Hope I did the right thing?

So, a little background:

 

- 05 LGT, SWP, non-limited 5-speed.

- Second owner, first owner is a co-worker

- Car was bought and completely maintained by Heuberger

- 65k miles- turbo replaced at half cost after strange noise, banjo replaced

- 87k miles- throwout dies, owner drives 20 miles with the remnants bouncing around inside, and owner trades in instead of repairing

- Dealer tears transmission apart to check for damage, finds none, replaces clutch flywheel and thow-out bearing.

- I pick it up for $10,500, and receive the maintenance history. Car has a slight misfire, salesman tells me all Legacies from the time period do it.

- 97k miles- I suspect upper intake manifold gaskets as miss fire appears to be temperature related (almost non-existent around 50 degrees, worse as it gets hotter), but running Cobb Stg 1 with v3 AP.

- Gets to minus 15 outside, start noticing burning oil smell on way to work- hope it's not me, but it keeps following me.

- Take it in to a tuner shop- valve cover gaskets. Car is due for timing belt, have been noticing some valve chatter, decide to combine some items needing done.

 

So the shop tore into the motor to do the valve cover gaskets, timing kit (Gates Racing kit with water pump, pulleys and tensioners), valve lash, STi up pipe, GrimmSpeed Down pipe, Stg 2 OTS tune with CEL delete for the up pipe EGT delete, oil change to switch to Rotella T6, new upper intake manifold gaskets, and one-step colder plugs.

 

When removing the engine, several issues further came to light- leaking like a siv intercooler, intercooler to TB coupler, and valve cover cross pipe all shot.

 

I still owe $12,400 on the bank loan, and this additional work is adding $2500 to my credit card- is an 05 with creaky suspension and 97k miles still worth the cost of the work I have done, or should I have tried selling for $10k, cancel to recoup $1k of third party extended waranty (which I will do now since the install of the DP will void it anyway), and tried getting something else?

 

I like the car- don't love like my 09 WRX, but I am not sure I can live without a turbo in the CO altitude. Driving my wife's Forester can be quite a pain with my 20 mile commute to work.

Your asking the wrong people. Do you know how much I've spent on my wagon. They don't make cars like these anymore. Your's is the the lowest # made. Fix it and drive it forever.

 

The tmic is your biggest problem. Do BarManBeans kit.

I do not see many 4th gen LGTs here in the Springs- most Leggys are NA, and when I do see a LGT, it usually is a limited, dark colored auto. I do love the uniqueness, but I hate the 4.11 gears and DM flywheel.

 

By lowest # made, you mean the SWP 5 speed non-limited was a low production number?

 

The interior and most of the exterior are in excellent shape on my car- the only paint imperfections on on the hood and front bumper area- or at least was until my wife scuffed up the rear drivers with her Forester door- something she still denies.......

I believe your's is 1 of 70 made. Check the sticky up top.

 

Mine is 1 of 108, it just turned 198,000 miles. It goes to VT every winter weekend and is my DD/toy. The car is a blast to drive. I'm in VT now.

Checked the sticky- 1 of 185....sedan.

 

The list doesn't specify the black interior- but I assume all non-limited models were black.

I do love the uniqueness, but I hate the 4.11 gears and DM flywheel.

 

What's wrong with the 4.11? To tall or to short? Outbacks have 4.44 gears (for the taller tires)

Weird, I see LGT everywhere around here.

At - 15 I would let that car warm up for like 20 minutes •_•

I personally am a fan of the 4.11 gears, they're all I've driven on turbo Subarus!

 

Never have seen a SWP non limited. I'm guessing they're pretty rare.

 

I don't understand your math --how do you owe more now than you bought it for? (This is coming from a guy who initially paid 12 for an 05 with 130k, BTW)

 

You're under 100k, still should have quite a bit of life left before its rebuild time. Replace or bp the tmic and for the love of god, stop paying people to wrench on your car --that's the expensive part! You know I'll always tell you that you can do this, and we're always here to help you along the way.

 

Warranty is useless, cash that bad boy out and put it toward your most recent expenses.

 

Could be worse, dude -- you could have a blown ring(s)!

I personally am a fan of the 4.11 gears, they're all I've driven on turbo Subarus!

 

Never have seen a SWP non limited. I'm guessing they're pretty rare.

 

I don't understand your math --how do you owe more now than you bought it for? (This is coming from a guy who initially paid 12 for an 05 with 130k, BTW)

 

You're under 100k, still should have quite a bit of life left before its rebuild time. Replace or bp the tmic and for the love of god, stop paying people to wrench on your car --that's the expensive part! You know I'll always tell you that you can do this, and we're always here to help you along the way.

 

Warranty is useless, cash that bad boy out and put it toward your most recent expenses.

 

Could be worse, dude -- you could have a blown ring(s)!

 

How do I cash out my warranty?

A warranty is basically an insurance contract; you've prepaid, and it has a cash value, in addition to a policy limit. Any remaining cash value based on the conditions of the contract (mileage, time, services already rendered, etc) will will be used, pro rata, to determine the remaining cash value, if any. Read your warranty paperwork, and then call and ask Customer Service.

I owe more than the purchase price because of the warranty- was an extra $1800, but covers full drive train. Going Stg. 2 will now make it void for the motor- no matter what goes wrong with it. I had my mechanic look it over- it won't even cover a burned valve or cracked ring- the motor would have to be seriously broken in order for them to cover it- like severe rod knock or broken piston.

 

Add more to the loan to cover taxes, and a 5 year loan with a 3.5% APR, my $230 a month payments take awhile to make a dent. I have had the car now for 11 months.

 

The 4:11 gears are only really annoying in town or when going high speed on freeway. I was used to the 3:89 on my 09 WRX- seemed a decent trade-off between acceleration and mpg- I got a lot further in speed in town before shifting at 3k rpm in first as compared to needing to go to 4k rpm in the LGT to get the same type of off the line acceleration. However, on long highway trips I did average 31 mpg doing 75 mph, and the WRX could never seem to beat 28 mpg in the same type of driving. For my commute, which is 10 miles town and 10 miles highway at 65, the LGT seems to hover around 24 mpg- sometimes 26 if I kept my foot out of it.

 

I will see how things go once I get her back and being Stg 2. Hopefully all this will fix my cylinder 2 misfire at idle- if not, I will be looking into the fuel system. I might have the mechanic go ahead and swap the injector to another cylinder while everything is apart, just to see if it follows.

 

IF the misfire is not corrected after this and plugs, injectors, vacuum/air leaks, and coils are ruled out, then I might start freaking about rings or valves. Shop wants over $200 to do a compression check, more to leak down if they feel the compression results warrant it. This car did run 90k on the stock tune and ate only Costco 91 gas during that time- I switched to the OTS Stg 1 and Shell 91- which the car seems to love. My WRX hated Shell and loved Chevron down in Vegas- was really odd. Even our Forester runs a hell of a lot better on the Shell 85- better mpg, power, and response...

So....picked the car up the other day- they finished right before closing down for the holiday, and......

 

Holy crap she is like a whole new car.

 

Stg 2 on my 09 WRX felt smooth, but did not feel like the same power gains I now have on the LGT. However, some of the improvements may be related to all the leaks the shop found when they tore into her- my intrcooler was leaking pretty bad, the intercooler to intake manifold coupler was shot, and I'm not sure if the valve cover crosspipe would have made a difference- not to mention getting my valve lash adjusted.

 

There is one major problem- I am getting a "chitty" sound coming from under the car- sounds like either an exhaust leak or a busted heat shield.

 

I did give the shop a used STI up pipe that had the stock heat shields busted from being attached to the flange- I did ask them to re-weld before installing, and now I have to wonder if they didn't do it. But it sounds like crap.

 

The noise stays consistent with rpm's until you can't hear it- or goes away- at 3k rpm. The engine is smooth as a whistle, no backfires, no misfires, and acceleration is so much stronger and smoother up til the turbo runs out of breath around 5500. Did a strong acceleration run in 4th to pass some idiots on the freeway and hit 17 psi- highest I have seen this car go yet.

 

Aside from noise, how else can I check for exhaust leak? Should the car be running like crap if there was, or does it depend on where the leak is?

 

Shop won't open again until Tuesday, and Sunday I need to take a road trip to return my kid to the ex in Rock Springs WY. I plan on taking the LGT because she can handle the elevation changes (5k-8k) and deal with passing the jack-ass truckers that kept cutting me off in the Forester.

Do you know any men? Maybe you could have one stop by and get under your car to see if you have a loose heat shield.

Do you know any men? Maybe you could have one stop by and get under your car to see if you have a loose heat shield.

 

Hey, FNG, do YOU know any men? Maybe some that will stop by and fill your mouth with STFU?

Yeah let's not bring any sexism in here. But seriously, it's pretty easy to see if you have a loose heat sheild. No, an exhaust leak shouldn't really change performance. I suppose if it's before the turbo maybe you'd loose some boost? But I doubt it, it's mostly annoying.

I'm pretty sure it's the heat shield- but the noise does keep changing.

 

I would like to put it up on the ramps I have and check the up pipe- I am 90% certain they did not re-weld it like I asked- however, I do not have the time right now. I work 14 hour days with an hour each way commute- that means I am gone from the house 16 hours a day when working. And yes, I do have to work the holidays, which pisses my wife off to no end. I will not have a day off until Sunday, but that is when I have to drive my daughter back to meet up with her mother in WY- a 14 hour round trip.

 

So the soonest I can look at this myself is Monday. The shop opens Tuesday. I did specifically ask them to fix the shield before installing- I do not know if they will honor the request and take it back apart to fix if they did not before installing.

 

The change in noise is when doing low speed town driving, letting off the gas will make it sound more like a metallic vibration noise. I can still hear louder than usual exhaust noises, but that is more than likely related to the downpipe- one of the new Grimmspeed units they recently came out with.

 

I would love to be able to wrench on my own car- but I am lacking several key components to do so-

 

1. Time (long work hours, days off filled with husband and father of two duties)

2. Space (cramped garage, shared with wife's Forester, cold weather)

3. Tools (only basic craftsman tool kit, not many metric, lack funds to buy)

4. Confidence (due to lack of experience, rely on car for 20 mile work commute)

 

So for now, I have to bite the bullet and pay shop prices for repair. I think the $2500 I put down for the work they did accomplished quite a bit- certainly much cheaper than dealer costs.

 

Oh- on top of the other time constraints I am also a full time student and suffer from severe central sleep apnea from my military service. Much as I would love to devote more time to working on a car I really like to drive, and wish to have another project car to cut my teeth on (miss my RS- a lot), I cannot do it due to too much on my plate.