Fender flares sound like a good idea. Are the ones you ordered compatible with the 98s? Any drilling involved or are they just pop-ons? How much?
I've noticed that the edge of my front right flare has got some dings on it from parking lots. Might be a good way to hide the damage as well as prevent any future ones...
I needed a break from i-club... Damn, that website is addicting!!!! Anyway, went out of the way alittle and bought the RAZO Carbon Fiber Pedals. Wow, what a difference on feel and grip. I have to get used to the oversize (if you may) pedals for brake and gas pedal control. For racing I presume??? I know it's not STI, but it's nice...:) Much better than the skimpy stock rubber covers.
Hi all, i was away for sometime. went for some trainings. NE how, picked up a used STi ver 5 engine along the way. bwahahahaha....screw NOS! NE hoo the OBS you saw prolly belongs to Kevin THomas. WOnder how is his Stage I turbo is doing. I remembered his OBS went nuts. If anything, I might just do a WRX conversion since I know a guy who does them.
Is there a way to adjust the responsiveness of the steering wheel on a 2000 Outback? Not that I would want to do this myself - just in principle. I think that the steering wheel on the Outbacks (probably the other models too, but I wouldn't know) has too much slack.
If responsive is fewer turns lock-to-lock you're screwed. The only options are very expensive because only rallycars (REAL rallycars) have faster LHD racks. The WRX STi has a faster rack but they are RHD.
On the other hand you might consider more responsive to be less actual hand movement... a smaller diameter wheel might help there.
What if responsive means the delay between turning the steering wheel and the wheels themselves turning:
On my obs, the steering wheel has two or three degrees of play. In it's prime, my Honda was super tight. I had a local retailer change the tires and do an alignment and it was never the same again, probably 10 degrees of play.
Anyone who has owned a BMW knows how telepathic the steering is - I cannot get over how well the German automakers do this - whether a BMW, Audi, Porsche or even later VWs - they all have excellent road feel. However, that said, I think my 2000 Outback has excellent steering with no discernible play. A bit of kickback from bumps, yes, but no play.
Without a protractor handy, my degree estimates are off. Maybe I should use minutes, but then my sense of time may be off. So lets just say my sport has a little play, my Honda had virtually no play and later it had too much play; I've also driven american cars; e.g. chevy cavalier, with way too much play.
Now I know you're all thinking I should switch careers and become a technical writer.
...if you're driving off-road. Mind you, I haven't tried anything remotely close to Jeep Wrangler-ish, but free play in the steering makes it a lot easier to drive over rocks and ruts and such.
Mischa - you can improve the steering feel with unrelated mods. High performance tires will make a big difference, even in the stock size. Lower profile tires even more, as will a strut tower brace (at least in my subjective experience).
Weebday is right on, though. What works on pavement pretty much has the opposite effect off road. You'd be better off with plenty of play, high articulation, no roll bars/strut tower braces at all off road.
Welcome back, ramon. Missed your ascerbic wit
Bigelm: are the pedals slippery when wet? How much did you pay? Any photos?
The flares were $114.30 for the set of four. It retails for close to $150, though. Still not cheap, but less than new quarter panel
The good news is they install without any drilling. Someone on the Yahoo Forester Club has them and read some instructions to me, but he has not installed them yet. Mine should get shipped out today, so I'll do them this weekend most likely. Stay tuned.
Mary, I wonder if you're not feeling the quality of the tires themselves. There are considerable differences in steering feel for the 3 tires I've had mounted on my Impreza:
- Original equipment Potenza RE92 VR Besides what's already been said about the traction (poor) it also made the steering feel slow and unresponsive. I call these attributes response and handling. It was very quiet and rode fairly well though.
- Yokohama Nexus A vast improvement in grip, response and handling. Unfortunately they were a bit loud and also followed every rut and groove in the road (I call this tracking). Steering feel was much improved but much heavier (yes, even with the same alignment).
- Yokohama AVS S1 Once worn in offer more grip than the Nexus in wet and dry (they are a larger size though) and handling is very good. Response feels slightly less and steering effort is considerably lower. They also do not track at all and are quiet.
Just some food for thought... Bad tires can make the even a BMW's "telepathic" steering sloppy and uncommunicative.
You may well be right and I thought about it too, but find it hard to pin a problem down to a source.
With the Honda, I think the retailer ruined something. They never admitted to a specific error, but they did replace the tires after about six months and then got the alignment tolerable and the wheel straighter.
Anyway, next time I buy tires, I'll be much more careful on what I buy and where I go.
A low profile tire has shorter sidewalls, so there's less rubber between the edge of the rim and the road. Viewed from the side, you simply see less rubber and more metal (from bigger rims).
A tall sidewall allows a lot of play, since the rubber flexes as rotational forces are applied to it.
Low profile tires usually have stiffer sidewalls, and there is less rubber to flex, so the steering feel is generally more direct.
If you look at the Forester L vs. the Forester S, the L comes with 205/70R15 tires, a pretty narrow tire with a high profile. Mine flexed too much for my tastes.
The Forester S has 215/60R16 tires, slightly wider and with a lower profile, better known as a Plus One. The bigger rim keeps the overall diameter the same. The result is less flex and better steering/handling.
A really low profile tire would be a 215/55R17, or a Plus Two, but this was too extreme for my uses.
Juice, the web site you are referring to demonstrates that the speedometer reading can be off depending on what size tires you have. And so should be the odometer, shouldn't it? Is it possible to cheat on the mileage of a car by putting on larger tires, say 17" instead of 15" should make a big difference. Or do people recalibrate their odometers (is that allowed at all???).
What does "mileage" refer to anyway? Is it really the distance a car has travelled over the years, or how many revolutions the engine has produced? I guess there should be a measure for the work an engine has done during its lifetime.
Absolutely! You can cheat the odometer by changing the diameter of the tires. However, keep in mind that (if you have an auto tranny), the shift points will be off since the engine computer does keep the wheel speed in mind. I believe the guys on CarTalk mentioned this to someone who had problems with his jacked up F150 pickup truck. Incidentally, this guy also kept breaking the CV joints because the stock driveshafts were at the wrong angle and creating too much stress.
Yes, it is possible to mount a tire with 10% greater circumference and the odometer will show correspondingly lower miles than have actually been traveled. However, the engine will also have turned fewer revolutions to get there so it will actually have a little less wear. This points out the fallacy of using mileage alone as a predictor of wear and tear on a used vehicle - I will take the one with 100k+ highway miles over 50k in the city any day.
I once bought a used full size Blazer ('85) with 240K miles on it from a guy at work who commuted 100 mi a day to work on the fwy and was religous about maintenance. It had never had any engine work and ran perfect so I thought I would take a chance because it looked really good and was cheap. It also had very high factory gears (2.73:1) which meant it was hardly ticking over at 60 mph. Still, I figured I'd be putting in a new GM crate motor pretty soon. I re-geared the axles to 3.73 which is much more normal for off-road and general use, drove the hell out of it, and I finally put a trans in it at 260K but did nothing else. My ex-wife has it now and it recently turned 300K - she had a few oil leaks fixed, but the heads have still never been off it. No lie. Absolutely amazing to me. Regular oil changes and highway miles and they just don't wear.
actually there is some talk of implementing hour meters that end-users could see (as opposed to the ones within OBDII) to supplement the odometer information. in the short term, it seems to me that no one knows what would be an unacceptable number of hours, but as time goes on I think it would probably be just as natural as reading the odometer. however...
I will take the one with 100k+ highway miles over 50k in the city any day
As a rule, I disagree. Mileage is wear and that's that. But you did hit right on the real thing about keeping cars in good working order later in your post...
...and was religous about maintenance
That's why the Blazer was in great shape. If I had to pick between a high mileage well maintained car and a lower mileage severely neglected one, well that's easy. But mileage alone once again tells you nothing.
Thanks all for the enlightening info on mileage, engine wear, etc. I apologize for constantly starting discussions on "trivial" topics. The 2000 OB I just got is my first brand-new car, and I am very excited about it. It simply raised my curiosity as I have almost no knowledge about cars. Furthermore, I am a scientist who learned to ask "simple" questions, and then it turns out that the questions and their answers are in most cases not that simple and trivial after all. So please bear with me.
On another note: I find the interior rear view mirror pretty small. I'd prefer having one that would allow looking out the rear side windows (blind spots). I am also very tall. For my taste, the stock mirror is placed way too low, so that it's actually blocking a huge portion of my view out the front window. When I am at an intersection, I always have to bend down to see the traffic to the right. Does anyone have a good suggestion for a large, slightly curved mirror that can be placed as high as possible without interfering with the visors? I am intrigued by the auto-dimming mirrors, but the one from Subaru seems to be just as small as the stock mirror. The built-in compass is appealing, though (I think a compass should not be an optional accessory in an Outback, but should be standard). Any advice here? Thanks, Mischa
You said: >> As a rule, I disagree. Mileage is wear and that's that. <<
I also disagree - wear is not wear... city mileage is significantly higher wear PER MILE than hwy mileage, especially if you consider wear to the entire car vs. just the engine. Brakes, suspension, steering rack, transmission, cv or u-joints - all get many times the wear PER MILE in stop and go city usage than when the car is driven on a hwy in top gear under relatively light load for long periods of time. The engine also revs far more and experiences more compression/decompression cycles, etc. in town.
All of that wear results from city use in and of itself, as in a taxicab, for example. If you make the assumption that city usage normally also implies many shorter trips to get to the same ending mileage, as in personal use vehicle, you get a whole additional range of problems related to cold startup. We know that cold starts are when 80-90% of the wear occurs in a normal car engine. Plus cold bearings and lubrication in transmission, axles, etc. Once things are fully warmed up the bearing surfaces are just riding on a film of oil and they run with almost NO discernible wear, assuming, as we both agree, that the oil is kept clean.
My own experience with many used cars and trucks over the years bears this out - vehicles with significant known hwy miles exhibit amazingly tight characteristics in most major components as well as the body structure, for the miles that show on the odometer.
I agree with your point on hour meters - it would give a much better picture, when combined with the odometer, as to the likely usage the vehicle received, or at least the speed it averaged
oops, posted too soon. my point being that 100k miles could easily be 50k in the city and 50k on the highway, and thus worse off than a vehicle with the dreaded 50k 'city miles'.
that's why, unless you know the seller, an hour meter would be the next best thing. Say it had 2000 hrs of run-time - if it had 20,000 miles showing, you would have a pretty good indication that it spent most of it's life in the city (10 mph avg). If it had 100,000 miles, same bet for almost all hwy use (50 mph avg).
It's all hypothetical anyhow...because when it comes to resale time, high mileage is high mileage. This is true if you trade in your vehicle or sell it yourself. Just try convincing the perspective buyer that there is a difference (there is, potentially, but they won't care). If it makes you feel better though... As a side note, when I was selling cars people would try to get a higher trade-in because "it's only highway miles". It never flew. The best thing you can do for resale value is to keep the mileage at or below average, keep up on the maintenance, and keep all your receipts for work done (repair or modification).
My point was simply that there is a difference in the wear on the vehicle, and also from a buyer's perspective you may get a great deal - seller's loss, as you say.
To address the original question, my tires are only about 1% bigger in diameter (in theory at least), so even if they last 40k miles or so, that's only 400 miles off, so it won't affect resale in any significant way.
Huge tires would rub, but even if you somehow managed you end up with poor gearing and a slow vehicle. Jeeps with the wrong rear end (numerically too low) have this problem - even with the 6 they can't keep up on the highway.
Many boats, BTW, do track hours of operation. At resale it's accounted for just as mileage would be. So it's possible to implement.
As for the mirror, there are two elbows connecting it to the windshield, so it may be possible to get it positioned a little higher than it is now. Try it out.
A nutty highschool friend with a four cylinder Jeep (about an '82 I believe, it was fulltime 4wd) and I were pulled over once for speeding. The officer wrote him for 80 in a 55, to which my friend went wild. He pulled out the registration and offered to GIVE the officer his jeep if he could get it to 80MPH right then and there. It couldn't be done because he had a set of 35" BFG mud terrain tires... He freely admitted he was speeding, but 80MPH was dead wrong.
The officer laughed and wrote him for 69 MPH instead (3 pts instead of 5, and about $80 less of a fine) but declined to take the jeep for a test drive.
Well, my hitch is on the way, so I should find enough time to install it this weekend. The rear diffy protector will go in at the same time, since both require I loosen the exhaust.
Keep an eye out for photos and comments next week.
Maybe this is old news, but SOA is now selling STI parts through their dealers, including intermediate pipes for Imprezas and carbon-fiber strut bars! check it:
Oh, yeah, and that's just the beginning. They should add more products soon, and I can't wait.
I have several copies of the SPT catalog (Subaru Performance Tuning) I'm saving for the next meet, and helped Darlene put her SPT page on-line.
I've even installed the metal strut tower brace on my Forester - it fits! None for the Legacy, yet. Bummer.
Well, I spent the entire day Friday under the car - installing the diffy shield and the hitch. Not easy, but doable by any handy person with the right tools. A torque wrench is a must - you need the leverage.
The rear diffy protector is impressively sturdy. The metal is thicker than my jack stands. It was fairly easy to install, it's just that on the Forester you have to remove three exhaust connectors. It's easier than it sounds though, and the Impreza/Legacy do not require this step. Looks good, I recommend it.
While I was at it, I installed my hitch. I had to loosen the exhaust anyway, so I did these together. I'll post photos and instructions soon, but I'm happy with the hitch, too.
Complaints include bolts that were way over-torqued, causing a few scathed knuckles, and an almost complete lack of photos with the instructions. I was able to do it, but it will be much easier for anyone else once they see my photos.
The hitch has 7 bolts, 17mm each, securing it directly to the frame, and again seems very sturdy. It comes with a 4 wire harness standard, and even is prewired for the harness, and even has holes to get the wiring to the under side.
So an unskilled guy like me, with the right tools, was able to finish both in about 5 hours or so. Considering I took time to take photos, I was quite happy.
BTW, as you may have guessed, I got both from QSubaru.
I'll share more details once the photos are up, so you'll know what I'm referring to.
I picked up on this topic from the future models forum and was wondering if you folks recommend the diffy protector and/or skid plates for mostly street driving, is it necessary, worth the trouble and expense, etc?
My rear end bottomed out coming into my steep grade driveway the other day. I don't know just what I hit and didn't want to look--too sad--had hoped it wouldn't be a problem with my sport.
I also wonder if better protection against water and road salt, is desired.
Both have installation instructions, though the hitch is on 3 pages since it's a long process. Follow the link on the bottom to see how to install the wiring harness and the hitch itself.
It wasn't easy, but I'm happy with both of them. I also got the bike rack for the hitch, since I use the roof for cargo.
So I guess on my trip to the OBX this fall I'll be able to take everything with me! Bikes, gear, you name it.
Mary - I spent the entire day on Friday under my Forester, and yes there are many parts left exposed without the skid plate. Some of the old bolts I removed were already rusty, and it was odd to see the differential so open.
That's normal, though. I've crawled under a few Jeeps and rust just happens.
Still, for the piece of mind, it's worth it to me. Darlene sells the rear differential protector for around $55, and that was relatively easy to install (with the right tools). The hitch took a lot more elbow grease.
Now I'd like to find a front skid plate that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.
Tip: get both from the factory if you're buying new.
First, congrats on your new page. Soon, it will rival Juice's! ;-) I'm afraid that many of your pictures are not loading at all. Did you forget to upload the graphics?
I canceled that order back in early July because the rims wouldn't make it to me until september. But it's cool cos I sorta like those Speedline Comp 2 wheels on the spdusa site. Maybe I'll get those if they can come in faster. But Mike doesnt have a price listed for them.
Thanks. It was the best I could muster after 5pm at work yesterday. I plan on tweaking it as well as putting up new content in the future. Your website was my inspiration.
I bought a digital camera this past weekend so I used that as an excuse to document the procedure. This time, I wanted to try installing it by removing the entire intake -- something I didn't do the last time.
Dave - you may be better off with two sets of rims. One for off roading, the other for on-pavement performance.
The 17" rims would look sweet and handle great on the road. You'd actually gain 0.1" of clearance, maybe more since there is less deflection when you let air out. The speedo would be close enough.
But minus 0.4" of sidewall means less flex, so the ride will get stiff, and the same tires that yield accurate steering on pavement will steer right into ruts on trails.
Another thing - that Plus One will actually increase unsprung weight, since your smaller rims are already alloy.
I'd do it, but use the 17"ers for pavement only. I'd then get off-road or snow tires for the stock set. Best of both worlds.
Comments
Fender flares sound like a good idea. Are the ones you ordered compatible with the 98s? Any drilling involved or are they just pop-ons? How much?
I've noticed that the edge of my front right flare has got some dings on it from parking lots. Might be a good way to hide the damage as well as prevent any future ones...
Damn, that website is addicting!!!!
Anyway, went out of the way alittle and bought the RAZO Carbon Fiber Pedals.
Wow, what a difference on feel and grip. I have to get used to the oversize (if you may) pedals for brake and gas pedal control. For racing I presume??? I know it's not STI, but it's nice...:)
Much better than the skimpy stock rubber covers.
Is there a way to adjust the responsiveness of the steering wheel on a 2000 Outback? Not that I would want to do this myself - just in principle. I think that the steering wheel on the Outbacks (probably the other models too, but I wouldn't know) has too much slack.
Mischa
On the other hand you might consider more responsive to be less actual hand movement... a smaller diameter wheel might help there.
-Colin
On my obs, the steering wheel has two or three degrees of play. In it's prime, my Honda was super tight. I had a local retailer change the tires and do an alignment and it was never the same again, probably 10 degrees of play.
Mary
Now I know you're all thinking I should switch careers and become a technical writer.
Mary
Mary
Weebday is right on, though. What works on pavement pretty much has the opposite effect off road. You'd be better off with plenty of play, high articulation, no roll bars/strut tower braces at all off road.
Welcome back, ramon. Missed your ascerbic wit
Bigelm: are the pedals slippery when wet? How much did you pay? Any photos?
The flares were $114.30 for the set of four. It retails for close to $150, though. Still not cheap, but less than new quarter panel
The good news is they install without any drilling. Someone on the Yahoo Forester Club has them and read some instructions to me, but he has not installed them yet. Mine should get shipped out today, so I'll do them this weekend most likely. Stay tuned.
-juice
- Original equipment Potenza RE92 VR
Besides what's already been said about the traction (poor) it also made the steering feel slow and unresponsive. I call these attributes response and handling. It was very quiet and rode fairly well though.
- Yokohama Nexus
A vast improvement in grip, response and handling. Unfortunately they were a bit loud and also followed every rut and groove in the road (I call this tracking). Steering feel was much improved but much heavier (yes, even with the same alignment).
- Yokohama AVS S1
Once worn in offer more grip than the Nexus in wet and dry (they are a larger size though) and handling is very good. Response feels slightly less and steering effort is considerably lower. They also do not track at all and are quiet.
Just some food for thought... Bad tires can make the even a BMW's "telepathic" steering sloppy and uncommunicative.
-Colin
With the Honda, I think the retailer ruined something. They never admitted to a specific error, but they did replace the tires after about six months and then got the alignment tolerable and the wheel straighter.
Anyway, next time I buy tires, I'll be much more careful on what I buy and where I go.
Thanks for your tire history, Mary
Looking forward to the picture of your flares.
Mary
A tall sidewall allows a lot of play, since the rubber flexes as rotational forces are applied to it.
Low profile tires usually have stiffer sidewalls, and there is less rubber to flex, so the steering feel is generally more direct.
If you look at the Forester L vs. the Forester S, the L comes with 205/70R15 tires, a pretty narrow tire with a high profile. Mine flexed too much for my tastes.
The Forester S has 215/60R16 tires, slightly wider and with a lower profile, better known as a Plus One. The bigger rim keeps the overall diameter the same. The result is less flex and better steering/handling.
A really low profile tire would be a 215/55R17, or a Plus Two, but this was too extreme for my uses.
-juice
Mary
The graphic outline is pretty nifty.
-juice
What does "mileage" refer to anyway? Is it really the distance a car has travelled over the years, or how many revolutions the engine has produced? I guess there should be a measure for the work an engine has done during its lifetime.
Mischa
Drew
I once bought a used full size Blazer ('85) with 240K miles on it from a guy at work who commuted 100 mi a day to work on the fwy and was religous about maintenance. It had never had any engine work and ran perfect so I thought I would take a chance because it looked really good and was cheap. It also had very high factory gears (2.73:1) which meant it was hardly ticking over at 60 mph. Still, I figured I'd be putting in a new GM crate motor pretty soon. I re-geared the axles to 3.73 which is much more normal for off-road and general use, drove the hell out of it, and I finally put a trans in it at 260K but did nothing else. My ex-wife has it now and it recently turned 300K - she had a few oil leaks fixed, but the heads have still never been off it. No lie. Absolutely amazing to me. Regular oil changes and highway miles and they just don't wear.
I will take the one with 100k+ highway miles over 50k in the city any day
As a rule, I disagree. Mileage is wear and that's that. But you did hit right on the real thing about keeping cars in good working order later in your post...
...and was religous about maintenance
That's why the Blazer was in great shape. If I had to pick between a high mileage well maintained car and a lower mileage severely neglected one, well that's easy. But mileage alone once again tells you nothing.
-Colin
On another note: I find the interior rear view mirror pretty small. I'd prefer having one that would allow looking out the rear side windows (blind spots). I am also very tall. For my taste, the stock mirror is placed way too low, so that it's actually blocking a huge portion of my view out the front window. When I am at an intersection, I always have to bend down to see the traffic to the right. Does anyone have a good suggestion for a large, slightly curved mirror that can be placed as high as possible without interfering with the visors? I am intrigued by the auto-dimming mirrors, but the one from Subaru seems to be just as small as the stock mirror. The built-in compass is appealing, though (I think a compass should not be an optional accessory in an Outback, but should be standard).
Any advice here?
Thanks, Mischa
You said:
>> As a rule, I disagree. Mileage is wear and that's that. <<
I also disagree - wear is not wear... city mileage is significantly higher wear PER MILE than hwy mileage, especially if you consider wear to the entire car vs. just the engine. Brakes, suspension, steering rack, transmission, cv or u-joints - all get many times the wear PER MILE in stop and go city usage than when the car is driven on a hwy in top gear under relatively light load for long periods of time. The engine also revs far more and experiences more compression/decompression cycles, etc. in town.
All of that wear results from city use in and of itself, as in a taxicab, for example. If you make the assumption that city usage normally also implies many shorter trips to get to the same ending mileage, as in personal use vehicle, you get a whole additional range of problems related to cold startup. We know that cold starts are when 80-90% of the wear occurs in a normal car engine. Plus cold bearings and lubrication in transmission, axles, etc. Once things are fully warmed up the bearing surfaces are just riding on a film of oil and they run with almost NO discernible wear, assuming, as we both agree, that the oil is kept clean.
My own experience with many used cars and trucks over the years bears this out - vehicles with significant known hwy miles exhibit amazingly tight characteristics in most major components as well as the body structure, for the miles that show on the odometer.
I agree with your point on hour meters - it would give a much better picture, when combined with the odometer, as to the likely usage the vehicle received, or at least the speed it averaged
-john
-Colin
As a side note, when I was selling cars people would try to get a higher trade-in because "it's only highway miles". It never flew. The best thing you can do for resale value is to keep the mileage at or below average, keep up on the maintenance, and keep all your receipts for work done (repair or modification).
Stephen
Huge tires would rub, but even if you somehow managed you end up with poor gearing and a slow vehicle. Jeeps with the wrong rear end (numerically too low) have this problem - even with the 6 they can't keep up on the highway.
Many boats, BTW, do track hours of operation. At resale it's accounted for just as mileage would be. So it's possible to implement.
As for the mirror, there are two elbows connecting it to the windshield, so it may be possible to get it positioned a little higher than it is now. Try it out.
-juice
Larry H
The officer laughed and wrote him for 69 MPH instead (3 pts instead of 5, and about $80 less of a fine) but declined to take the jeep for a test drive.
-Colin
Keep an eye out for photos and comments next week.
-juice
http://www.subaru.com/frame_main.htm?page=/news/press_releases/pr_00/00_0621_performance_fr.html&start=news
I have several copies of the SPT catalog (Subaru Performance Tuning) I'm saving for the next meet, and helped Darlene put her SPT page on-line.
I've even installed the metal strut tower brace on my Forester - it fits! None for the Legacy, yet. Bummer.
Well, I spent the entire day Friday under the car - installing the diffy shield and the hitch. Not easy, but doable by any handy person with the right tools. A torque wrench is a must - you need the leverage.
The rear diffy protector is impressively sturdy. The metal is thicker than my jack stands. It was fairly easy to install, it's just that on the Forester you have to remove three exhaust connectors. It's easier than it sounds though, and the Impreza/Legacy do not require this step. Looks good, I recommend it.
While I was at it, I installed my hitch. I had to loosen the exhaust anyway, so I did these together. I'll post photos and instructions soon, but I'm happy with the hitch, too.
Complaints include bolts that were way over-torqued, causing a few scathed knuckles, and an almost complete lack of photos with the instructions. I was able to do it, but it will be much easier for anyone else once they see my photos.
The hitch has 7 bolts, 17mm each, securing it directly to the frame, and again seems very sturdy. It comes with a 4 wire harness standard, and even is prewired for the harness, and even has holes to get the wiring to the under side.
So an unskilled guy like me, with the right tools, was able to finish both in about 5 hours or so. Considering I took time to take photos, I was quite happy.
BTW, as you may have guessed, I got both from QSubaru.
I'll share more details once the photos are up, so you'll know what I'm referring to.
-juice
http://www.speedlab.com
My rear end bottomed out coming into my steep grade driveway the other day. I don't know just what I hit and didn't want to look--too sad--had hoped it wouldn't be a problem with my sport.
I also wonder if better protection against water and road salt, is desired.
Mary
Also, here is my rear differential protector.
Both have installation instructions, though the hitch is on 3 pages since it's a long process. Follow the link on the bottom to see how to install the wiring harness and the hitch itself.
It wasn't easy, but I'm happy with both of them. I also got the bike rack for the hitch, since I use the roof for cargo.
So I guess on my trip to the OBX this fall I'll be able to take everything with me! Bikes, gear, you name it.
-juice
That's normal, though. I've crawled under a few Jeeps and rust just happens.
Still, for the piece of mind, it's worth it to me. Darlene sells the rear differential protector for around $55, and that was relatively easy to install (with the right tools). The hitch took a lot more elbow grease.
Now I'd like to find a front skid plate that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.
Tip: get both from the factory if you're buying new.
-juice
Check out this page I put together for installing an Amsoil air filter in a 98 Forester. Pretty much a no-brainer, but heck, it's my first DIY page!
http://ken.s.homepage.com/amsoil.html
Drew
Oops! Okay, I think it's working now. Please try again:
http://ken.s.homepage.com/amsoil.html
Dave
http://www.thehungersite.com
http://www.therainforestsite.com
Did you do this originally, or did you take the filter out to clean it?
Thanks. It was the best I could muster after 5pm at work yesterday. I plan on tweaking it as well as putting up new content in the future. Your website was my inspiration.
I bought a digital camera this past weekend so I used that as an excuse to document the procedure. This time, I wanted to try installing it by removing the entire intake -- something I didn't do the last time.
Lots of folks ask about the 20% window tint, how about some pictures to show that off?
-juice
The 17" rims would look sweet and handle great on the road. You'd actually gain 0.1" of clearance, maybe more since there is less deflection when you let air out. The speedo would be close enough.
But minus 0.4" of sidewall means less flex, so the ride will get stiff, and the same tires that yield accurate steering on pavement will steer right into ruts on trails.
Another thing - that Plus One will actually increase unsprung weight, since your smaller rims are already alloy.
I'd do it, but use the 17"ers for pavement only. I'd then get off-road or snow tires for the stock set. Best of both worlds.
-juice