jamal

I'm also happy with the Axxis Ultimates. Great performance, but yeah, tons and tons of dust. That's something that comes with performance though. If you're getting uneven deposits on the rotors it means the pads are getting too hot. The 00 outback is a pretty heavy car and they didn't upgrade to the bigger front brakes until 02 or 03. So skip anything from a parts store like raybestos and go with a more performance oriented pad. Some options are: Axxis Ultimate EBC Red or Yellowstuff Ferodo DS2500 Hawk HPS or HP+ As for rotors, the cheapest thing that is straight is really all you need. DBA makes nice stuff, but it's not really worth the $40-80 extra over a blank. Centric and brembo make good rotors so I would just go with one of those those. I've used importrp.com a few times and they have good prices.

certainly not worth the potential damage to your fuel system and I doubt you could save money anyhow. Also those octane boosters in autozone don't do anything.

It's a pretty involved conversion. Changing the backing plates means pressing out the hub and wheel bearing to get to it, and then the backing plate also needs to be pressed on/off. Best way to go is to find a donor rear disc car that's moderately new and swap the whole spindle assembly over. Unless you're like going to a race track or something, it's probably not worth it.

do you already have discs? If so they'd be the same. For drums you need the backing plate (which is pressed onto the spindle) parking brake and cables, and brake lines.

what benefit do the valves give? Backseat mod much?

One other thing is that the ride won't be as harsh with higher quality dampers. You could run stiffer springs with Bilsteins much more comfortably than with KYBs.

NOTHING for any other impreza/forester/older legacy will fit an 00+ because the rear suspension was completely changed. Some of that stuff has been mentioned in here but it won't work on your car. The only things you can use must be 00-04 Legacy specific. Bilstein makes some of the best dampers in the world. If you're willing to spend the money I highly recommend it.

http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/trannychart/trannychart.html

sounds like a clutch related problem to me.

Wasn't there a slight facelift in there somewhere?

yeah I found it in 1600x1200 Here you go: http://www.jamalb.net/pictures/swrt_bliss.png

I found this one somewhere a long time ago. Not sure where the full size version is though.

They'll probably sit a bit higher in the front. If they're height adjustable the driver's I think will be about an inch or so higher at the lowest position. I have 02-03 WRX seats and they're almost too high for me at 6'2.

my car came with 14s and had a 16" donut. Then I threw it in a dumpster and have a real spare. I suggest everyone do the same.

Here's the original thread: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=527529

Indeed. What makes it worse is that many people have never seen snow, they don't have plow/salt/sand equipment, and many cars do not have tires that work in snow. I-5 north of LA was closed for like 2 days because of some snow a few weeks ago. For the record I'm from Missoula.

My eyeballs are about to roll out of my head.

Sorry this was just a little too vague:

That is so, so incredibly wrong. Most WRX up-pipes are catted and swapping them out makes a huge difference in terms of both power and reliability. The catted up-pipes have a tendency to fall apart and destroy turbos. example: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1019991

yeah, it should work. To confirm it's broken I'd try another radio and try one in another car. Maybe go to a local nasioc meet and ask around?

The real benefit of the 4000s is that they are bigger and have better vanes. 295x25.4mm vs. 294x24mm OEM, and they have some sort of a crazy vane design called "Kangaroo Paw." So that gives more heat capacity and better cooling.

To start, you can put almost any set of Subaru brakes on any other Subaru. If you want WRX brakes on your L or something you pretty much just have to buy some and bolt them on. There are some exceptions, however, mostly relating to the rear, which are explained later on. Additionally, the 05+ sti has a different bolt pattern (5x114.3 vs 5x100) so those rotors are not compatible with other models. If your car has rear drum brakes, a disc swap is fairly more involved. I'm not entirely sure on the process but there are more details farther down. I would also be wary about trying to exchange stuff with the 08 Imprezas. The rear backing plate could be completely different. So, if you're wondering what brakes you have and what other brakes are out there, I've made this big list of most of the different brakes found on modern Subarus. The information came from a lot of places like brake catalogs (click the rotor size for spec sheets provided by DBASteve), FSMs, cars101, and various threads/FAQs on nabisco and scoobymods. This is mostly just about US model cars. Generally brakes were the same around the world but there are a few little special exceptions that are linked to later on. Disclaimer: While I have tried to make this post as accurate as possible, there are some mid year revisions. I also can't be positive all the year ranges listed are correct, especially for pad shapes. In some cases, it is necessary to call a dealership with your VIN number or physically compare parts. Front Brakes 242x16mm Smallest Subaru front brakes, found on FWD non-abs Imprezas (93-96). The caliper and bracket are similar to those for early 260mm brakes with a shorter bracket and they use the same pads. These things fit under 13" wheels. Applications: 93-96 Impreza 2WD. 260x24mm This is the most common front rotor size before 2000. It was found on many Imprezas and Legacies and uses a single piston caliper and bracket. Somewhere between 1996 and 2000 the caliper design changed depending on model so while the rotors are all the same, calipers don't interchange between brackets. These fit under 14" wheels. Applications: 90-99 Legacy non-turbo/-GT/-Outback 93-01 Impreza AWD (non RS) 276x24mm This uses a two piston sliding front caliper and there are three (or more) caliper/bracket designs. One for the 91-94 Legacy SS/TW, an early Legacy 2.5GT/Impreza RS bracket (~96-02), and a Later RS/GT bracket (02+). Post ~98ish calipers are interchangeable between brackets, and will also exchange onto the taller wrx brackets (as long as they are both of the same style). I have also heard that you can even put the later 1-pot calipers on these brackets. They fit under 15" wheels. Applications: 91-94 Legacy turbo 96-02 Legacy GT/Outback 00-04 Legacy non-GT 98-07 Impreza RS/TS/2.5i 98-02 Forester 294x24mm 295x25.4mm This is the WRX front rotor. It uses a two piston sliding front caliper or the Subaru fixed 4-pot. There are two sliding caliper bracket designs: One is the same as the 98-01RS, and the other started use sometime in 02/03 (varies depending on model). The 4-pots are only on the 06-07 WRX in the US, though they were on many older non-US STis and WRXes (the black calipers with Subaru across them). Generally 16" wheels are required with these brakes but there are some 15" wheels out there that work. Also 16x6.5 Subaru wheels do not clear 4-pots. Applications: 01 Legacy GT LTD 02-04 Legacy GT 01+ Outback 02+ Impreza WRX (including 08, which uses 2-pots) 03+ Forester Baja There are three WRX DBA rotors, here is a description from Steve at DBA[ What that means is the 4000 rotor will not work with the 02-05 brakes, and maybe not on any car with the abs sensor in the knuckle. It would be best to get the 650 or 4650. The 650 is 24mm thick (same as OEM), and the 4650 is 25.4mm thick (mmm.. beefy. Might have to leave out the shims at first). Added bonus points: This rotor is also available in 5x114.3 to make it possible to swap an 05-07 STi to the subaru 4-pots for rally. Not sure where to find that rotor but I would start with rally shops. 316x30mm This uses a two piston sliding caliper similar to the other 2-pots, although brackets and calipers aren't compatible between other 2-pots. 17s are required with them. Applications: 05+ Legacy GT Tribeca (5x114.3 bolt pattern) 326x30mm (5x100) 326x30mm (5x114.3) STi rotor that goes with the 4-piston Brembo calipers. There are two rotors, the 04 has a 5x100mm hub bolt pattern, 05+ uses 5x114.3, although caliper mounting remains the same so you could use 05+ calipers on a 5x100 car with 04 rotors. There were some changes to the caliper over the years that involved some sort of stiffening, so from what I can tell an 07 caliper would be slightly better than an 04. Applications: 04+ STi It seems the 08 STi still uses these brakes but the calipers are black with an STi logo. A note about the SVX: The SVX has brakes that are about the same size as WRX brakes and the SVX has 5x114.3 hubs. However, up front, the rotor hat offset (how close or far the rotor surface is from the hub) is different from that on other Subarus. The knuckle also locates the caliper bracket in a different position. That unfortunately means that you can't just buy some 05-07 STi brembos or Tribeca brakes or something to upgrade your SVX. I'm pretty sure that in the rear things are compatible with other Subarus. Rear Brakes 266x10mm The most common Subaru rear rotor. It uses a single piston sliding caliper, of which there are a few variations. Early Legacy sedans (non-turbo) and Imprezas have a smaller piston than Legacy wagons and turbos, and there are a few bracket/caliper revisions. Applications: 90-99 Legacies/Outbacks with rear discs non-turbo 93-03 Imprezas with rear discs 04+ non-Sti Imprezas 06+ non WRX or STi imprezas Foresters with rear discs Bajas I think this is on non-turbo 05+ Legacies, and 05+ Outbacks as well. 290x10mm This is well known as the H6 rear rotor. The caliper is the same as the ~99-04 calipers so many people buy these rotors and the right brackets for a cheap upgrade. Applications: 00-04 Legacy/Outback non-brighton SVX (5x114.3) Bonus points: SVX bracket + this rotor in 5x100 = old style caliper H6 upgrade (probably). 266x18mm This is the Legacy turbo rear rotor. The caliper is similar to the other calipers but is wider to accomodate the vented rotors. I hear it was also found on the v1 WRX (93-94). Applications 91-94 Legacy turbo 290x18mm (170mm parking brake) 290x18mm (190mm parking brake) This is a new rotor size for Subaru (in the US anyway). It uses either a 2-piston opposed caliper or a 1-pot slider. The 2-pot will not bolt up to other subarus without somthing like the Kartboy brackets or having a new backing plate pressed onto the spindle. There are two versions of this rotor, one is for cars with an R180 rear diff which has bigger parking drums. Applications: 05+ Legacy GT (1-pot) 06-07 WRX (2-pot) SVX (5x114.3) (only in JDM-land) Some older non-us spec-b Legacys and wrx/sti models. Note: The LGT uses a different brake line than older Legacies and Imprezas. So if you want LGT rear brakes there could be an issue there. The line mounts to the caliper at a different angle and from what I've heard Impreza lines will leak. On top of that, the LGT line (and all 00+ Legacy/outback rear lines) is some funky multi-part piece with two sections of flex hose and a hard line that attaches to the trailing arm thingy that won't work on an (pre-08) Impreza. I'm not sure what the solution is to that problem but I think there are some people out there with LGT rear brakes on Imprezas. 316x20mm (5x100) 316x20mm (5x100, 170mm parking brake) 316x20mm (5x114) STi brembos. There are now three versions of this disc. One for the 04 STi, one for 05+, and one with a 170mm parking brake drum that will fit on any other Subaru with either a 2-pot backing plate or kartboy brackets. Applications 04+ STi 320x18mm Hey that's an odd size now isn't it. I was previously wrong with my thinking the Tribeca uses the same rotor as an STi. It does have the same bolt pattern (5x114.3) though. AFAIK, it uses a 170mm parking brake but don't quote me on that. So, what does that mean? The calipers and brackets should work on an SVX. Unfortunately no front brakes are interchangeable onto an SVX because of the rotor hat back-spacing. 286x10mm 08 WRX rear rotor, which uses a 190mm parking brake and 1-pot sliding calipers. The bigger parking brake makes me wonder if the caliper bracket is not like the older sliders, and if they made the backing plate to accept a 2-pot for simplicity. That would make it much easier to swap rear brembos but I'm really stretching things. Someone's going to have to take it apart and try. Drums Some cars have rear drums that are like 9." I don't really know anything about Subaru drum brakes so it would help if someone filled that stuff in. Some of them are: Legacy and Impreza Brighton models, Some 95-99 Legacy L models, some foresters and I think 02+ Impreza TS and OBS. (I'm not sure exactly) To swap out drums, at the least you will need new parking brakes, backing plates, discs, calipers, and brake lines. It is usually best to get a whole knuckle/hub/parking brake assembly out of a car with rear discs. If you want to put rear discs on your front wheel drive Subaru, you might have to parts from a 90-94 Legacy, since they might be the only FWD Subarus with rear discs and the FWD rear hubs/spindles/struts/etc are different. Installing rear Subaru 2-pots or Brembos on a non 2-pot car: The Subaru and Brembos have the same backing plate, which is different from all the other Subaru rear disc backing plates. So calipers don't swap between the two. Additionally, the STi uses a 190mm parking brake drum. Pretty much everything else uses a smaller 170mm drum. That means if you take a set of rear brembos and put them on your WRX, the parking brake will not work. However, there are Subaru 2-pot rotors (290x18mm) with a 190mm parking brake hat and Brembo rotors (316x20) w/ a 170mm e-brake so you can put either setup on either car. There are also Kartboy brackets that will adapt the 2-pot calipers to any other Subaru, and since both rotors are available in 170mm parking brake variety, you can swap either one onto any other Subaru. Here's a thread about fitting the brembos to other cars with the new Kartboy brackets and DBA rotors. Here is the rear brake redux, which has more information about the older rear brakes that came on STis and fancy Legacys in Japan. Some D-plate numbers I should note that the caliper bracket, and not the caliper, is what determines pad shape. So while there are a few different pads, in some cases the calipers are the same. Front 1-pots 1990-1995 Legacy: D470 1996-1999 Legacy: D722 1993-1996 Impreza: D470 1997-2001 Impreza: D722 Front 2-pots 1991-1994 Legacy Turbo: DB1219?/ D563 1996-2002 Legacy: D721 2002-2006 Legacy: D929 1998-2001 Impreza RS: D721 2003-2007 Impreza: D 929 1/2002-7/2002 WRX: D 721 8/2002-2005 WRX:: D 929 See this article for clarification Rear 1-pots 1990-1999 Legacy: D1186 2000-2004 Legacy: D1379 or D770 (I think they're the same) 2005-2008 Legacy 2.5i/outback: 2005-2008 LGT: 1993-1998 Impreza: D1186 1999-01 Impreza: D1379/ D770 2002 Impreza w/ rear discs: D1379/ D770 1/2002-10/2002 WRX: D1379/ D770 11/2002-2005 WRX: D1004 2003-2007 Impreza: D1004 2006-2007 WRX (and previous Black 4/2-pots) Front: D1170/D460 Rear: D461 STi Brembos Front: D 1001 Rear: D 961 I should probably put all the car/rotor/d-plate combinations in a spreadsheet or something. Outback should be the same as Legacy. I'll look into Forester and Baja stuff later I guess. There are a couple of things that I'm not clear on, like exatly when caliper/bracket designs changed between cars or which 00-04 Legacies got the 294mm front rotors. I might also be wrong about some of the forester front brakes. Also I've been meaning to add brembo or oem part numbers for the rotors or something like that. Coming soon: Pad shape clarification courtesy of an EBC spreadsheet I was recently sent.

Here's a handy guide of all the brakes that came on recent Subarus: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76707

Yes they're very similar but I've heard varying reports that the pre-02 and 03+ calipers and brackets don't interchange. There are also at least two different part numbers for the newer calipers and another new revision that recently occurred. Also, over here only the 06-07 WRX has the 4-pots and the rest have 2-pots with a taller bracket for the 294mm rotor. The caliper in that picture is from an 02 WRX.

Actually I was incorrect about the year range. For front 2-pots the 96-02 calipers are all the same. But from looking more closely at your pictures it seems you have 91-94 turbo legacy brakes. The difference is how the caliper mounts to the bracket and also the pad shape. Here you can see how the brackets differ: 96+ bracket is on the bottom The 96+ caliper looks like this: