A Quest for 35mpg (Subaru Outback Limited Sedan 2.5L auto)

[Zerohour]

Originally Posted by evilskillit

Neat, btw whats the fiberglass box with nozzles on it for?

TR7 air intake box. The original metal intake box is pretty rusted, but instead of salvaging it, I decided to do a custom fiberglass intake for a conical filter.

[flander]

have you driven it since you installed the rear sway bar? Do you have neutral or oversteer now? I would like to add 25mm to my MY05 Legacy.

[Zerohour]

Test drove it for ~1.5miles lol. And about .7 of those were neutral coasting. lol There was an immediate difference. The steering is much, much more direct. It felt like I was driving a rear wheel car. I was was feeling feedback more along the lines that I'm directing the nose and where is going to be pushed and there is much less lean. I caught myself moving with body roll that no longer existed. The 60 mile commute should give some sound decision making feedback. But immediate first go response is that I like it!

Your 05 is built on a different chassis, but Subaru's generally have been manufactured to excessively understeer. Not sure why, but I guess its going to be easier from an average driver to lift off the throttle and correct understeer than to try to correct for oversteer. How does the 05 Trans split? The 00-04 is 50/50 in manual select first, and 20/80 under normal driving and 40/60 under load or "slip detect". So normally its running 20/80.

[flander]

My '05 has "Viscous coupling 50/50 power split" but feels more rear bias. I have no way to physically adjust the ratio. Sounds like you have the ability to adjust bias.

[Zerohour]

I am very sad to report that the Gas Station from which I was buying real gasoline has been forced into selling E90. Gulf and go and stick it where teh Sun doesn't radiate energy in the visible spectrum...

I got 28.25mpg on the last tank. Which is good considering I've been driving to work in 50's degree weather for the morning commute.

AND I finally got to spray a bit of paint!!! So it was a bitter sweet Friday.

[evilskillit]

Bummer, could be worse, in Missouri gas stations are required by law to use e90 for regular and mid-grade. Its not requires in premium but I'm guessing most do anyways, and whether they do or not you wouldn't know because its not required to be posted anywhere.

[Zerohour]

So an update is the following:

I'm watching paint dry....lol...the color match paint is a factory paint match from Napa, its more or less an aerosol version of what you could spray with a air gun. It is going to take a little while dry, and since we're out of the summer heat I'm guessing I'll be waiting till the middle of this week for it have a proper cure time. But after that I am going to respray with a lacquer clear coat. I did this on the front wheel air blocks and it made a much better result that the paint alone. So It looks like I'm waiting on a warm day to spray the clear coat.

In a bit of other news, I had to deal the my the aftermarket sway bar rubbing on the factory exhaust. So my Subaru is now the proud owner of a "superb" quality Thrush welded muffler. I would have preferred the mangaflow to do the exhaust, but there are no local supplies, and I did have the time to wait to have one shipped to my house. I'm happy with the exhaust...I guess. It will have to do for now!

[123]

Nice work on the mods. You do not see many cars like yours in this part of the world mostly wagons. One question I have is are your lights always on? On the 2002 Subaru Outback wagon I drove the lights are always on even when headlights are turned off this does not seem very mpg friendly do to consent load on alternator. My thought would be to install a kill switch for the lights.

Also I feel your pain when it comes to working with fiberglass. I had to do fiberglass repair on my kit car, try fiberglassing/sanding inside of a car in cramped spaces upside down.

[Zerohour]

Yes my Subaru Outback has the Day Time running lights that uses the headlight bulb. It does run at a 35w circuit, but 70W load probably does take a knick at the fuel economy. But in PA I generally leave my lights on all the time. There are too many backroads, tree shaded corners, etc. Its much easier to spot a vehicles headlights before the vehicle, so I don't feel the headlights as a real waste in fuel eco. I guess I could wire in some lower wattage bulbs, but there the day time visibility may go away just as quickly.

[123]

If you feel you need them that's fine but I do not feel any safer with them on and think its unnecessary.