With the outside of the car looking a bit more to my liking with the lift and larger tires. It was time to get back under the skin deep beauty and find areas for improvement or upgrades.

I do take time to enjoy the car in between projects.. It just seems like I am always working on them… I swear! They run at least 51% of the time, give or take 50%

Out enjoying the morning after a quick wash… to go get dirty.

My Forester enjoying Kansas and Kansas related photography locations..

First on the list was installing the Grimmspeed AOS onto the Forester, it was passed down from the STi and now it was time to reinstall it. A few tight hard corners in the Sti showed the downfall of the GS AOS, it can allow oil flow through the lines and back into the intake… Not a good deal. So it came out.

Mostly stock with a dash of +08 Sti tmic.

Given the Forester has 200k+ miles on it, an air oil separator should help keep it motoring down the road. Being that the engines are basically the same between the two cars the precut lines were easily installed.

With the AOS dealt with, upgraded turbo and tmic the 200k mile suspension was definitely showing it’s age. Hard shifts from first to second will see-saw the vehicle and if you hit enough stop lights you could make yourself ill.

The rear Forester springs are also known for sagging, I had added a bit of extra lift to my rear lift spacers. While that helped it still wasn’t completely equal. With that in mind I went about ordering my new parts.

Not being able to decide between stiffer springs or lift springs, I decided to just go ahead and stay with the factory offerings from Subaru. The front coils seemed to be holding up fine, so only the rears were ordered. To go with those springs were Kyb struts in the oem spec.

This is a pretty straightforward install, just remove the struts, compress the springs, remove the strut nut and then replace with the new units. Then bolt the lift plates back on top and install back inside the car.

New struts, springs and spacers on. Ride height is very even and looks excellent.

With those new and hand me down parts installed. I noticed that the Depo headlights Uv coating was starting to haze over. I had great luck using the Lamin-x headlight covers and decided to do the same on the Forester.

Along with ordering the clear covers they included fog light covers. These not only help protect the lights from the sun and hazing. But will give it a bit of protection from sand and rocks from the road. Especially nice if you like running your Forester up and down the minimum maintenance roads.

With all these fun upgrades I decided to take the Forester to a local off road park with my friend in his non-modified 4Runner. It was a very cold October weekend with temps below freezing, but both cars made it all around the damp, leaf covered trails. It was a excellent day as neither car needed towed back home.

Yes I most definitely have taken this thing off road… It was a very cold day after my birthday but extremely fun and a fun time.

Having the suspension refreshed and a AOS to help keep oil vapor out of the intake.. what would be next mods for this daily driven Forester…? Or will it stay the same for the next 20 years.. There is only one way to find out, message me on Instagram to continue writing the story! Just kidding… stay tuned for the next update coming soon!