Topic: Canuckrz's 2004 Forester XT - Long Overdue (from laziness) Update

[jonathan]

Granted I'm not ignorant of the downsides, and I need to think it over and look over the various pricing options. Such as increased cooling capacity means it takes longer to heat up, and will get less hot overall, which is less desirable in the winter and for fuel economy. To what extent of each, I don't know.

That part is not true as the maximum temperature is controlled by the thermostat.

[Jimmy@Vex]

Koyo also has an XT specific radiator.

[Canuckrz]

Koyo also has an XT specific radiator.

It wasn't showing up on their site lookup? It only showed me a condenser.

Ah wait I see they have separate consumer and racing sites.

http://koyoradracing.com/products/search.asp?frmMake=64&frmModel=682&action=Search+Products

Their tech notes on the rad I find a little odd, and I don't quite get what they're trying to explain:

*04-05 Turbo XT 5MT fitment: Tap into return hose w/ T fitting & 1' of coolant hose. Filler neck requires radiator cap for 04-05 MY; Koyorad "Hyper Cap" SK-C13 recommended.

EDIT: Looks like this might have something to do with the older XT's only having one rad cap on the expansion housing, and the newer fozzys having one on the expansion housing and one on the rad itself. That being said Koyo's note doesn't make a whole ton of sense still. Both the Mishimoto and the Koyo have caps on the rad.





I guess I'll start looking at the dimensions/prices/reviews and contrast the differences. Assuming there isnt a huge price gap, or one having a bunch of issues I'll likely go with whatever one has the thinner core.

That part is not true as the maximum temperature is controlled by the thermostat.

Yes, the thermostat still regulates the coolant at a set temperature. The issue is with the increased coolant capacity and ability to dissipate heat the fozzy might struggle to maintain that operating temperature in the winter. Especially when you consider how tiny the oem rads are, I'd guess these ones are close to twice as thick in the core.

[snackers]

Their tech notes on the rad I find a little odd, and I don't quite get what they're trying to explain:

I've always taken statements like this to mean "even though we said this part is made for your car, this part isn't really made for your car but can be bastardized to work"
Which is somewhat understandable. You can't make individual parts for every car in existence.
But then you have to figure out how much effort you're willing to put into this, and if you'll remember the ghetto steps you did in 2 years when something breaks.

[Canuckrz]

I've always taken statements like this to mean "even though we said this part is made for your car, this part isn't really made for your car but can be bastardized to work"
Which is somewhat understandable. You can't make individual parts for every car in existence.
But then you have to figure out how much effort you're willing to put into this, and if you'll remember the ghetto steps you did in 2 years when something breaks.

Indeed, much easier to make a rad to suite the 06-08 with the cap than two separate rads or one with simply no cap. The thing is the hoses and their routing look to be identical so I don't know why koyo is suggesting modifying one of them. Mishimoto makes no mention of this, which could mean either they are unaware of a needed modification, it is unnecessary with their radiator, or the modification is optional and could work fine either way.

EDIT: Looks like I found the difference in hoses.

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f87/fxt-specific-mishimoto-radiator-installed-caveats-future-buyers-100298/

The 06-08 style has an additional line coming off of the fill neck on the radiator, with the Mishimoto kit there is an included plug to remove this. There looks to be an issue with the depth of the included plug from Mishimoto, also I've yet to find a properly explained solution to the problem from Koyo's end. If I had to guess at this point what they meant is that you run the hose off of the new filler neck on the rad to the existing line going to the overflow and T into it, instead of simply plugging it in the Mishimoto kit.

EDIT: Looks like that is the case

You should have installed the nipple into the filler neck and just t'd into the coolant overflow line like the 06+ forester radiator's do. that's what i did when i installed my koyo, as the koyo is one fits all for 04-08 forester's.

The following is required if you have an SG5 Forester (2004-2005)

[Canuckrz]

Well today is flyout day back to work. I picked up a T connector harness for the trailer hitch, and a Hanes manual last night (for however good the manual is actually is). And then this morning I drove to Airdrie and picked up one of these for $25 with all the accessories and even the user manual:

http://www.amazon.com/Scunci-SS1000-Steam-Cleaner-Attachments/dp/B00024JYAG

I should start calling myself 9secdream because I'm stepping up the detailing game. Hah.

But yeah after using the Bissell I realized although good for carpet and whatnot, it wont fulfill my needs of properly cleaning the long entrenched human goop off of the leather seats. The previous owner was a hipster so god only knows what sort of irish spring soaps and hand lotions these seats have been exposed to. Also it should help the Bissell with tougher stains.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

You can clean my interior.

[10secdream]

I rarely ever use my extractor anymore. I can do 95% of my interior jobs with steam alone.

[Canuckrz]

Well, most of the places I was pondering getting a rad through have bailed to SEMA. So that kind of ruined those plans. Amazon.ca as usual is totally useless, Amazon.com has free shipping in the USA but when you cross the magical invisible line to Canada you pay out the assay. Also no single merchant on Amazon had the hoses and the rad in stock, which is lame.

Subtle Solutions looks to be the only people who makes rad shrouds for the Fozzys, so I will likely throw some business their way, they also stock the rads and hoses. Also they are one of those company's who offer free USA shipping. I figure I might contact them to see what they can do with shipping to Canada and if they will subsidize the cost at all considering it is clearly built into their pricing as it is with any company that offers free shipping. But alas, SEMA has foiled my plans again.

So radiator will be delt with next turnaround I guess hopefully. Its so easy to lose track of time, and get distracted up here.

Went ahead and ordered the Anker high amp phone charger and 21awg usb cables. So hopefully they along with my WSC license plate frame and maybe that leather hole stuffer thing will be in my mailbox when I get home.


Increasingly tempted to throw on sti takeoff suspension and rear sway bar and just leave the suspension as that. Just seems kind of boring. Not to mention used, old, oem parts.

You can clean my interior.

[Canuckrz]

Well I'm back home for a week once again. A couple packages waiting for me in the mailbox (nohomo). The plate frame was squeezed into the mail box, it just barely wedged in and was a bit tricky to get out with all the junk mail wadded around it but it was undamaged. I also got the filler peice between the seat and the center console from china, I'm pretty happy with it so I ordered another so the passenger side will match.



I installed the license plate frame (wish it had holes to mount all 4 bolts) and chucked some sound dampener on the back of the plate so I won't have to do it in the future when I fix/upgrade the factory sub. On a side related note now that I have a WSC plate frame can I be cool now plz?



The pleather on the insert matches my leather fairly closely, as usual the flash on my cell phone makes things hard to tell. The foam isn't quite as hard and rebounding as I had hoped, but it doesn't feel cheap either. We'll see how it stays in place, may have to find a way to support the front a bit more. Excuse the french fry salt, figures the cell phone camera only shows minute details when you don't want it to.




Took the fozzy out for its first winter drive and felt a plethora of feels.

1.) The Grabber AT2's as expected are pretty much useless on anything hard packed or icey. Once traction is lost you don't have much hope of regaining it until momentum has run its course.
2.) This Fozzy for better or worse is a lot more tail happy than my old auto 01 fozzy. This could be because of the tires as well.
3.) ABS isnt amazing, but far better than what I had in the 4runner. Once again, I'm sure tires played a big role in this.
4.) I'm pretty certain I can hear the rad intermittently hissing/leaking while driving. Though no sign of fresh coolant from the usual spot. Concerning.

It would be nice to find a parking lot or somewhere that I can slide the fozzy around to get a feel for what its like should it break loose, test abs tendency's, etc etc.


Kicking myself for not ordering the rad among other things now. Need to get my assay in gear, make a list, and get it ordered up. On the bright side one of the things on my list may have popped up semi locally.

First things first however: Proper Winter Tires. Steve at Kal confirmed an appointment for me for Tuesday, but I may off dropping it off for the day sooner than that because of how cold and icey it is and how the grabbers perform in those conditions. Cant wait to try out the hakka 8's.

[Rathburn]

Slippery feels - That's what she said!

The Hakka 8's are amazing, you're gonna love em.

[Canuckrz]

Indeed, I can't wait. Glorious traction.

I'm somewhat kicking myself for not going with the 215/65R16 Hakka 8 SUV's to keep the meaty look my Grabbers had. However depending on how much I lower it they may or may not fit anymore. So I suppose future proofing is the way to go.

[10secdream]

The hakka's will look meaty in the stock size so you won't lose that look.

[Canuckrz]

Well the Anker charger arrived DOA. Disappointing to say the least considering it wasn't cheap and I paid extra for fast shipping.

Anker customer support was pretty simple and straight forward, no paying and waiting to send it back BS. And instead of sending me another one on the slow boat (which I think is pretty poor practice for DOA products) they refunded my purchase so I could go ahead and order another with fast shipping.

Yes the charger's output was 5 volts. If it worked.

[whintersan]

Five volts 

[Canuckrz]

Well a few new updates. Also updated the previous post with pics.

First off I finished my Celica computer chair and did a how to you can find here: http://www.westernsubaruclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=45031.0



Secondly I got my replacement charger from Anker today, and am very impressed with it and their 21awg usb cords. I will be posting a review of them in the review section shortly.



Next, I got around to installing my Diode Dynamics interior LED's. Also very impressed. I went with the smd6 festoons in red for the map lights for night vision, and smd12 boards for the dome light and trunk light in warm white for max visibility. A review for this I will post to and link to shortly in the Diode Dynamics thread in the build section.

I also picked up some more cleaning products that I will hopefully have time to use before I head back for work. Some Auto GLYM leather cleaner, Bissell professional series carpet cleaner with scotch guard, and last but not least a big ol' bottle of goo gone to finally get rid of that zebra duct tape on the roof rack's air deflector. If the Rolla badging comes off along with the duct tape on the deflector it might be a great spot to put some WSC decals from BetaCuts.


Tomorrow I'm stopping by Kal tire to get my Hakka 8's put on at long last. Can't wait. I've driven on worse in the winter than the Grabber AT2's (the duratrac's on my 4runner for example), but they are still dangerous on ice and hard packed snow. They also don't have much lateral grip so its easy to turn too hard and the front end will understeer and plow. If they had studs they might be better, but still not acceptable for use as a winter tire IMO.

Also tomorrow I'm going to swing by Vex and pick up my TIC pivot bushings so I can install my Kartboy SS lever. I was going to pop by today, but I had called and Jimmy just left for lunch, so I went back home and had a nap instead as I stayed up way too late polishing that office chair DIY guide. Looking into the install I'm concerned that I might have to trim the metal plate around the hole that the shifter sits in as seen here: http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f89/kartboy-short-shifter-install-problems-186841/ I may end up having to buy myself a dremel or something.

[Canuckrz]

Well I started removing the zebra print duct tape off of my air deflector last night at long last. I figured it would be a snap with my steamer. Unfortunately as I found out the trigger on the steamer is broken  Hopefully I can take it apart and repair it somehow. It does heat up just fine as I found out as I slowly bled off the pressure before I left for the Timmies meet. I also used the carpet extractor on all the footwells, but it appears I screwed up the amount of detergent needed per volume of water. So I mostly just got suds. I'll have to hit it again when I return, I guess this counts as a pre treat hah.


I stopped by Vex to pick up my pivot bushings from Jimmy before I headed down to Kal. Unfortunately their distributor didn't bother putting part numbers on the bags so it was a bit of a screw around seeing what fit. It also turns out that the Fozzy shifter takes the narrow bushings, which is odd as the sites state that the narrow bushings are only for the SPT short shifter. As such Vex didn't order any, the SPT shifters aren't that common, and we thought given the description that my Fozzy took the wide bushing. Aw well. Better luck next turnaround.


Kal tire was fairly disorganized and frantic as usual per the time of year. Steve booked me in for the installation but not the alignment check even though Ian specifically put it on my work order when I put a deposit on the tires, Scott saw it as soon as he pulled my file when I arrived for the installation. Also they initially didn't believe me when I told them that Steve was offering WSC free tire storage, and as usual Steve had left for the day by the time I got there. I went through my emails and pulled up the convo to show Scott, but he already had called Steve and everything got resolved. Kudos to Scott for being on top of things.

My appointment was at 3:30, Scott told me I could expect the tires to be done around 5, but if I wanted the alignment I'd have to wait until 6 or longer. The tires were done long before 5, which I had expected considering the Fozzy did go right in at 3:30, iirc it was around 4:15 or so. I talked to Scott again to see if anything had changed with the possibility of doing the alignment sooner since we were ahead of schedule, and he managed to get it squeezed in immediately after the tire install. Once again Kudos to Scott. When all was said and done I arrived back home in the NW at around 5, which is pretty damn good considering how busy they are.

To do with the alignment the rear toe is out slightly on the passenger rear. It is -.09^o and the range is -.04^o to .20^o. They said the adjustment bolt is seized, and the arm may be as well, but they don't want to mess with anything until they have a replacement bolt in case it breaks, strips, has to be cut, etc. The front caster is slightly off as well, which is not too big of a deal. I'll probably take it to a one of the recommended alignment places, and see what they can do. I'm going to be doing a suspension overhaul in the spring, so if it looks like its going to be a mess, or doesn't hurt the tires much I might put it off until then.


If all goes well I should have a fairly large package (no homogenized) from Subtle, and a couple other places waiting for me when I get back from work. And the start of next days off should be pretty interesting installing it all. I also noticed that one of the exhaust heat shields has a slight rattle at specific rpm's. Not a big deal but annoying.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

If you end up buying new toe bolts, I'll take some as well. My passenger one is seized. I mean, the toe is within spec, but it can't be adjusted.

[whintersan]

I should have a fairly large package

Soooooo whatcha doing later? 

[Canuckrz]

Soooooo whatcha doing later? 

I never did get to check out those red mud flaps last night 

Which reminds me how did that go? Everything went smoothly, or the usual kijiji runaround?

[whintersan]

I never did get to check out those red mud flaps last night 

Which reminds me how did that go? Everything went smoothly, or the usual kijiji runaround?

LOL not that again. How did I not realize that could be a joke.

Nah it was awesome actually, the guy I traded with was really great to deal with. Thanks again for pointing that ad out.

[Canuckrz]

Well back in town, and not as many packages had shown up as I had hoped (still no homogenized). The only things that had shown up are things I had ordered off of ebay prior, another leather tube thing to stop cell phones and misc from going under the seat, and my microbypass for my headunit to get rid of the stupid glove box switch the PO installed.


I went a little crazy on black friday/cyber Monday, and 3/5 of the businesses (not ebay) I delt with gave me a pita, coincidentally all 3 of them were companies I had to deal with via email (ie actual customer service).


First up in the painless order category was another order to Diode Dynamics for some misc odds and ends I forgot from my first purchase. Stop lights, 3rd brake lights, new matching sidemarkers front and rear, cigarette light, and key ring light. I also ordered custom replacement badges from them for the weathertech mats, was only 12 bucks and I figure it would be a nice subtle touch.

Second up in the painless order category was The Retrofit Source. I went as balls to the walls as a lazy install can provide: The full Moritomo Mini D2S kit with their new XB35 ballasts and 4500K bulbs. I got the square projector housings, the gattling gun square shrouds, and square halo's that I can use as DRLs. Should be pretty ballin, I also paid for faster shipping which came with free insurance. Unfortunately tracking is still showing not shipped.


Now we slowly start down the frustrating interactions categories. First up the failed order from SubaruPartsWarehouse. I wanted to order my dash top headunit mount on their Blackfriday sale but they only had it listed with the gauge kit, which I do not want. I emailed them to ask what they could do, and they responded fairly quickly saying it was an IT issue and they could place a manual order for me. I was reasonably impressed, so I sent them a reply containing the rest of my order (part numbers descriptions quantities etc) so it could be manually processed. When they finally replied the second time, they didn't bother reading the headline of the existing email, or any of the content of our discussing prior to the part numbers I just gave them, told me all those part numbers were available on the site and to place my order there. I replied telling them why it had to be manually ordered as per our previous conversation, and they never replied.

Next up in the frustrating category is Subtle Solutions. To be fair I came out of the gate a little strong at them because I hate companies that offer free shipping for all their items in the USA then bend over us Canadians for more than full priced shipping on top of the already subsidized cost of the item. I initially contacted them to order my radiator, hoses, shrouds, and ducts. They replied reasonably promptly telling me that they can work out some kind of bulk discount, which I was happy with. Touge Tuning ended up having a sale on Mishimoto parts so I ended up going with them to save on shipping large items over the border. I got back in contact with Subtle to get a re-quote, and they now had their black friday sale going. They re-quoted me full retail plus 80 dollars shipping on top. I wasn't too pleased by that, emailed them back and they replied immediately and fixed the prices to match the black friday sale, but decided to tack on an additional $10 fee for "international PayPal charges". I wasn't too impressed again and I know charging for paypal fees is against their TOS, but they were marking the package as a gift for me to avoid customs so I figured I'd let it slide. Also they're the only ones who make the shrouds and ducts for the Fozzy that I wanted so no other choice. The Subtle package just got shipped out finally last night.

And Lastly Touge Tuning. They had a sale on Mishimoto parts so I figured why not give some money back to a WSC vendor over Subtle. I emailed them my request, they emailed me back the prices which weren't too bad and no shipping quote which was whatever at the time. For availability for the hoses which were special order they said the parts were "within about a week away". The order was put through on the 24th, and finally processed and a shipping label made for the radiator on the 28th. I'm not sure at what point in the process the hoses were ordered. Flashback to yesterday Dec 3rd and still nothing back from them about my hoses, and my radiators tracking number is still showing not shipped. I'm obviously not the most impressed by this so I email them asking what the deal is, why my radiator has been sitting around instead of being shipped to me, and where my hoses were. Instead of coming back apologetic and trying to explain and rectify the situation they came back as passive aggressive, and dismissive. They said basically "its not our fault Canadapost didn't come by to pick up the package yet", and that they said getting the hoses would take about a week (note the missing "within a week" line, and the incorrect use of the term "within"). They said the rad would be finally shipped that day, and it is still showing not shipped now. And that the hoses would show up today or friday, they blamed the delay on the hoses on the american holidays but I had no idea where they were sourcing their parts from and they made no mention of this being an issue in our emails even though this was right before that weekend. If this stuff was just lipstick parts the delay wouldn't be a big deal, but this is something that could end up tying up the fozzy if my rad finally fully goes. Not to mention their response to my criticism and their handling of the situation being unprofessional. I likely won't be dealing with them again or recommending them if there are other alternatives in the future.


Sigh... AvrilLavigne_Complicated.mp3

[10secdream]

I read the thread title and was expecting your vehicle to be smashed to bits.

Looks like you got a nice list of parts coming. I am most interested to see the retrofit install.

[Rathburn]

Sigh... AvrilLavigne_Complicated.mp3

Better than getting Chad Kroegered... NeverAgain.avi

[snackers]

<TougeTuning.txt>

Yup. TougeTuning.txt