thegiraffe - 2010 Legacy GT Adventure Thread

Hello LegacyGT community!

 

My name is Mark and I am excited to finally have LGT and be apart of this community. I have really enjoyed reading various threads over the years and I have to say I am really impressed by how positive and nice everyone is to one another and their own LGT adventures.

 

Well this is my first post and personal build thread in this forum, honestly I have been snooping on here for probably the last 8 years now. I recently had the opportunity to acquire one of my dream cars a clean example of a 2010 Legacy GT in Columbus Ohio on Feb 2 2018 with 64k miles from the original owners through a Subaru dealership.

 

Personally, I used to work as a Subaru Tech from 2005 - 2011 and have always loved the odd and unqiue qualities of this car and Subaru as a brand. There is really nothing like the smile a turbo subaru can put on your face.

 

Here is the updated look as of 12/2018

 

 

MODIFICATIONS:

 

Drivetrain:

Perrin Shift Stop (PSP-INR-018)

Shifter Bushing

Boomba Short Shift Transmission Plate (BOO2 031-00-006)

Clutch Damper Delete

 

Engine:

AEM Dryflow Air Filter (28-20304)

Milk Jug Delete & Replaced with 3D Printed Funnel

NGK Iridium Plugs (Need to Enter P/N)

Turbosmart Kompact 34 mm Plumb Back BPV (TS-0203-1223)

DeatschWerks DW300 Series Fuel Pump w/ Install Kit (9-301s-1005)

 

Suspension:

2015 STI Front and Rear Struts, Springs and Top Hats

5X100 to 5X144.3 Hub Conversion (see page 2)

08-14 STI Front Axles

Whiteline – KCA313 – Steering Bump Steer Assembly

Whiteline - BSR49XZ - Rear Sway Bar & Braces

 

 

Front Brakes:

08-14 STI Brembo Calipers

Front Rotors - Raybestos 980356PER

Front Pads - Brembo P54039N OEM Pads

 

 

Rear Brakes:

04-14 STI Brembo Calipers

Rear Rotors - Raybestos 980682PER Rotors

Rear Pads - Brembo P56048N OEM Pads

 

Brake Lines:

Stainless Brake Lines - Goodridge 24220

 

Wheels & Tires:

2012 STI Limited Wheels

245/40 R18 Continental DWS06

I don't know what shift knob you have. When I installed the boomba shifter I cut it at the base and rewelded it at an angle to fix the odd orientation. It worked out great.

 

Glad to have another owner on the forum! Enjoy the car and welcome to the community!

 

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Welcome! What are your plans for the car? Any more mods in mind?

 

We can help enable you...

Welcome !!!

Welcome to the 5th gen forum!

Gotta say, love the color. I may be biased though.

Now as a Subi tech... do you get the fun in doing the modding work yourself?

!!!welcome aboard!!!

glad to have you here!

Welcome and Congratulations! You just joined a very rare and elite club.

Now as a Subi tech... do you get the fun in doing the modding work yourself?

 

Working on cars is a great stress reliever for me, I think the big thing is that I am not rushed through the process like I would be if I am doing the work professionally or at my current job. Its also just a great way to get to know the car and learn its personality. I really like the uniqueness of these vehicles and how immersive the driving expierence is. I was actully looking at purchasing a 2018 STI but I just kept coming back to wanting the Legacy GT. I know this is a long reply but their is just something special about manual turbo subarus, it could part of my fast and fursiour generational up bringing but I feel like these cars are the last of our generation before emissions controls and regulations stomp out all of the fun and longevity.

Upon purchasing the car, I found 3 concerns. the first was that I got the car to pop out of reverse once but I was unable to duplicate the concern. The second was that the air box was not put together correctly and the third thing I was concerned about was that the previous owner only ran non-synthetic oil. Other than that, the car was very in very good shape for its age. The car was also originally purchased and maintained at the dealer I bought it from. So, my thought was ehh... you can’t win them all, the condition looks awesome, color is awesome, single owner and the timing was perfect so I bought the car. While going through all the paper work I went over my concerns with the dealer and they convinced me to purchase an extended powertrain warranty to be safe in case something happened with the transmission or any of my other concerns.

 

Upon the road trip home from Columbus Oh, to Minneapolis, MN (about 650 miles) I completely lost reverse and I was pretty heart broken. It was also 2 AM in some weird part of Indiana in a snow storm when it took place. I called the dealer the next day and they told me to bring it to the local Subaru dealer and it turned out there were metal shavings and other chunks of parts floating around in my transmission.

 

Basically, all my transmission parts and specifically reverse components were on the verge of spontaneous disassembly. I am very fortunate the transmission didn't fail or lock up in the snow storm I drove home in. Having a magnetic drain plug saved me on the way home.

 

 

Root Cause of Problem:

 

How it should look:

 

Que montage and delays due to a special-order needle bearing and two weeks in a NON-TURBO loaner, its seriously painful driving a base Impreza after a Legacy GT and I have my car back with a basically completely rebuilt transmission!

 

How the car looked during pickup and after all the drama.

 

The dealer ended up paying for the repairs because it was within their 90 day work warranty period. They previously attempted to fix the same problem twice without properly diagnosing it. The dealership was great to work with and these types of things just happen, but it just highlights the importance of diagnosing problems before throwing parts at it.

 

Now the real question is do I cancel my extended powertrain warranty and start making performance modifications?

Well, once mods get on... warranty issues become difficult to navigate. Tough to say.

Well, once mods get on... warranty issues become difficult to navigate. Tough to say.

 

I am honestly feeling really good now about the health of the engine. I changed the oil (Castrol Full Syn 5W30) and filter (Purolator for now), replaced the air filter, cleaned the air box and maf sensor, replaced the spark plugs and reset the ECU. The plugs were looking pretty good IMO considering the miles (65K.) The Gap was also still holding strong at about .034 I think that is about what they come from the factory but I would have to look it up.

 

 

I would be very interested to hear what you guys think about the condition of the plugs after 65K milkes. What Gap do you like to run on the plugs?

Just a note, as far as mods go, I would say start suspension first and foremost. Not only will those make the biggest amount of noticeable improvement with the smallest amount of time and relatively low expenditure, but they're also a lot less likely to affect any sort of warranty. And if you go with coilovers, it's all entirely reversible. I'd also go out on a limb and say that's the place our car's need the most help from stock form.

Just a note, as far as mods go, I would say start suspension first and foremost. Not only will those make the biggest amount of noticeable improvement with the smallest amount of time and relatively low expenditure, but they're also a lot less likely to affect any sort of warranty. And if you go with coilovers, it's all entirely reversible. I'd also go out on a limb and say that's the place our car's need the most help from stock form.

 

I think its more of a feel than a need, if you push the stock suspension it bends but doesn't break by any means. And it also depends heavily on where and how you drive, I never felt a need to change the suspension until I started commuting to school a few times a week. Then the floatiness really showed, but around town and on long trips it wasn't an issue for me.

 

And again, this is Florida, nice and flat, and aside from school I drive maybe 30 miles a week.

 

I would weigh the cost of the warranty against the cost of any foreseeable failure. I have a hair under 80k miles on my car and haven't had any failures a warranty would have covered in that time. Recalls aside.

I am honestly feeling really good now about the health of the engine. I changed the oil (Castrol Full Syn 5W30) and filter (Purolator for now)

 

I would go out get rid of that oil filter, it pretty likely has the wrong bypass pressure spring. Most oil filters will just bypass oil filter.

 

I would buy the WIX or OEM Subaru filters that have the correct bypass spring.

+1 for Wix, 57712 is the one you need. It's used on everything EJ25_, so you should be able to find one at pretty much any auto parts store.

I use the Wix XP, of all of the filters it is in the top 3 for volume and quality of filter media. It's also the only one with a real coil spring calibrated for a specific oil pressure to bypass. The other oil filters have a thin piece of stamped metal that can be unreliable and bypass the filter at random pressures.

 

I will try to find the thread where a guy bought 5 or 6 filters and tore them all open.

It used to be picking an oil to use started debates, now the filters too!

 

I have read on the interwebs...well on the Tribeca forum...or maybe on BITOG linked from the Tribeca forum, that Purolator makes the OEM filters for Subaru.

See, I thought it was Fram, or maybe that changed?

See, I thought it was Fram, or maybe that changed?

 

I have read that as well...the world may never know!

 

I think its more important to change the oil and filter on time and forget about the rest. I don't think many healthy engine produce enough damaging contaminants within an OCI to make a difference either way.

FWIW I use the mazda rx-8 filters. They have the right spring and are a little longer so you get a bit more oil. Not much but more is always good.

Here is my 5x100 to 5x114.3 Journey:

 

 

5X114.3 Hub Conversion Parts and Notes through install.

Parts List: (this is a list of parts required to do the conversion not how I purchased the parts)

Notes:

Wheel Speed Sensors are the same, but the mounting is different in the front, just remove the plastic clip and Zip-Tie it to the STI Mounting Location.

Front Brake Line Mounts are close to the same location but need to be bent towards the caliper a bit because they were a little to tight from the strut to the caliper

Torque Specs – Know your torque specs working with Aluminum Calipers, Bleeders, Brake Fittings, Certain Suspension components and

 

 

Front:

STI Brembo 4 Piston Calipers

STI OEM Caliper Backing Plates (these were important to me to prevent rocks from getting on pads)

Rotors - Rockauto Raybestos 980356PER Rotors

Front Pads - Rockauto Brembo P54039N OEM Pads

Front Brake Lines - Stainless Steel Lines – Goodridge 24220 (kit is for whole car)

STI Front Knuckles & Wheel Bearings (Lower Ball Joint and Tie Rods are same as most of other Subaru’s)

Whiteline – KCA313 – Steering Bump Steer Assembly (I wanted to replace the ball joints and this kit was reasonable compared to OEM and gave me some extra benefits)

NOTE - STI Bolts are slightly longer, I would recommend using but this might not be required. These little differences are why I wanted to buy the parts off a wrecked car so that I would have as much STI components as possible.

2008-2014 STI Front Axles (Pair)

The STI axles are a little longer to accommodate the longer wheel bearings from the STI. The fit the same way as OEM into the front differential but beware, once removed transmission fluid will start to come out of the transmission so be fast and use a container to catch extra fluid.

2015 STI Struts, Springs and Top Hats

3D Printed Drill Jig with 10mm bushings to re-drill strut mount to widen bolt pattern

¾” Strut Spacer to compensate for 20mm drop in front suspension height, probably due to longer springs and travel for softer ride on the legacy model line. The spacer is my short term fix, I might design, machine and black hard coat a more elegant solution.

 

 

Rear:

STI Brembo 2 Piston Calipers

STI Caliper Backing Plates (these were important to me to prevent rocks from getting on pads)

Rotors - Rockauto Raybestos 980682PER Rotors

Rear Pads - Rockauto Brembo P56048N OEM Pads

Rear Brake Lines - Stainless Steel Lines – Goodridge 24220 (kit is for whole car)

STI Wheel Bearings

STI Bolts are slightly longer, I would recommend using but this might not be required. These little differences are why I wanted to buy the parts off a wrecked car so that I would have as much STI components as possible.

2015 STI Struts, Springs and Top Hats

The rear suspension appread to be identical to the STI, so same process as swapping out the regular suspension.

The E-Brake Situation

The Rear E-Brake is the same size on the STI and Legacy GT, you must fully disassemble the E-Brake in order the “swap” the rotor backing plate. This extra step is worth it living in Minnesota. Also this makes it easier to install the replacement bearing, clean the bearing housing and makes future services easier.

Mounting the Rear Wheel Bearing – The bolt pattern, rear axle splines and axle length are the same. Once the STI rear wheel bearings were mounted, I torqued them to spec and the axle nut went on nicely for the correct depth.

 

Parts List and Prices (oh boy here we go)

Pallet of 08-14 STI Brakes, Hubs and some misc parts $1500

STI Wheels and Tires (off Facebook marketplace) $750

Tires are almost new 245/40 R18 Continental DWS

Had a friend do the powder coating and clear coat

Whiteline – KCA313 – Steering Bump Steer Assembly $175

Rockauto Raybestos 980356PER Front Rotors (2x) 70.79 Each

Rockauto Raybestos 980682PER Rear Rotors (2x) 45.79 Each

Rockauto Brembo P54039N OEM Front Pads $43.79

Rockauto Brembo P56048N OEM Rear Pads $26.79

Brake Fluid – Wilwood 2906209 EXP 600 Plus – 20.25 per qt

Brake Lines – Goodridge 24220 Brake Lines $105.00

Gorilla Locking Lug Nuts 71623NBC $55.00

Total for Parts: 2908.69

Side Note for Parts: I have buyers for most of my original Legacy Parts. So that should offset the price of the swap quite a bit. My original plan was to try to re-use the brake from the pallet but they were just to corroded. Additionally I will probably need to do wheel bearings at some point but the noise is very minimal.

 

Custom 3D Printed Drill Jig to modify strut tower bolt spacing:

 

 

What about the STi steering wheel?

 

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