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Hi All - am back after quite an absence!

2017 Views 38 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  pipsyp
Hi folks,

Am back after quite an absence.

I owned a 2001 SF S Turbo a few years back and was fairly active on here with that car, but due to circumstance changes I didnt end up owning the car too long and it got sold.

Missed it ever since and hoped one day I might end up getting another, but honestly wanting a decent SG or SH XT next time around (love the SF as a plaything but didnt want to daily another one) the relative cost of buying a good one and the associated running costs (in the main immense road tax and not great fuel economy) it rather put me off. Through a bit of a twist of fate though it's happened!

After a couple of years of running around in a very good (if a little beige) 2005 A3 2.0 FSi Sportback which Ive been thinking about moving on anyway, the opportunity arose to buy a fairly tidy SG 2.0 XT manual off my brother in law. Having just bought a fairly heavily modified SF Stb this one was surplus to requirement and I just thought why not!

Its a late 2003 registered car, 5 speed manual (my SF was a 4EAT so quite a nice change) in silver. 145k miles, is for the age and miles very good condition, good history - appears to be a period of miles missing in later years but clearly has been well cared for over the years - came with all the books including an original Forester SG sales brochure from the period which is quite cool. Since my brother in laws had it, hes done alot of maintenance on it (full service, belt and water pump, new rad) including fitting a H&S centre section and (I gather quite rare) Fujisubo rear section. Looks cool and isnt particularly loud either.

I've determined its a MY04 (so has inlet AVCS), so isnt a terrible base for a remap, it could do with some better tyres on it, the rear suspension is tired (usual beginnings of sag) and needs replacing and I reckon the clutch is probably past its best (its bloody heavy with an unusual bite).

Ive decided Im just going to run it for the time being, maybe doing some little jobs on it and in time doing something about the suspension and tyres but it'll definitely have questions to ask at some stage!
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Do you have any pictures of your old SF?
Or of the heavily modified SF Stb your brother in law now has?
Good looking cars all round.

Alternatives to Pedders: BC, Tein, Meister R.
Plenty of people on here who have coilovers from each of the above and will share the pros and cons.

I may be wrong but your SG may have three cats (up-pipe pre-turbo, downpipe and second cat pipe post-turbo). Don't count on being able to remove any of them and still sail through MOTs. You might get lucky on emissions if you remove just one, but it's unlikely.
Furthermore, even if the car passes on emissions, if a cat should be there and isn't (according to OEM spec), it's now an automatic fail in an MOT test.
There is another recent thread in the Europe forum on this very topic, as it goes.

L
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Ive found the rad cap has been letting off a bit of coolant against the bonnet. Turns out its fitted with the 108kpa/1.1 bar two-way winged cap that is meant for the header tank, whereas those cars with rad caps are typically fitted with a 1.3bar round item that is one way only. Some STi cars came from the factory this way so makes sense cars with a retrofitted capped radiator should be set up the same. ive bought the genuine part from ICP and intend to fit the round cap to the rad and use the newer winged on on it now to replace the older (likely original) one on the header tank.
Sounds right to me.

When I installed a Mishimoto alloy radiator on mine, it came with a clear instruction: the Mishimoto radiator cap must not be used on the radiator.
Seems odd at first, but they went on to explain that theirs is not the same spec as the OEM; to get round it, you have to use the header tank cap on the radiator, and the Mishi cap on the header tank.
It's been perfect since, so I presume there is science to it.

L
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