2012 Legacy 3.6R - I'm In Love

Good Afternoon,

 

My post will actually be very similar to Subazeus' post, as I too am a first time Subaru owner! I picked up this beautiful, low-mileage (36k!), pristine 3.6R standard this past Saturday. This is the youngest, newest, and nicest car I've ever owned, and I am completely smitten with it. I have never driven a more comfortable and smooth, yet powerful and exciting car to drive. Everything on this car is so intelligently put together, everything is exactly where I would expect it and want it to be, and it all just feels so quality. I'm also not one who likes car to be all that "smart", so the standard trim actually suits me perfectly. After having driven nothing but Nissan's my whole life, I think I may consider myself officially converted.

 

My goals for this car are not too lofty. Not much more than some cosmetic mods and minor performance improvements. I want to keep things tasteful, subtle, and beneficial. Things I want to eventually add/change:

 

Short-Term

-Swap in the OEM foglights

-Install the OEM rear spoiler

-Install simple front lip spoiler (like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/181832456825?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true)

-Install a cold-air intake (probably this one, reviews look good. http://afepower.com/shop/details_new.php?partno=TR-4304P&)

 

Long-Term

-Swap the hood to the 2.5GT scooped hood

-Install a new exhaust system (haven't looked for options yet, but I don't want fart can or overly loud, just beefier)

-Possible suspension swap and maybe a sway bar

-Rim change

 

That said, I'm not overly mechanically savvy, nor do I have tons of experience doing mods myself. However, for at least the OEM related stuff, I have an in with the parts department at the Subaru dealer I purchased from and can get employee pricing. I also want to make sure I don't do anything major until my extended warranty is up for fear of voiding it. I've never owned a car that still has warranty left, so I'm not 100% sure what will and won't void it.

 

Either way, I'm thrilled to be a part of the Subaru family, and look forward to these forums being a wealth of useful information and fun.

 

Cheers,

Humble Rumble

 

http://i.imgur.com/YEYgviE.jpg

Nice looking car and welcome!

Congrats! I myself just gotten my leggy a month ago and already I have blacked out my rims, grill and windows. In the process of installing dual exhaust once i recieve it! Super excited!

Welcome! Be sure to make use of the search function. There's loads upon loads of useful info on here not to mention a helpful bunch of people. For your car specifially:

 

Official 3.6R Mod List

 

I'd first recommend making sure you take care of your maintenance when required. Being at 35k you're about where I was when I got mine. I checked to make sure they replaced the cabin and air filter. I had all the oil changes up to that point and they did all the 30k maintenance as well. Your next one would be 60k or 60 months.

 

Obviously, your car and your choice but I would recommend and many others as well, change out your rear swaybar with a 20mm OEM one and your year still has the 24mm front swaybar so that can be replaced with a 2013-14 OEM bar which is 26mm.

 

Feel free to ask any questions but please do read up through any previous threads. Most things have been covered up to this point.

Welcome. Great looking ride. I think you will be really happy in the fifth gen section of the forum. Everyone is great and always helpful with advice. Enjoy the enabling:lol:

Welcome! I agree with above: put the rear sway on your list... maybe the first item.

If you can do your oil, you can do the rear sway, it's super easy, almost fun if you like getting to know your car like I do.

Glad to have you around here.

 

A little tidbit of info about the OEM spoiler: it needs a crazy number of holes drilled into the trunk. I believe it is somewhere around 14 holes. So, make sure you really really really like it before pulling the trigger. There are some other options available as far as spoilers are concerned.

And please do not put a scooped hood on your 3.6R, unless you are running a supercharger and need some cooling for an nice big oil cooler mounted on top of the engine.

^^^. Now this I totally agree with, in fact I wish that I could get rid of the one on my GT.

^^^. Now this I totally agree with, in fact I wish that I could get rid of the one on my GT.

 

You can. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't yet. Go FMIC and find a 2.5i or 3.6R to trade hoods with.

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone! This place seems like an absolute wealth of valuable knowledge and I look forward to using it to it's fullest and contributing where/when I can.

 

@Timothy.B - This is excellent, thank you for that link. I'll look into the cabin air filter, as I know the car just had it's 30k service not long before I bought it, so I think they may have done it already. As for the sway bars, I was able to find plenty of information on the 26 mm front bar via the thread on the swap, but I couldn't find much on the 20 mm rear sway bar. Would you happen to know the part number for that? The Subaru parts website has the standard one listed as 20451AJ01A/20451AJ01B for the '12, and just B for '13/'14. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place.

 

@Ellesedil - Thank you for that info on the spoiler. I'll admit I haven't checked out too many other options for spoilers yet, but I do actually really like the look of the OEM spoiler. Additionally, the other thing that made the OEM spoiler attractive to me is the fact that I have an in with the parts department at the dealership I bought this from, so I can get the spoiler at an employee price, and potentially have their techs install as well (not sure on this, I haven't asked to see if they'd be willing to). But either way, thank you for the info!

 

@GTEASER - The hood swap was just something I was mulling over in my mind for options further in the future. I wasn't initially planning on ever supercharging this car, but who knows where I'll be at at the point where I would consider doing the hood swap? Maybe by then, a supercharger could be something within my monetary reach. But I do like the look of the scooped hood either way, and it's a subtle change in look (as opposed to trying to do something the size of an '04 STI hood scoop), even if it isn't functional. Other than the mild scorn of the more purist 2.5GT drivers, what would be the drawbacks of swapping to this hood?

 

I will admit, I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to car maintenance/modification, but I am looking forward to learning everything I can from this forum. Thanks again for the warm welcome!

The only downside of the hood scoop is all the haters, who will be hatin', lol. They seem to forget Subaru has a heritage, at least in the U.S. of putting scooped hoods on N/A cars. If you like the looks go for it, you could always put an oil cooler or something up there to make it "functional".

20MM Rear Sway Bar Kit

 

I just went ahead with this one. Comes with the larger ID bushings. Though, I just noticed this, they marked up the price and sold it as a "kit" when you can buy them separate for a few dollars cheaper.

 

Bushings

 

Sway Bar

 

Most of the sway bar, suspension stuff, and mod info are all in the appropriate threads. There's lot of things to spend money on so just be careful or the mod bug will infect you and $8000 later, you're cutting your bumper up for a FMIC for that $5000 supercharger kit you bought.

The only downside of the hood scoop is all the haters, who will be hatin', lol. They seem to forget Subaru has a heritage, at least in the U.S. of putting scooped hoods on N/A cars. If you like the looks go for it, you could always put an oil cooler or something up there to make it "functional".

 

Or you could just plug the scoop so crap doesn't get in there.

The only downside of the hood scoop is all the haters, who will be hatin', lol. They seem to forget Subaru has a heritage, at least in the U.S. of putting scooped hoods on N/A cars. If you like the looks go for it, you could always put an oil cooler or something up there to make it "functional".

 

This...

1997-1999 Legacy GT's had a hood scoop.

1998-2001 Impreza RS had a scoop also plus hood vents.

 

Both scoops and vents were blocked with plastic covers to keep soap out of the non existent inter-cooler.

 

Those were the days...

1995-1999 Outbacks also had a stock scoop.

1995-1999 Outbacks also had a stock scoop.

 

1997-1999 Legacy Outbacks and 1997-2001 Impreza Outback Sports had the blocked scoops in addition to the LGTs and RSs laufu mentioned

Welcome!

 

You will love your 3.6R, quirks and all!

 

For the rear bar, grab a 2015 STi rear bar, its pretty easy and cheap to find and bolts right on up! If you ever feel you need to go stiffer, theres a whiteline rear bar that will work, but its significantly more money.

 

Next, I would look into getting stiffer struts, our cars float....BAD. GTeaser has a set of fully adjustable koni's that might be worth looking into and theres always the bilisteins that everyone loves and last forever. There are an assortment of springs that will allow you to either keep stock ride height, or drop them.

 

If you ever feel you want a significant power boost (when I first got my 3.6R, i noticed there were times I wanted a bit more umph) look into the raptor headers from raptor superchargers

http://www.raptorsc.com.au/

 

If you go that route, you'll want high flow cats (you'll roast the stockers FAST), a bigger y pipe and an ultra quiet resonator with a retune (go XRT, pretty much the only tuner thats currently capable of a proper 3.6R tune)

 

Yes this is going from simple mods to more aggressive ones but the car becomes more lively and much faster.

 

Look on the 3.6R site at some of the builds and you'll see this car has a much higher ceiling then most realize

 

I couldn't afford it all at once and if I could do it again I probably would get an upgraded suspension first. The power you make from that upgrade is nothing short of incredible without adding forced induction (supercharger/turbo) and your 2010-2012 suspension will feel like its near its limits quick. Some of us see dyno increases of 40hp/120+ ft lbs from those raptors.

 

@GTeaser on the scoop...Hey Now! you know exactly what the raptor 3.6R's are capable of. They'll hang right with a stage 2 GT.

 

Keep us updated on your journey! The 3.6R is a durable, wonderful car that can become so much more then just a family car!

Ill be selling my 19mm sti rear sway bar once i put in the 22mm. Let me know if you're interested. The 19mm was the first mod i did, and it made a rather impressive improvement with little cost. I wasnt planning on going crazy with the mods, but it happened, so now the need for the larger rear bar has come up, plus i got a sweet deal.

 

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I actually picked up the 20 mm STi RSB and it just arrived today, but thanks either way!

I actually picked up the 20 mm STi RSB and it just arrived today, but thanks either way!

 

well, shucks. enjoy the 20mm! careful of the mod bug, she's a cruel beast!

well, shucks. enjoy the 20mm! careful of the mod bug, she's a cruel beast!

He'll be joining XRT soon. Not likely to slow down lol

 

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Hahaha yeeeeah the bug's got me pretty bad already. This is the top 4 notes in my phone currently, wishlist is a couple grand long already lmao. XRT is definitely in my plans too.

http://i.imgur.com/LuhrPMj.jpg

I would have waited on the wheels...and did the raptor headers and XRT tune...

That's all just me planning and figuring out what I want haha. Money dictates what I can and can't do at the moment, and since I still have warranty left, I'll probably shy away from too many big power upgrades for a while.