[LostInPhilly89]

During my Easter break I decided to go for a drive. During my trip, I happened across a surprisingly elaborate set of off-road trails. My '98 Forester handled them beautifully! Yesterday I returned to college. After dinner, several of my friends and I decided to go on an adventure. My hope was I could find a trail near school. We found a dirt road, and decided to see where it went. As we rounded a bend, we found that we had stumbled across an access road for a construction site that was closed for the day. Also around this bend was a large rock/stump that looked like a dirt pile in the trail. Thinking it was just dirt, I continued down the trail.

*Sccrrraaaape!*

As soon as I hit it, I heard the exhaust change. I don't know if it bent the pipe or punctured it, but now my 1998 Forester sounds like a WRX. I haven't had a chance to crawl under the car yet, but glancing under I did see a loose hose clamp that I had used to tighten my rattling heat shields. The lesson: when driving off-road, avoid objects that rise up out of the trail.

LIP89

 

[Subie 2003]

Low cost Boxer burble FTW!

 

[LostInPhilly89]

That's what I thought after a while. Then I thought of my brother and I mocking the guys who put loud exhausts on 1990s Honda Civics. :icon_confused:

LIP89

 

[bellatech]

You gashed it like the Titanic.

 

[fozzytimmy45678]

Sweet. Gotta love free mods. HAHA

And for what it's worth: Cars always perform better when no witnesses are around. Every single time I have screwed up while wheeling other people were around.

The times I was stupid and wheeling alone (back when I had my truck and sometimes with the Foz) I have never messed up.

And I make fun of people with exhaust on lawn mowers (Civics) too, but the boxer motor is different. I actually want to get exhaust for mine, but maybe I'll just get directions to your trail... HAHAA

 

[SubieOutlaw]

It didn't happen unless you post pictures.

 

[LostInPhilly89]

To be honest, there isn't anything to take a picture of. :icon_confused: Everything looked fine when I glanced under the car.

 

[LostInPhilly89]

Well, for those of you who wanted pictures, here you go. I circled the break in the exhaust in red. Sorry for the quality, all I had on me was my phone at the time.

 

[Nick D]

That looks like it was on its way. Either off roading or not it was gonna break.

 

[LostInPhilly89]

The sad part is, the exhaust was replaced a couple of years ago because it was rotted out. At the time it was still my parent's car, so my dad went cheap and had the mechanic use non-Subaru parts. It took 3 "adjustments" until I could downshift without the exhaust rumbling and vibrating. Even to this day, if the RPMs are high enough, the rumble is still there when I let the clutch out. Oh well, this might be a blessing in disguise then.

LIP89

 

[Engine3emt]

This happened to me too, but due to rust only. Looks like you need to replace the cat because mine snapped at the edge..

 

[LostInPhilly89]

I dropped the car off at the mechanic today. I should get a call later as to what they find.

LIP89

 

[LostInPhilly89]

Well, $412.00 and one exhaust intermediate pipe later, my Forester is purring once again. Unfortunately, like the last new exhaust, there is a rough rumbling when I downshift. I'll see if it subsides after a while, and if it's still there, I'll bring the car back to have the pipe adjusted.

LIP89

 

[WNC Forester]

$412 for a center pipe?????
seems like an exhaust shop could have done that for about 50-100 dollars

 

[LostInPhilly89]

Well, the car also needed two new exhaust gaskets and the flange on the catalytic converter had to be heated and formed back into shape.
I figure all that plus the labor is where the price came from.

LIP89

 

[LostInPhilly89]

Well, the rumbling and vibrating has yet to subside, so it's back to the shop on Friday.

LIP89

 

[SubieOutlaw]

Looks likme rust had more to do with teh break than off roading. I do not miss the salt on Toronto roads.