04 Forester XT turning up

[Iamnotkloot]

So I have a black XT showing up next weekend after buying it yesterday.

First time I've owned a Subaru, 1st time for a boxer and 1st ever turbo to boot!

So, for this newbie - any advice on what I should do from a precautionary side to keep it running sweetly and any advice on reasnoable mods to make to make it shine brighter? On that point, I don't mean a monster turbo, lowered to grasshoper height or mega bodykits - I'm thinking more like a mild ECU job, maybe change the intake system?

Car is 'used' (has a few scuffs and scrapes) but seems sound mechanically.

Any advice welcome!

[WeirdNeville]

Remove the up-pipe cat, change to a panel filter and an exhaust and remap to 270ish bhp.


Should be pretty robust TBH. Make sure the cambelt was done 50k/5 years and keep on top of oil changes.

[Iamnotkloot]

Cheers

Always thought they'd be pretty easy to modify and I guess they are!

Cambelt was done 10k ago so that should be good....do you think an oil change every year is OK?

[WeirdNeville]

I dunno. With a turbo car I always over service them, so every year as a minimum, or every 6-8k miles depending on how they're driven.

BTW I'm no expert on subaru tuning. I cheated and jsut bought a PPP car. Foresters OC is international and very knowledgable. But foresters are just Impreza running gear, and mods are by and large interchangeable. SO they do tune well and there's a wealth of parts/spares should you want them.

[Ordinary_Chap]

WeirdNeville said:

I dunno. With a turbo car I always over service them, so every year as a minimum, or every 6-8k miles depending on how they're driven.

BTW I'm no expert on subaru tuning. I cheated and jsut bought a PPP car. Foresters OC is international and very knowledgable. But foresters are just Impreza running gear, and mods are by and large interchangeable. SO they do tune well and there's a wealth of parts/spares should you want them.

Mine gets serviced every 6k or 6 months.

[JollyGrnMonster]

They go pretty nice when mapped.

Unmapped they are a bit sluggish in the higher gears imho

[Lefty]

We had an 05 2.5 Xt and I loved it.

Few things went wrong though and Subaru parts prices are

Headlight automatic levelling system. Quoted 3k by Subaru to fix! Get to fk.

Secondary Air Pump. Not needed for mot emissions but put the cel on = mot fail. £760 to replace. I didn't, got it remapped with an exhaust and filter for a tasty 270bhp instead and had the error coded deleted from the ecu.

I replaced 4 or 5 various sensors in the year or so we had it, each probably over £100 for the part.


Great car though bug I've gone back to another classic for something a bit snaller and a bit more responsive.