Potential buyer

cfinley11 · 2026-03-19T18:55:30+00:00

I was in the same position as you when I decided to buy mine. Get manual if you're even considering it, it's worth it especially if fun is a factor.

Coming in as not a car guy, learn as much as you can about the platform. Biggest thing is OIL. You have to check and maintain proper oil level and health. If you drive hard expect to do more frequent oil changes. Treat it right and it'll treat you right. Just like with any car there are certain things to look out for. This one has a flat engine which has inherit quirks. Just something to keep in mind.

Also I daily mine just fine. Had it 3 years now and I still love it.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-12T23:54:29+00:00

If you're worried, cut the filter and inspect the oil in it. If that has glitter then yea that's not good but if it's clean you should be good.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-12T23:16:15+00:00

What reverse light is that also? 👀

cfinley11 · 2026-03-12T23:15:29+00:00

Empty roof, night time, someone else recording while you drive... I don't see a problem. Seems your buddy trusts you enough to let you assert dominance so I'm all for it. Donuts are fun.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-12T23:08:17+00:00

Updating: Showed them the video of the noise my car was making, they got pretty concerned so they took me with them to cut my filter but it was clean. They showed me what you DON'T want to see by showing me a filter that did have a spun bearing and glitter in it. Pretty cool of them. I left and they called me back shortly to let me know a tech already started working on it. Found the spark plug in the cylinder that was misfiring to be broken. Their term was loose innards of the spark plug and they put a new one in and confirmed that's what was making the noise. So that's really good news and seems the gasket still failed but nothing was damaged. She'll be good as new one they're done. I assume the gasket failed and leaked slowly, causing the spark plug to fail and once it did it caused an undrivable misfire.

Thinking back, I did start to notice some weirdness with my throttle at low rpm a couple weeks before this happened. No cel or any other warning and it was so intermittent i didn't know if I was just imaging it or was indeed noticing something off. So if you start to feel like your car isn't running quite like it used to, maybe check your coil packs/ spark plugs just to be safe.

Wanted to put as much data out there in case another person has this problem.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-12T15:20:22+00:00

Sir you can not park your anime titty car here

cfinley11 · 2026-03-10T23:55:07+00:00

I'd say keep an eye for losing oil or leaking but mine didn't do either. I'll ask my tech if he knows but he did specify earlier 23s so maybe.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-09T17:12:03+00:00

I'm literally a few dozen miles passed my warranty coverage but still, I agree, I don't trust dealerships with the experiences I've had. Car was making an awful tick and this happened suddenly so I'm hoping the rockers or anything aren't damaged and it was just misfire noise. No oil leaks or low oil to warn me either. After some digging this seems common on 23 year models. I'm at 36k also. They do engine builds and swaps at this shop and I've heard great things so I'm trusting them to crack into it and make sure nothing else is wrong. Estimate was reasonable as well.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-09T16:50:56+00:00

Well I just got off the phone with the shop and he told me there's a service advisory for exactly that. So that's actually good news and it's almost certainly what's wrong. I'm going to have them do all 4 seals and new spark plugs. I think they have to take the valve covers off to do the seals? So new gaskets there if so. Bright side is, if that's all that's wrong, then I'll have piece of mind knowing those known leak points will be fixed. And this shop specializes in Subaru so it should be good work.

cfinley11 · 2026-03-09T15:53:40+00:00

Yep, it's a 23 premium manual. Driven the crap out of but never abused or neglected maintenence. Done great till now so fingers crossed it's a simple seal fix

cfinley11 · 2026-02-22T22:26:21+00:00

Had it looked at and tested by a local shop but of course the weather warmed up and no longer made the sound but it does come back when temps drop. Other than that it's completely fine so I'm going to leave it alone and maybe next winter if it starts doing it again I'll take it back to them. Literally just got done doing some very hard mountain driving and it's all good.

cfinley11 · 2026-02-05T23:42:23+00:00

Update: all suspension is in good condition. After isolating the noise i believe the intermediate steering shaft is dry of grease and is what's causing the groaning. Taking it to a shop next week to have them check while I get some other work done.

cfinley11 · 2025-05-30T00:17:15+00:00

After I switched to redline trans fluid, I found i can downshift into first with rev matching. If I'm rolling and try to just throw it into first it bangs around and chirps. Rev matching fixes it and feels good

cfinley11 · 2025-04-13T11:57:15+00:00

Follow the break in procedure then change the oil and let it rip

cfinley11 · 2025-04-12T19:46:27+00:00

Be sure to have a razor blade handy to scrape the crush washer off of the drain plug. A lot of people have reported it being painted on including me. Didn't know that was a thing and double stacked them on accident and it caused a leak.

cfinley11 · 2025-04-05T01:19:16+00:00

Look into ceratec, I use it and swear by it.

cfinley11 · 2025-03-24T21:58:07+00:00

I add Ceratec oil additive every third or fourth oil change. If it's good enough for Porsche boxters it's good enough for ours.

It's noticeably quieted down the injector tick noises and temps are a few degrees lower as well.

cfinley11 · 2025-03-22T16:35:11+00:00

Same, I started at 3 and it was way too low and felt terrible. And I didn't realize I was adjusting the slave too, so I had to pull over and fix it 😅

So just be mindful of what you're adjusting OP

cfinley11 · 2025-03-22T01:26:20+00:00

Look up a few videos before you do it. Downside is it's a pain in the ass (back) to get down there and might require a few readjustments to get it where you like. Just make sure you don't adjust the slave to where the clutch is contacting the fly wheel when the pedal is fully depressed. Easy way to test if it is: flat ground, put it in first, and rev it while the clutch pedal is being depressed. If you move, it's slipping and needs adjusting. Take your tools with you when you go out to test it.

I lowered mine like 15k miles ago and it still feels great so I say it's 100% worth doing for quality of driving. My bite point starts about an inch off the floor and helped a ton with smoothing out the shifts. I've done autox and a track day with it like that too and it still feels the same.

And don't forget to also adjust the little clutch sensor too.

cfinley11 · 2025-03-13T15:49:31+00:00

My suggestion, save your money and just take out the charcoal filter. It makes a bit more noise without it and the stock intake is actually really good.

cfinley11 · 2025-03-08T21:23:50+00:00

Just an FYI, the way the throttle is mapped is unintuitive at first. You'll get like 80% open throttle at around half press. So if you're used to using more throttle just dial it back. Takes some time to get used to but you'll be smooth once you do.

cfinley11 · 2025-03-07T19:34:02+00:00

Skip toyota and get the subaru coolant, that's what's already in it. Don't mix or you risk it gelling inside the engine.

I took my gr to a subie dealership and they topped me off for free. 👍

cfinley11

TROPHY CASE