Subaru Forester 2.0 XT 2003
Discussion
Hey all,
I've been a serious long term lurker to this site, I usually frequent RR because my cars are normally ideal for that site.
I've been a life long fan of Subaru and up until recently have been too poor to afford ownership mainly because of the insurance nightmare they are for the younger driver. Last year I turned 25 and decided I should really get myself one without getting rid of my 20vt powered MK2 Golf. The other half and I moved in together into a reasonable sized house that has a garage attached so I no longer have to struggle with no water and no electric or lights and going 2 miles to wash my hands (or pay the ever increasing rent!!!!!) and life was going great, we were saving and saving for new furniture etc then... tap tap tap tap tap, lumpy idle etc etc. The other halves trusty '07 Polo had burnt up an exhaust valve and was pretty near un-drive-able, luckily for me, I had booked off two weeks holiday and didn't need the car to commute, this gave me time to fix it up and carry on as normal, however my other half had other ideas, she took the car to VW main dealer one day whilst I was visiting my brother, gasped at the price to fix it (see more than they're worth) and decided we should sell the polo, so sell it we did. This left us with a tiny predicament, we NEED a car. At the time I was half way through, well honestly still am half way through ripping my golf apart for a bigger turbo so we couldn't use that and the cost of the new turbo and other bits I needed far exceeded the funds we had available and the other halves insurance to drive a modified mk2 was incredible. Plan B?
A few years ago I owned a triumph toledo 1300 which broke it's rear axle, whilst sourcing another one I bought a Volvo s70 with a 2.5t engine and drove it for 6 months, it was an absolute machine. I'm sure we all know what Volvos are like, built to last and sound insane with a decent exhaust, because we needed a new car I was on the hunt for one of these. The other half liked the one I had though couldn't see herself driving it, so, I charted up just how much she uses a car herself compared to me and the argument of "her requirements" soon vanished since I do 50 miles a day and she does probably 5 miles a month. She wanted a hatchback because she didn't think she could park anything bigger, "tough" I said, "you learnt to drive didn't you? Now put that training to use and drive something better."
I was looking and looking, everything I showed her and we discussed was either JUST out of our budget or not really good enough condition, or too far away when it was good. We were watching an episode of MCM one night and that's when it hit me. "Subaru Marty!"
I browsed and literally straight away, a hidden gem. That's the one! I messaged the seller, arranged a viewing and the following day a road trip was formulated.
I viewed it, test drove it and it was everything I was hoping it would be. "the volvo" but not "the volvo" with the right badge. There was one problem. Because it was so soon I had no way to buy it on the spot (can't withdraw that kinda cash without notice) so I had to rely on hopes and dreams and that I'd win the auction without spending too much of someone else's money, we stopped at a service station that has a mcdonalds so I could use the wifi to ensure I never lost out whilst my companion grabbed a quick bite. Waiting out those last five minutes of the bidding was damned near the longest 5 minutes of my life, other people were bidding. I typed up what I wanted to spend and waited out till the last 10 seconds, by now I guess other people were doing the same because it had died out a little. I okayed the bid. Went to the loo whilst leaving my phone on the table with strict instruction not to look at it and tried to act normal, when I came out I must have looked like I'd done a kilo of coke or something I was sweating so much. My phone had vibrated a couple of times. I sat, pinched some chips and turned over my phone. We won! hurrah! Shame we were still driving home from going to see it not an hour before!
Anyway, a couple of days later I went down with my brother to pick it up. Some people won't understand my like for this car but when you know everything from certain years of Impreza WRX bolt straight to the forester your opinion may change.
Here's what we got...
If the thread title hasn't given it away already, it's a 2003 Subaru Forester 2.0XT with the optional all weather pack which features a sun-roof, heated seats and mirrors. Other things to note are half leather (vinyl) trimmed seats, electric window all round and the usual Subaru 4 wheel drive system.
It had just shy of 145,000 miles on it but was pretty clean had nearly full service history too and new brakes all round with a couple of bushes and ball joints done too.
The owner also threw a new radiator into the deal for free which was great, a week later the original radiator started leaking around the top haha!
Less story more pictures, old coolant out, old rad out, new rad in, new coolant in, oil and filter changed, belts and tensioners changed and cleaned the mould out of the screenwash bottle.
Now I'm back to work, I've been putting on the miles and tracking the real world MPG using the Fuelly app. Not as good as the polo before it but not unbearable, I've had a 3.9l discovery which was eye wateringly thristy.
I suppose I'll keep updating when more work is done to it and I decide whether I'm going to go 2" higher or 2" lower
Alright it's not the Impreza in Mica that I had dreamed of but... it doesn't have that "boy racer" image either.
I've been a serious long term lurker to this site, I usually frequent RR because my cars are normally ideal for that site.
I've been a life long fan of Subaru and up until recently have been too poor to afford ownership mainly because of the insurance nightmare they are for the younger driver. Last year I turned 25 and decided I should really get myself one without getting rid of my 20vt powered MK2 Golf. The other half and I moved in together into a reasonable sized house that has a garage attached so I no longer have to struggle with no water and no electric or lights and going 2 miles to wash my hands (or pay the ever increasing rent!!!!!) and life was going great, we were saving and saving for new furniture etc then... tap tap tap tap tap, lumpy idle etc etc. The other halves trusty '07 Polo had burnt up an exhaust valve and was pretty near un-drive-able, luckily for me, I had booked off two weeks holiday and didn't need the car to commute, this gave me time to fix it up and carry on as normal, however my other half had other ideas, she took the car to VW main dealer one day whilst I was visiting my brother, gasped at the price to fix it (see more than they're worth) and decided we should sell the polo, so sell it we did. This left us with a tiny predicament, we NEED a car. At the time I was half way through, well honestly still am half way through ripping my golf apart for a bigger turbo so we couldn't use that and the cost of the new turbo and other bits I needed far exceeded the funds we had available and the other halves insurance to drive a modified mk2 was incredible. Plan B?
A few years ago I owned a triumph toledo 1300 which broke it's rear axle, whilst sourcing another one I bought a Volvo s70 with a 2.5t engine and drove it for 6 months, it was an absolute machine. I'm sure we all know what Volvos are like, built to last and sound insane with a decent exhaust, because we needed a new car I was on the hunt for one of these. The other half liked the one I had though couldn't see herself driving it, so, I charted up just how much she uses a car herself compared to me and the argument of "her requirements" soon vanished since I do 50 miles a day and she does probably 5 miles a month. She wanted a hatchback because she didn't think she could park anything bigger, "tough" I said, "you learnt to drive didn't you? Now put that training to use and drive something better."
I was looking and looking, everything I showed her and we discussed was either JUST out of our budget or not really good enough condition, or too far away when it was good. We were watching an episode of MCM one night and that's when it hit me. "Subaru Marty!"
I browsed and literally straight away, a hidden gem. That's the one! I messaged the seller, arranged a viewing and the following day a road trip was formulated.
I viewed it, test drove it and it was everything I was hoping it would be. "the volvo" but not "the volvo" with the right badge. There was one problem. Because it was so soon I had no way to buy it on the spot (can't withdraw that kinda cash without notice) so I had to rely on hopes and dreams and that I'd win the auction without spending too much of someone else's money, we stopped at a service station that has a mcdonalds so I could use the wifi to ensure I never lost out whilst my companion grabbed a quick bite. Waiting out those last five minutes of the bidding was damned near the longest 5 minutes of my life, other people were bidding. I typed up what I wanted to spend and waited out till the last 10 seconds, by now I guess other people were doing the same because it had died out a little. I okayed the bid. Went to the loo whilst leaving my phone on the table with strict instruction not to look at it and tried to act normal, when I came out I must have looked like I'd done a kilo of coke or something I was sweating so much. My phone had vibrated a couple of times. I sat, pinched some chips and turned over my phone. We won! hurrah! Shame we were still driving home from going to see it not an hour before!
Anyway, a couple of days later I went down with my brother to pick it up. Some people won't understand my like for this car but when you know everything from certain years of Impreza WRX bolt straight to the forester your opinion may change.
Here's what we got...
If the thread title hasn't given it away already, it's a 2003 Subaru Forester 2.0XT with the optional all weather pack which features a sun-roof, heated seats and mirrors. Other things to note are half leather (vinyl) trimmed seats, electric window all round and the usual Subaru 4 wheel drive system.
It had just shy of 145,000 miles on it but was pretty clean had nearly full service history too and new brakes all round with a couple of bushes and ball joints done too.
The owner also threw a new radiator into the deal for free which was great, a week later the original radiator started leaking around the top haha!
Less story more pictures, old coolant out, old rad out, new rad in, new coolant in, oil and filter changed, belts and tensioners changed and cleaned the mould out of the screenwash bottle.
Now I'm back to work, I've been putting on the miles and tracking the real world MPG using the Fuelly app. Not as good as the polo before it but not unbearable, I've had a 3.9l discovery which was eye wateringly thristy.
I suppose I'll keep updating when more work is done to it and I decide whether I'm going to go 2" higher or 2" lower
Alright it's not the Impreza in Mica that I had dreamed of but... it doesn't have that "boy racer" image either.
Edited by Jackeria on Monday 27th March 01:16
Edited by Jackeria on Monday 27th March 01:23
That's exactly it, I've never been to a "JDM" car show of any kind before so I presume I'm wrong but they just aren't that common in offroad form. We are lucky here in the UK to have plenty of small to medium 4x4s which are decent off road and cheap to buy with plenty of aftermarket support (see land rovers and suzukis) so I think foresters are often overlooked, alright I literally never go off road these days but that doesn't mean I wouldn't if I did the mods.
I like the look both ways if done subtly. Since I've only had it a month I'm just going to keep doing regular maintenance and fix my niggles before modification starts.
I can't afford to go as crazy as that last one but realistically when it comes to running gear there isn't that much done to it.
I like the look both ways if done subtly. Since I've only had it a month I'm just going to keep doing regular maintenance and fix my niggles before modification starts.
I can't afford to go as crazy as that last one but realistically when it comes to running gear there isn't that much done to it.
Edited by Jackeria on Monday 27th March 22:30
Does this give a little bit of the game away? (the compomotive CX splits are for the above Golf not the forester)
It was quite a hard decision to make because I think the overland ones are the coolest and have way more appeal since that's what foresters were designed for, in the end I came to the conclusion I'm sure most others do, I do more driving on tarmac by far than I do off road, it wouldn't make sense to hinder the handling with a 2-3inch lift and MT's just for a weekend blast every other month with 1-1,500 miles between on the road. The other issue is the non-existent availability when it comes to bash bars, if I lived in America or Oz they can be had off the shelf for reasonable money but just not here and I literally have no fabrication tools or skills. (or space in my garage for any of that)
Don't be too disheartened though, these are height adjustable, which means UP as well as down if I change my mind and have dampening adjustment too so I can choose if I want fillings or not
They are RS-R Best-I's which are the model the current Sports-I's replaced. They're a reasonably reputable brand in Japan and the States so I feel they'll be ok. Not as good as Bilstein or KW's but I didn't pay that kind of money for them, in fact these second hand cost me roughly about the same as budget coilovers new and I know which I'd prefer. They have camber adjustable top mounts on the front on roller bearings too.
http://www.rs-r.com/product-category/sports-i-coil...
Now to collect more suspension and bush components.
It was quite a hard decision to make because I think the overland ones are the coolest and have way more appeal since that's what foresters were designed for, in the end I came to the conclusion I'm sure most others do, I do more driving on tarmac by far than I do off road, it wouldn't make sense to hinder the handling with a 2-3inch lift and MT's just for a weekend blast every other month with 1-1,500 miles between on the road. The other issue is the non-existent availability when it comes to bash bars, if I lived in America or Oz they can be had off the shelf for reasonable money but just not here and I literally have no fabrication tools or skills. (or space in my garage for any of that)
Don't be too disheartened though, these are height adjustable, which means UP as well as down if I change my mind and have dampening adjustment too so I can choose if I want fillings or not
They are RS-R Best-I's which are the model the current Sports-I's replaced. They're a reasonably reputable brand in Japan and the States so I feel they'll be ok. Not as good as Bilstein or KW's but I didn't pay that kind of money for them, in fact these second hand cost me roughly about the same as budget coilovers new and I know which I'd prefer. They have camber adjustable top mounts on the front on roller bearings too.
http://www.rs-r.com/product-category/sports-i-coil...
Now to collect more suspension and bush components.
Something a little weird happened this last week too, I have the forester for daily duties and the mk2 as on going project and toy all be it a static model kind of toy these days. I'd noticed as you do that a young lad round the corner is into his cars too, having had a little mx5 late last year before swapping to a mk2 Golf, of course I noticed it because I have one, on Friday driving home from work I spotted a deep red forester on his drive. How coincidental is that? I actually went and stuck a note through the door to commend him on his choices and to come round for a chat, would you believe he did. Had a good wag and compared cars for a good half an hour, they're incredibly similar apart from the colour, same spec and options even the same mileage at time of purchase.
Jackeria said:
Something a little weird happened this last week too...I spotted a deep red forester on his drive. How coincidental is that?
They have a breeding-like habit of popping up when least expected. I have a 2.5 FXT, there are now another four SG Foresters in the village/local area, two silver, one black and one red. If yet to do so it's worth setting up on the sf.org forum as there's a mass of information there and some very knowledgeable Forester folk who are tremendously helpful http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f75/With working nights having working lights is essential for the day to day driving, I had a bulb go out on the 0-50 range of the speedo which isn't great with having to go past 3 speed cameras on the way to work. I got up a bit early today and went down to procure a couple as replacements, the new bulbs are a world apart from the old ones, having gotten dirty or tinged inside over the years, looks like I'll be buying some more to make the whole dash the same brightness to be honest the part which looks dim now looked fine before.
Old vs new.
I also decided to measure the badge locations. You'll notice that in between some of the lettering on the silver parts of the car, there is a brown stain to the paint which is kind of annoying and doesn't come off with a hard scrub, I'm going to take the badges off and polish it away. Whether the badges go back on or not has yet to be decided.
Old vs new.
I also decided to measure the badge locations. You'll notice that in between some of the lettering on the silver parts of the car, there is a brown stain to the paint which is kind of annoying and doesn't come off with a hard scrub, I'm going to take the badges off and polish it away. Whether the badges go back on or not has yet to be decided.
Edited by Jackeria on Wednesday 26th April 06:00
As I've said before i work nights, tonight is one of my off nights and i got a little bored so went for a treck to take some "before" photos. Needless to say, the security guard was a bit miffed why I was bothering before moving me on.
Take a look.
If you've seen MCM, you might remember a similar gearknob in 2sexy. I got it for a laugh because the OH thought since Marty has had lots of subarus that they were an Australian brand. Hence the red back. She's still wary of touching it. It's also nicer to use than the old worn one covered in human slime. It has become quite the talking point among passengers in an otherwise "boring" car, so it's staying for now.
Take a look.
If you've seen MCM, you might remember a similar gearknob in 2sexy. I got it for a laugh because the OH thought since Marty has had lots of subarus that they were an Australian brand. Hence the red back. She's still wary of touching it. It's also nicer to use than the old worn one covered in human slime. It has become quite the talking point among passengers in an otherwise "boring" car, so it's staying for now.
Edited by Jackeria on Saturday 29th April 06:15
I set about cleaning the grot today, dog hair, mud stains and general mustiness. A vaccuum and clean with 1001 fabric cleaner seems to have done the trick mostly, I pulled out all the small trim too so I could clean built up dirt in nooks and crannies too like around handbrake boot and coin tray door. I must say it's generally a nicer place to be now. I did all the seats and carpet, even found a false widow under spare wheel.
Edited by Jackeria on Friday 5th May 03:38
Stacked up nearly 6k on this thing already coming up to service time, I got bored a little last week and decided it was about time to do this, it didn't take overly long at all apart from one camber bolt being really rather tight it was all pretty painless. I didn't set it ridiculously low because I'm not crazy and don't have decent wheels/tyres.
I started at the hardest setting and worked my way down to a comfortable level where it's not ridiculously bouncy, hard is exactly that, like having no suspension at all. I've ended up with it at the softest setting which is some 50 clicks away from the hardest so plenty of scope to make changes in between, that's probably because we live on a road where there are about 20 speedbumps which are unavoidable and have to be driven over to go anywhere at all. There is a notable increase in road noise from the top mounts not being massive pillows of rubber anymore, I would say it's only noticeable at 50mph and above (all the time I use the car really but hey ho its not actually that loud, maybe 5db)
The handling is night and day, going over a series of undulating and unsettling bumps on the standard suspension made the rear of the car feel like it was wobbling all over the place, mostly caused by the auto leveling rear suspension trying to calculate where its supposed to be because of load changes, it felt like you would hit a bump then 10m later the rear of the car would randomly lift, reasonably harshly too almost like you had gone over a sharp dip in the road. Not confidence inspiring to say the least.
I look forward to leaning on the car a little more to see where it's limits are.
Looking at the picture quality I REALLY need to invest in a laptop so I can get photos off my DSLR rather than through FB from phone daaaaamn the quality has dropped significantly.
I started at the hardest setting and worked my way down to a comfortable level where it's not ridiculously bouncy, hard is exactly that, like having no suspension at all. I've ended up with it at the softest setting which is some 50 clicks away from the hardest so plenty of scope to make changes in between, that's probably because we live on a road where there are about 20 speedbumps which are unavoidable and have to be driven over to go anywhere at all. There is a notable increase in road noise from the top mounts not being massive pillows of rubber anymore, I would say it's only noticeable at 50mph and above (all the time I use the car really but hey ho its not actually that loud, maybe 5db)
The handling is night and day, going over a series of undulating and unsettling bumps on the standard suspension made the rear of the car feel like it was wobbling all over the place, mostly caused by the auto leveling rear suspension trying to calculate where its supposed to be because of load changes, it felt like you would hit a bump then 10m later the rear of the car would randomly lift, reasonably harshly too almost like you had gone over a sharp dip in the road. Not confidence inspiring to say the least.
I look forward to leaning on the car a little more to see where it's limits are.
Looking at the picture quality I REALLY need to invest in a laptop so I can get photos off my DSLR rather than through FB from phone daaaaamn the quality has dropped significantly.
Edited by Jackeria on Wednesday 7th June 23:45
In all fairness I would have fitted the coils much sooner but this came into my hands... As you can see it fit in the Forester quite nicely. There's still more to be done to it but it's in a good position where I haven't really spent that much money on it at present, just things I had in the garage already (paint etc) and a new seat.
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