Subaru Legacy/Outback 2005+

c_hunter

Yeah, so we have confirmed that it's only in the Outback VDC. Basically, you would have to order this as a part and have it installed (easy) to replace the stock radio/HVAC controls. And I should emphasize that this only works on cars that already have auto climate control. It will not work on the 2.5i models.

 

If you want more details, e-mail me at "craig dot hunter at cox dot net" and I will send you a link with more details. Unfortunately, Edmunds will not allow us to link to other forums here.

 

Craig

kens

Mark,

Most likely no major changes in '06. The only one change I know of is the addition of a navi option.

But as always, there are small little things that get tweaked year over year.

Ken

c_hunter

E-mail me at the address I gave above and I can send you a link. We could really use some one with circuit and electrical engineering experience to work out a few last details. Once it is set, I can get some boards made up to provide the input interface.

 

Craig

locke2c

if you don't have autoclimate controls, though, you should just install an aftermarket head unit which will be a LOT less.

 

~c

masteryoda

Has anybody been able to purchase used 05i sedan? I've found a couple and just wondering what I should be looking at price wise.

qbrozen

are they really used? or are they demos?

If used, try asking over on the Real-World Trade-In Values board to see what they are going for at auction.

masteryoda

They are used for sure. But I'll check out that forum as well. Thanks

gene8

Nevertheless these Z tires have a 160 treadwear rating. My wife & I skidded on them last week as we approached stop sign on level, snow covered road, gentle braking. Car just kept going even when I applied firm, but not sudden brake pressure. Only got 500mi on them & thinking of getting other all season tires. Maybe will try them in next snow, but I feel I'm taking my chances.

63corvette

Gene,

 

You might want to check out the TireRack.com thread on Tires for the Outback. Lotsa people don't like the RE92, and there have been a bunch of new postings (look under "Reviews") of the Goodyear "Assurance Triple Tred". General consensus seems to be they really like it. I have just bought a set even though I had only 4500 miles on my RE92s (Brand new 2.5 Outback wagon bought August 27th). The new tires seem better in every way, including cost, wet, dry and snow or ice handling. I recently drove to Mt. Bachelor, OR for a ski trip, and although there was NOT snow covered roads, there was ice and snow covered parking lots sufficient to give me confidence that the new tires (1500 miles) have much better traction than the Bridgestones. A note, they do better on acceleration and braking traction when done in a straight line, and not as good when turning, so try to get all of your speed alterations done in a straight line, and then begin your turns from a safe speed. They are an 80,000 mile tire, and on most types of surface, are quieter that the original tires.

timo1745

Hey gang-

 

First, I hope everyone here had a very Happy Holidays!

Second, does anyone know of a good information source where I could find out what other model/year Subarus' wheels will fit out cars? I'm looking for a used/take-off set of 16" or 17" wheels, and while they're listed all over the internet from late-model WRX's and STi's, I have no idea of their compatability with an '05 OBXT.

 

Any leads/info would be much appreciated.

 

Seasons' Greetings!

 

Tim G.

'05 OBXTL-5MT

kens

Tim,

 

Happy Holidays to you too!

 

I'd start with the dealer's parts deparment for wheel compatibility info. I believe all you need to do is make sure the offsets are the same (lug patterns should be identical) and that there are no clearance issues.

 

Ken

timo1745

Hey Ken!

 

Thanks for the advice. Before buying anything, I think I'll consult with my Service Dept.

 

From lurking around some of the other Subaru tuner sites, (e.g., i-Club.com, scoobymods.com, etc) it seems as long as the Subaru wheel you're looking at has a 48MM offset (which all '05 OB's have), a 5x100 MM bolt pattern, and a 6.5"-8.0" rim width, it should fit just fine. YMMV.

 

I'll post again ifn' I find some mo' info!

 

Thanks,

Tim

tsy

any 5X100 bolt pattern with 45-53mm offset should work (depending on the tire mounted, of course)

 

I believe you can mount STi wheels (pre-2005) no problem. They are nice, forged BBS rims if you can get a set cheap.

 

If you want even cheaper, there are lots of aftermarket wheels (Rota makes a lot that fit subies, inexpensive too)

 

Happy New year everyone!

 

tom

c_hunter

To the earlier comments, let me add that you need to stick to +48mm to +50mm offset for 17x7 wheels on the 05 Outback for aesthetic reasons -- because of the fender flares. If the offset gets much higher, the wheels will look ingrown. Also, if you have not felt behind the front tire, do so -- there is barely a finger thickness of room between the stock tires and the strut. So, depending on the wheel and tire width you are shooting for, offset becomes important for inside clearance as well.

 

If you are going with something wider than 7" wheel and 225 tire, we can do math to see what offset is needed.

 

Craig

subden

I read the previous threads on trying to get a wired XM radio modulator such as the Delphi commander added to 2005 OBXT Ltd. with autoclimate controls. Curious if anybody has heard about the proper "adapter" being available yet? (I read about Craig's solution but don't want to go there yet if a 'production' adapter is out?)

 

The reason I bring this up is I took mine into a national chain car stereo place today and they couldn't install the Delphi Commander. Said they talked to Subaru and their national install center.

 

I would consider the Delphi Roady if I could find a decent place to mount it.

 

Any news/ideas?

 

Thanks.

bgsntth

I did my first road trip on Monday in my OBXT and made a few discoverys. The first I'm still researching: Driving on the freeway during a heavy rain for about an hour, the trip odometer started flashing between my trip miles and "ILL.3". I did not feel so hot myself, but am wondering what my OBXT was trying to tell me? I'm still researching.

 

The other discovery is in regards to the OBXT's offroad prowess. I had a chance to drive it around my family's coastal ranch in the same driving rain storm (i.e., mud and soaked grass). The OBXT's traction is seamless and phenomenal, and the Re-92A's actually have very good traction for an all-season. The OBXT also demonstrated itself to have more ground clearance than my wife's GX470, who woulda thunk?! Though I REALLY missed the GX's laundry list of comforting off-road do-dad's, especially in the slippery stuff.

 

The Bad: The OBXT will not creep, and has a very difficult clutch to modulate. There is so much power immediately past idle, I was forced to ride the clutch- a lot. The OBXT manual does not like to be operated in the low-traction, 5-10mph range. I would whole-heartily recommend the 6-cylinder, if you are doing any low-speed off-roading.

 

Martin

saedave

That problem of creeping followed by power surge is not only for off-roading. That's why I bought an H-6 VDC for use in creep and crawl city traffic instead of the GT wagon. The huge price difference for the six (even without VDC) made the GT with its better brakes tempting. Both the GT and XT share such very nice cloth seats that the limited models seem to be unnecessary.

sduford

Yeah, I sometimes wish I had bought the 5EAT just for that "crawling" problem. Thankfully I don't need to do that often.

c_hunter

Martin,

 

The "ILL.3" message is coming from the knob that adjusts the brightness (illumination) of the instrument cluster. I think maybe the control wheel is between settings or something. Try to give it a wiggle/spin.

 

You hit on one of the reasons that a manual transmission is bad for offroading. When I had a MT Outback (a 2000 model), I had a hard time going up and down steep hills with the car, and it was difficult to make small adjustments with the throttle. This is true of almost any off-road vehicle with manual transmission (though a low range helps a lot).

 

My 02 Outback H6 had auto transmission, as does my 05 XT. It really makes the car a lot easier to drive offroad. The AT's torque converter soaks up a lot of the slip that would otherwise be clutch burning with a MT.

 

Since the H6 is somewhat peaky and the H4-turbo has more torque, I would actually choose the H4-turbo motor myself. But really, we're splitting hairs at this point.

 

Craig

locke2c

I agree that the correct choice is an automatic, which the H6 currently comes mandatory with. Also agree that the automatic turbo H4 would be far more potent off-road / towing vehicle.

 

I've spent a LOT of time riding enduros. you use a lot of clutch climbing and descending, period. few people have the clutch management skills in a car that are utterly necessary on a dirtbike because 1) there just isn't a need for it and 2) few OEM clutches would survive.

 

~c

bgsntth

Hey thanks Craig. I'm still at a loss as to why it chose that particular hour to inform me, as I have not adjusted the illumination since buying the car. But as they say, "you learn something new everyday".

rob16

Anybody else had a problem with the ABS indicator/system on 05 Outback yet?

 

My ABS warning came on yesterday at some point coming down a ski mountain road....some bumps, potholes, but nothing serious. Interesting to note that the tripmeter shows error messages...is this new? Anyway, Er 55 showed up, the dealer checked it out and the right rear ABS equpment is showing up as a problem. What is particlarly bizarre is that, on my way up the mountain today, I discovered that the cruise control is not functioning. When I start the car, the ABS light isn't on, the system functions...I hear a slight clicking from right front of dashboard...cruise control is fine. In the space of half a mile, the ABS light comes on and the cruise disables!

 

Anybody else have/had this problem yet?

kens

That's the first I've heard of such a problem. Sounds like you have some electrical gremlin. Make sure you can take a service person on a test drive to show them the cruise and ABS problems.

 

Ken

hilbert

It snowed a lot here in Rochester two days back and OBXT does very well in the snow. No slippage and it drove very well in the empty parking lot I tried it in.

 

I have however a question: when the snow is a little deep (say 2 inches) and I am turning the car slowly (as when backing out of my garage) there is this grinding feel and sound. Again this happens only when the snow is a little deep. I do not know whether it is coming from the tires, or it is the AWD at work. Is this normal?

kmartin

Did you move the snowblower out of the way first? (sorry, I couldn't resist :-)

timo1745

Hey Tom-

 

Thanks very much for the info. I have actually been 'lurking' for some cheap wheels (either to mount my snows to, or if they're nicer than the stock wheels, to use as my summer wheels) and have seen ALOT of the Subie tuner crowd seems to run Rota wheels. Know anything about them? I've also read a lot of posts from that crowd where they've "bent and cracked" their Rota wheels, and even their OEM wheels. I don't know whether this is a quality issue, or whether the "Fast & Furious" driving habits of these guys are too much for any wheel.

 

I'm personally more familiar with wheels like BBS and OEM BMW forged, but I no nothing whatsoever of these new-generation, cheap-by-comparison alloy wheels. Some of them don't look bad, but I really hate the idea of hitting a mild pothole at 80mph in NYC commuter traffic and having my wheel turn into shrapnel.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Rgds,

Tim (not Too Fast, not Too Furious)

timo1745

Hey Craig-

 

Great info...thanks very much. I'm thinkin' I'll stick with the stock rim size & offset, since I really don't need more rubber on the road. Maybe if I had bought the '05 Legacy GT as I'd orig planned, doing a +1 size change might be kinda' fun, but since I opted for the OB, it really doesn't make sense to me. I only wish there were more tire options in 225/55-17. I've got a garage full of tires from my old BMWs in 235/45-17, and a slew of 15" tires, none of which do me any good unfortunately.

 

Thanks again for the input!

 

Rgds,

Tim

sduford

That's probably your tires grinding against the ice that accumulated around the mud guards.

 

Sly

dcm61

It's probably just the snow compacting and crunching under your tires.

 

DaveM

timo1745

Hey 63corvette-

 

Out of curiosity, are you still liking your new Goodyear Assurance Triple Treads? I've been reading all the favorable reviews of them on Tirerack.com, too. I think they might be onto something with that tread pattern, but I'm still very skeptical of any Goodyear tire because of past experience--I've owned too many different sets of them on various cars & trucks, and hated them all. My Goodyear Wranglers and Wrangler RT-S' all cupped (this happened on 2 brand new vehicles, and with perfect inflation and alignment), and never had any kind of wet traction to begin with. My F1's became 'out of round' after less than 15,000 of commuting to work...they still had tons of tread on them, but could no longer be balanced.

 

I guess I just have no confidence in a tire brand which has performed so poorly across the board for me personally, yet somehow still has become "orig equipment" on so many different varieties of manufacturers' automobiles and trucks. Clearly this did not happen on the basis of "quality" or "performance".

 

Any feedback you can share would be appreciated.

 

Rgds,

Tim G.

'05 OBXTL-5MT

snowbelter

I recall you park your car outside. I think you are hearing the "grinding" of the wheels hitting the snow either on the mudgauards or built-up snow in the wheelwells. When you park inside a garage, the snow gets a chance to melt. I had the same problem last winter when we had to park in the driveway for a few wheels while construction material was stored in our garage.Martin

rwoods

Hilbert,

 

I took a number of road trips from Long Island to Florida and then to Virginia. I would put the cruise control on 80 and relax for nice long intervals of 10-15 minutes each with perfect results. I found the OBXT to be very smooth and stable with excellent passing power. The only glitch I experienced was during a torrential downpour in Virginia when I was going too fast. I felt some hydroplaning and I'm not at all surprised. Once I backed it down to 45mph it stopped.

 

Bob

Long Island

rwoods

Dear Subden,

 

I had an XM radio installed by my dealer in October and it was a botch job. They placed the antenna inside on the dash board which the directions for installation warn against. So while a thousand miles from home and frustrated as heck I went to a specialty installer who needed two attempts to properly install the "XM Commander" model. First he simply placed the antenna on the roof of my OBXT wagon. That didn't do anything. Then he got creative and put in an "FM modulator" and a switch down by my right leg, near the center console. The switch must be flipped if I wish to hear regular FM radio stations. Otherwise I just listen to the satellite radio on 89.1FM. All in all I spent $200 for the two visits to get the XM right and I'm now very pleased with the results. I love listening to the classical music stations with no commercials. It's worth it to me for about $17 per month for my two cars.

 

Bob

Long Island

rwoods

I'm enjoying a book called "The American Road" by Pete Davies. It's about the a 1919 transcontinental trip by the US Army on the Lincoln Highway. The road was still not completed and this was a publicity stunt to encourage local communities and states to pave the damn thing from coast to coast.

 

The 46 trucks had 22 hp engines and carried food, water, gas and repair shops. The repair shop trucks were especially needed as the trucks took a terrible beating in the mud and dust especially in Nebraska and Wyoming where the road was just a wagon trail in those days.

 

Car fever had hit America hard back then. Falling car prices along with a booming post war economy had everyone wanting a vehicle. Once folks bought a car they began to wish for a paved road on which to enjoy it. And the best argument for building roads was that it would save people money on car repairs! Even tight fisted farmers began to support the "good roads movement" when they saw how is improved their lives and got them into town so quickly.

 

The US Army convoy frequently averaged 6mph on the cross country trip and rarely more that 10mph on so called paved roads. But people could dream of going on motor vacations across the country and it inspired them to adopt this new fangled technology just like we today are buying up computers and now signing on to "high speed" internet access.

 

PS It was the death knell for the railroads. Just as I suspect the computer will kill TV.

 

Bob

Long Island

hilbert

Thanks to all who replied.

 

Martin, I park the car in an enclosed garage. It is certainly not due to built-up snow in wheel wells as I checked that they were clear.

 

Hopefully, it is just the sound of tire crushing the snow on the ground as someone said.

dcm61

Thanks, I'll have to look for the book.

 

I live 2 miles from the Lincoln Highway in SE PA.

 

DaveM

rwoods

Dave,

 

I'm sure the Pete Davies book, American Road, can be found in your local library. Living so near a piece of American history should enhance your enjoyment of the book. I plan to retire in a few months and want to travel across the country following the Lincoln Highway as much as possible. I realize that it's been mostly replaced by interstates but pieces still exist in certain areas, if only for a few blocks, through some towns.

 

Another road that intrigues me is Route 66 which runs from Chicago to California. I may be crazy but I find travelling along old roads to be much better than flying along a boring interstate at 75mph. I guess I don't really need my Subaru's 250hp but I'm sure the AWD will come in handy on some of the mountain roads.

 

Bob

snowbird

Bob (rwoods)

 

I am also looking into getting this Extension and have a couple of questions:

 

1. The brochure says the colors available are either "Ivory" or " Off-black". Is Ivory same as Taupe, which is my interior color?

 

2. Is the upholstery material cloth or leather? Did yours match the rest of the interior?

 

3. Does the Extension help? I just drove 1,000 miles on my 05 Outback and my right arm is still sore from lack of support.

 

Many thanks. Jason

larryv

I spoke with the Service Manager of the Autowest Subaru dealer in Roseville CA about the head gasket problem. He says that the 2000-2002 Outbacks suffered from malfunctioning head gaskets manufactured by a subcontractor and that Subaru "has taken over manufacturing of the head gaskets themselves" since then. He says that more recent H-4i engines use a better grade head gasket and that they haven't expirienced problems since. He also said that the XT turbos never suffered from the head gasket failure because Subaru used higher quality head gaskets due to the increased compression in the turbo. Can anyone independently confirm this? Thanks.

kens

I'm not too sure about that story since the 2.5 engine has had head gasket problems since it's introduction back in 1997. With each revision, Subaru has improved the design and reduced the occurance of the HG problem.

 

The latest H4 engine may in fact have the latest and greatest design. Earlier this year, Subaru issued a TSB for the 2000+ 2.5 engine. The use of a special coolant additive is supposed to extend the life of the HG. I'm sure Subaru was on to something and probably implemented these measures in the latest engine design.

 

The 2.5 turbo used in the Forester XT, Legacy GT, Outback XT and WRX STi uses a completely different lower and upper engine design consiting of a semi-closed block and higher performance headers. Although it has only been out for a couple of years, there has not been any reports of HG problems with this particular engine.

 

Ken

timo1745

I've got a set of 1-seadon old 215/45-R17 Michelin Pilot Alpins (they're HR-rated snow/ice) used on my BMW last season. They've got about 2800 miles on them, with 90-95% tread remaining. Was gonna' use them on my OB, but figured they would throw off my speedo by about 5mph.

 

Lookin' to get $250 o.b.o. for them, would prefer local (NJ/NY/CT/PA) buyer but will ship at buyer's expense.

 

Thanks for the bandwidth,

Tim G.

'05 OBXTL-5MT

zman3

Ken:

 

I've heard this term before in regards to the newer 2.5L engines - "semi-closed block ". What does that mean?

 

Thanks.

 

Karl

rwoods

Jason,

 

I also have a taupe interior in my OBXT and the ivory arm rest extender matched perfectly. There only two colors, one for the dark interiors and one for the light.

 

  It is made of hard plastic which blended in with the center console. It can be raised or lowered so that you have option of using it or not. I always keep it raised so that my elbow is resting on it. I find it great, especially on long trips.

 

Bob

Long Island

locke2c

hey Tim, you should be able to unload those. the 215/45-17 fits a lot of Subarus well, especially the 93-01 Impreza.

 

~c

timo1745

Thanks! I was unsure of the fitment for other years. Wish they fit my own car

 

Appreciate the info,

Tim

locke2c

yeah the implied thing in my last post was my agreement that they're too short for your OB.

 

now it's explicit!

 

~c

c_hunter

Hilbert,

 

I agree with the other guys -- probably the snow crunching under the tires.

 

Craig

snowbird

Bob: Thanks for your quick response. I think I will definitely get the Extender. Jason

rsholland

Not sure this belongs here, but anyway here it goes...

 

Maryland Rt. 144 (aka Frederick Rd.), which begot US Rt. 40, which begot I-70.

 

I live about .7 mile from Rt. 144, the original road west from Baltimore to Kentucky and points west. It dates back to the 1700s, if not earlier. It still has large stones that were used as mile markers. In fact there are several mile markers within a couple of miles of where I live, on old Rt.144.

 

Ok, now back to our scheduled program...

 

Bob

njswamplands

i love when guys talk about getting the extender