What did you do to your 5th gen today?? -V4

Busy weekend with the car in the air! After operating with the P0420 Christmas tree dash for a month it needed to happen.

First thing was the O2 sensors. Both pre- and post-cat replaced. Thankfully they were easily accessible and broke loose without too much fight. After watching a YouTuber have to torch one off I was a tad nervous. Access through the fender is a pain but not as bad as these gd headlights! Easy swap.

Last week I got the AT oil temp light out of nowhere. Shut off and restarted the car and it went away. So did a partial drain-fill of the CVT. I opened the fill plug with the front jacked up and it spit out about 1qt. Wonder if it was a bit overfilled... Leveled the car and drained another 1.5 from the pan before closing it up. Refilled as much as I could with the car idling for 10 minutes. Soob says I need a "CVT relearn" but three short trips later and I haven't noticed it driving any differently. No lights or codes are on... I may do another drain the pan entirely and pay my dues to the stealership just for peace of mind...

Changed the oil and threw on a fumoto valve. No leaks with the provided gasket so far but I'll keep an eye on it. Sits well up and would take a very unfortunate scenario to contact it at all. I'm not worried.

New front and rear diff gear oil. Bought at 103k now at 106 and didn't look like either had been changed based on the glitter bomb from the rear. But nothing like that tooth I remember seeing one of y'all pull out. Front was a bit lighter colored but had some dust on the bolt magnet. 100k mile gear oil stinks like something else.

New PCV valve may be the easiest maintenance job I've ever done. Old one still clicked but was gummed up a bit.

Also did the half-assed steering fluid change (suck out and refill a few times) and will probably do that again a few times.

Only a few new knuckle wounds and she still runs, so that's good. Any else notice how beer consumption triples when a wrench is in your hand?

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Dropped the car off at the body shop to get the rear bumper repaired. Hard to leave it in someone else’s hands. It’s a great shop though and we have used them a few times. I have a 2019 Altima for the rental. It’s a base model and still has a flat bottomed steering wheel.

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Before

During

After

Also installed some VLED bulbs. Using this post as a timestamp to guage their lifespan.

The body shop pulled the rear bumper off and scanned the car (very cool) and found a bit more damage behind the bumper. The estimate went from $1k to $2k after that. I’ve very glad we have a good body shop close.

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Timing belt, state inspection, spark plugs, oil change.

Got a bad puncture so new tires (extreme contact DWS).

In addition to the Whiteline 22mm bar, I also finished installing the last Cusco Power Brace I had (Rear Side Member 687 492 RS) and opted to against installing the Whiteline sway bar braces and in their place installed the Cusco Rear Sway Bar Braces for VA WRX/STI (6A1 492 RL) that I've had sitting around for two years. The hardest part of all of this was the damn LCA bolts, which I replaced with M12x80mm 10.9 steel bolts to make sure I had enough length for everything. Rear end of the car feels incredible now.

FWIW, I would've had these sway bar braces installed years ago if the shop that installed my LCAs hadn't installed the bolt back-to-front instead of front-to-back as it was from the factory.

They feel fantastic. The bar itself was a big improvement, but the braces really bring everything together. The only thing I've got left to do is a roll center kit up front to take care of my bump steer, and then probably coilovers next year, because as much as I love the Koni/H&R spring setup, they're just not getting the car where I want it fitment wise. Will probably keep this setup to swap in for winter.

Did the Perrin Steering Dampener Lockdown last night. Overall not too bad of an install, but doing it with only an allen key took absolutely herculean strength. I thought I had an allen key socket to use, turns out I didn't. So I used one of my own longer allen keys and a pair of thick pliers to turn it. Even doing that, it still took both hands, leaning my 6'3" 230 lb body weight into it, and all of the force I could muster to get this little sucker fully clamped down, even with the spray lube and loosening the steering bolt. Regardless, only took me about an hour, and I'm very happy with the results as I expected I would be. My steering had been getting very sloppy, and it feels nice and direct now. Well worth it.

My bumper modification is under way....my quad tip dream will soon be a reality.

Thankfully my cousin also had the same dream and decided he would experiment on my car before his own lol

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Installed the heat shield....only 2 bolts survived and only 2 spots on the car survived to attach it.

I need to look under there more often.

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Finally fixed the annoying clunk from my front suspension - would only do it on larger bumps - everything looked ok, nothing loose. Koni suggested it was the bearing - I wasn't convinced, but bearings aren't that expensive, so figured I would pull the strut and replace it anyway. Took it all apart, put it all back together with the new bearing, making sure to get the upper spring seat in place correctly (still think there should be a mark on the outer diameter...). Thought I'd check the other side, and actually noticed that side was off by maybe 30 degrees - it wasn't making noise, but I figured I might as well fix it anyway... then Murphy showed up - somehow I managed to overextend my axle and partially pulled out the inner ball joint. So had to pull the axle - thankfully while I didn't have a 32mm socket, I had a 1.25" which worked just fine. Removed the tie rod end, speed sensor, caliper, and sway bar and was able tog get the axle out - a quick knock holding it straight and it was back in place, then reassembled all the bonus stuff I didn't plan on taking apart (and cleaned up the little puddle of gear oil). Ugh. On the plus side - while the bearing I removed really seemed to be just fine, the new bearing, and anything I addressed when reassembling the struts fixed the noise and they are silent. all's well that ends well, I guess... got two spend a couple of bonus hours in the garage, I guess.

one interesting thing - the new bearing (OEM from Subaru) has longer studs than the one it replaced - works better with a strut tower bar, that's for sure.

Brembo rebuild day 1....let's hope I remember how to put them back together [emoji85]

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Been busy with the car lately, so going to make a few posts in a row for each separate thing I've done lately. First up, changed my ATF fluid with some fresh Amsoil Signature Series ATF. First time doing the trans fluid *completely* on my own, went smooth as could be. At 106k miles for reference, last changed around 65k.

Seems someone replaced my ATF with chocolate milk in between this service and my last.

Finally did the passenger side of my STI pinstripe the other day (I did the driver side in February, so I've been driving around with only one side striped for 5 months ). Part # ST91042EZ010, Legacy specific STI catalogue part for anyone unaware. I did an arguably better job on this side and had a much easier time with it. The Japanese instructions recommend a wet installation, I opted for dry instead. On the other side, the one piece I tried wet install with (driver's door) is the one piece I messed up the worst. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job. Happy to have the car symmetrical again.

Found out recently during my alignment that I had a failed front passenger caliper. I've messed with trying to rebuild these calipers before and replace the seals etc, and I did NOT want to try and do that again. So, I opted to go with some new Raybestos re-manufactured & coated calipers from Rock Auto since I don't have Brembo money kicking around right now. I did not realize they'd be coated with this really attractive silver finish, and I honestly love it a lot. Looks far nicer, cleaner, and more cohesive than any color-painted OEM caliper I've ever seen (looks way better than red). The flash of silver behind my wheels is really appealing. Also, after I get the core charges for the calipers refunded by sending back my original ones, the pair of new calipers will only have cost about $120. I like them so much that I'm going to replace the rears soon as well (which honestly probably need it too, had tons of brake issues over the years). Swap was straight forward, everything went nicely, happy to have my brakes back to where they should be, and a nice cosmetic boost at low cost and relatively low effort.

Found out recently during my alignment that I had a failed front passenger caliper. I've messed with trying to rebuild these calipers before and replace the seals etc, and I did NOT want to try and do that again. So, I opted to go with some new Raybestos re-manufactured & coated calipers from Rock Auto since I don't have Brembo money kicking around right now. I did not realize they'd be coated with this really attractive silver finish, and I honestly love it a lot. Looks far nicer, cleaner, and more cohesive than any color-painted OEM caliper I've ever seen (looks way better than red). The flash of silver behind my wheels is really appealing. Also, after I get the core charges for the calipers refunded by sending back my original ones, the pair of new calipers will only have cost about $120. I like them so much that I'm going to replace the rears soon as well (which honestly probably need it too, had tons of brake issues over the years). Swap was straight forward, everything went nicely, happy to have my brakes back to where they should be, and a nice cosmetic boost at low cost and relatively low effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I replaced my drive shaft (u joints were leaking)

Installed Boomba shifter plate to replace Perrin shirt shifter (about same short throw but getting into different gears are much better; feels more “slotted”)

Group N tranny mount

Installed Peerin Steering Lockout ( steering feels like a go cart now, happily surprised on this mod)

So that is what the side and rear skirts look like on the car,..

I have these unpainted and uninstalled in my spare room sitting,..

Finally did the passenger side of my STI pinstripe the other day (I did the driver side in February, so I've been driving around with only one side striped for 5 months ). Part # ST91042EZ010, Legacy specific STI catalogue part for anyone unaware. I did an arguably better job on this side and had a much easier time with it. The Japanese instructions recommend a wet installation, I opted for dry instead. On the other side, the one piece I tried wet install with (driver's door) is the one piece I messed up the worst. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job. Happy to have the car symmetrical again.

 

Good time powder coat them since they are apart,...

Brembo rebuild day 1....let's hope I remember how to put them back together [emoji85]

 

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