Postcards from the Pleiades.
Irregular, not necessarily chronological.
Results of work or notes related to places and times, rather than strict knowledge about cars.
Primarily a record of what’s happening, but also a nod to Subaru and the wider Subie family.
That’s kind of what it looks like — but every now and then, the Forester gets some love too. That moment has finally come. First up: gauge cluster backlighting. I’ve done this twice already, and this time I said enough’s enough, time for LEDs.
The only complication was that, because of the boost gauge, I had to lower the entire steering column to get the cluster out.
One of the three main bulbs burned out, the one behind the rev-counter:
This isn’t up for a debate — it’s simply a fact: the best-looking wheels for the Forester SG are the ones that came standard on the XT versions from the factory, part number 28111SA020. Period!
And so, I bought a second set for my Forester. No more swapping tires between summer and winter — I’ll just swap the entire wheels myself. Let’s be honest: the Forester SG is a bit of an acquired taste these days, but the upside is that a full set of wheels in great condition costs about as much as three tire swaps at a tire shop.
This remote kept bothering me. And while I concluded that programming it was indeed impossible, I still kept thinking how to make it work with the USDM fob. The solution turned out to be quite a hack, so a full disclaimer is in order: PCB boards suffered during the process, those of you with a delicate, electronic heart, are encouraged to skip this post.
Just as the saying in the title goes, I was determined to fit the original key’s PCB into the American one, no matter what. The first obstacle was the switches, which were permanently soldered to the board. I came to the conclusion that this was too small of a component for my skills (because although I do have a soldering iron and I’m not afraid to use it, there have to be limits), so I begged a technician at Lispol to do it for me. Big thanks to this guy - no one in Kraków wanted to take on the task, and I went to many a places, but he did and even called me to consult the length of the wires.
The time has come again. The weekend is reserved, the route, in general, is planned, the stages have been reviewed, and it’s time to begin the third edition of Rallye Boží Bojovníci. This year, we decided to drive around the Tatras, and with that, experience stages from Rajd Śląska, Rally Liptov, and Rallye Tatry. Here are some stages we’ve driven:
Slovakia is a beautiful country, and it’s fantastic to drive when the Tatras, Veľká Fatra, or Malá Fatra are constantly in the horizon. The winding, narrow, up-and-down roads are just perfect for Impreza with its 525nm of torque. The people are also very friendly and open. Honestly, I’ve never had so many people wave at me and greet me as I did in Slovakia. At every petrol station, and I do mean every single one, someone would stop to talk about the car. The best moment was when we stopped in Spišské Hanušovce, where the Impreza was idling, cooling off the turbo, and we planned to go to the Potraviny to get some bread for breakfast. Suddenly, we saw two guys walking from the other side of the road, dressed in workshop clothes, and waving at us to drive into their yard. So, we hopped in the car and drove over to them. They were from Baka Motorsport, super friendly bunch. We chatted, and they showed us what they had in their yard, which was quite a lot: from GC8 to VA, and from Evo VI who someone had managed to roll to a GT-R hidden in a storage under a blanket. They liked the Impreza so much that they wanted to buy it. They said they were going to Nowy Targ in the evening to pick up another Impreza and an Evo, and invited us to join them, so they could show us some local tricks. However, we were heading west, so we waved goodbye and parted ways.
I did some detective work and am 99% sure this is my car:
In those clips the first owner behind the wheel, about 16 years ago, which is
just over a year after purchasing it (best wishes if you’re reading this!).
The same owner kept the car for many a years, despite driving a whole bunch of very unusual cars during that time (looking at you, Fiesta R2 and DS3 R3T). I’m mentioning this because on Friday, I removed the aramid skid plate from under the engine, a memento from those days. The aramid plate is cool, but for my usage and how I drive the car, it’s definitely an overkill. It also had one flaw: the front is securely held on with two bolts, but the rear has a, rather poorly designed, pair of tabs, which slides into holes in the plastic underbody shields (I had to have those floor pan splash shields welded back in the day). This is not a great solution. Not only does the skid plate not stay rigid and hits the underbody on bumps, giving me a mini heart attack every time it does that, but over time, it also cracks the shields it’s inserted into. I think this plate might have been a part of a bigger N12 kit, and perhaps it was better integrated with the other shields?
It all started when my son wanted a bit of peace and quiet. He said he would like a system that shows when he’s available, busy, and when it’s absolutely not okay to disturb him (oh, the horror of being nine!). I thought it sounded like a traffic light - red, amber and green. A trip to the electronics store, a raid on the Lego box, a bit of soldering, and this is what I came up with:
It’s easier to start with the thing I didn’t buy because there’s only one. And since I didn’t buy it, there’s not much to elaborate on — I’ll just say that I missed it by less than ¥100,000. Oh well, it seems like this is one of those situations where it’s not about if, but when.
However, I did buy something rather quite special, shown here in the brochure for the 22B:
For quite some time, I have been changing the oil and filters myself. I have notes with the mileage and dates of the changes, but it always annoyed me that I had to check them to see if “it’s time.” Inspired by Boxer Beauty, who, by the way, have a lot of rare stickers for Subaru, I decided to fix this. Here’s the fix:
A single sticker is 105x85mm, the minimum order for that size was 66 stickers, so I’m good for round about 30 years.
During the last oil change, about 7,000 kilometers ago, I noticed that the engine mount subframe had seen better days. It took me a little while to buy them because the prices weren’t very encouraging, but in the end, I managed to get some well-refurbished ones from my local Subaru forum. For comparison, here are the old and new ones:
The hole in the picture above appeared with a light tap from a hammer during the last oil change, and I remember being quite concerned about it at the time. Honestly, I expected them to be in much worse condition.
