Coco26's Build Thread

I decided its finally time to document my endeavors, both in an attempt to give other people insight to my ideas and help me keep track of everything that I've done. I'm not planning on doing anything too crazy, but the mods will be coming fast and furious in the near future (when I have income). Please suggest anything that I haven't thought of!

 

History:

Car was originally owned by salesman at the dealership, and was returned when he was fired. An older man drove it for the following 5 years, all dealer serviced. I bought it in April 2017 with 45k miles.

 

Car:

 

2011 Legacy GT

Crystal Black Silica

All options, other than interior lighting

Currently at 87k miles

 

Engine / Transmission:

 

XRT Stage 2 Tune

AEM Dry-Flow drop-in filter

NGK Iridium Plugs

Milk jug delete

Magnaflow Cat-back

Invidia Catted Downpipe

SouthBend Stage 2 Daily Clutch

Verus Forged Clutch Fork

Verus Billet Pivot Ball

PDM TSK-3 Kit

Perrin Shift Stop

Perrin Short Shift Adaptor

Perrin Solid Brass Bushing

 

Brakes:

 

DBA T2 Front and Rear Rotors

Carbotech 1521 (Bobcat) Front and Rear Pads

 

Suspension:

 

'15 WRX 20mm RSB

'13 Legacy 26mm FSB

Tein Street Basis Z Coilovers

Gorilla 1" Lift Kit

Koni Front Strut Inserts - 1447

Koni Rear Shocks - 1055

H&R Springs

Whiteline Rear Lower Control Arms

Kartboy RSB Endlinks

 

Exterior:

 

LED Bulbs: License plate, reverse lights, taillights, turn signals

Quad Brake Light mod

Gorilla Mudflaps

Subaru logo projectors in door lights

Grille de-chromed with 3M "Deep Black" matte vinyl

Bayson R V-Limited Front Lip

Eagle Eye (Anzo) Headlights

---Custom DRL wiring

Reverse Light Tint

Ebay Roof Spoiler

 

Interior:

 

LED Bulbs: Center dome, front reading lights, trunk light

Red Cupholder lighting

TapTurn Flasher

Sunlight sensor TSB Repair

Custom aluminum shift knob trim ring

 

Wheels / Tires:

 

 

Winter:

General Altimax12

215/55/17

VW Exor wheels: 17x7 et38, plasti dipped black + graphite and silver metallic + gloss-ish

 

Summer:

Firestone Firehawk Indy 500

235/45/18

XXR 527 wheels: 18x8 et42, Chromium Black

Muteki Black Lug nuts

 

 

Winter mode, Summer mode, and Original picture:

Edited June 20, 2020 by coco26

I'm currently working on a custom screen to put in the cubby in front of the shifter. I'll try to use this post to post updates of my progress.

 

Concept, inspired by a system created by a friend:

I've always wanted more gauges, but don't want to clutter up my dash with pods and such. I want to add extra lighting and other things, which require switches. I don't want to drill holes for this in interior panels to preserve originality. I have a raspberry pi laying around from another project, why not make a screen for digital gauges? Why not make it a touchscreen so I can have buttons instead of physical switches?

 

While I'm at it, I might as well add auto lock/unlock if its easy.

 

Design:

Raspberry Pi 3 connected to touchscreen, mounted in cubby space

Lights/relays/etc connected to GPIO pins on RPi

Connector to OBDII port to get 12v and ability to watch for CAN messages

Custom python/java code to run everything

 

Goals:

I'd like to have footwell lighting, but don't feel like paying for the subaru kit. It should be pretty easy to control some led strips with a button, and I should be able to set it so that they turn on when doors are opened too.

I'd like to have some gauges, like boost, IAT, etc. This should be pretty easy to display with the appropriate CAN messages.

 

9/5/17

The screen is coming today, so I'll be able to start really getting into it now. To be clear, I'm a mechanical engineering student. I'm not an electrical engineer, computer engineer, or any other kind of person that knows how to write code. It'll be a while, as I have to teach myself Python first.

 

9/29/17

Slow progress as expected. I got the screen up and touchable in the first day, works pretty well other than the fact I have to manually calibrate it (guess coordinate numbers to use as screen boundary). I got the hardware to do the footwell lighting (led strips and digital relays) and tested it with a power supply. I've been plugging away at what will actually be displayed. My ideas change weekly, but currently I have the buttons in the middle as: power for colored lights, power for white/entry lights, color selection, and brightness adjustment of the colored lights. I faked some numbers to be an example of what I have so far.

 

7/27/19

Still hope to finish this someday. When I left off (last July), I was able to read CAN messages. Next step is to send the messages requesting the data, and intercept the return messages.

Edited July 27, 2019 by coco26

In for more RPi details! I need to find something to do with my 2B (replaced it on media center duty with a 3B, and I'm already using my rev. 1.0 model B as a dedicated 3D printer server), and the idea of a carputer has always been intriguing. I'm a mechanical engineer myself, so I won't be much help on the programming stuff, but I will say that it's worth your while to do some Google work on anything you want to do, as there's a good chance someone else has already done it, or at least something very similar. The Raspberry Pi forums have a lot of good info, and there are a lot of good Instructables out there as well (including the one I followed for setting up the 3D printer server).

Updated with new pictures.

 

In other news, I got an internship in Texas, so I'll be moving to Plano in January. This means the mods schedule has been significantly accelerated, given that I don't have to plow through snow anymore. Priorities: coils, wheels, then exhaust.

^ I recall quite a few good tuners/shops in Texas too. Nothing like having an expert nearby to get your mod fix.

^ I recall quite a few good tuners/shops in Texas too. Nothing like having an expert nearby to get your mod fix.

Yea AwdTuning is near Plano and whatever COBB Plano changed to.

^ I recall quite a few good tuners/shops in Texas too. Nothing like having an expert nearby to get your mod fix.

 

Yup - AWDTuning in Flowermound. They just got done ripping mine to shreds and finishing up on putting it back together - so they are now REEEEEAALLLY familiar with 5th gens :lol:

 

Give Zee and I the heads up when you arrive - we are both in Houston (go Astros!) and maybe we can set something up to all meet!

Yup - AWDTuning in Flowermound. They just got done ripping mine to shreds and finishing up on putting it back together - so they are now REEEEEAALLLY familiar with 5th gens :lol:

 

Give Zee and I the heads up when you arrive - we are both in Houston (go Astros!) and maybe we can set something up to all meet!

 

I do need a re-tune since I have an aftermarket BPV...

Give Zee and I the heads up when you arrive - we are both in Houston (go Astros!) and maybe we can set something up to all meet!

 

Will do. Hard to find apartments with garages...

Great idea with the custom screen, you should PM 'heiche' and see if he can help you along or maybe build a version of BtSsm under Python. You could effectively get the outputs you need today on an embedded Android-tablet or a phone or any device running Android (either via Bluetooth or hard-wired into the OBDII port).

I have a bluetooth adapter I use with my phone when I'm curious about things, I was just looking for a more permanent solution (and a challenge for me). This just so happened to be free too.

So I made the mistake of assuming how a new (to me) car and tires would handle in the snow while messing around. Turns out its the polar opposite of my previous car, and I took out a reflector. Not the plastic stick kind, the metal sign post kind. It cracked the front bumper, which isn't the end of the world because I was planning on having it repainted at some point anyway. The snow also folded the plastic cover in front on the tire back so that it was almost under the wheel.

 

I now have a shake above 40mph. I initially thought it was that plastic piece hanging down that was just flapping around, but I tucked it back where its supposed to be (not clipped in, so not completely eliminated) but its still happening. It arbitrarily varies in severity from just noticeable to so bad that it affects my vision. Both the steering wheel and speedometer needle shake proportionally. I won't be able to get to a garage to check for bent wheel, etc. until this weekend, but other than bent suspension components, I'm about out of ideas.

Ouch! Bent wheel would be a constant..... Hope when you put it up its something easily seen and fixable! Keep us updated!

If you have a way to jack up the front end, do that, and see if the wheel wiggles if you yank on the front and rear. You could have damaged something else down there, so if one wheel wiggles and the other doesn't, start looking at suspension components.

 

A bent wheel could be slightly variable, since you'd probably hit a harmonic at some point that would make it worse, but you'd probably be able to see that.

So not necessarily good news, but relieving nonetheless: apparently my initial inspection wasn't very thorough. I went to the car wash, and was able to stick my head under the corner. The corner piece that was folded under definitely broke some clips I'll need to replace to constrain it.

 

I worked my way back and saw the bottom of the wheel well liner was loose. Turns out it split, down the middle, all the way up to where the airbox is. It came out from behind the edge of the bumper where its usually tucked behind, and was flapping against the tire. Not sure how any of that happened, but I tucked it back behind the bumper and driving is back to being floaty as a cloud.

 

Glad its nothing metal, just another $50 worth of plastic.

 

Edit: Not even $50. Got it from rockAuto for $13.

Edited December 17, 2017 by coco26

New year meant it was time for a makeover. It was a busy month, I did many things:

 

Bayson R V-limited Front Lip

I struggled to get it installed by myself. Granted it was about 50 degrees, but the fitment was good, not great, in my opinion. How much that would have changed with heat, I'm not sure. Overall, still satisfied.

 

TapTurn Flasher

Love it. I treated myself to the strobe pack, and it satisfies my inner child. I struggled to get the stock unit unclipped, and ended up just zip tying the new one to the harness that goes by there as mounting.

 

Eagle Eyes Headlights with VLED bulbs

These were a fun project. Initially I was bothered because every advertisement said the high beams were 9005 (H11) bulbs, but these housings had H1's instead. Exchanged bulbs and all was well. Low beams went in fine, High beams stuck out the back big time. Long story short, I made custom dust caps to fit the bulbs out of some plastic cups. They work great.

 

Next, I wanted to use the U-bars as DRLs, and add them to the TapTurn's arrival/departure lighting feature. Through the use of some relays, I was able to get what I wanted: Ubars come on with arrival/departure lighting, and are on when driving as DRLs. They maintain their parking light functionality as well.

 

Relay #1 is triggered by any source switched by the key, and supplies 12v to the Ubars for use as DRLs when the car is on. When the car is not on, it passes the 12v to Relay #2.

 

Relay #2 is triggered by Relay #1 (when the car is off). It passes voltage from the turn signal to Relay #3.

 

Relay #3 is triggered by Relay # (when the car is off, and the turn signals are on). It passes 12v to the Ubars for use with the arrival/departure lighting (TapTurn turns both turn signals on for a set amount of time for this)

 

The stock DRL resistor provided a perfect mounting spot for the relays. I had to add diodes to each headlight harness on the Ubar wire so that the car didn't think the parking lights were on all the time.

 

Front Bumper

Not really a mod, but I was happy to replace my bumper that was badly beaten up by rock chips. It made a noticeable difference in appearance, even from a distance.

 

Tein Coilovers

My intention for these was to get off of the stock struts asap, and use them to pick a height I liked, so I knew what springs to shop for when I could afford koni's. I added a 1" lift kit because I wanted to be able to maintain the stock ride height for winter use. They are the cheapest coilovers on the market....and so far I really like them. The ride isn't hard. On a scale of 1-10, with stock at 5 and 10 being solid struts, I'd give these a 5.5 on hardness. They completely eliminate the "boing" you get going over bumps stock, which was my goal.

 

Magnaflow Catback

It's going to take some getting used to. Its much louder than I was expecting, both inside and out. Cold starts are a little rough on the ears. At normal idle, its silent. Up to 2250rpm its a bit drone-y. After that, its mostly quiet inside, and I presume its still just as loud outside. Its a very smooth sound compared to most Subie exhausts. I'll just have to adjust my cruising rpm up to that 2250 mark, and I think I'll like it. Biggest downside so far is that the y pipe is now the lowest point on the car. I still have decent ride height, and its rubbed a few speed bumps already. That will be annoying.

 

Rear LEDs and Quad Brake Light

I swapped all the bulbs back there to LEDs, and did the quad brake light mod. I used amazon-grade bulbs to save some money because they're easy enough to change of they break. In the first week, I only had one instance of dash lights coming on. That was after driving 10+ minutes with my parking lights on. Since then, I've tried every combination of parking lights and headlights, and haven't been able to get the dash lights to turn on again. I got resistors just in case, but I'm not going to install them unless I need to.

 

Reverse/Rear Turn Signal Tint

From "Premium Auto Styling". I like the look, but its not as "wow" of a change as other things. I wasn't very impressed with the fitment, as they were slightly too tall, and way too wide. The height was whatever, because it just covered the seam between the clear and red plastics. I started at the outside and worked toward the trunk, and ended up cutting about 3/8" of material off to make the end flush with the housing at the trunk. My cuts weren't the prettiest.

 

AEM Dry-Flow Air Filter

I had a gift card and was enabled into swapping my K&N filter for one of these.

You could buy an extra resonator for the exhaust and have it added in where the stock one used to be. Maybe also have the shop try to get you more ground clearance.

Reset your ECU after the filter swap. And clean your MAF before the reset if you haven't recently.

You can look into the Vibrant ultra quiet resonator. I have one on my exhaust and it cleans the tone up considerably. I believe they claim that the resonator will reduce noise and drone by 5-8 decibles .

Reset your ECU after the filter swap. And clean your MAF before the reset if you haven't recently.

 

Best way to clean is just hose it down in MAF cleaner?

 

 

I was thinking about resonators, I'll have to see where it can fit that large of a diameter. So far I'm ok with it.

Best way to clean is just hose it down in MAF cleaner?

 

Yep!

The exhaust sound may also tone down once after some miles.

I thought it would be louder after breaking in, but it actually has quieted down a bit.

 

Got an alignment yesterday. I noticed the tires were getting pretty warm so I was expecting everything to be pretty off after the inch or so its lowered right now. Almost everything is now within spec (no idea about beginning numbers) including rear camber, which I was surprised about (Stock max is 1.7, I'm at 1.5). The only thing out of spec is left front camber. Stock range is -0.8 to +0.3. The right side is good at -0.4, but the left is "maxed out" at +0.3. Any ideas why this could be so different between sides? Any info about camber bolts is appreciated before I start shopping for those.

 

On a side note, I've always had loud tire noise, that sounds like I'm driving on big knobby tires. It's been consistently present across three sets of tires, so I know its not that. After the car was lowered, but before the alignment, it quieted down a lot. Now that its aligned, its back again. Could this be because of that front camber?

I think someone is sloppily doing your alignment. Within spec isn't always a good even alignment.

 

I would in no way accept +0.3 and -0.4 degrees of camber on my car. My car is aligned with -1.2 to -1.3 degrees of camber. I am lowered 1" both my 2.5i and GT were done this way. This thread has some good discussion on alignments

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/share-your-alignment-specs-224330.html?t=224330&highlight=alignment+specs

 

If you don't have adjustable rear control arms or offset bushing in the rear upper control arms, the rear camber will be what it is as it isn't adjustable.

Yeah, there's no excuse for that shoddy alignment. Take it back and tell them to fix it. You want about -1* on both sides of the front and there is plenty of adjystment in the stock hardware to accompllish that. And I bet that the positive camber on the one tire is causing the road noise.