skierd

I think it's a combination of water in the gas, bad gas, and old gas from when I bought it gunking everything up. In addition to crappy gas in general, I think we end up with a lot of water in our gas up here due to condensation from the huge temperature swings we see. It can be in the mid 90's in June and the coldest I've seen here personally is -62F. Interesting that the tune appears to be set for 93 octane, I've suspected it myself just from the engine's specs, but unfortunately the highest we can get here is 90. I'll have to pick up a cable and do some datalogging this summer so I can see what's going on instead of just feeling it out. Are those LCA bushings? I'm planning on a suspension refresh this spring too, mainly struts and maybe the stiffer 2013+ springs.

I’m still reading through and digesting the tuning notes earlier in this thread. In particular the mpg’s, the best I can seem to get out of mine is 27mpg at 70-75mph. What are your highway speeds like? 30+mpg with a 87oct tune only would be really awesome, unless I missed other mods I think I’ve got myself a summer project. As a point of reference, I bought my 2012 2 years ago with 32k on it, and it ran like garbage. A couple tanks of premium and a couple bottles of HEET helped a little, but I pretty much assumed it was just a crappy engine. On a whim I tried dumping a can of seafoam in to a full tank at the beginning of summer this year and it completely transformed the engine. It now runs cleanly with no noticeable stumbles, comes off idle cleaner, and gets 1-2 mpg better than it did last year. It sounds like you got yours sorted but I’d thought I’d throw it out there.

OP What's winter where you are? I'm a bit north of Zeus in Fairbanks, AK. I haven't tried all-seasons in winter on my outback yet, but my wife's Crosstrek did ok on the stock Geolander's for two winters before we could afford a second set of tires for her car. Heck it was better on snow and ice than my '13 Mustang was on Blizzak WS-70's... not as much fun but probably overall safer. If "winter" consists of temps in the 30's and 40's, with the occasional drop below freezing and the odd snow or ice storm, I'd get a set of good all-seasons and be done with it. I liked the Cooper Ultra Touring CS5's in the little bit of snow they saw before swapping to blizzaks for winter on my outback. Continental DWS's have great reviews as well. Subaru's AWD systems really can cover up a multitude of tire sins in bad weather. If your winter driving is mostly at or below freezing, and/or with real snow and ice most of the time, that's when you really need winter tires. I like the Blizzak WS-80's, and the General Arctic Altimax with studs made my Mustang great in winter. Those Toyo's look to be good tires too, no experience with them personally.

I’ve got a couple setup questions. I’ve got a 2012 Outback with 85000 miles on it that I’d really like to bring down to stock legacy height when I replace the struts this spring. Here’s what I’m thinking I need to be able to drop the old and install the new, please correct me if I’m wrong: 2010-2014 Legacy OE front struts 2013-14 Legacy/Outback front Springs KYB or whiteline strut tops koni 8610-1055 rear struts 2013-14 Outback rear Springs KYB strut tops First question... I’m still looking for stock 2010-12 Legacy front struts correct? As I understand it the spring perch is a little lower and/or the lower mount is lower which is where the drop comes from, and it should still clear my stock outback tires... yes? Second, at this point which Koni front inserts am I looking for? 1553’s or 1447’s? Third, Springs. As I understand it, 2013+ front and rear springs are stiffer correct? Going by the part numbers (I don’t have them in front of me at the moment) Legacy and outback springs are the same year for year but I’d want the later springs if I wanted a stiffer setup yes? Fourth - alignments. Do I need the rear Legacy LCA? What about the whiteline front strut mounts?