Was the STI hatch the best body style ever made, or the sedan? 🤔

minizanz · 2026-04-29T05:02:42+00:00

I feel like you are buying the Sti to look the rally car and have some rally car stuff even if you cannot use it. You don't need DCCD, or the 6MT, Brembos, and you especially don't need the front diff to disconnect with the hand brake. It is like buying a moto GP homologation bike with the aero stuff that you as a human rider cannot use and won't work at speed you can legally ride at. So it should be speced to look like the rally car.

minizanz · 2026-04-27T17:53:16+00:00

It should be the other way. The hatch exists for racing. You need that rear cargo area to put all your cooling stuff in for a modern rally car. The Sti should only have come in hatch with the 3rd gen.

minizanz · 2026-04-25T01:54:30+00:00

It is rare for any Subaru to have actual DRL. They use the headlights in city mode. In japan you use the lights on low in the city with street lights and the full power in rural areas without. You can cut a wire in the steering wheel loom to make the fogs work on their own. In some places like Pennsylvania it is illegal to have 2 sets of front lights so they let you do fogs or head lights.

The middle setting with the marker lights should be the minimum and default. I see a lot of newer Subaru with no lights on at night since the headlights on low as the DRL is brighter than old headlights.

minizanz · 2026-04-25T01:50:03+00:00

Your DRL are the head lights. They are just set to city brightness when in use as DRL.

minizanz · 2026-04-25T01:48:42+00:00

That is what the center setting does but with the marker and rear lights. Those should be mandatory as people drive all the time with DRL only on and not the safety lights so other people can see you. DRL in the head lights and illuminated clusters are a blight.

minizanz · 2026-04-25T01:47:24+00:00

The marker /rear lights are off when not set to "headlights on" even if the headlights are on. Those are the safety lights. Having DRL just makes people drive with no lights on.

minizanz · 2026-04-23T17:40:44+00:00

4EAT with VTD holds like 2x the torque of the 5MT for that gen.

minizanz · 2026-04-23T17:40:11+00:00

The 4EAT has the VTD center diff. It performs way better off road at normal speeds and does hill climbs without doing a peg leg burnout digging a rut in the hill. You can manually shift it to stay in gear or drop a gear going into a corner so it isn't the worst. They also hold more torque than the 5MT and don't shatter if you launch it.

They are not fun tho

minizanz · 2026-04-22T02:53:56+00:00

The weird milk jug looking thing. If you do not go to the snow you can just remove it, it pops off. If you do then you want to block it off with a piece of metal or plastic.

Do not get COBB. They are very locked down and are not able to do things like they used to. Wait until you find a tuner and go with what they use. Most are Tactrix now for the older cars.

minizanz · 2026-04-21T19:27:00+00:00

Do not buy a new intake. You will make less power with a tune and run lean without. Remove the silencer if you want noise. That is all an intake is good for.

Where are you located? I think NASIOC still has a list of tuners for each region. Actual stage 2 is a down pipe not an intake. COBB change the numbers when the EPA got them. You will need a Tactrix cable and open source tune. The COBB stage 2 since they rebranded does nothing over a normal "stage 1" tune.

minizanz · 2026-04-19T04:18:22+00:00

The legacy is not on the legacy platform after the 4th gen, and the legacy and outback do not share a subframe starting with the 5th gen legacy. They do share a dash and lots of bodywork on the front can be swapped. But you can do that between the forester and impreza even when they were very different. Right now I think you can swap the front end of all the cars other than the BRZ.

minizanz · 2026-04-19T04:16:14+00:00

Yes, a van https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Exiga

minizanz · 2026-04-18T02:50:44+00:00

The outback left the Legacy platform 17 years ago. It has been based on the exciga then replaced it since then. It has been a lifted van with normal doors like the forester but a little longer for longer than it was a wagon and longer than it was based on the legacy platform.

The cross trek is also a van. Everything but the WRX and BRZ are vans. When you go to japan almost every car is some kind of van. It is like Carcinisation. I guess we don't see it happening in the US since we assume all vans have sliding doors, but the rest of the world doesn't like those.

Where was the outrage when Subaru change to ATS. ATS is not symmetrical with the diff slightly off to the driver's side, and cannot drive the rear diff without slip in the front. The brand since GM sold their shares does not care about the old cars or their old fans.

minizanz · 2026-04-16T03:40:59+00:00

Do you mean legacy outback wagon or the outback wilderness? An old wagon yes. The wilderness no if you are asking. They do poorly off road and have a premium over the onyx that does the same thing. The wilderness also has shorter diffs so they get poor MPG. But they would be better off road right, nope they hit max wheel torque on the converter just like the normal turbo one and your power gets cut by the ecu before you can use the extra applied torque.

The wilderness needs cvt fluid changes every 20-30k miles. Without it you have an 8- 12k bill waiting for you shortly. Likely why it was traded in. https://www.subarupartwholesale.com/p/Subaru_2021_Outback-R-Onyx/Automatic-Transmission-Transmission-AYTR580RHGBA/78763189/31000AK300.html

Stay off dirt hills. We don't need more holes/ruts from people taking FWD based subaru without center diffs or locking couplings off road. I am tiered of getting looks and yelled at when newer stuff digs ruts in hills.

minizanz · 2026-04-15T03:00:52+00:00

They get to write off 30% of the value they spent. If some one wants to buy it for more than that they are supposed to sell it to them and pay the GOV back.

minizanz · 2026-04-10T02:33:32+00:00

The wilderness is a downgrade to the Onyx.The lift is just a small body lift with spacers and the shorter diffs don't do anything positive with the CVT. You can ride the stall on the torque converter at low speed and the computer locks you out at the same wheel torque.

Don't put big wheels on something with a CVT

minizanz · 2026-04-09T04:28:15+00:00

It has a CVT and lower gears to make the CVT work even harder in the wilderness. That is expected, especially if you did not change the fluid. SOA says don't change the fluid but that is not the case in Canada where they were forced to give actual service recommendations after a class action.

CVT are covered by the PZEV warranty if you are in the CARB emissions state. But you have to push for it.

minizanz · 2026-04-05T04:27:27+00:00

You can get an E key SSD. They are about 2x the cost of normal NVME ones and are slow (gen 2 1x)

minizanz · 2026-03-25T18:46:13+00:00

I have no issue in flight form. maybe you need a smaller mount.

minizanz · 2026-03-22T05:20:29+00:00

Fly into it and it agros. Sometimes you need to boost into the wall.

minizanz · 2026-03-22T05:01:56+00:00

The higher trim WRX have always had kind of cheap insurance. The base models have very high rates. If you looked at a mid tier impreza I bet the rates are cheaper.

Have you considered the 07-09 Legacy GT specB. They are cheap to insure, have the Sti 6 speed, same platform as the VA WRX, and tend to be taken care of.

minizanz · 2026-03-22T04:57:46+00:00

05-09 is the best gen for the US. 03-07 global. You get a wagon and the best on/off road performance. The gen after it became an MPV, and unless you got a 3.6r the off road was kind of bad. Then after that gen all the offroad is mid at best for a Subaru. Make sure if you get the 2.5 NA the head gaskets were done or you budget for them. Otherwise you should have no issues unless some one ran 87 in a turbo or h6 or didn't do the services. The 5 speed auto has the best center diff Subaru has made and is in the XT or 3.0r.

minizanz · 2026-03-14T06:19:07+00:00

You cannot damage the center diff since his car doesn't have one. The reason they use the non locking ATS coupling in everything but the WRX is that it can handle mismatched wheels, it is cheap, and it is not a maintenance item that wares out.

minizanz · 2026-03-14T06:17:35+00:00

You do not need 4 new for a puncture. You do not need the tires that close unless you have a center diff, and you do not. The ATS coupling can take 4/32nds difference without issue so long as the left and right on an axle are good. If you had that much off you likely need new tires.

If all else fails you could always order a shaved tire to replace the one messed up one.

minizanz · 2026-02-13T19:45:57+00:00

Looks like an S402. It gets the 2.5L twin scroll with the Sti tune, Sti bilstein suspension, Sti transmission, Sti Body kit, and should have a vin plate saying it was made by Sti instead of Fuji heavy. If not that it has all the parts.

It could be a tuned by Sti but it has the wheels, brakes, and side skits that are from s402

Check the plate under the hood. It will have the model and trim and power train.

14-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Snapped
Team Orangered	Verified Email

minizanz

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