Adventures, maintenance and more mods.... what else is a daily driver for?
With the new axles running smooth and holding together what is the next step in the build… most likely something that will just cause more problems. So let us see what trouble we can get into on this installment of as the Forester turns.
Enjoying the snow when it happens!
Not all winter days are snowy…
Good old oil change time..
Current mileage, almost to the big 210k!
First off was a quick installment of Company 23’s stud kit for the 08+ STi Tmic. These rid you of the issues the factory bolts can cause, which would be damaged threads on the tmic due to improper tightening or installation. I have ran these on the Sti for many years and always enjoyed them. They also keep you from losing that pesky bpv gasket from falling onto the engine block. Full review on Company23 stud kit.
Company23 stud kit ready to go.
With a small allen key you can thread them and you are done! No more thread damage to your tmic.
After having what seemed to be an unlimited amount of axle failures and vibrations on the Forester I decided to try my hand at repairing an old STi unit just for practice and use if needed. With a reboot kit and a couple of tools you can easily do this yourself. Since oem axles are definitely a cut above the rest having this skill can help keep your quality axles going strong if you catch it early when a boot splits but isn’t torn and full of sand and dirt.
A not so great clamp on already leaky boot.
No boot… here is what the axle looks like.
Some more innards of the cv axle.
Just a few tools and a new boot kit and you are as good as new. Full rebuild follow this link!
Next up I took the Forester to the big city to stare at the newest cars at the auto show. Given my love of older Subarus and cars there was not much to see. With the location being downtown a friend I went with and fellow photography enthusiast wanted to check out a local spot. Excited to test out a new venue we head there and begin snapping away. Here are a few from that afternoon.
Babe, pig in the city..
Testing out my friend’s 200mm lens. Pretty huge difference on background compression.
Having a year on the lift I was never really happy with the way the rear endlinks held the control arms up and vice versa. This causes the sway bar to always been engaged even at stock ride height and the control arm is unable to fulfill it’s full travel when one of the rear wheels is on an uneven terrain. After reading through a few other lifted Subaru threads, I found Loyale fab made a decent set that was adjustable for your ride height whether lower or lifted and priced well below other options. So why not give them a try?
New links! One maxed out on the left, next is the stock length and the last is factory height with the new Loyale Fab links. I used the far left as my set height.
Here is stock.
Here would be the Loyale fab links. Hard to tell the difference but it is over an inch plus longer now.
Installation went pretty easily. Having a good set of tools and a little bit of experience lessens the struggle. With them off it was now time to figure out a good length, after maxing them out I decided to roll them down a bit so they wouldn’t accidentally come apart during some off-roading/minimum maintenance roads.
Took a few hours to test them on multiple drives out into the great unknown outside of town. It was easy to see how much difference they made and how it allowed the lateral link to hang lower than before. Here are a few photos of the fun.
So far so good with the new links!
Enjoying some outside time with both cars.
A little April fool’s fun for those thinking I would go from one end of the spectrum to the next.
Another great few months full of adventures, photos and a repair to finally fix an issue that had been on my mind for some time. Now to enjoy the car for less than a week before deciding to tackle another self made issue! All this and much more on the next installment of Forester’s foresting in the forest…. Or something like that. Stay tuned!