I absolutely love ripping into everything to see how it is put together and to see how I can iprove it. Overall, the performance of the Sport is much better than my 09 Forester.
However, I prefer the dual exhaust so the first thing I did was take the car into the muffle shop. After inspecting the pipes, there is no room on the rear left of the car to install a split tailpipe system and run some Magnaflow mufflers. Therefore, I had the shop install a nice rolled edge chrome muffler tip and moved on. I also moved my 3 week old Duracell AGM battery into this car from the 09 Forester.
I also bought a few items at the dealership and the first week of the car purchase:
1. STI Shock Tower Support Brace - I had Front/Rear support braces in my 09. If you want better handling with little effort. Grab one of these babies for $200 from the dealer. At speed, when you rock the wheel the Forester will feel a little boating and rocks from side to side. Adding this bar prevents the rocking to some degree. The car will shimmy side to side instead of rock. That keep the wheels engaged longer on the pavement and improved traction. Huge performance gain for little money. And it looks cool. The engine cover slides off without have to remove the brace.
2. Auto-dimming Side mirrors with the foot path illumination. These were a little tricky to install, but once the first one was done, the other mirror was done in 5 minutes.
3. Aluminum skid plate. This was a fun install. The plastic skid plate was removed and you have to reuse the oil drain plug cover. I also ended up popping off more fasteners than required. But, easy to put back in place.
4. Thule Aero cross bars. - I mounted these up and then attempted to see if my Yakima Ski rack for Yakima aero bars would fit. It's not perfect, but it fits tight and should have no issue hauling my skis. No pics of the bars or ski rack.
5. Sunroof Deflector - Straight forward install. I could not figure out why there were small holes in the fornt section of the deflector. I figured these were for running wires or something. Kinda stupid, but whatever. Then I washed the car. Duh, the holes let rain and water rush trough to prevent trapping in the deflector area. Photo shows deflector and vortex generator.
6. Wilson 4g Cell phone booster antenna - You may notice another antenna mast in these photos of the Vortex generator. This is for a Wilson Mobile 4g antenna extender. Works great. I moved this over from my 09 Forester. I wanted to run the wire into the stock shark antenna, but there was no easy way to do this. I had everything apart, but it would require a lot of dremmelling to make this work. So, I ran the wire into the rear gate wire grommet and tucked the wire into the headliner. The booster box is under the driver seat. The inside antenna is right next to the sunglasses compartment. Same photo as the vortex generator.
7. The WRX/STI vortex generator - So, this thing just looks cool. It is designed for the WRX/STI cars, but I thought I would chance it and see if I could cut it down to fit the Forester. My concern was the raised section on the roof near the rack mounts. Luckily, the vortex generator fit mostly forward and I only had a slight bend to deal with. I was going to pull out my heat gun to mold the plastic, but this was not necessary. The only mod I made to this was trimming off the ends so it fit within the rails. I think it looks great and I did not have to cut off any fins. This photo is the same as the sunroof deflector.
8. Rear Cargo Net - I much prefer the design of the cargo nets in the 09 Forester. I am still getting used to this one, but not loving it yet.
Cheers,
Scott
However, I prefer the dual exhaust so the first thing I did was take the car into the muffle shop. After inspecting the pipes, there is no room on the rear left of the car to install a split tailpipe system and run some Magnaflow mufflers. Therefore, I had the shop install a nice rolled edge chrome muffler tip and moved on. I also moved my 3 week old Duracell AGM battery into this car from the 09 Forester.
I also bought a few items at the dealership and the first week of the car purchase:
1. STI Shock Tower Support Brace - I had Front/Rear support braces in my 09. If you want better handling with little effort. Grab one of these babies for $200 from the dealer. At speed, when you rock the wheel the Forester will feel a little boating and rocks from side to side. Adding this bar prevents the rocking to some degree. The car will shimmy side to side instead of rock. That keep the wheels engaged longer on the pavement and improved traction. Huge performance gain for little money. And it looks cool. The engine cover slides off without have to remove the brace.
2. Auto-dimming Side mirrors with the foot path illumination. These were a little tricky to install, but once the first one was done, the other mirror was done in 5 minutes.
3. Aluminum skid plate. This was a fun install. The plastic skid plate was removed and you have to reuse the oil drain plug cover. I also ended up popping off more fasteners than required. But, easy to put back in place.
4. Thule Aero cross bars. - I mounted these up and then attempted to see if my Yakima Ski rack for Yakima aero bars would fit. It's not perfect, but it fits tight and should have no issue hauling my skis. No pics of the bars or ski rack.
5. Sunroof Deflector - Straight forward install. I could not figure out why there were small holes in the fornt section of the deflector. I figured these were for running wires or something. Kinda stupid, but whatever. Then I washed the car. Duh, the holes let rain and water rush trough to prevent trapping in the deflector area. Photo shows deflector and vortex generator.
6. Wilson 4g Cell phone booster antenna - You may notice another antenna mast in these photos of the Vortex generator. This is for a Wilson Mobile 4g antenna extender. Works great. I moved this over from my 09 Forester. I wanted to run the wire into the stock shark antenna, but there was no easy way to do this. I had everything apart, but it would require a lot of dremmelling to make this work. So, I ran the wire into the rear gate wire grommet and tucked the wire into the headliner. The booster box is under the driver seat. The inside antenna is right next to the sunglasses compartment. Same photo as the vortex generator.
7. The WRX/STI vortex generator - So, this thing just looks cool. It is designed for the WRX/STI cars, but I thought I would chance it and see if I could cut it down to fit the Forester. My concern was the raised section on the roof near the rack mounts. Luckily, the vortex generator fit mostly forward and I only had a slight bend to deal with. I was going to pull out my heat gun to mold the plastic, but this was not necessary. The only mod I made to this was trimming off the ends so it fit within the rails. I think it looks great and I did not have to cut off any fins. This photo is the same as the sunroof deflector.
8. Rear Cargo Net - I much prefer the design of the cargo nets in the 09 Forester. I am still getting used to this one, but not loving it yet.
Cheers,
Scott