Project: AWD TURBO Family Hauler (04 Forester 2.5XT)

[DavidL]

Snagged a STI Up Pipe for $30. The Stock XT uppipe is catted, and this is known to disentegrate with age, thus grenading the turbo. The STI uppipe has no cat, and it flows about 75% better, it also should help spool faster. Not really looking forward to this install, exhaust bolts are the suck.

ooooh enjoy this I think I remember rigging some super sketchy way to lift the block in order to barely squeeze the stock uppipe out of the WRX. Budget some time for that one :thumbup:

[JustinG]

switched out the front marker bulbs with LEDs.

Regular Halogen


LED


Dunno if I'm feeling it or not, these were supposed to be a cool white, but they look too blue to me....may just throw an Amber halogen bulb in there. Thoughts?

And I abandoned rewiring the DRLs. I tried, and lost interest today. So just running no DRL for now.

[JustinG]

So someone talk me out of a $75 catless DP off EBAY. Its the only thing keeping me from going "Stage 2" with the Access Port once I get it.

[Goodspeed]

So someone talk me out of a $75 catless DP off EBAY. Its the only thing keeping me from going "Stage 2" with the Access Port once I get it.

For $75 bucks? Hell, why not? Sounds like it would provide for some extra boosted funsies on the cheap, at least until Averie is old enough to say "daddy car smell poopy" from her carseat :wink:

[JPolen01]

Yeah I say go for it. If it takes a crap in a year or two, oh well it was only 75 bucks.

Edit

Thought it said hi flow cat for some reason. So yeah definitely get it.

[JustinG]

So ya, I thought my A/C was broken this weekend.

A/C compressor wouldnt cycle on. Checked the relay, tested fine. Replaced it anyway, still no worky. Checked the charge, all good there to. Jumped the relay and tested the compressor, all good.
Cool thing with the auto climate control, is if you push a couple of buttons while starting the car it goes into a diagnostic mode. If a light is blinking you pull out the manual and bam..... "Evaporator Sensor Malfunction". Check the location of said sensor, it is behind the glove box, easy to get to.

Rewind to a couple days prior.

I am behind the glove box screwing with the wiring to try and rewire the DRLs. After I gave up, I noticed 2 wires leading into the A/C box housing the Evaporator. The wire has a lil twisty knob on it. So I turn the knob and nothing is happening so i'm like, WTF.....no idea what that is for, mm kay. Bolt everything back up and say screw rewiring the DRLs.

Back to yesterday, the Evaporator Sensor just happens to be in the same location as the lil twisty knob I was playing with. So 1 of the 2 POs, has replaced this sensor with a thermistor instead of paying $50 for a new sensor, and the knob adjusted the resistance traveling through that thermistor. The thermistor is used to basically sense the temp of the Evaporator to make sure it doesnt freeze up. So I pulled out the multimeter and adjusted the knob so it was within spec. Voila, working A/C, and no more error code through the Climate control diagnostics.

So note to self, if you see a button, or a knob, and you dont know WTF it does......leave it alone.

Also, the Factory Service Manual I spent the last 3 days downloading, was the greatest $35 I have ever spent. If it hadnt limited me to 40-50 files an hour, it would have been done in less than an hour. 560 PDF files, equated to having to DL stuff in like 11-12 sessions.

I was able to diagnose my issue within 20 minutes.

[JustinG]

Amber...


"White" LED


Thoughts?

And a Lil humorous license plate frame.

[WRXtranceformed]

I like the amber

[JustinG]

I decided that as well....amber bulbs are in.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[JustinG]

Few quick updates.

Made a few purchases on NASIOC and SubaruForester.org.

As stated earlier, I snagged that STi Uppipe from a guy on NASIOC for $30 Checking out videos on the Youtubes for 2.5L cars with a catless DP and STi Catback. Trying to avoid the car from being too loud. With the catless uppipe and a catless DP, the exhaust system would only contain the factory resonator. EBAY Catless DP = $80-100, Catted DP = $350-400 new, try and find a used one.

Browsing the Forester forums I came across the extended arm rest for my car. This is something I wanted after driving a forester with the extended arm rest. It just gives you some place to rest your elbow when driving, along with added storage. Apparently the clips are broken that hold it shut, no bigge, I can try and fix it, and the lid is scratched up, but I can just re cover that with some Leather/Suede/Vinyl. New they go for $100-120. I got this for $30.



Also ordered a factory DIN pocket to go below my aftermarket single DIN radio. This has a lid, unlike the aftermarket DIN pocket. I usually stash my cell phone in the pocket below the radio, along with my IPOD. But when the go pedal is needed, they both typically launch out of the pocket and land conveniently between the console and the seat. So the door should alleviate that and I think it looks better.

Looks like this.

[D_Eclipse9916]

That door would be real nice. I have similiar experiences under acceleration on the m3s in their sunglass holder.

Looking good.

[.RJ]

You could put some rubber liner (like a toolbox liner) on the bottom of the radio pocket

[JustinG]

You could put some rubber liner (like a toolbox liner) on the bottom of the radio pocket

Was gonna do that prior to ordering the factory din pocket, then I saw a new OEM DIN pocket was only $25. I will probably still throw in some toolbox liner in ther to keep stuff from sliding around even with the door shut.

[JustinG]

OH and JUST FOR RJ.....

Saw this guy had plastidipped his wheels gold and it actually looks gold instead of bronze. He used a can of the gold metalizer per wheel. where the palstidipped wheels that are "gold" but look bronze, typically only use 2 cans for the entire car.

So I may be giving this a shot in the future.



Compared to what everyone else calls gold while using plastidip.

[.RJ]

What is this plastidip bullshit? Call me when you have the UG rattlecans ready.

[JustinG]

What is this plastidip bullshit? Call me when you have the UG rattlecans ready.

It wont be UG, if anything it will be Grimmspeed Gold which matches the BBS gold perfectly

[.RJ]

[D_Eclipse9916]

What is this plastidip bullshit? Call me when you have the UG rattlecans ready.

Ask Navin about his plastidip wheel BS. AKA don't plastidip.

[Evan]

What is this plastidip bullshit? Call me when you have the UG rattlecans ready.

like

[navin]

Not sure whether to blame my Plastidip problems on the actual product or using it when it was cold as phuck outside. Probably should have warmed the cans up in the sink or something, but needless to say the removal process sucked for the wheels I used them on (949 6ul). I have orange bits still around my driveway.

Justin -- has anyone removed plastidip'd and then regular paint over the plastidip wheels yet. I thought I read about some weird reactions when you do that and makes it hard to remove... but that's probably just the internet talking

ps. Lots of UG in stock via Amazon Prime, dunno why Kaan thought it was discontinued.