FS: 2004 Subaru Forester XTI w/ STI 6-speed (historically known as Rocket Wagon)

2004 Subaru Forester XT
Mileage: 131,347 (as of 4/21/16)

Powertrain:

2.5L built engine by RS Motors at 68500 miles
2004 STI 6-speed swap + R180 rear diff + Brembo brakes (retains 5x100 bolt pattern)​

Selling Price: $17,500 OBO

Precursor:

I bought the car 3 years ago from another member on this forum. Life and priorities changed, it went up for sale, and I was in the market and stumbled across the car.

Reference:
https://mnsubaru.com/threads/rocket-wagon-290awhp-awhp-forester-clean.37072/

The Forester XT was in great condition, about as close to "like new" as you can get, even with a new car smell. I became the third owner of this car, and it's been a solid ride since.

Selling point:

What's my reason for selling? Simply put I want to get something newer. I also know selling a car isn't a fast process. I entirely expect interest but no sale for 3 months, 6 months, or a year down the road. Such is life for a car where the buyer can't really get a loan against. I still daily drive this car and is my main vehicle. It's tough as nails and dead reliable. Besides additional modding I've done during my ownership to make it my own, all I've really done is change oil. I had one cam sensor go on me once and replace the oem radiator due to a crack (never low, no overheating, cracked up top).

I bought the car for $17,500 and am selling it for $17,500. It's 3 years of ownership plus upgrades. I figure it's around a wash overall.

Modding additions:

I bought into a heavily modded car, and the value of this is relatively low cost of ownership of high dollar parts. Still, there was more I wanted to do to make it what I wanted. In addition to all the previous work done on the car (refer to the link above), I have done the following:

• SteamSpeed GTX67 turbo - improved dynamics/response over the old 18G
• JDM STI version 6 Spec C seats - stock seats sucked, and these hold awesome. This is also pretty much the only all black STI seats you can buy and arguably one of the sexiest Subaru seats around. I've done 15+ hour weekend road trips in these without much fuss.
• Leda Option C coilovers - $3500 tarmac spec coilovers I got at a price I couldn't pass up. They're remote reservoir allowing for a 2" shorter package while retaining 6" of suspension travel (lowered + high stroke is a hard mix, requires remote reservoir to achieve).
• E85 Tune - moved to E85 3 years ago and haven't been back since. The car runs it all year. It runs at 24psi. I also have the orignal 93 octane tune and a modified 91 octane tune, but neither have been set up for the new turbo (mainly wastegate duty cycle settings are a little high).
• Spec Stage 2+ clutch - because E85 and stock STI clutch slips. It's only slightly firmer than the stock STI clutch and is remarkably easy to work with.
• Act Pro-lite flywheel - requires a little more care on starts, but the biggest difference is heel-toe, just instant rev up with a tap rather than having to mash the gas and wait a full second for rpms to rise. It makes the engine feel lighter on its feet.
• Upgraded fuel system wiring - dedicated power line to fuel system to ensure zero voltage drop, again because E85
• Carbotech XP8 brake pads - love these things, strong initial bite, great modulation, highly insensitive to heat (low mu variation relative to temp), never fades, and despite being an entry level track pad, work great for street and even in the dead of winter.
• MoBoost rear strut tower brace - Great product by a Subaru guy, quick release, 4 point triangulated design, works slick.
• WCLathewerks shift knob - piston style, leather wrap with matching red stitching to the interior STI bits, purdy
• Kartboy short throw shifter - wasn't a fan paired with the 5-speed, but I'm a fan on the STI 6-speed.
• Innovate wideband sensor and gauge - nice to have
• Fuel pressure sensor and gauge - piece of mind to validate the Walbro 255 with E85. (have a Walbro 460 just in case it wasn't)

Wear and tear and weird stuff:

This is a heavily modded, older car. Project cars are in a perpetual state of change, upgrading, improving, modding, etc. I wanted to point out the key wear and oddities of the car. I believe strongly in full disclosure and fully understanding the state of the car. As a hobbyist, I should and do take pride in what I own and of my understanding of what I have. As an enthusiast, I should be able to tell you every dirty little detail of every part on the car. So, here goes.

• Dash lights galore, each with a purpose
  • ABS and brake light: ABS fuse pulled (not a fan of Subaru's ABS). Plug the fuse in and both go away
  • Air bag light: Aftermarket STI seats have no airbags and nothing to plug the connectors into. I believe there is a resistor trick or something you can do, but I've never bothered.
  • Check engine light and flashing cruise: The light weight flywheel is a primary cause. I just haven't bothered disabling the function in the ECU to make it go away. There may be a secondary cause I'll state below.
• High boost misfire/engine cut (not overboost) - it only happens under full throttle and at a very specific rpm range. It's linked to fuel richening and and may only be spark blow out, but I also replaced all coils and plugs and might have gotten a weak coil pack buying generic Rock Auto parts. I did not change plug gap from the packaged default which might also help alleviate the problem. The car runs fine otherwise: starts, idles, works flawlessly at lighter boost (up to 20psi) or full boost anywhere but the particular rpm range (around 5200rpm, yeah it's weird). It was something that started last fall, and I was less than compelled to dig into it during the cold months. The proper method is to start swapping plugs, coil packs, and injectors to hunt down the cause, but I just haven't done that(not a fan of mechanic work in the cold). I don't trust the wideband alone to dial in open loop fueling with it, so I really want to get the car on a dyno to nail down open loop AFRs. All my closed loop AFRs are dead on within around +/-0.5%.
• Leda coilovers are past due for a rebuild with a couple starting to leak after this past winter. This will be year three on them, and they're technically a high maintenance product. I also have a full set of D-Specs sitting on the sideline when I eventually perform this maintenance. Racers Edge is the one place that rebuilds Leda products in the US, but many shops rebuild and revalve just about anything. The value I got from the previous owner was $150 a corner when he refreshed them.
• All the gauges are located in the glove box on an incomplete mount. I have a 10 pin quick disconnect harness I am planning to install to wrap up the wiring and clean up the install. I just haven't gotten around to it, so it's kind of a half done mess. It's kind of a neat, simple install, but not finished and pretty yet. Cars are perpetual works in progress.
• Haphazard rolled fenders. I did a quick and dirty fender rolling job, function over form. I have zero rubbing running 245 tires, but the work could be done better, especially on the rear. Rates are cheap for those that do it well, so if you care, look into cleaning up my sloppy work.
• The car came tinted (a good job, quality 3M stuff), but the drivers side window started getting some bubbling in the top rear corner. I don't know why, age, chemical reaction from some cleaner, no clue. It's the only spot, maybe could be fixed somehow.
• The exhaust likes to slide off the rear rubber hangers. It's a great Maddad Whisper exhaust, Forester XT spec, but it just slides off the hangers on the back every so often. It's a minor annoyance.
• Clunking sway bars - this is just an old bolt problem. It just needs new hardware with new nyloc nuts that will actually stay fully tight, or maybe a dab of Loctite.

Pictures:

These are just a couple I have on hand at the moment. I will take more this weekend, interior shots for example because I apparently have zero. Plus there's several little goodies to show off.

Summer trim with some snazzy stickers (taken late summer/early fall last year)


Rallycross event (I play with my toys)

 

The car has two sets of tires:

• BBS silver STI wheels running Michelin X-Ice Xi2 tires (yeah, the BBS wheels are my winter beaters/rallycross set)
• Enkei Kojin wheels running Bridgestone RE11A summers

Both have a good amount of tread, and the Enkei wheels still look new. The BBS wheels get the messy work, and they could use a hard cleaning.​

Extra parts:

• Tokico D-Specs - Free with car - 3 used, 1 new, with GC's coilover kit (needs a good cleaning to free up and readjust)
• Numerous spring sets - Free with car - came with the coilovers when I bought them, lots of different rates, used a few configurations over the years.
• Old engine parts - Free with car - all the stuff that came from the rebuild, given to me when I bought the car, you can have it when you buy the car, tons of engine parts that were replaced.
• 1300cc top feed injector kit + fuel line kit for conversion - $1300 - All brand new stuff, intended for the car, just haven't installed it. If you want the upgrade, buy it, if not, I'll sell separately.

I'm probably missing some stuff. If I think if anything find anything, I'll tack it onto the list.​

 

Location: Albert Lea, MN

 

I've seen this car in action and it is great. A Forester shouldn't move that quickly! The OP is also a very knowledgeable guy.

But, $17.5k? Same price you paid 3 years ago, and now the car has "dash lights galore", coilovers that need to be rebuilt, a misfire issue, etc. I'm not in the market, nor do I like crapping on people's FS threads, but the price seems far out of range. At least you wrote a good for sale ad and are self-aware that it may take a year to sell

 

That's an entirely valid and expected response. I totally agree with the points you bring up. Cars as a hobby is an ongoing process. I am simply stating the current state of the vehicle. When the car sells, say 6 months from now, things will be different. All the small stuff will be buttoned up, and there may even be some new mods. After all it is still my daily, and the hobby's perpetual.

The dash lights are what they are. The brake lights go off when you toss the fuse back in (I just don't like Subarus ABS at all). The airbag light is because the seats don't have airbags. A 3.3ohm resistor plugged in the connector will make it go away. The check engine light is from the flywheel and only happened immediately after the change.

The misfire/blow out is a separate thing that I just need to troubleshoot. I just need to do a little tweaking and checking to sort that out. I want to validate the plugs, coils, and injectors first. After validating all the parts, I do intent to go to RS Motors and get it on the dyno and get the open loop dialed in. I believe AFR is part of the issue, and I need that correct too. I just don't trust myself and my wideband quite enough to go it alone. I'm working around the limits of the MAF scale running this turbo with the current intake. MAFs aren't exactly linear up top, so I've been looking at upgrading to a KsTech 73mm which will have me rescaling the MAF. When/if I get to the point of changing the intake, injectors, and maybe even bump up to a 4bar MAP (cause I'm at the limit of that too), then I really will need a full rundown on a dyno with a tuner to dial in the parts. I'm fine with scaling and getting it close, but I'd still rather limp it to a tuner and get it set professionally. Plus I'd like to see the actual numbers on E85. I have the 93 octane dyno results at RS too, so I have a good comparison. This is happening independent of the sale. I just like working on cars in nice weather, and it's just now getting there.

Part of why I have the car for sale now is because I'm at a point where I want to do a pile of upgrades. I still intend to sell it, but I'll either put it up for sale now or wait and put it up later with a bunch more stuff tossed into it. I may still end up doing several or all of them in the coming months.

Regardless, your concerns and comments are valid. I am presenting the current state of the car. You and everyone else looking gets to evaluate that.

Also yes, Foresters scoot along pretty well. I've been pretty happy with the results in autocross and rallycross, although the more I drive, the more I realize I want to pull weight off. That's kind of another part of the sale. The eventual path of this car is likely fully gutted and caged plus, some hacked off sheet metal, custom suspension geometry, and that's stepping beyond a readily sellable product. The progress is continuous, and I need to find a stopping point. It's still good enough for other people, but there will be a point where it stops being that. This car's a little too nice for me to want to go there with.

 

Thanks for the detailed response. In my opinion, sell it before you dump any more money into it, because you won't get any extra money for additional mods.

 

Well that's kind of the rub.

I also want to be clear on the misfire thing. When I say misfire, I don't mean the engine is stumbling. Rather it's the misfire counter I see when datalogging. It's not something I feel from the engine, but the ECU's seeing something. The counter is specific to a single cylinder, only that cylinder, and the 3 others are rare if not at all for counts. I had suspicion that this is in part what's causing the high boost/specific rpm thing, but they may not be related. The high boost thing is linked specifically with a rich ARF and will only occur once the AFR hits a certain richness. My guess on this is that I'm just using the MAF in a range that isn't so linear, and it's harder to approximate from a best fit curve. I have it extended farther when I switched to the new turbo. Even when AFR is perfect up to 4k and I know the text book expectation for the MAF at 5V, it's likely a little off. I'm running to about 5v with the new turbo. I don't trust my wideband alone to dial that in, so it's close but not idea. It's safe on the rich side of things. The best solution is to up the intake size which I'd like to do and get the MAF scale back down into its good, linear range. Along with that, I really should get it on a dyno and get it dialed in perfect.

It's kind of tough to explain in words. The misfire is a ghost I need to hunt down. Right now it's only a counter on the ECU and nothing else. It's been the same without any variation for a long time. The high boost cut/blowout/misfire/whatever you want to call it, from datalogging, is directly related to AFR numbers dipping overly rich. I can watch my windband gage and tell you the instant it'll happen every time. It's a quite specific threshold. I just don't trust myself with my wideband to fine tune the top end. It's nice that E85 is ridiculously forgiving, but I'd rather have a pro do it. I'm fine playing with closed loop because I have two sensors to compare, and that's dialed in great. I'll see a tuner for the open loop side. As part of this, I may find that I need to up the intake size to make it work well, and that's fine. I'd really like KsTech intake. I'm not a fan of the in-fender style. It's the best for actual cold intake, but it's in a more vulnerable place. The only issue is it's more money being thrown at the car.

As for the coilovers, yeah, passing the buck here. Really I can just toss the D-Specs on and call it good, sell the car that way, and then rebuild and sell the coilovers separately. It doesn't matter to me, just a little more hassle. I am initially taking the approach that you get the D-Spec along with the car because I know you'll need to at some point deal with the coilovers. It's not bad enough to cause driving problems. There's just noticeable leak, so they should get refreshed.

I know, lots of words, walls of it. Sorry.

Again, cars sell slow, so I know I've got time to do stuff. It's all stuff I'd be doing anyways now that we're finally getting some great weather. The thread is up now to see/build interest, and maybe someone will bite soon...or not. I'm fine either way. I still get to enjoy the car, and I'll work on some fixes.

Also, if anybody really wants this changed over the gasoline when they buy, I can accommodate, but I would set the boost low to start with. E85 is the lean state, so a mixed tank will be more dangerous than pure gasoline. It would take a little bit to cycle all the ethanol out and get back to normal gas completely. Changing over to E85 is safer. You'll always err on the rich side. Going back to gasoline errs on the lean side. That's something to think about when inquiring and something I would need to accommodate on the tune. I wouldn't tweak AFRs (the ECU will correct some anyways), but I would set boost low until you were able to get it to a tuner to dial in. Part of this is the turbo on the car is not the one the gasoline tune is set for. They're close but not a direct match. It's a little aggressive on wastegate for this turbo, so you may overboost a little just tossing the tune on. So, if you really need it on gasoline, I will start you off set low on boost targets and just zero out the wastegate duty cycle.

 

I don't know what that is. Looking it up, it appears to be just a social media entity.

I'm in no particular hurry. As you read, there's a check list of things I need to work through. MNSubaru is the best local forum, and it's easiest to sell local. Eventually I'll add it to SubaruForester.org and Nasioc for broader view, and I will eventually get it up on Craigstlist too, although I'm not looking forward to the spam from that venture.

My plans for the car are as follows:

• General clean up and maintenance of that clean up. It's a daily so now versus 3 months from now is a bit of time, but it might be nice to get it detailed somewhere shortly before sale. The previous owner did so, and I appreciated that. Now that the weather's good, I do plan to wax it for the first time of the year.
• I plan to schedule a tune at RS Motorsports (most likely) and get the tune dialed in on E85. Before hand, I will be datalogging and swapping plugs/coils/injectors around to verify if one is faulty or I'm just seeing a phantom counter on the ECU log from the lightweight flywheel. The counter will either follow one of the components or not. That should tell me my answer. When the car gets tuned, I can have the misfire code disabled so the engine light does not come up. I just don't like disabling a safety feature if I don't have to. However, it is kind of a standard thing to do with the light flywheel, so...
• As for dash lights. I have no problem tossing the ABS fuse in, and I can look for the resistor mod thing for the airbag connectors for the seats. With the tune above disabling the misfire feature for the light flywheel, this will result in zero dash lights and will make most people happy.
• I'll button up the wiring in the glovebox for the gauges. The next owner can take them out if they want. I don't like that stuff in my face. It also keeps prying eyes from thinking it's something overly fancy. I've had a lot of people ask about the car after seeing the boost gauge up on the dash. Once I hid that away, nada. I'll draw up a wiring diagram for all the modifications/additions. This will include the gauges and the fuel pump mod. That way you can troubleshoot and modify easily if you want to make changes. You'll also have a good understanding of how things are wired.
• I'll get the clunk from the swaybar fixed (ala new bolts/nuts), so that's out of the way.
• I will install the D-Specs with approximately STI rate range springs (225/175) that's currently on the coilovers. I need to check to see what swaybars I still have so I can step down the rates. I have a couple boxes with old sway bars but I don't recall which I still have. The D-Specs when paired with soft springs are too low of damping for the swaybars currently installed. It'll handle too twitchy, and snap oversteer can become a problem. The rear sway bar is adjustable, so I will likely start setting that on the softest setting and test the car out. That will be a 22mm effective, and that's on the edge of what I'd run at those spring rates. The coilovers have enough damping to handle big sway bars easily. The D-Specs are more mild, and they need to be run with smaller bars or I don't consider the car safe unless you know what you're doing. With the D-Specs installed, then there's no complaints about ride comfort or rebuilds. I can rebuild the coilovers separately and sell them separately. That way nobody has to fuss of that. I will drop the price to $16,500 with the D-Specs installed.
• When the suspension gets changed, the summer wheels/tires will go on. I'll see what I can do for cleaning the winters.
• Pictures, more pictures.

That's my to-do list that I'll tick off over the next month or so.


I did remember other stuff I have for the car. I have Whiteline steering rack bushings and the full Kartboy shifter bushing kit for the car. These will go along with the car too, no additional charge. I just haven't gotten up under the car to put them on. Both can result in a little more vibration which some may or may not like (as with any bushing upgrade). I have a set of rear camber top hat plates too. This isn't so necessary with the D-Specs, but they have more need for the Leda coilovers as they have a little larger diameter. You can't really get camber at the wheels and are sitting at zero with the summer tires/wheels, so the plates were going to go on this year. With the D-Specs they're less necessary unless you're looking for more than -1 degree on the rear.