Zenki

2.5 CVT BR9 Outback, I get about 7.6-8L/100km on 91 on most long-haul trips. I once saw 6.4l/100km when hypermiling late at night.

Or when cylinder banks have separate exhaust tubing all the way to the rear diff, where they merge into a single pipe that's exactly the same diameter as the rest of the system... then split off into two pipes again.

The S-GT is definitely better value than the STIs, if it's not going to be driven hard stepping up to the STI doesn't buy you much.

2 minimum, 4 is best practice. In my case my current tyres are horribly noisy and I will take the slightest excuse I can get to replace all of them.

Covering the other side of things: I'm in the panel and paint business, and as far as the bumper goes, the best way to remove those sensors is to replace the bumper. It's possible to plastic weld then fill over the holes, but it's a finicky repair that will likely cost as much as a good condition second hand bumper anyhow. Have you not considered painting the sensors silver? They will still function, most parking sensors are painted (either by the factory or by the installer) to match the body.

Went to test fit the exhaust side the other day, discovered turbo doesn't fit the flange on the up pipe... turns out we've probably been sent Legacy GT twinscroll headers instead of STI as stated on the invoice.

Received a thing.

If the replacement shock "bolts in" and it's not ride height adjustable it's technically OK. WoF inspector can still fail you if they deem the modification to be unsafe, but gutting factory struts to install inserts is not in itself an unWoFable thing.

Mine is going to get slightly taller because the tyre I want isn't available in 225/60R17... Have to go 225/65 or 235/60. Could also go 235/65R17 but I think that exceeds 5% diameter increase.

Disclaimer: I work in the trade and have only had excellent experiences with work performed on customers' cars by my local (Glenfield) Smith & Smith technicians. I've had a stone chip just outside the CVA on my windscreen ever since we've owned the Outback, and recently found a new stone chip slap-bang in front of the passenger. Happened to have a local Novus tech at the workshop swapping a rear windscreen over on a customer's car, so I brought him over to ask him his opinion of my windscreen. Verdict: Not salvageable. Reasons: - Attempted (and failed) repair on driver's side stone chip - resin was either not correctly injected or the resin itself has gone opaque. This chip is now permanent. - "Delamination". He didn't explain whether this was the windscreen itself or if the windscreen wasn't adhered to the car properly, but my windscreen has had unsightly air pockets under the glass around the edges since we've owned this car. - Windscreen not genuine anyway. One call to insurance and a referral later, the Novus tech comes back to pop my windscreen off. Halfway through doing his thing... His words: "At your request, I can put the new screen on if you want me to, but I wouldn't sleep at night." This is not "minor surface rust". This is the sort of rust that causes windscreens to rust out of their frames 10, 15 years down the road if not treated, and it's entirely preventable if the technician takes some extra time to apply some rust prevention if his blade cuts too deep. The windscreen was replaced by Smith & Smith before we bought the Outback. The car was, at most, 4 years old when this windscreen was replaced. The windscreen has been on the car for at least 2 years. EDIT: rust visible in the photo is where the windscreen adhesive has pulled the paint off the car due to the rust underneath.

Correct, factory glass can be as dark as the manufacturer likes, the 35% number only applies if there is something on top of the glass. Leads to the odd case of factory privacy glass becoming illegal if you put a clear film on top.

Still not sure if we've correctly separated my bits from Firenza's bits though.

I started doing what Andy_Mac said and ended up resorting to what lachlan said. Losing one layer of fins is better for charge temps than having no flow through your intercooler because all the fins are bent, IMO. Once the top layer is gone it's a lot more resistant to being damaged again as well.

Need to replace pretty much all of the coolant hoses on the V5.10, what's the best way to go about it short of spending huge $$$ on Samco hose kits? Seen the Chinese knockoffs here and there for much less, but rather leery of that option. Nearly all of them seem to have 90 degree bends that hose by the metre isn't suitable for...

Lost my keys. Holy **** they're expensive.

What Jono24 said. As long as: - the combination of tow vehicle + trailer + load doesn't weigh enough to require anything beyond a Class 1 license; - you don't exceed structural limitations of the tow vehicle or towbar (usually max tongue weight); - the combination can stop within 7m at 30kph; ...you can go nuts.

What Boon said but paraphrased: I would have thought the weakest point would have been the CVs, and not the axles?

Would say poly, rubber is compressible. Grease goes between the bar and the bushing, don't grease between the bushing and the shackle because there's no point.

Honestly unsure. Best starting point would be to find any info on factory spring rates for your car and work from there, if the rear is substantially stiffer than the front then you'd know which you need. Would later models have different rear shocks? It might just be a case of the earlier model cars having shorter springs, which would require a much stiffer rate to prevent bottoming out. EDIT: you'd probably end up with the 2.5 springs, I suspect the FA20DIT models have different suspension seeing as they're a separate trim level.

No. If you have unmodified bodywork, the wheels have to stay in the guards. If they're modified but would protrude from the unmodified guards, you can't increase the track beyond that figure without a cert. It all depends on what the wheel does relative to the unmodified guards, basically.

Also keep in mind that you will need a cert if your wheels protrude from the original bodywork and track width is increased by more than 25mm.

BMG/BRG are much newer than the rest, so my guess is that that they revised the rates due to handling or ride quality issues.

Anything with "pearl" or "mica" in the name is likely to be 3 or 4 stage.

I'd stick with metallics, in that case. Multiple stage paints are a pain to match, blending is virtually impossible so a "touch up" is likely to involve a whole body panel - which won't be the same color as the surrounding panels anyway.

I see you had some fun at BNT on Friday... What's going on there, TGV delete? Edit: derp, that would be USDM... Porting?