The cycle continues... adding new parts makes it necessary to add more parts!
Whats the old adage… give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will sell those fish to feed his car part addiction..? Seems right, least for myself.
With the lift and larger tires there was sluggishness when leaving stop lights now… What is a car guy to do.. Going back to before the new larger tire package were installed would make the most sense, righting the wrong by putting back to before the problem started. Instead my mind went ahead and cruised the for sale boards to find a used Cobb Accessport and plopped on stage 1, fixing the problem I had just induced. That’s how we do it here, make a problem and fix it with money or an upgrade!
Upgrading to the AP3 on my STi got me thinking… Is it time for an accessport on the Forester..? Yes, yes it is! Link to Cobb Accessport 3 review
With a little more turbo boost pushing the Forester along everything seemed to be great. But I still yearned to change up the Forester.. but where would the next changes come from.
While visiting my local junkyard I came upon a a 03-05 Forester and decided those tail lights looked quite a lot better than my current lights. With my bag of random tools I was able to remove the back hatch cover and undo the locked hatch(No battery power at the junkyard). Having it undone I was able to pop off the rear tail lights and make my way home to swap them out.
With the darker blue I feel like these look more at home than the bright chrome factory lights.
For those interested in swapping out your tail lights, here you are!
A little too much for my taste.
Much better!
With those tail lights installed I decided to get a few more fun upgrades from Grimmspeed. I have always enjoyed their parts and figured why not pop a few up on the Forester. I decided to get a set of high lift hood struts and downpipe adapter…. Maybe you know where that is going!
Grimmspeed bonanza! Here we have a 3 port ebcs ( for the STi), Downpipe to factory exhaust adapter and in the background hidden away GS high lift hood struts.
I love the hood struts as they really make working on your EJ motor so much easier. The high lift allows much more light to come in under the hood, making everything much easier to see. Another downside of the factory hood prop is it’s location, it resides on the passenger side and if you are trying to work on the turbo or surrounding areas it is a pain to slide in out of the hood/hood prop triangle.
The hood prop gets the job done but…
If you are working on the turbo or downpipe it is in the way.. Making it less easy to get these jobs done.
What is the answer?? Grimmspeed of course!
With the above image you can see just how much easier it is to work in the engine bay now. Also the extra amount of light in the engine bay makes everything easier to work on.
All the hardware is included and is installed rather quickly! Grimmspeed hood shocks!
Next up is a the downpipe to factory exhaust adapter. I had upgraded the downpipe on the Sti awhile back with the Grimmspeed unit and decided it was time to do something with my old Invidia unit. I had thoughts of selling it, but with a perfectly good car to take advantage of it, why not!!?? With that the factory pipe was removed, the turbo heat shield was trimmed and on went the Invidia catted downpipe. On to stage 2!
Bye bye factory downpipe!
Time for your retirement!
Off the Sti and onto the Fxt! Invidia catted downpipe!
Turbo shield trimmed and installed
This Grimmspeed adapter makes life so much easier!
With all these new mods I took it for a good run around the block and noted just how much had changed. I was pretty used to stage 2 on my Sti but not on my Forester. At 200k+ miles I was a little concerned about how the motor would react but everything seemed to be running smoothly.
Having these upgrades installed and posted up on sf.org I had many visitors saying why not pop on your old VF39 from the Sti? As I had just recently installed a 15+ STi VF48 turbo on the STi… I was actually digging the TD04 on the Forester given that I spend a lot of time in town driving it and it was pretty quick off the line. As with most ideas and upgrades this Vf39 idea stayed in my mind….
I also found a bit of extra time on a Saturday and spray painted my factory SG grill. The factory unit had a few chips in it and was a little worse for the wear. A quick scrub down with a scotchbrite pad and a can of flat engine paint got the job done!
Blacked out grill, hoping I will be able to keep it and not buy a Sports grill. Most of you already know how that ends…
This is where we end today’s story… After driving the car for a year with no issues the idea to mod it became too much. It started with a lift kit, became a new wheel and tire package, then on to an Accessport, tail lights, and a freshly repainted grill.. then on to more power with Stage 2 brought to you by Grimmspeed and Invidia. With a set of Grimmspeed’s high lift hood struts to make any upcoming work much easier.
What will come next though, will I overcome my weakness and leave the car as it is.. Or will the next shiny object catch my eye and force me to purchase and install it! Stay tuned and come back soon for the next installation to… As the Forester turns!
Amazon part links!
Grimmspeed Downpipe to factory exhaust adapter
Depo 03-05 Forester tail lights