Well behold, my 2005 Subaru Forester XT (5MT). While I’m not new to Subies, this is my first “bought not built” build. I’m not usually one to buy someone else’s modded car, but this one had a lot of good parts, receipts, and drives well. The above pic is when we got it about a year ago.
I had to replace a few things. The HVAC panel was bad, and it took two LQK panels to get it to work right. The tumble valve generator sensor (a sensor that controls butterflies in the intake manifold, i.e. a throttle position sensor) went out, and I replaced that after a CEL. I also had to replace a cam position sensor. Both cost $50, and took too long to install, but so be it. Other than that, it was a lot of cleaning. I also disabled the sticky hill-hold clutch.
The car’s been resprayed, albeit by Macco. It’s not the best, but not the worst. It’s rust-free, and that’s important. I also installed a larger hood scoop and have a paint-matched rear spoiler to put on too. I don’t look forward to drilling into the body to do that; I might pay someone with more fortitude than me to do it.
The car came with the following:
- Cobb up pipe
- Cobb intake
- Cobb down pipe (maybe?)
- Stromung turbo-back exhaust
- Ksport coilovers
- Braided brake lines
- Whiteline front and rear sway bars
- Shifter with custom WRX bushings (apparently)
- Cobb stage 2 tune
- Rebuilt turbo
- Rebuilt viscous coupler
- Aluminum radiator with silicone hoses
- Pioneer double-din stereo
Here’s what the Wine Wagon aka the Poorester looks like today.
I installed some used 17x7.5 Enkei RPF1s and 235/50/17 BFGoodrich g-Force Comp2 A/S Plus tires. We’ve done one TSD rally in it, and it sticks like glue and goes like stink. Speaking of stink, it still has an exhaust leak from 92-piece exhaust manifold up front. I attempted to fix it, but I think I made it worse. I might bring it to the exhaust shop here and tell them to fix it. The Cobb up pipe doesn’t have a flex joint, which likely doesn’t help.
I haven’t thrown a CEL in a while, so that’s reassuring. It got warm once, but it was low on coolant. Since topping it off, I haven’t had any issues with it. I still need to do a couple of things on it, but so far, the “Merlot Missile” has been loads of fun. It only has 192,600 miles on it. That’s sarcasm.
