Car: 2012 Subaru Forester Engine: 2.5X (FB25 NA) Transmission: 4EAT Trim Level: Premium Color: Dark Grey Metallic
2012 Forester Purchased (Mileage: 12,529): 06/10/13 2011 WRX Struts and Springs: 06/13/13 2011 WRX Wheels and OEM Forester Tires: 06/15/13 Paranoid Fab 3/8" Rear Strut Spacers: 06/17/13 OEM Mesh Sport Grill: 06/18/13 2008 STI Rear Sway Bar (18mm): 06/18/13 Yakima Bike Mounts and OEM Crossbars: 06/26/13
Got this car as a new daily driver. Something that will be more reliable, comfortable, and have a little more space. Basically, more family friendly. Got the non-turbo with auto tranny so there would be no temptation to do power mods, haha. Decided to pick up a 2011+ to see how the new FB motor does. Ended up with a 2012 with 12k miles on it. It is the Premium trim with cold weather package. Car: 2012 Subaru Forester Engine: 2.5X (FB25 NA) Transmission: 4EAT Trim Level: Premium Color: Dark Grey Metallic Mileage: 12,529 Purchased : 06/10/13
6/13/13: Shortly after buying the car I found that there were a lot more 3G WRX compatible parts than I originally thought. The first one that came to mind was the suspension. Shocks, springs, sway bars all bolt up. I had these stock parts laying around from the 2011 WRX so I first installed the springs and struts. The install was very straightforward. I put it up on stands and didn't even remove the wheels in the rear. I unbolted the top and bottom mounts of the strut (on both sides) and then had a friend push down on the wheel to droop the suspension and get the strut out. It took a lot of force (weight) to get it to droop enough, but was easier than taking other parts off. The 2011 WRX rears are at least a couple inches shorter so they go back in quite easily. No hard pushing required. Had to jack under the tire to get the lower control arm into the correct position and then bolted it all down. For the front I did remove the wheels. Everything bolts up easily. Again it is probably at least a couple inch drop (but I didn't measure beforehand to be sure). All in all it went very smooth. It ended up being about a 2 finger wheel arch gap in the front. After it all settled the rear ended up a little lower. Closer to 1 finger. I have not gotten an alignment yet, but I will update with specs once I have that done. Here are some photos: Before: After:
06/15/13: I knew I was going to want to try the 2011 WRX wheels on the car. The only issue was that they had WRX-size snow tires on them. The Forester has taller OEM tires. I decided to have the OEM Forester tires put on the 2011 WRX wheels. A friend of mine (YOLO) took care of the swap for me. I think they look great.
06/17/13: Right after I confirmed that the rear was sitting a bit lower than the front I started looking into strut spacers. From the research I did, I found that 3/8" was about the largest you could go without having to press in new studs. 3 threads of bolt/nut engagement was considered minimum. Sometimes the 3/8" was even too long, it varied from car to car. I figured I would give the 3/8" size a shot and ordered a pair from Paranoid Fab. They shipped same day and arrived in just 2 days. Very quick service and the parts looked good (plastic/delrin sheets cut to fit the top of the strut). To install I just undid the top strut mounting nuts and the droop was enough for me to slide the spacers in (with a little pushing down on the wheel). They went in easy and had just a bit of the stud sticking through. After loading the weight of the car onto the suspension I was able to get about 3 1/4 turns on the stud. Should be just enough as there isn't a lot of tension on that fastener anyways. I re-tightened after a day of driving and got about 1/4 turn more on them. The spacers lifted the rear nicely to match the front. There is now ~2 finger width gap between the tire and fender. The fender to hub distance is 15" on all corners. The door liner seal in the rear makes it look a little lower, but the distance to the actual rear fender is the same as the front.
06/18/13: On the 17th I had planned on installing the 2011 WRX rear sway bar when I was doing the strut spacers. Before I pulled the OEM Forester bar off I decided to measure it, and I found that it was 16mm, just like the WRX bar! So I didn't even bother removing it, because it is the same. I was able to get a stock STI rear sway bar from a friend (Brian) so I measured that one, and it is 18mm. I put it on without even lifting the car up at all. It was a bit tight working under the lowered car, but not too bad. It took some fiddling to get the bar out from between the exhaust but not too bad. I took the end links out with the bar because the pass thru wrench is easier to use outside the car. Luckily the bolts broke loose and I swapped the end links onto the STI bar and put it all back in (was even trickier to thread the bar back in, but it can be done). I had also ordered the OEM mesh Sport grill and it arrived, so I put that on. I took the bumper off (many clips top and bottom) and unscrewed the OEM chrome grill and put the new one on. Very straightforward and only takes a few minutes. Here is a quick shot of the grill indoors. I'll try to get some better shots soon.
I once fitted a 60 gallon water heater in my 99 Forester, I have no doubt you'll be able to do the same. At one of our BMW winter schools I had a student with an Automatic 2010 Forester and boy was it fun to scoot around DCTC. Now we can start working on Left Foot Braking sir! And yes you can take MN clover leaf's at +60mph even without suspension
I did the STi sway bar and sport grill on our Forester too. Personally, I'd love to swap the chrome door handles for the black ones. I have to say, grey looks great!!
Lol, you couldn't even leave that car alone. Looks good though. I has 2013 Impreza...we gon race. (I have paddle shifters, so we already know what the outcome will be)
Dude... you just make all of these cars look so cool. I am a huge fan of this car (and of course of your WRX), and what you've done to it. Cheers to ya! Keep the photos coming!
Thanks everyone. Just trying to do some of the small/easy things to help out the look of the car. Here are some better shots of the car with the sport grill:
I'd like to see some fog lights to replace the (in my opinion) cheap-looking pseudo-vents in the lower fascia. I love the backgrounds you choose for the photos.
Thanks! Probably not. Not likely. Yes, definitely! He already told me that. Me. I agree they look cheap. Not sure if I really want to shell out money for fog lights though. Thanks on the backgrounds. I'm usually not too creative. Just lots of trees.
I like the color of and what you did already to that forester. 4spd or 5? So now you're back running on pump gas? No more e85?
Glad you and the fam are ok... Maybe they'll let you enter a POTM thread with the new whip... I'd vote for it already!!!
Mine are the FrontLoaders. I think they must be the newer version of the King Cobra. I definitely like the fact you don't have to take the tire off.
I might just get a $10k Cervelo. Haha, jk. I'm searching for a new one on Craigslist right now. It will probably be very cheap.
Here are a few shots I took on the drive out to South Dakota to show the rack with the bikes on it. The racks were put on without moving the crossbars from where the sales guy put them at. They ended up being just about perfect. Here is how they ended up with the hatch fully open: Unfortunately the sales guy didn't tighten the crossbars down very well, and I didn't check. Over the course of the trip they moved back a couple inches and then the rack hit the glass on the rear hatch when I opened it! Luckily no damage was done and I moved them and tightened them down properly. With the bikes on top and a full load I wasn't even getting 20MPG. It was around 18-19mpgwhen we were in the hills. That is actually marginally worse than what I got when I took my nearly 600WHP WRX (on E85) to Chicago (19-20mpg)! A lot of little differences though (4EAT vs long gear 6MT, 65mph vs. 85mph, bikes vs. no bikes, etc). Without the bikes, and a slower cruising speed, I think I would get around 25mpg. Not horrible, but not great either.
Really, that's not any better than I am getting on my FXT. I am right around the 24 mark with my DD stuff and around 26-27 when I can actually get out and cruise for a bit (70-75). With my old summers I was almost 2mpg better and I am about 3mpg better on my winters (about 2 inches narrower than my summers). Russ
Couldn't you add a fuse to turn it into FWD, possibly gaining something? Or did they boot that option?
Those DD numbers sound just about like mine. I guess I should have just gotten the turbo. But then it would already be modded beyond recognition. Lol. Badlands: We happened across a Camaro meet/cruise (there were a few others too):
