I'm back, this time with a lifted 2002 Subaru

[Brian894x4]

Some of you might remember me for my 1989 Toyota SAS pick up and then later a 1995 Toyota Land Cruiser 80 series. Man, do I miss those vehicles. I sold the '89 to buy the 1995 and spent a lot of time and money decking it out and taking trips, but unfortunately financial reasons forced me to sell it a few years ago and I've been gone ever since. It was a painful experience and just even looking or thinking about Land Cruisers is very hard for me. To anyone who's emailed or tried to ask questions because of my 4x4 websites and Toyota information, please understand, its been hard to lose what I spent so much time and effort building, so I've been trying to avoid the subject. But I'm sort of back now. The current "expedition" rig is a lot smaller and more economical, certainly less capable....but it's been pretty fun to build and drive.

It's a 2002 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport with stock non-turbo 2.5 liter boxer engine and auto transmission. The biggest mods so far are in the suspension. I'm running AGX adjustable struts and King Lift springs + Subtle 1" blocks all around plus a 3/8 spacer in the rear. Perrin strut bars up front and tires upgraded to 215/65R-16 General Grabbers. It sits about 4" higher than a stock Impreza of my year. It really rocks in the sand and snow and is the funniest rig I've ever had to drive on gravel. I've left everything set up for good handling on the street, so all sway bars are in place and rear sway bar upgraded too.

It's got a Gorilla Off Road brush guard and skidplate up front, factory skid plate under the rear diff, air compressor in the engine compartment.

Interior has an STI gauge cluster and additional guages and STi seats and rear cargo area modified to include a wood deck and extra storage in the spare tire well area. I was used to carrying over 1000lbs worth of gear and spare parts, so I've had to learn than light and less is the new motto. Only carry what I absolutely need.

Auto trans has been modified with a gateless shifter that I built that allows for easy up and down manual shifting, plus a switch to electrically lock the transfer clutch (center diff so to speak).

Engine is mostly stock. It's got an aftermarket exhaust and a modified WRX intake system.

Future mods will include a Limited Slip rear diff from a Forester, a few more underbody protective plates.

Things I don't like about it is that I wish I had more power. 170 h.p. is nothing to sneeze at, but I long for a turbo WRX engine. Also kind of wish I had a manual trans for performance reasons, but the auto sure is nice to have for off road.

Guess I need to update my signiture too don't I?

 

[libarata]

Great lookin rig!

 

[machine1]

Good looking Subie! Welcome to the club.

 

[E.J.]

Dang, love a bugeye. Sweet rig!

 

[tarditi]

Looks like a lot of fun! Have you considered a rally vent on the roof?

 

[Gators]

nice car, please keep us posted of your progress

one thing I found about subies: not so many skid plate choices as toyota & jeep

 

[machine1]

nice car, please keep us posted of your progress

one thing I found about subies: not so many skid plate choices as toyota & jeep

Yeah, with the 09-13 Forester there is one company that makes Skidplates. Subaru made some OEM ones overseas and some were spotted on their press cars, but for $1000+ I'll stick with the aftermarket option.

 

[Brian894x4]

Skid plate could be something as simple as cutting out a sheet of steel or aluminum and bolting it to the bottom of the car. The hard part is finding a brush guard or something along those lines. I'm really happy with my Gorilla Off Road set up as it bolts to the bottom of the frame and gives the skid plate a good mounting place to bolt. I've got plenty of dents on the bottom of the skid plate to testify how important one is on a Subaru. Especially prior to the lift.

Here's a couple photos of my skidplate. The top one is with the lift, but prior to upgrading to the taller tires. The bottom one is after the taller tires. As you can see, it's seen its fair share of use. I've since painted it bright red.

 

[Brian894x4]

Here's a quick photo of it with the new lift, but old stock size tires. Just like with the Toyotas, when upgrading to a taller tire, there's some gear ratio issues and loss of power.

The stock tire size is 205/55R-16. I went up to a 215/65R-16, which is a 2" taller tire and about 1" taller in lift. It's just a hair taller than a stock Forester tire and about 27" taller.

The car performs just fine, but it was pretty fast and fun to drive with the shorter tire, so I do miss that. Swapping out rear diffs is a breeze on the Subarus, but the front is a whole other matter, since the front diff is integrated into the main transmission. Basically the whole transmission would have to come out.

 

[Brian894x4]

AGX struts and King springs.

These were a bit spendy, but worth every penny. I couldn't imagine a better set up, although I know there some even higher end struts out there and of course some folks go with coilovers, but I'm really loving the adjustability of these struts. Pop open the hood and you can twist a screw to one of four positions, with 1 being firm, 4 being soft. Same for the rear strut towers.

I like a sport's car ride on the street, so I leave them in 1 on the highway. But for off roading, I'm around 3 or 4 and it soaks up the bumps like nothing else I've driven, short of that old WCOR IFS long A-arm suspension I had on my old '89 Toyota 4x4 years ago.

The Australian made King springs are said to add 1.5" of lift, but it was more like 2+" for me initially, but of course after settling, it may be closer to 1.5" These springs work great for both on and off road. Very happy with them.

 

[Brian894x4]

I like red gauges and I ended up doing an STI gauge cluster swap. This is pretty popular for Imprezas and WRXs, now that enough STIs have been wrecked and these clusters can be found for somewhat of a reasonable price. I actually went through a couple of different clusters trying to do this swap, but settled a 2004 model, which fit my car the best. I had a do a few minor wiring mods, but it all works great now.

The STI cluster comes stock with LED red back lighting and an adjustable shift light and buzzer.

The DCCD and associated lights on the dash stands for "driver controlled center diff", of which only the STIs have, but I have modified my auto tranny to lock up the center transfer clutch (which is basically the center diff) with the flip of a switch. I then wired the lights on the dash to come on with this switch. When the transfer clutch is locked, the "locked" light will come on. When the transfer clutch is in auto or normal mode, the "auto" light will come on.

 

[Rosco862003]

As someone who both browses your website and owns a lifted Impreza wagon, welcome. Everything you've done to your car thus far is right along track with what I want to do to mine. Gorilla brush guard is on the to do list as were grabbers until I moved to NYC. Think I'm going to wait and just get snow tires in November, but with a broken axle from my FXT lift, I'm glad to hear your happy with the AGX/King combo as that may be my next suspension setup. Car looks good btw, keep up the good work!

 

[Brian894x4]

The center gauge pod has from left to right...

Auto transmission temp - Engine Oil pressure - Engine Oil Temp.

Love these gauges! They have user programmable warning lights and buzzers also

Also, with my auto transmission shifter and gauge cluster mods, I lost the gear selector indicators, which means I had no way of telling which gear I was in. The 4 led lights on the gauge pod tell the tale. The upper left is 4th gear, upper right is 3rd gear, lower left is 2nd and lower right is 1st gear. Nice to be able to see when quickly manually shifting through the gears, which I do quite often.

 

[Brian894x4]

I added two volt meters. The first one is the obvious volt reading of the car electrical system, but the 2nd one is very special. Its kind of hard to explain in short, but basically in the Subaru auto transmissions there's no center geared differential. Instead, there's a transfer clutch that basically varies how much the rear drive shaft is locked to the shaft that feeds the front differential. A solenoid varies hydraulic pressure to this clutch and the volt meter measures how much that solenoid is on, which in turn tells me how locked or unlocked the transfer clutch is.

Think of it like a limited slip differential. The higher voltage, the more the diff is slipping. The lower voltage, the more diff is locked. I also have a seperate switch that will bypass the solenoid and just lock up the transfer clutch, which is sort of like pushing a button to activate an electric locking center diff.

 

[Brian894x4]

These next two photos show the air compressor in the engine compartment. I use this all the time to air down tires both off road and in the sand. It's a lot quicker to air up these tires than my old 35s! Lol.

You can also see the AGX struts adjuster in these photos.