Fos's Gen 5 Liberty GT - now with photos

[apfoster]

After being on the forum for 6 months, I thought I would finally post some details of my car.

I purchased my black 2010 Liberty GT manual sedan in December. I previously owned a 2000 WRX with an Air Power Systems (APS) Sprint Spec system.

Was looking at buying a 2011 WRX but went with the Liberty to accommodate the growing family. I love the luxury and comfort I get in the Liberty but still have the turbo performance.

Since purchasing the Liberty I have done the following:
MRT turbo back exhaust but retaining the original mufflers;
Whiteline 24mm front adjustable swaybar;
Whiteline 20mm rear adjustable swaybar;
Whiteline positive shift kit;
STI short shift gear lever;
DBA 4000 slotted front rotors;
QFM HPX brake pads;
Garbo Navigation hack;
Subaru Ipod cable;
EcuTek tune by Michael at OPMsport
170kw and 460nm atw on 16psi.

I am very happy with the results. The car now goes, corners and stops whilst still retaining the comfort and original unmodified look.

Fos

[garbo41610]

Post pics or it's all lies!

Sounds awesome mate.

[Mark^^]

Hi, can you tell me how you find the short shifter, I am thinking about this for my Gen 5 GT as well.

[apfoster]

I find the short shift okay. As stated on the Subaru website, it only shortens the throw by 10%, which isn't alot compared to the non Subaru short shifters you can get for the older Liberty models and the WRX.

When I bought it, it was the only one available for the Gen 5 cable shifter and I feel a 10% reduction is better than nothing.

[bluedoors]

How much is the EcuTek tune from OPMsport, and where are they. Fingers crossed they are more sensible than MRT and won't change $700 just to remove the tune later

[garbo41610]

What are the bushes like on the Whiteline sway bars? I've heard there can be some sort of knocking coming from them... Also, if you could let me know a ball park that they set you back that would be great. PM if you don't want to post up in here.

Hope the nav hack cable is still going strong.

[apfoster]

bluedoors,

Michael is located in Toowoomba, but well worth the drive. He does an excellent job and is well regarded in the WRX community.

I think you will find that MRT are the Australian distributors for EcuTek and they charge large licensing fees to any tuners that want to use their product.

Also once your ecu has been tuned with EcuTek it is locked so other people cannot change it. Some people are able to remove it, Chiptorque, but they do so by wiping it back to standard. Other people have chosen to replace their ecu to save on paying MRT money to remove it.

Although Michael is an EcuTek dealer, he is nothing like MRT. I had a lot of trouble getting hold of him because he was very busy and also because he has a full time job and only tunes cars on the weekend.

I was able to get hold of him by emailing him. I assure you it was well worth the effort as he is very helpful, honest, gives good advice and a very good tuner. He showed me where my car was at when he started and the changes that he intended to make. He didn't stop until he was satisfied with the tune and did not rip me off.

His details are:
Michael
Mobile: 0400 955 377
OPMSPORT
PH. (07) 4633 3733 FAX. (07) 4633 3788
email: michael@opmsport.com.au

Antony

[apfoster]

Garbo,

So far I haven't had any knocking from the bushes. That may develop over time but so far so good. Since getting my swaybars Whiteline have released alloy lateral locks for the swaybars to prevent any movement. I do not have these nor the heavy duty link kit on my car. I believe, and I could be wrong, the knock you speak of develops from movement through the bush and the lateral locks fix this. It was a DIY solution on the WRX's before Whiteline released their product.

I paid $252.00 for the front, $285.00 for the rear and $345.00 labour to fit them. Fitting the front bar apparently is a real pain in the ass, one of the engine mounts has to be undone and the motor lifted on that side to get the bar passed. I have no mechanical skills so I did not attempt to do it myself. You could probably get a better deal than what I got. I wanted mine done on Xmas eve prior to going away on holidays and did not have the time to shop around.

I will put up the dyno graph next week after I return to work, currently school holidays here and I do not have much time to get on here whilst looking after the kids.

Antony

[Arith]

A good read so far, Antony! But as others have mentioned, without pics for all we know you could be driving a Honda Civic. LOL.

[garbo41610]

Garbo,

So far I haven't had any knocking from the bushes. That may develop over time but so far so good. Since getting my swaybars Whiteline have released alloy lateral locks for the swaybars to prevent any movement. I do not have these nor the heavy duty link kit on my car. I believe, and I could be wrong, the knock you speak of develops from movement through the bush and the lateral locks fix this. It was a DIY solution on the WRX's before Whiteline released their product.

I paid $252.00 for the front, $285.00 for the rear and $345.00 labour to fit them. Fitting the front bar apparently is a real pain in the ass, one of the engine mounts has to be undone and the motor lifted on that side to get the bar passed. I have no mechanical skills so I did not attempt to do it myself. You could probably get a better deal than what I got. I wanted mine done on Xmas eve prior to going away on holidays and did not have the time to shop around.

I will put up the dyno graph next week after I return to work, currently school holidays here and I do not have much time to get on here whilst looking after the kids.

Antony

Awesome, thanks for the info.

[apfoster]

MRT charge $5,190 for their XB kit which consists of a turbo back exhaust and an EcuTek tune.

This price is very over priced however at the time, December 2010, they were the only people selling a full turbo back exhaust with a bell mouth turbo pipe.

Also in Brisbane it was hard to find someone to tune a 2010 Liberty. Chiptorque said they could do it, however I was going to be the first vehicle that they had done and I didn't feel like them using my car as a guinea pig.

I was in a hurry so I just went with the MRT solution because it was easy, had proven results and was available then and there.

I was able to negotiate a discount so I did not pay the full price.

It definitely was not cheap and there are probably better ways of doing it now with someone else; however at that time I found it hard to find performance parts for my car.

So without a lot of competition in the market place, like you have with the WRX market, sometimes you have to take what you can get.

I am definitely happy with the results so I have no regrets, just a lighter wallet.

[Arith]

Well that's the thing. People may talk bad about MRT, but sometimes it's the only game in town. But as long as you're happy with the results, that's what counts. Imagine paying all that money only to walk away from it with poor results.

[apfoster]

Here are some photos for all you disbelieving haters and to prove I'm not a Hyundai Excel driving wannabe

[apfoster]

Here are some exhaust photos. Sorry for them quality but I had to lay down on my garage floor to take them.

The things you do for credibility on this forum.

[apfoster]

Turbo end of the exhaust