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Rob's 2002 Forester S

150K views 729 replies 76 participants last post by  MikeDrives1 
#1 ·
It all started back in late 2003.
The lease on my Wife;s(then girlfriend) Honda Civic was coming up and she was looking around for a new car. The dealership I work for had taken a 2001 Forester S in on trade and me being the Subaru fiend that I am decided to take it home for the night. She drove around in it for a little while and completely loved it except for the fact that it had a slushbox(I had taught her how to drive my WRX not long before that and she wanted a manual).
After she had made the decision what kind of car she wanted we searched and searched for a manual trans Forester S(had to have the Gigantor moonroof) and happened upon one at another local dealer. It was a Diamond Black Pearl 2002 S Premium, 58k miles, 5 spd, heated seats, moonroof, the works. We ended up getting the dealer I work for to buy it from the other place to save us some money and hassle. I don't have any pics of it in stock form but I am sure most of us know what they look like. :biggrin:

The car stayed stock for a long time as it was my Wife's and I had my WRX to play with. I sold the WRX last year and was just driving around in a beater while looking for another car for my Wife(she likes to drive newer cars and hers was not up to 120k miles). Since I didn't have a toy to play with anymore, I started to think about modding the '02(it was going to be mine after her new car arrived.

The Beginning
Her car had started throwing a CEL for the cat malfunctioning, it wasn't too surprising as it was still the original one, as well as an exhaust leak on the front midpipe flange due to a deteriorated donut gasket. My "modder" mentality kicked in and decided that since I had to buy a new cat I would just pick up a High Flow aftermarket one and since I was going to have a HFC, I should just pick up a set headers and a catback as well. I ordered a set of Ebay replica headers, a Stromung HFC, a Magnaflow resonator, and an '07 STI catback to be installed. Everything fit well after the catback was modded to have the extra length and resonator installed into it and I was happy, for now.

Now it's ON!
Since I had already started with the modding, I decided to just go forth with any ideas that came into my head. The Wife wouldn't mind, right?
There was a Group Buy on Group A lightweight pulley sets on RS25.com so I picked up one of those and started the search for a Cobb CAI. Found the intake after a week or so and bought that figuring that would be good enough for power mods.

I also wanted to move on to the suspension. Here was the plan:
WRX struts(I picked up a new set of Tokico HPs)
WRX wagon springs(Got some RCEs)
STI Group N strut tops
Front and Rear sway bars(Whiteline solid 22mm in the front and 22mm adjustable in the rear)
Rear sway bar mounts(Whiteline again)
Heavy Duty endlinks on both ends(Whiteline front and Kartboy Rears)
Front and Rear strut bars(Whiteline, yet again)
Offset caster Bushings(Whiteline)
Removal of front spacer blocks(thanks for the help Travis)

I also had the following parts laying around so I put them in as well:
WRX steering rack
Whiteline RCAs
Whiteline Outrigger bushings
Super Pro steering rack bushings.

The suspension install was loong but went well but I had to move in to the trans...........
 
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#2 ·
Curse you, Sloppy shifter!
The stock shifter is way too tall and loose for my likings so I ordered up the following parts:
Kartboy FXT Short shift lever
Kartboy front and rear shifter bushings
Kartboy Knuckle Ball Shift knob
TiC linkage bushings
TiC tranny crossmember bushings
I also Urethane filled my stock trans mount and Pitch stop

These parts made the shifting so much better it was unbelievable. I also figured I would do a fluid change while I was crawling around under the car so I ordered:
Uncle Scotty's Cocktail
Motul Gear 300 for the rear diff

Another great upgrade, the trans is so smooth you would never know it has the mileage it does.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Slight changes and future Suspension upgrades
A friend of mine picked up yellow knight's old 2.5RS and almost immediately swapped it. The car had a full Brullen exhaust set up on it including equal length headers so I took the set up I had previously installed on the S and swapped it for the Brullen set up. The equal length headers definitely change the Subaru sound and are a good amount louder due to the long gone honey comb inside the HFC section but they also make a good power difference over the "noise maker" UEL header like the Borlas/Ebay Replicas.

One thing I didn't get to install when I did the rest of the suspension mods was a set of Whiteline Rear Subframe Lock bolts. The factory holes were just too full of road debris and rusted that I couldn't get the chaser to start and didn't have a tap so I put them off. I have sinced gotten the correct tap but haven't gotten back around to putting them in. Will most likely do them and Urethane fill my rear diff bushings when I do the following:

I also got egged into picking up a set of Whiteline adjustable Lateral Links that were on Nasioc for a really good price. This will make the camber bolts I bought unneccessary and provide far more adjustment. I have yet to install these as I have had no time and I am waiting for the Whiteline Toe Lock Kit to come off of back order.


Also forgot to mention that my seemingly never ending search for a turbo hood for this car came to an end when Romi hooked up with a seller of them. Just installed it this weekend, fit pretty good for the price(beggers can't be chooser anyways) and definitely helps the look. I may paint the Carbon Fiber at some point as I have never really been a fan of the look but for now, it blends in with the black paint enough for me to deal with it.
Here is a couple of quick pics of how she sits right now. You can also see the 18x7.5" wheels I picked up dirt cheap on Nasioc. They rub in the rear due to the +43 offset but sit nice and flush so I will just have to dial in some negative camber when I install the lat links and maybe do some slight rolling, we shall see.
At the CT Forester Meet last month(pre hood)

As she looked yesterday

 
#145 ·
Slight changes and future Suspension upgrades
A friend of mine picked up yellow knight's old 2.5RS and almost immediately swapped it. The car had a full Brullen exhaust set up on it including equal length headers so I took the set up I had previously installed on the S and swapped it for the Brullen set up. The equal length headers definitely change the Subaru sound and are a good amount louder due to the long gone honey comb inside the HFC section but they also make a good power difference over the "noise maker" UEL header like the Borlas/Ebay Replicas.

One thing I didn't get to install when I did the rest of the suspension mods was a set of Whiteline Rear Subframe Lock bolts. The factory holes were just too full of road debris and rusted that I couldn't get the chaser to start and didn't have a tap so I put them off. I have sinced gotten the correct tap but haven't gotten back around to putting them in. Will most likely do them and Urethane fill my rear diff bushings when I do the following:

I also got egged into picking up a set of Whiteline adjustable Lateral Links that were on Nasioc for a really good price. This will make the camber bolts I bought unneccessary and provide far more adjustment. I have yet to install these as I have had no time and I am waiting for the Whiteline Toe Lock Kit to come off of back order.


Also forgot to mention that my seemingly never ending search for a turbo hood for this car came to an end when Romi hooked up with a seller of them. Just installed it this weekend, fit pretty good for the price(beggers can't be chooser anyways) and definitely helps the look. I may paint the Carbon Fiber at some point as I have never really been a fan of the look but for now, it blends in with the black paint enough for me to deal with it.
Here is a couple of quick pics of how she sits right now. You can also see the 18x7.5" wheels I picked up dirt cheap on Nasioc. They rub in the rear due to the +43 offset but sit nice and flush so I will just have to dial in some negative camber when I install the lat links and maybe do some slight rolling, we shall see.
At the CT Forester Meet last month(pre hood)

As she looked yesterday


where did you get the hood from?
link please
 
#11 ·
Got the Toe Lock kit on Saturday probably won't be able to install it and the arms for a couple of weeks though.
I also should be getting another mod tomorrow that I will post installed pics of Wednesday at the latest. Can't wait for this one!
 
#14 ·
looks great. sorry if I sound stupid. that hood is functional? adds air flow to the engine, right? I'm thinking it does, but if not it still looks really good. does it push air right to the intake of the engine somehow? hopefully the only stupid question is one not asked for this thread. thanks

eb
 
#17 ·
The hood is functional in the respect that the scoop is actually open to the engine bay. It isn't really functional on my car as there is no intercooler under it for it to feed cool air to. If I ever decide to swap the car, it will definitely serve it's purpose though.

Love what you have done to the forester. Good taste. Can you help me out as to how/where you removed the front spacer blocks? I can't find anything on them.
I can help you out with removing the spacer blocks. I was really planning on doing a write up as we did them but never had a chance due to that weekend being so hectic just trying to get the car back together so I could take it to work on Monday. I will try and write something up but if you have any questions in the meantime, PM me your email address and I will help you out.
 
#16 · (Edited)
A Weekend Spent "Tightening up the Rear"
So I had picked up a set of Whiteline adjustable Lateral Links a month or so ago on Nasioc for a really good price so the plan was to install them at the same time I finally got around to putting in the rear subframe lock bolts(I had picked the tap up to clean the holes out).
As with everything else I try and install, the longer it takes me to get around to putting them in, the more time I have to think about other, "while I am back there" mods. I picked up a set of OBX adjustable Trailing Arms from Ebay which also replace the front bushing with a pillow ball so I picked up a set of Super Pro urethane bushings for the rear lower bushings. Another thing that made sense was the Whiteline Toe Lock kit since the arms I was going to be installing have toe adjustment built into them. Finally, I had picked up a small rear diff brace from yellow knight a couple of months ago so I was going to put that in as well.

My car has six New England winters on it and 132k miles so I wasn't really expecting anything to come apart too easily. I tried to prepare for this by spending the week prior jacking up the car when I got home from work and spraying all of the nuts and bolts down with penetrating oil to try and break up some of the rust before hand. The good news was that all of the nuts and bolts came free without much of a problem, except the ten inch long bolt that hold the lateral links to the rear knuckle. I thought that the bolt was frozen due to crap building up in the four inch hole in the knuckle where the bolt shows through but it turned out that it was the sleeve to the front link bushing that was holding the bolt on. A lot of heat and an air chisel later the bolts were out(mind you this is after fighting with them for a couple of hours).

The reinstallation was actually pretty quick and straight forward. Unfortunately, I did what seems to be a common mistake with the OBX arms and put them on backwards. They don't seem to be side specific while you are looking at them out of the car but once they are in there, if you switch them, you won't be able to bolt up the bracket that holds the ABS wire due to the welded on nut being on the bottom of the arm instead of the top where it belongs. We switched them around but it seems to have been too late seeing as my ABS light is now on, will have to see which side it is and what I need to do to fix it this week/next weekend.

So, how does it feel?
I drove it to my inlaws last night and even with the thrown together quick measurement alignment it has now, there is quite a large difference with the way the back end feels. I was taking turns that never really seemed too much fun before and noticed my wife grabbing the door panel a couple of times. There is a decent amount more noise in the cabin and it seems to have aggravated whatever was loose in my moonroof since I can hear the rattle 1000x more often then before. It has also made the squeak in my rear tailgate trim piece stand out a large amount more but that's the kind of thing that happens when you replace soft, worn out rubber with Urethane and pillow blaa mounts. Just motivates me to fix those noises even faster although I am not looking forward to taking the headliner down to check out the moonroof.

I am getting the car aligned on a machine this week and will post my setting once I see what kind of adjustment range I can get.

Installed pics(sorry for the quality, it was tough to get under the car while it was sitting on the ground):
Whiteline links:

OBX Trailing arms:

rear diff brace:

Blurry pic of the Rear subframe lock bolts:
 
#18 ·
Not much new to report, I finally got the alignment done, came out really good except I would have liked a litlle more camber in the front from the stock bolts(I only got -1*). It did do wonders for the handling of the car though.

Also changed the headlight connectors/bulbs for the second time over the weekend. I decided I was going to start turning my headlights off during the day and see if it fixes the problem of my car burning out connector rather quickly. It is possible there is a ground problem with the headlights which I will investigate hopefully this weekend while I am figuring out which side ABS sensor in the rear is toast.
 
#19 ·
that's looking nice. do you have a rear strut bar, yet?

good luck with that headliner. i've taken the whole moonroof assembly off to push up the roof on a side where it was a bit low from some dent.

so, you finally did the spacer removal for the front? i can't wait for that how-to. i've been waiting to find out what parts are needed. i was actually about to get some 1/2" rear spacers just to make the front look lower than the back. but i really like the height of the rear and wanted to close the front gap.
 
#20 ·
I got the Whiteline Quick Release rear strut bar. Cutting the trim panels took some time but it is SF specific so it fit perfect.

I have the weekend of October 10th wife and son free so I am thinking of tackling the headliner that weekend so I can take me time and have no distractions. Something is rattling and I am hoping it is whatever is making the clicking sound if I try and open it all the way, we shall see.

After reading the last post in the SF thread about the spacer removal, I am not sure I did mine 100% due to the fact that the fron spacers on the trans cradle need to be removed also and I left them on there. Everything went back together and I haven't had any problems though so I think I am good like I am. There isn't much more involved with removing those two small spacers though so I will probably just get the two bolts at some point and get it done.
 
#21 ·
I had to order the rubber piece that covers the back of the headlight from the dealer yesterday so I ended up ordering the Impreza trans cradle bolts so I could remove the last two spacers. Like I said, up until this point, I have had no problems with leaving them in there but it really isn't anything to remove them so why not just do it.
 
#25 ·
I fixed the sway bar last weekend, didn't even notice it was upside down when we put the car back together. It did bring to me the realization that the Whiteline bar and Lateral Links come in contact with eachother when the car is off the ground. I emailed Whiteline about it and they figured that the endlinks were about 20mm too short so I measured them and the are ~.5->75" shorter than what Whiteline says the stock ones are. Initial emails to Kartboy were answered asking to se the pictured Whiteline got there diagnosis from and subsequent ones have not been replied to. :( At least I only need to be careful when picking the car up off the ground, if anything, I can just unbolt the endlinks to take the stress off of the Lateral Links.

As far as spacers and bolts:
Two spacers on the engine subframe with the Impreza brackets(they have two threaded ends on each brackets). This drops the front end the inch it is supposed to, I have wagon springs and I think it leveled me out so it may not help you guys using sedan springs enough.
Two small spacers on the trans cradle with one Impreza bolt per side.

I got the front brackets for free from a local and I ordered the trans cradle bolts from the dealership, I should have them today so I will post the part number later.
 
#28 ·
OMFG! You gotta put me in touch with your source for that hood! I've been thinking about a WRX/STI engine swap in the future, but knew that the hood would be the most difficult part, short of getting a body shop to cut the stock hood and meld an STI hood scoop on there. Methinks the carbon fiber will look good with my blue S-model too! Please hook me up!!! :bananapartyhat:
 
#32 ·
So I took the time to tear the headliner out this weekend to fix the rattle that I thought was coming from up there. Turns out it was coming from my Whiteline Quick Release rear strut bar :lol:
I only wish I had realized it before we took out the headliner but oh well.
 
#34 ·
No. We lowered the headliner and took it for a spin and heard nothing coming from up there. The Whiteline Quick Release bolts only go finger tight then have a lever that flips down to tighten them the rest of the way but there was too much space for the lever to fill in so I just added a washer behind the "nut" and everything is tight back there now.
Next thing I would like to solve in the interior is the squeak coming from the rear hatch.
 
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