club.liberty.asn.au

Car: 2014 Subaru Liberty GT Premium Wagon
Transmission: 6 Speed Manual
Colour: Satin White Pearl
Name: Cale

Hey all, had some good progress on the wagon in the last month so I figured it was time to get a proper profile together for any future progress.
Originally when searching for what car I wanted next, I had 5 bits of criteria: 2011+, Fast, Wagon, Manual, Semi-Rare. The search eventually led me to come across 5th Gen Subaru Liberty GT Wagons, only problem I kept coming across was that 99% of them were auto. I stuck with the search for about 11 months, doing research in the mean time.

Until at last! A listing popped up on carsales for a 2014 Manual Subaru Liberty GT Wagon in Sydney...only thing was I lived up in Brisbane. Within 3 days of spotting the listing, I had been in talks with the owner and booked flights to Sydney to get the car. I wasn't going to pass up this chance and have to wait another 11 months

Everything down in Sydney went flawlessly and I drove the car back home over the course of 2 days safe and sound. Needed a good wash since being left out in a backyard collecting dirt and spiderwebs.

I had done novels worth of research and got started on my plans for mods.

Thanks for reading

Owned Since: 03/01/2020

Current Mods

• GFB Respons TMS BOV
• CUSCO 25mm Front Sway Bar
• Whiteline 22mm Rear Sway Bar
• AVO Steel TMIC
• AVO Dump Pipe
• AVO Intake
• DBA T2 Slotted Rotors F+R
• STI Pink Springs
• Whiteline Links F+R
• Whiteline Balljoints
• CnJ Motorsport Custom Dyno Tune with Unichip Install (174.2 kw atw)
• Custom Fabbed Cat-Back Exhaust by Rob Bliss Exhaust
• 19x8.5 +45 Work Emotion ZR10 Wheels
• Michellin Pilot Sport 4 (245/40/19)
• Silvers Neomax S Coilovers
• DAMD Rear Roof Spoiler

Awesome! Always nice to see a new member profile
Interesting choice to go for a unichip type tune, any details on that?

Thank you!

I got recommended the tuner by the guy who did the workshop work. He’s a good friend to my family and he gets his own Subaru’s tuned there. He also builds rally cars, drag Subaru’s and race cars, so with that much experience I’m confident in his endorsement of the tuner.

The unichip install is included with the tune, the research I’ve done on the chip seems to be quite positive but what were your thoughts on it Benny?

Welcome, nice car.

Until at last! A listing popped up on carsales for a 2014 Manual Subaru Liberty GT Wagon in Sydney...only thing was I lived up in Brisbane. Within 3 days of spotting the listing, I had been in talks with the owner and booked flights to Sydney to get the car. I wasn't going to pass up this chance and have to wait another 11 months

I was that close to a similar travel-from-Qld effort on a NSW Liberty GT if the seller was going to be in any co-operative about a mechanical inspection. Ended up quitting on the Liberty GT dream and getting a forester.

I’m not sure how a unichip tune would work, but the stock ecu is tuneable, you retain features like SI drive (etc) if your car has that (useful for wastegate pressure only during limp mode as a failsafe).

GenV has a torque limiting feature that must be overcome in a stock ecu tune if you want over 15psi iirc, so your stock ecu tuner must be capable of that, eg msr, ThrottleHappy etc.

Yeah, from what I've read unichip is sort of like a electronic boost controller and lets the tuner access more information to tune. I will definitely bring up the torque limiter when I take it in.

I found some stuff by unichip but obviously since it's come from unichip themselves, they're a bit biased. This is a feature list I found:

• Fits piggy-back style to existing electronic fuel injection systems & puts engine control back into the hands of the tuner. Renders an otherwise untuneable Engine Management System tuneable to the extent of what Standalone systems provide & even beyond that.
• No opening of ECU’s or burning of chips.
• Supports just about every modern crank style . Updateable firmware means that as new crank styles are released by manufacturers the Unichip is easily upgraded to stay in touch with technology
• The Unichip has 5 map sets available . Every chip can therefore be tuned with up to 5 completely different maps . Maps can be as diverse as a Valet map , then a mild performance map for low octane fuel , then a wild performance map with maximum boost & water/methanol injection , then an immobilizer map.
• Manipulate 3(Unichip Q) to 5(Unichip Q+) 0-5volt inputs.
• Drive extra fuel injectors
• Drive water injection
• Drive water/methanol injection
• Activate water mist spray for intercoolers
• Manipulate intake manifold flaps
• Manipulate variable cam-timing
• Manipulate timing advance & retard.
• Manipulate air-to-fuel ratio mixtures
• Manipulate oxygen sensor voltages
• Manipulate drive-by-wire throttles
• Activate radiator fan
• Control Nitrous injection
• Control turbo boost
• Control a shift light
• Install & manipulate launch control
• Datalogging feature

Also, found this results graph for a 2013 WRX STI with a similar mod list (yes an STI is a bit different to a Liberty GT):


So I'm hoping for some good results from the tuner, fingers crossed. Robin at PerFOURmance (who did the work on my car and recommended the tuner) said he was more worried about the gearbox going first before the engine.

2z2zz.gen5 wrote:Robin at PerFOURmance (who did the work on my car and recommended the tuner) said he was more worried about the gearbox going first before the engine.

Mmm depends on how you treat the box. You could destroy it with a stock engine if you hard launch it regularly. I reckon the average person with some respect for their car would be hard pressed destroying a box with a standard EJ255 block and turbo.

Very nice! Can't wait to see the wheels once they arrive . How is the intake, do you get much intake sound?

How is the intake, do you get much intake sound?

Listen for yourself I put a GoPro right next to the intake in the engine bay. This is on full recirc and all I can say is mind BLOWN


Quite annoyingly, the rear sway bar link knock and front left binding have come back just in the last day to put a big damper on the exciting progress I was having...having a few mates look over it with me tomorrow.

2z2zz.gen5 wrote:Listen for yourself I put a GoPro right next to the intake in the engine bay. This is on full recirc and all I can say is mind BLOWN

Haha that sounds awesome

If anyone can help solve this problem with my rear sway bar links...They are knocking like crazy. The sound came along with the new bar and links, I adjusted them a bit and it went away for a month and has only come back in the last day. Haven’t touched a thing. CUSCO 20mm Rear Sway Bar with Whiteline Adjustable End Links, video evidence below - recorded in the boot of my wagon.

I’m getting desperate aye.

Some swaybar install considerations:

Has the bar been installed the right way up?
Consider lateral locks if the noise is in cornering.
Are the link ends worn out/knocking?
Is the link alignment favourable?
If not they can bind and pop: try washers or spacers to better align the links.
Are the bar bushes greased?
Is the link preload set to the right length and is the preload even?

From memory browsing the US legacy site, the Whiteline end links had issues. Not sure if they fixed it. I could be recalling outdated stuff though.

But benny makes some good suggestions.

I've noticed that my sway bars squeak when going over speed humps, most likely a lubrication issue, but I haven't come across any knocking sounds before.

Took the sway bar off tonight to do the list of things Benny mentioned, noticed some witness marks where the bar bends near the suspension towers. Hmmm...

bigBADbenny wrote:Some swaybar install considerations:

Has the bar been installed the right way up?
Consider lateral locks if the noise is in cornering.
Are the link ends worn out/knocking?
Is the link alignment favourable?
If not they can bind and pop: try washers or spacers to better align the links.
Are the bar bushes greased?
Is the link preload set to the right length and is the preload even?

1. Checked that, even flipped it and it makes the same noise both ways.
2. The noise only occurs when turning slow, like car park/driveway stuff
3. My guess is I got a bad batch of links, as when I tighten the drivers side I have to hold the shaft that comes out of the head of the link, which I do not need to do when tightening on the passenger side. Considering AVO links now.
4. Greased them again tonight, still same noise
5. Yes and even on both sides.

fedaykin wrote:From memory browsing the US legacy site, the Whiteline end links had issues. Not sure if they fixed it. I could be recalling outdated stuff though.

But benny makes some good suggestions.

Yeah there's some inconsitencies between passenger and drivers side links as I mentioned above. I'm considering AVO links now. I've also ordered a thicker 22mm rear bar from Whiteline as I find 20mm too small for the 25mm front and suffer from bad understeer when driving spiritedly. The new bar comes with lateral locks and bracing so hope that stops the noise, if not I'll look into getting the AVO links - just wondering about how they'll work with the adjustable stiffness of the bar.

My mechanic mate spoke to his mate in Pedders and they reckon it is either bad links or ungreased bar bushings, seeing as the bushes are greased and the inconsistencies I've noticed with the links, it seems right to say something ain't right with them. The bar was shipped today so we'll see what the new bar brings and then go from there.

Thanks for all the help everyone, hope this has a happy ending.