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Same here. The shop I worked at stocked Zic. Although I did ask SubLab (Whangarei Subaru mechanic) what oils to use, and they said Castrol or Penrite mainly (when it comes to brand), but did say if the oil meets the specs for the car, it'll be fine.

IIRC the Japanese market ones had HID factory as an option. Very commonly selected option. Good to know. Not even able to cert them?

Yes! Wellington Europeons is what my Dad used for his old V7 Impreza STI. They rebuilt the rear diff after a few ClubSub track days, and did an excellent job for him. This is back 2005/06 from memory? He had the handle "Silly Speed" if anyone remembers him

Check out this thread Also Ray Hartley Motors consistently come up as the top result when I search "Subaru Mechanic Wellington"

I will just add, as it happened for me on my BE Legacy - when I put a LED in the high stop light, it brought up a ABS code. I'm not sure if the BL/BP Legacy's do the same thing. But what you can do is buy a Narva LED resistor from an auto sparkie. They simulate the load of a normal incandescent bulb, while enabling a LED to function. Has 2 little vampire clips in the kit. No worries! A lot of the guys here have TapTurn, and they love it! It's super easy to fit too. Just find your flasher, un plug flasher, plug in TapTurn Flasher. Done.

Hopefully not LEDs that go in HID sockets. I've been told to not mess with that stuff. If it's LEDs going into just normal incandescent sockets, that's fine. If you want LED indicators, get TapTurn. TapTurn also enables the 3 tick on the light press of the stalk. If you're putting LEDs in Halogen sockets, make sure the heat sink clears the covers and all that. ___________ @Subru I was just thinking, you should space out the opposite side bracing like you did to stop the squeaking. Since the proper kit for your car has them.

You should be able to buy an adapter kit that adapts the Subaru plug to either a mid plug, then mid plug to stereo, or just all in one Subaru to Headunit. The speaker outs from the Headunit are probably just RCA plugs. Steering wheel controls is a bit beyond myself. But if you want to spend the time figuring it out, go ahead. Document it on the Forum in the garage section, so if someone else in future wants to do it, there is already some sort of guidelines. If you can't get the controls to work, and want a steering wheel without controls, go have a browse at a Pick-a-part wreckers for one.

From memory, the antenna on the wind screen are for TV. It would be safe to say that using the GPS antenna that comes with the new Headunit is a good idea. Also means you can pull those ugly things off the windscreen! You'll probably also find a DVD drive under one of the front seats, and a bunch of wiring coiled under the front carpets. There will also probably be a Japanese toll card thing (it speaks when you start the car), you can just tear that right out. In my opinion, it would be best to tear all this wiring out, and then wire in all that you need. Makes it simpler if something goes wrong later, so you're not having to untangle the Cariozera stuff. This is all from my experience with my 02 BE Legacy, and a fresh import 02 BH Legacy that Dad traded with his NZ New 01 Impreza STI 10 years ago.

I did this recently myself. The ring ones are a weird T5 bulb, that has a higher Wattage compared to a normal T5. The other ones are all just normal T5 bulbs. I forget how many - might have been 14? Will be more if it's auto gearbox too.

There's the AA Auto Centre places, and most MTA Approved workshops would be able to do a pre-purchase check for you. I'm gonna recommend any Auto Super Shoppe franchise, since I worked for the one in Whangarei.

As shown in this install guide. Proper (looks to be CNC'd) alloy spacer blocks. This is for the KCA359. You've probably been given the KCA319A Subru, which doesn't have spacers (install guide).

Glad you got it fixed! It definitely shouldn't be like that normally. If you've got a WoF soon, take it down a gravel road for a bit, and get the underside a bit dirty. An inspector may have their own opinions about what you did. I don't see anything wrong with what you've done.

I used the Mothers NuLens stuff. Did a great job. Comes with 800, 1200 and 3000 sanding pads, PowerBall and NuLens clear plastic polish. Have a nosey in my Garage thread (in my forum signature) if you're curious. I know guys here have done the multiple grit wet sanding, Clear, then wax. Probably the only thing I can think of is to use an Enamel Clear (someone correct me if you should use Lacquer).

Still highly unlikely then (cancer is a F*****G ass hole). If I do make a race down (literally), I'll just be there for the food and hangs. Not fussed about getting my car on the dyno. Already know roughly what it puts down from the post I made in Dyno Leaderboard.

Unfortunately I'm only gonna have to register myself as interested now; and if I do make it down, it'll be last minute. Stuff going on in the family (health) that needs all the spare time I can muster at the moment.

Marty's daily - SuperGramps. It's a EZ36 with a Garret turbo (can't remember turbo model). This guy in NZ did a EZ30 out of a BL/BP Legacy with a 6 speed into a old Impreza wagon. Runs a Link G4 ECU. Few videos on his channel about it. I seriously think you should consider this swap though... 13B Impreza If you are totally seriously, you need to do the BL/BP EZ30, because of the 3 exhaust port heads and AVCS that the BE/BH (first gen EZ30) didn't get. I've always wanted to do something similar, but BP wagon manual, Centrifugal Supercharger, FlexFuel, and thats that. Be a wicked daily/road trip car in my opinion.

Found this dyno sheet of a S401 that was tuned in Europe. Thought it might be interesting to some of you fellas Red line is factory power (hp ATW) Blue/Navy line is factory torque (lb-ft ATW) Thread I pulled the image from.

Also looking at you @whitebait19 to come along.

Here ya go

It's generally the entertainment systems that the previous owners in Japan have installed. I pulled out about 3-5kg of wiring from my BE Legacy when I pulled out the buggered McIntosh system stuff, and basically a complete Pioneer Cariozeria system, minus the Headunit. There was a bunch of wiring under the passenger side carpet, just coiled there. Has a cheap and nasty Domain double Din in there now. Really need to upgrade to an Android Auto unit.

One thing less to worry about - replaced the 6 year old battery in the car. Was testing fine - about 80CCA lower than stated on the sticker (500CCA new, testing about 420CCA). Plus 6 years old. Didn't want to be stuck somewhere where I wouldn't be able to bump start it.

That is amazing attention to detail! Especially considering body clips in general (if original etc) are not cheap. Handy to get a cheap kit off AliExpress or something similar to keep at home.

If they're polyurethane, that won't be needed. Due to the crush tube not being vulcanised to the bushing material, like a traditional (and factory) rubber bush.

Could also be the bushings you did. Might need more grease lol. I have known sway bar links to squeak, but incredibly rarely.

If it's got poly (Whiteline or Nolathane, etc) bushings for the mounts, and you have some spare polyurethane grease, just pull them off, grease up the inside of the bushing where the sway bar works, and you're sweet. If you've fitted ploy kits, you should have some grease spare. I have like 50 packets of the stuff lol