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Another 05 FXT

('03-'05) 
28K views 80 replies 23 participants last post by  originalcyn 
#1 · (Edited)
Another 05 Forester XT

I started looking for another 05-08 Forester last week and found a pretty nice 05 XT from Arizona. It has some issues, nothing too scary but I did use them to my advantage and knocked the price down considerably. These are the pics from the ad, I'll have pics of my first mods in the next update



Dealer had it stickered at $12,999 and I was hesitant to even start negotiating with a ridiculous price like that but we were able to come to a more reasonable $8900



The body is in really good shape, so far I can only find 2 minor issues



This front end makes the 03-05 my favourite generation



I have a spare set of XT wheels with snow tires on them so winter mode will look just like summer mode



The driver's side corner has some repaired damage, new headlight and aftermarket fender, I actually pulled it apart to look at the damage underneath and there was none



This one has leather but I still have my cloth seats, time will tell which I like better



It also has the huge moonroof that my previous XT didn't have



This crap stereo will be the first to go, the car has premium sound so the factory 6 disk will be going back in



I swear Subaru coats these cargo trays in teflon so that nothing you put on them will stay put and you have to get the cargo nets



The motor looked good aside from the air filter being dirty as hell. For some reason they did the timing belt even though it's only at 84,000 miles and whoever replaced the accessory belt didn't tighten it enough so it squeaks at cold start. I'm thinking about just taking it to the independent Subaru shop for a more thorough inspection and have the AC recharged
 
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#6 ·
Welcome to the family, and well done on getting the price down to a reasonable amount. How many miles on yours? That's roughly what I paid for my 04 a year and a half ago @ 104k miles, which also was a little behind on maintenance.

This front end makes the 03-05 my favourite generation
Hmm - not sure I agree, the 06-08 sport front end looks SO clean. I want to convert, but it's not very high on my priority list. :)
 
#7 ·
Now that I have the car at home I'm really excited to start working on it



So far I've put about 10 miles on the odometer



After looking at the car in the morning I went to pick n pull with a shopping list and found some of the stuff I needed to replace



I forgot to get the bumper guard, this one has the typical Arizona sunbleaching



The pillar trim is scuffed really bad like somebody tried to clean it with a scotch pad so I got that from the junkyard car



I'm thinking a spoiler will cover this dent up, I remember there was quite a few silver wings in stock when I got the wing for my black 05



I replaced the crap aftermarket radio that was in there with the factory unit from my black FXT



Then I pulled off the scuffed up trim and found more of the red dirt that is in every crack, there's a ton of it in the moonroof tracks



The junkyard trim is in immaculate condition by comparison



The bent lateral links are so common, I swear they teach people to hook up to these in tow truck school



Both of them are bent but the junkyard car had a good set on it so I'm gonna replace them and get an alignment when I get new tires
 
#13 · (Edited)


That is not the stock sway (you can see that it is blue in that pic, probably Cusco or Cobb) and my guess is that's the reason why the lateral links are bent, not towing.

Whiteline support brackets should help keep the replacements from bending, but that looks like a pretty good size bar 22-24mm, possibly larger.

 
#19 · (Edited)
Picked up one of the leftover brand new spoilers, original sin hooked it up



There is sort of a guide hole for one of the bolts on the inside of the hatch, that little circle can be drilled without using a template



I pulled the washer fluid line and the brake light line down away from the second hole so I wouldn't drill into them, highly recommend this



Using the template I marked the second hole, it is incredibly scary drilling so close to the glass but that's where it goes



When you pull off interior hatch trim you can see the cutout where the bit will come through, the instructions say to pull off way more of the trim than is necessary I only popped two clips on each piece of side trim and didn't touch the middle section



That washer line is a sitting duck and I just imagine it being right in the path of the bit as is pushes through, on the other side the 3rd brake light wires have the same issue



I used a small round file to smooth out the holes and correct the fitment, paint matches quite well for the age difference



Without the wing the back looks like a bald baby but with it the car looks almost as sporty as it feels



I think I might take off the roof rack crossbars now, the car in the background is my Impreza



My wife was complaining about wind noise and since it's so common with these cars I first looked at the mirrors to see how badly they were curved, I opened the door to help it show up on the camera but even a slight gap between the rubber and the glass will make a ton of noise



I took the mirror off and pressed it flat with my hands as hard as I could and now there is no noise, without frames on the windows the glass gradually pushes that rubber out every time the window goes up. I think this should be written in the owner's guide as a general maintenance point since it can't be permanently fixed, I was able to get the noise down temporarily just by pushing the rubber flat with the window down and leaving the mirror on but it was a short lived success
 
#25 ·
Yeah, I took the spoiler to Maaco and had those guys do a crappy job on it lol

My wife complains non stop about the leather seats being so uncomfortable and I kept the cloth seats from my FXT so seat swap went down



The condition isn't the worst but not the best either, her chief complaint was comfort



I don't drive her car often enough to say they are comfortable or not I just don't like sliding around and all oem seats are crap once you get used to race buckets



Rear seat is a crummy mess where the child seat was, I was just going to swap the driver's seat but she insisted that they should all match



Cordless impact ftw, made the job super fast



There wasn't any cash or treasures under the seats but I did find dog kibble



To swap the seat backs I just took the 2 center bracket bolts out and dropped the seat until the pin matched up with the key hole then pulled it out of the side brackets on each side, it was a little more difficult to put the seat in that way but still easier than using a spanner on those hard to reach bracket bolts



The most difficult part with the front seats was to disconnect and reconnect all the electrical, when I reconnected the battery no air bags exploded so I think I did good



I was a little worried the door cards weren't going to look right with the cloth seats but the fake leather in the bolsters helps it match, I also swapped out the carpet floor mats for the all weather from my old legacy while I was working on the interior



There's definitely a difference between the leather in the card and the fake stuff on the seats but it looks fine to me and the wife is happy so I'm happy



I never noticed any real discomfort with the cloth in my Forester and the wife says they are a HUGE improvement over the leather, she doesn't really do a good job describing things so I still don't know exactly what her issue with the leather was other than they are generally uncomfortable
 
#27 · (Edited)
I'm going to flock the dash in my coupe, looking at making my own electrostatic flocker and cheap diy myself through it



When the wife was on her way home from work somebody rear ended her and wrecked the bumper cover, she was okay and insurance covered the damage



Damage still hasn't been repaired, looking for a deal on a bumper cover to cheap my way out of this one too but it's more than likely going to end up at the shop



Tint finally got done, decided on the executive tint to match the silver a little better



Some angles it looks like black but you get that reflective mirror straight on, I think it is better than just plain black only if you have a color that can pull it off though



My next triumph was finding shifter trim from a 5 speed! The automatic shift lever is shorter so it kind of sucked the boot down which I don't like



I got two different length extensions, a 2" and a 3.75" and I liked the 3.75" but the oem knob wouldn't fit over either of them so I ended up using the 2" with a shorter land rover knob adding to the confusion



The Cusco bar I had gotten for my forester before it got wrecked stayed in the attic for long enough so I put it on, it was from a BG legacy but bolt pattern and length are the same as forester



The way the bar mounts you don't have to cut the plastics at all, just a little from the carpet and everything goes back together nicely



It might be a little more from the carpet but at least the plastics don't have to be cut



Everything back together and it looks like it belongs there, I may end up getting some quick release bolts for the bar ends but we will see what necessity demands
 
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