AmericanClubRacer

Hey! Figured I'd give a quick update now that we have completed our second local event. The car handles SUPERBLY, even for being an underpowered gramma's car lol The first event I ran the dampers at 1.5 turns, and the rear sway bar at the softest setting. The car handled really well, but I didn't get as much rotation out of it as I could. I was, however, able to figure out the stability control removal and with those aids gone the car actually breaks some tire loose and rotates hard through corners! Here's a video compilation of that first event: I ran the Koni's at full stiff this last event, and the rear sway bar at medium stiff and the car was manageably tail happy. I'll move the bar to full stiff next event, and then compensate for the squirliness with lower rear tire pressures. Overall the tires weren't getting too hot, and the main issue was that I was over driving it into one of the tight corners. I have been 0.5sec slower than a fully equipped Fiesta ST in both of the first two events, so I know I can make up that time being a little smoother! 10/10 would recommend this and the 24mm sway bar for motorsports in these cars!

That's awesome!!

Hello All! Last weekend was the first autocross of the season, and 2 runs in I found out how restrictive the Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC) is with the new stiffer setup. I could feel my brakes engaging through most turns, as the system felt my car should be kept in line. This was also with the traction control disabled. Unfortunately, with traction control disabled, stability control is still in play. I was fed up with losing so much time in the corners to the stability control, so I poked around and found the fuse to pull in order to disable all features. I will tell you, it makes our cars a whole different animal. You can actually break loose the rear end, and even get some wheel hop out of corners. HOWEVER, this is intended for use in a controlled environment, and not for use on the road. It disables all of your safety features, including ABS, as well as turning off any brake lights. Also, you must remove the fuse while in drive, and the moment you put it in park the car will not allow you to shift out of park. With that cautionary message out of the way, here is how to install a switch to easily turn on and off your VDC. If you just need to know where the fuse is, that'll be in the very beginning! I figured I would install a switch, as it got annoying having to pull and reinstall the fuse after each run. Cost is like $40 at most if you buy all the stuff I got, which were full kits of terminals rather than the select few of what I needed. I'd say under $25 if you buy only the bare minimum to do the job! Items Needed: 4 - 4.8mm Female Spade Connectors 1 - Inline Fuse 1 - 7.5A Fuse 1 - Switch (doesn't need to light up) 1 - Length of Wire (preferably red) 1 - Low Profile Mini Fuse Socket Connector (specifically I bought this set https://www.amazon.com/General-Technologies-Corp-GTC062-Connector/dp/B0787HV5MH) Optional Items: 1 - Bolt 1 - Nut 1 - 4.8mm Female Spade Connector 1 - Ring Terminal 1 - Length of Wire (not red, for ground) 1 - Length of Shrink Tubing Procedure: The fuse for the VDC is in the fuse panel located in the cabin, inside the pulldown door below the switch panel. Specifically, it is the 7.5A fuse located 3 in from the left on the bottom row. You can easily do this job without pulling the lower dash off, I decided to as I was also trying to reuse one of the switch panel slots for my new switch. Feasibly, you could assemble everything outside of the car, and then just plug in the assembly by opening the fuse panel and replacing your fuse with the assembly. No cutting no mess! If you do pull the dash off, you'll at a minimum need a Phillips head screwdriver to remove the one screw by the driver's door. Everything else is just a pop in tab. I chose to use one of the dummy switch panel inserts to house my new switch. As you can see, it is hollow but has a bunch of ribbing. I used some needle nose pliers to break out the ribbing, drilled out some pilot holes in the face to make guides for my rotary tool, and then used a cutting wheel on my rotary tool to cut out a hole for the switch. As well, I cut off the back section of it to allow the wires to easily exit to the under dash. It doesn't look pretty on the inside, but the finished product looks good from the outside. Here is the assembled Inline Fuse. Connect your Inline Fuse to either spade on the Fuse Socket Connector. Connect the other end to the power (+12V) spade on your Switch. Connect your return wire to the accessory spade on your Switch, and then to the remaining spade on your Fuse Socket Connector. ***OPTIONAL*** The next 2 images are optional! Skip to after these next 2 images if you aren't using a light up Switch. I needed a ground to have the bulb light up in my Switch when the VDC is enabled (fuse is "on"), so I drilled a hole for a bolt and used a length of old speaker wire to ground the Switch. I connected the wire with a female spade connector to the ground (-) spade on the Switch. I used a ring terminal to run a bolt through, and into the hole I drilled. I then added a nut to the back of the bolt to tighten to the plate. ALSO!! If you choose a light up switch, the light will ALWAYS be on as this circuit always has power. I have decided that when I am not at events I will unplug the Fuse Socket Connector and place the fuse back in. That way I don't have to worry about draining the battery, and using the defeat switch will be part of my autocross event prep! With everything connected, switch on means VDC on. Switch off means VDC off. Also, you get a message the first time you switch it off while the car is running. Again, the car will not leave park at this point, so you need to turn off the VDC while the car is in drive. Finally, all buttoned up! Hope this helps everyone. Let me know if you have any questions!!

I ended up ordering the Whiteline Aluminum ones, and installed later on (when I put the Koni's in)!

Northwest PA, Erie specifically!

Next you will need to disassemble the strut. You will need to compress the spring using a spring compressor and then remove the nut holding the top hat to the shock (14mm). This nut is a bear to get off. I tried to use an allen wrench in the top of the shaft to hold it still but it stripped out the hole. I ended up using a pair of vise grips to hold the shaft in place (pulled back the dust cover a little bit for access) and then a socket wrench on the nut. Bingo. Note: The spring compressor pictured is not recommended, as it is WAY too bulky and ended up not working for the front springs. As you will see later, I went to O'Reilly and bought a more common setup of 2 independent compressors to be used in tandem! Ok, so before you install the 8010-1055Sports you will need to widen the hole approx. 1mm in the top hat for the new shock shaft to fit. I did this with my corded drill and the 31/64 drill bit, while holding the top hat in my vice. Make sure to clean up the hole really nice, and then reassemble the struts! In the above specifications section are the photos of the Koni instructions for assembly of the struts. Don't pull the boo boo I did and install them with the lower spring seats and springs upside down, unless you want a 2in lift in the rear and a bunch of clunking lol I did things in this order (sorry for no pics during the reinstall as it was just the reverse of tear down)while keeping things vertical: Install plastic C ring at base of shock shaft Placed shiny new spring seats on shock body (dome side up) Put on spring lined up with spring seat Install bump stop on shock shaft Install dust jacket Compressed spring Install top hat over shock shaft and top of spring Tighten down the new lock washer and 19mm nut onto shock shaft hand tight Decompress spring, making sure top hat rubber seat is lined up on spring and spring bottom is lined up with lower spring seat angled stop Raise strut hat studs into trunk holes, and supported hanging strut with race jack. Tighten and torque the 2 top hat 14mm nuts to body Lower and remove race jack Install control arm into body side mount, hand tight 17mm bolt/nut Install hand tight 17mm shock bolt/nut Install hand tight 14mm swaybar bolt/nut Use race jack to jack control arm holes into position for knuckle Install hand tight 17mm knuckle bolt/nut Remove race jack Tighten and torque the 19mm shock top nut Install wheel and tire, torque lug nuts Place race jack under tire and jack until the car is just lifted off of jack stand Torque all 4 bolts/nuts on control arm Reconnect the muffler to midpipe Lower jack so car is back on jack stand You have now completed the driver's side of the rear struts! Now duplicate the process for the passenger's side! Congratulations, once the passenger's side is complete you will have finished the rear end! Goodbye factory shocks... ...hello new Koni's! For ease of access to the adjustment nubs on top of the strut shafts, I used a utility knife and cut a slit into the carpet (just above the strut) in the trunk so I can stick the adjustment knob straight down. I still left the car suspended in the air, as I moved to the fronts! Pop open that hood, gonna get busy up in here. To remove the front strut you will need to remove/do the following: Use race jack to support lower control arm Small plastic clip holding ABS wire to strut, use small plyers to depress tabs 12mm bolt holding brake line to strut 17mm front swaybar nut 19mm bolt and nut to knuckle (upper - cammed) 19mm bolt and nut to knuckle (lower) 12mm x3 nuts holding strut top hat to body Lower jack and remove front strut assembly I will warn you, you will be seeing a lot of this view if you have salty winters. My front swaybar end links were sooooo corroded on that I needed to use vise grips to hold the shaft and a breaker bar to turn the nut. I was only able to work with the lower nut, so the end links remained on my strut housings even after I removed them from the car. I made sure to have everything super tight when I reinstalled the end links, but I highly recommend just cutting them off and factoring the cost of new ones into this job. It was that much of a time killer, tbh. Now we will disassemble the front struts. Use the spring compressors to compress the spring. The top hats here are a pain but I worked out a solution, as I do not have the specialty sockets to do this normally: Take a 17mm socket and place it on the strut hat nut Insert a 7/16in allen wrench through the back of the socket to the top of the strut shaft. There is a 7/16in allen end on it Secure a pair of vice grips to the 17mm socket Use the allen wrench to hold the shaft in place, and loosen the 17mm nut. I used a crescent wrench to keep hold of the allen wrench You can now remove the top hat, washer/spring seat, dust sleeve, bump stop, shock and housing, and decompress the spring. Once you remove all of that, take your shock housing over to the bench vise and prepare for the most important part: performing Cut-A-Strut surgery! **I apologize in advance, I took some pictures here but didn't take shots of everything. I was too enveloped in the job and didn't think to take pics of cutting open the shock.** Here are the official Koni Cut-A-Strut instructions FYI: http://www.koni-na.com/CorporateSite/media/itt/NA/pdf/boltstrut.pdf With the shock housing in the vise, locate the exact center of the bottom and use a punch to mark it. Using a 1/8in drill bit, drill into the shock. This will pop, and gas/some oil will poof out. Wear safety goggles, it stings, trust me lol Then, either into a bucket or a pile of oil dry, drain the fluid from the shock. I did this by turning it right side up and working the shaft of the shock as a pump to work the fluid out the bottom. It's quite a bit of fluid btw. This next part is up to you on what you use to cut the housing of the shock. I used an angle grinder to cut open the housing just under the silver collar. This allowed me to pull the guts out of the shock, and clean out the tube. Next, I progressively drilled out the hole in the bottom to make room for the Koni hardware. 1/4in, 3/8in, 1/2in, and then finally the 9/16in bit. I then used my saw-z-all for the precision work of cutting the tube down to the appropriate length. To be specific, 11-7/8in from the bottom of the inside of the tube to the top of your cut. To be completely honest, mine was done with a LOT of eyeballing. I stuck a tape measure and a ruler down in to see where I needed to aim for, and made probably 4 cuts to get myself closer and closer to that mark. I then used a rotary tool and file to clean up the cut edge. Next step is securing the 8610-1447Sports into the shock housing. Tap the supplied collar into the cut hole with a rubber mallet, and place the rubber sleeve over the opening. Now, place the Koni into the hole and the nubs on the Koni housing will stop it from going any further in. We will need to walk this into the OEM housing. I did it as so: Insert just the supplied black bolt into the bottom of the shock housing, and begin to tighten it into the Koni. Using a T50 Socket (I had torx in 3/8in drive), tighten the bolt until you see the nubs begin to walk into the collar. Stop! Back the bolt out, and now use the supplied cupped washer/lock washer/bolt together. Tighten, and torque to 55lb/ft. Now you're ready to put it all back together, and it should go as follows: Install plastic C clip on base of shock shaft Install bump stop on shock shaft Install dust sleeve Install spring, lined up with angled stop on lower seat Compress spring Install upper spring seat/washer Install strut top hat Tighten down the new lock washer and 19mm nut onto shock shaft hand tight Decompress spring, making sure rubber seat is lined up on spring and spring bottom is lined up with lower spring seat angled stop I used one arm to raise the strut assembly into the wheel well and the top hat studs into the body mount holes. I used the other arm to put the 12mm nuts on finger tight to the studs Install 17mm swaybar end link nut and tighten Use race jack on lower control arm to meet knuckle to holes on the strut housing for the 19mm bolts Install and moderately tighten both 19mm bolts/nuts to knuckle Torque 12mm nuts on top hat to body Torque 19mm shock top nut Lower race jack Set camber on top 19mm knuckle bolt Torque both 19mm knuckle bolts/nuts Install brake line/12mm brake line bolt Install ABS clip Congrats, you have now installed the Koni Cut-A-Strut assembly on one of the front corners! As you can see, from the outside nothing really looks all too different. The only noticeable thing is the adjustment nub now poking out into the engine bay. Repeat the process for the other side, and by golly you will now have Koni adjustable damper shocks on all 4 corners of your beautiful 6th Gen Legacy!!! As I did not do springs, there was really no noticeable ride height change. However, the ride is now VASTLY stiffer and the steering is very responsive. Even without the dampers turned up, the car handles so much tighter and has become very predictable when cornering aggressively. I will report back with updates when necessary, but the real test will be the 2021 autocross season. This will give me the most info on the nature of this mod, and I will be sharing any and all discoveries I have. Thank you, and please feel free to ask any questions whatsoever. Hopefully this guide helps someone out there who isn't as accustomed to tearing things apart and rebuilding them as I am!

Hello again everyone! As promised, I have documented my entire process for the switch from stock shocks to Koni yellows Special Note 1: I am running this car in HS class in SCCA Autocross, so I did not switch the springs. The process will be exactly the same if you are putting on lowering springs, I just have to keep factory springs for the class I am choosing to run. Special Note 2: This guide is my process while installing everything in my 1.5 car garage, while using a floor jack and jack stands. Obviously, a shop vehicle lift would be much preferred, and would provide better access. I chose to do this at home rather than go to my parents' to use their lift, and had no issues! Special Note 3: The upgraded rear swaybar endlinks in the final photo of the rear end were added after I completed this job. They use the same lower bolt to the control arm, but have upgraded hardware to the swaybar itself. Everything in this job assumes you leave the stock endlinks on, apologies in advance if that causes any confusion! In my opinion, it is worth the investment to get the upgraded endlinks if you live in an area that gets salty winters. The factory endlinks/nuts corrode so badly, and are a bear to take apart and reinstall. Section 1: Parts installed (Hardware Included) Front: Koni 8610-1447Sport Shocks (Caution: These are Cut-A-Struts) Rear: Koni 8010-1055Sport Shocks Section 2: Tools Used (in no particular order) LOTS OF PB BLASTER 3 Ton Floor Jack Aluminum 1.5 Ton Racing Jack 4x 3 Ton Jack Stands Air Compressor Pneumatic Air Gun - 1/2in Drive Pneumatic Air Ratchet - 3/8in Drive Plastic Clip Pry Tool Spring Compressor(s) Breaker Bar - 1/2in Drive Ratchet - 3/8in Drive Ratchet - 1/2in Drive Torque Wrench - 3/8in Drive Torque Wrench - 1/2in Drive 2ft 1/2in Extension 3in 3/8in Extension 14mm Wrench 17mm Wrench 19mm Wrench T50 Bit Socket (3/8in Drive) 12mm Socket (3/8in Drive) 14mm Socket (3/8 and 1/2in Drive) 17mm Socket (1/2in Drive) 19mm Socket (1/2in Drive) Small Plyers Saw-z-all w/metal cutting blades Bench Vise Rubber Mallet Ball Peen Hammer Corded Drill Drill Bits (1/8in, 1/4in, 3/8in, 1/2in) 9/16in Drill Bit (for front struts) 31/64 Drill Bit (for rear top hats) Section 3: Specifications As a side note, the front struts have cammed bolts to adjust camber. I set mine to halfway between the 1st and 2nd notches (if you consider the notches at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock to be "0") Also, since I had a loose wheel situation on our Wrangler I have made it a habit to torque the lugs on the Legacy to 80 lb/ft! Further, some instruction sheets provided by Koni: Section 4: Installation Walkthrough Alright, enough delay! I will now begin the complete walkthrough for the removal of the stock components and the installation of the Koni shocks. My first step was getting the car jacked up and set on all 4 jack stands. I did this to take all load off of the car, and also to free up a bunch of space to move around/under the vehicle. I also pulled off all 4 tires and did a rotation, but that's up to you! It was also 19F here, so I fired up my propane heater and kept proper ventilation lol USE PB BLASTER ON EVERY UNDERCARRIAGE BOLT YOU WILL BE ATTEMPTING TO UNDO!!! Next, I chose to do the rears first. There is no correct order, but I figured they would be easier and would allow for gradual introduction to the process. To perform this, you will need to remove the lower control arms as well as disconnect the strut tops from the body by way of the trunk. So, let's make some room in the trunk! I removed my all weather mat, any jumper cables and other crap I had back there, cargo net, and my autocross magnetic numbers. At the least, you will need to remove the center carpet section (which has foam inserts that hold it behind the rear seats) to be able to mess with the carpet covering the fenders and top hat nuts. It just takes a bit of finessing and it will pop out. For my job, I decided to remove the center carpet section, rear cargo lip, and all plastic clips holding the fender carpet sections in place so as to allow for full access. Much recommended, so you aren't wrestling the carpet while trying to get nuts in place/torqued! The rear lip is held on by 2 cargo tie downs that screw on and off (located at far left and right on inside of trunk lip) and a plastic clip in the center. I used my plastic pry tool to pop out this and all carpet plastic clips. After you have removed them, give it a nice tug up and it should pop out! Next, to be able to manipulate the carpet over the fenders, you will need to remove 4 things per side: 1 hook immediately inside the trunk by the weather strip needs to be rotated to pop out. DO NOT PRY, it goes in a certain way and then rotates to lock in. When the hook is in the down position, rotate 90° towards the trunk opening and remove... ...and then 3 plastic clips in the carpet that hold it to the fender. Finally, I took all the carpet, folded it toward the center of the trunk, and then crammed it towards the back seats so it would be out of the way. Now you have a wide open area to work in! Time to get under the car, and remove the lower control arms. Quick note, for ease of access on the driver's side I removed the muffler flange bolts and nuts (14mm) and put the mid pipe on top of the muffler pipe . This gave a couple inches extra to access the nut connecting the control arm to the frame, but is not required. I removed the bolts/nuts in this order: Swaybar (14mm), shock absorber (17mm), loosened the frame side nut (17mm), knuckle (17mm). By doing this, the shock will extend into the control arm while it is still connected into the knuckle/frame and then the control arm will swing free when removing the knuckle bolt. Finally, remove the frame side bolt/nut (17mm) and your control arm will be free! Now that the strut is loose, I placed my race jack underneath it to support it against the frame. In this, you can go up to the trunk and remove the strut tophat nuts (14mm) without it falling down! Once the nuts are removed, the strut is free from the car. Go back to your wheel well, make sure you have a firm hold of the strut and lower the jack. Remove the strut from the car!

Not hard at all, I'd just recommend having a good sized 1/2in drive ratchet or breaker bar in case some of the nuts/bolts are stuck!

Hello Everyone! Today I spent about 2 hours and installed a 24mm Whiteline Rear Sway Bar on my 2015 Legacy 2.5i Premium. Below I will detail the install as well as the tools I used. Parts Installed: Whiteline 24mm Rear Sway Bar Adjustable MOTORSPORT Kit () Tools Used: Floor jack Jack stands Air compressor Bench vise 3/8in drive pneumatic ratchet -6in extension -12mm socket -13mm socket -14mm socket 1/2in drive pneumatic gun -2ft extension -14mm socket -17mm socket 14mm wrench 17mm wrench Vise grips Ball-peen hammer A view of the rear with the stock sway bar. First step is to jack the vehicle up by the rear end and place on jack stands. Place the jack under the rear differential and jack to desired height. I went rather high, allowed for much room to work. Place the jack stands under the reinforced section of the pinch seam, just in front of the rear wheel wells. Lower the jack, setting the vehicle on the jack stands. Remove the jack after it has lowered to the ground. I also soaked all the bolts I will be removing in PB Blaster, to ease removal. Damned northern winters lol The sway bar and support brackets to be installed. Removing the OEM sway bar is not difficult. In my case, the bolts holding the end links were corroded and required me to remove the entire end link/sway bar assembly together. There is 1 14mm bolt and nut holding the lower end link to the control arm on each side. I used the pneumatic gun on the bolt and held the nut with the wrench. Obviously, if you can instead remove just the 14mm nut holding the upper end link to the sway bar that would be preferred (as you would be pulling out only the bar) There are 2 12mm bolts holding each retaining plate over the rubber bushing. I used the pneumatic ratchet and extension. By my method I removed 4 12mm bolts, 2 long 14mm bolts, and 2 14mm nuts. You will then need to remove the retaining plates from the bushings, use the ball peen hammer to knock the lower end link up and out of the lower control arm. You will now be able to remove the sway bar from the vehicle. I lifted it up to clear the lower end links from the control arms, and slid it out towards the passenger side. The full removed assembly. Unfortunately my end links were super stuck on, the nut would absolutely not come loose. I had to put the bar in my vise, use vise grips to hold the upper end link bolt, wire brush and PB blaster the threads repeatedly, and the pneumatic ratchet to work the 14mm nut loose and tight till it finally came off. Comparison of stock bar to Whiteline 24mm bar. The kit comes with its own instructions on installing the bar and support brackets, but it is just a reverse of the removal. The main differences are: -Use their new bushings on the new bar -The lower control arms are held in by a 17mm bolt and 17mm nut. To install the support bracket, you remove just the 17mm nut. I used the pneumatic gun and 17mm wrench to remove the nut. You then place the bracket on the exposed bolt and loosely attach the nut. The retaining plates that hold the bushings and bar to the rear crossmember have the 12mm bolts. When you reinstall them, you do not use the lower 12mm bolts when also using the support brackets. You use their supplied washers and long 13mm bolts. -Also, the exhaust system is totally in the way of the driver's side control arm 17mm nut. To install the driver's side support bracket I needed to disconnect the muffler flange, and push the mid pipe flange above the muffler flange and rest it on the muffler flange to allow enough clearance. I then used the 2ft extension to allow myself to use the pneumatic gun to crank the 17mm nut on and off. There is very little room, but the extension/socket fit just fine. I also have the Nameless muffler delete, so it gave me more room than those with the factory muffler. That thing's huge lol The finished product! I installed the bar onto the end links at the front most, or "soft", bolt hole. Hoooo mamma is it a difference. The back end does not sway anymore, and completely tracks with the front. It is not pushy or "tight", just more "on rails." I cannot wait to see what the "hard" setting will be like with my RE-71R's at this year's autocrosses! Let me know if you have any questions or need further info! If you enjoyed this, please check out my write-up of my install of Koni yellows!

Hello! I have been scouring the forums trying to find a nice solution to allow independent fog use, but have come up with only a couple solutions. I recently hail from the land of Pontiac, where things were much simpler and mainly cut/splice. I have contemplated @Scooby_Fan 's mod: https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/5th-gen-independent-fog-light-mod-223969.html But am also wondering if @TheMicahLay 's mod with the OEM switch can be translated to a 6th gen: https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/fully-independent-fog-light-mod-267964.html Your input is much appreciated! I am well adept at putting together wiring projects but lack in circuitry knowledge. As well, I am not looking to fry the BIU

On the docket for the next week are: Replace the stock door and rear deck speakers with some plain jane replacements. Kenwood brand if it matters. Go to my girlfriends grand parents and grab the evap purge solenoid off their old wagon to put on mine (seeing as my check engine says it's an issue) grease the locks on all the doors (they've been sticky since I got the car) Get my muffler put on, is there any sort of after market pipe I should look for first? or is the stock pipe good? Oh, on the subject of locks, mine has power ones but no power button on the keychain. Any way to get a new unlock/lock dongle?