Legacy GT
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You are currently reading a thread in /o/ - Auto
so I'm pretty sure this is like the 100,000th thread made about this but what should I be aware of when buying one?
I find them to be a bit more grown up than WRXs in a way that makes me hard
Check radiator for goo, and avoid if it has a big bore exhaust/turbo timer/boost controller, and you'll be fine.
>>14001050
hmm is there anything else I should be worried about that would be a deal breaker?
>>14001059
Nah not really. Change the oil religiously and make sure the previous owner did the same and it'll live ages.
Get JDM if possible
>>14001050
Not strictly true...
While those cars most likely have been flogged on at some point it doesn't mean they weren't taken well care of. Basically look the car over very well. Look at the modifications and see if they were done right( I'll explain) and most of all read the owner...is it a swaggot douche who doesn't know what he's doing or a mature older guy who seems to take car of his shit. These cars get kinda overlooked by the typical subaru crowd that everyone else sees but if you're in the community there are actually a bunch of very knowledgeable people around, at least near me.
For modifications yes the more stock the better but finding a stock turbo subaru is hard. Most stock ones were most likely put back to stock so check all of them out carefully.
If the car has an exhaust ask how far, catback doesn't need a tune but anything more requires it! Subarus are very temperamental with their tunes. Non stock intake needs a tune. Downpipe or up pipe needs a tune. ...bigger intercooler or bov needs a tune, ps Subarus don't quite like bov, recircs perform better..even stock ones. My stock recirc holds my 320 horse perfectly fine.
Cobb accessport are your friend. If it came with one that's good as they're pretty expensive. But as I said Subarus need tunes for major mods and a cobb off the shelf tune isn't a cure all answer.
Anything more than a stage 2 upgrade ( full exhaust, as in turboback, and intake ) should get a professional tune. So if the seller has an sti turbo or other upgrade ask where the tune was done.
In short. Don't be afraid of modified completely. In reality stick with lightly modified cars and check to see if the mods were done correctly and tunes for. The most you should really consider when buying is turboback and intake on a cobb stage 2. After this things get very complicated.
Check the vehicle over and make sure it was taken care if.
These cars don't like mobile 1 too much and most turbo owners use rotella t6.
Also ej255s and ej257s alike are likely to have piston 4 failure at higher power because of heat issues. Although irrelevant to your situation I thought I'd mention.
>>14001029
EJ255s are a shit. Look up problems with ring lands. The T04 on my EJ255 was the only turbo I have had fail on me, and it did it with under 100k miles.
Once they went to phase II engines, subaru went to complete shit. You literally had to go out of your way to break the older cars.
>>14001283
BTW EJ255 and 257 share the same bottom end, so all problems STis have, you have.
>>14001293
Essentially the same motors although I'm pretty sure either the rod or the cranks are different part numbers, not that it really matters too much, although I was aware of that.
>>14001283
While ringlands can be a known issue it can be easily avoided by doing a few simple things.
1. If staying stock at least go cobb stage 1 tune, it is said Subarus stock tune isn't very good, Cobbs stage 1 tune requires no mods.
2. Use quality high octane fuels, especially when tuned use the fuel octane youre tuned on as the main cause for the ringland failure is detonation
3. Upshift before going wot, going wot at low rpm causes more stress, kinda like pedaling a bike in high gear at low speed, it's harder to do and puts more force on your legs, same idea but with pistons.
4. Get an oil catch can, the stock pcv on the turbo subarus results in a lot of oil going back into the intake of the car, along with blowby, which all turbo cars have, results in a good amount of oil being ingested by the car...which lowers octane rating and , you guessed it, causes detonation.
5. Treat your car right and don't beat on it till its warm, don't turn it off right after beating on it. And also change oil and do regular maintenance, as should be done with any car.
Ringland are usually an issue again when you get into higher horsepower number.
I'll keep these things in mind
thanks br/o/s
>>14001029
Surprised nobody's mentioned it yet. There's a turbo oil feed banjo bolt with a filter in it that gets clogged and kills the turbo, needs to be checked every 30k or so. There's a guide for removing and cleaning it on legacygt.com, should be the first result on google. You DO need a 17mm shorty wrench, it'll be a bitch to take out otherwise.
Also don't forget the timing belt every 105k, get the kit with all the bearings and cam seals. Check your coolant and power steering fluid religiously.
>>14001446
Remember to buy JDM if possible (ie anywhere but ameristan.
>>14001467
Good call anon, It completely slipped my mind.
You can remove the oil screen completely or upgrade the whole line for like 50$, either is much easier than cleaning it out all the time
>>14001378
Upshift? don't you mean downshift?
>>14001613
Oops, yep. Tonight's not my night, time for bed.
