2007 Legacy 2.5i Ecomod Build

[apexwagon]

So, the opportunity arose to buy a 2007 Legacy 2.5i Premium for $1500 with 144k on the dash. I was going to buy yet another VX but the cost v. Benefit was greater with the prices of those being >$3k. And I live in Lake Tahoe, so the 4 months/year it kind of snows here is where the AWD will be key.

The life of the car has a 28mpg avg with someone who did not care about mpg's whatsoever... So I think I have a descent base for an AWD vehicle. The first mod I have already bought is a ScanGaugeII and pumped the tires up to 40psi all around (it had new tires installed before I bought it so LLR's are out of the question for the moment).

EPA city/highway fuel economy: 22/29 (manual)

Previous owner had 28mpg avg on a 9600 mile trip reading (on-board readout)

Mods So Far:
ScangaugeII
Tires@ 40psi

First Future Mods:
Full underbody aero
Mirror delete with interior mirrors
Grille block
Lip off the hood to cover windshield wipers
Oil Change with fuel efficient oil
Spark Plugs
Radiator flush
Tranny/diff fluid change


Stay tuned!

[Daox]

Good luck with it.

[apexwagon]

Thanks! I am excited to see what this thing can do.. It is my 3rd Subaru (1. 2005 WRX, 2. 2011 STI).

Originally Posted by Daox

Good luck with it.

[Insight for life]

Wow sounds like a great deal.

[apexwagon]

Got the ScanGaugeII hooked up and ready for my first 220 mile trip, unfortunately for accuracy it's mostly downhill from 6400' elevation to sea level, but should be interesting nonetheless.

[OG VX]

Agreed, what a deal! Looks like a solid ride. Hopefully the motor is in great shape.

[bhazard]

Thats a steal for that money. Why so cheap?

[apexwagon]

Originally Posted by OG VX

Agreed, what a deal! Looks like a solid ride. Hopefully the motor is in great shape.

The motor seems to be doing fine, had a 4 page carfax with the car. It was a friends car (he was the 1st owner), and he upgraded to a 2015 WRX and decided to hook a brotha up!

[apexwagon]

Update: first trip complete! 345.0 miles on 10.01 gallons of 87 @ $2.75/ (costco)

The first tank was mixed with the first 20 or so miles being city, stop/go and short trips around town, the next 40 miles essentially uphill to get out of Tahoe basin and over Donner summit, then downhil until Sacramento for 100 or so miles, and then essentially flat with a few rolling hills to the Bay Area, some city driving in the bay (got it detailed!) and then made it back to Sac with just over 1/4 tank left. (34.19 avg. by calculation).

This was my Scangauge reading at the end of the trip to the bay (zero stops, i think I was dehydrated)...



I was astonished, in the flats at 62mph I was getting an instant reading of 38-45mpg! Although, the Scangauge has a different reading than the instant reading that is built in the car (it was +/- 5mpg). I really wish the Scangauge had the memory to store a tanks average, too, unless I am totally missing this. I think mine is optimistic, it is significantly higher than the cars built-in readout which is the opposit of what I usually read about those OEM ones, which is why I purchased this. Anyway..


on the way back up to Tahoe, I got ansi and drove fast for a little while (too much caffeine for the foot) but still got 27mpg doing 90! whoops. Im only at about a half tank so I will report back later on about the uphill tank. I need a killswitch now, the SGii doesn't like the motor not running via key cycle.

DETAILED!

[tvbd56]

To get the scangauge to work when the engine off what worked for my old car was to change the "fuel" setting to hybrid instead of gas and the SG will continue reading while the engine is off.