fallen in love with it quick, so looking more to get the best out of it rather than trading it in. 

 

Yeah man. Not harshing on the car at all. I have 2 x Subarus at the moment, and love 'em. Even tho they don't get *great* mileage, etc... I also don't hate the $2000 Yaris I got either, lol!

Seats should come out pretty easily, but I only drive wagons, so maybe a little different. You'll get a little more noise with the trunk being exposed, so there is that as well.

There is also a fuse you can pull which will disable the AWD, basically makes the car FWD while it is engaged. So, you can reverse the change easily enough. It wouldn't make *much* of a difference, but you wouldn't be driving the rear wheels all the time. At 100 miles a day of driving, it would add up a little during fair weather months anyway. Every little thing will help.

If it is manual you are already better off, but you can also do all the hypermiling stuff with low RPM shifts, pedal feathering, drafting, throttle pulsing, etc.... It all sounds a little crazy, but do some reading. They are actually pretty easy habits to get into if you drive that much and you may be surprised at hown much they can stretch a tank.

Fuel injector cleaner + keeping the air filter really clean will help noticeably. Switching to the thinnest grade of full synthetic oil recommended by the owners manual will also reduce internal drag in the engine itself. Probably 5W30, but maybe you can go thinner, like 5w20/0w30 SYNTHETIC? IF you have an automatic car, then checking the condition of your ATF would be smart. If it is less then excellent (still cherry red), not a bad idea to flush and refill. New fluid has optimal flow and therefore less parasitic power loss due to ageing and viscosity... trans will last longer as well....

EDIT: Quick research at BITOG suggests sticking to an Xw30 oil. So... 0w30 synthetic would be safe at least. The NA EJ engines are not super hard on oil anyhow, except when the head gaskets inevitably fail. (If you didn't know... the headgaskets on that car WILL fail, no matter what you do/how well you treat it, so be mentally and financiall prepared starting around 200k+ kms....)

Edited April 17 by KZJonny