Page 1 of 1

Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:36 pm
by evilgus
Hey folks,

Looks like I'm rejoining the Liberty club, have just paid a deposit for a 2008 3.0R Spec B wagon, and will be picking it up on Saturday! Fairly low mileage, at less than 170K and in great condition! I think it's all stock, but I guess I'll find out, over the coming weeks.

I'll be a bit sad, though, as I have to sell my trusty old 99 Forester GT. Has done me very well, for the last 10 years, but I've finally out-grown the lowered springs, noisy exhaust and hard ride, from the front STI shocks... :lol:

Previous Libs - 2002 RX 2.5 Wagon, 1993 RS Turbo Sedan, 1992 Lib Wagon.

Cheers,

Justin

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Thu Oct 15, 2020 10:41 am
by bigBADbenny
Awesome and welcome back :good:

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:57 pm
by evilgus

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:03 am
by nvmylh
Nice car, think I bought an indentical model to yours from tassie recently too.

Got any plans for it?

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:31 am
by sheppo9
Same as my wife's old car (written off by hail).

If you want the 4 roof rail covers (when you take off the luggage / bike rack mounts), I took them off her car and are sitting in the shed.

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:54 pm
by evilgus
No major plans, just yet, as I blew the budget just purchasing it. :) Probably not likely to do too much to it, especially as it's an auto and is basically stock in really great condition. Maybe an ECU edit at some point, if it's worth the cost?

There's a few minor things on the list, though:

1. Get the jammed CD out of the McIntosh - booked in, next Wednesday.
2. Fit the brand new GROM USB kit and BT adaptor.
3. New front brake pads - needs quite a lot of pressure to stop quickly and squirms about under heavy braking.
4. Sound-deadening in the front doors.
5. Maybe the sub-woofer upgrade.
6. Not sure if upgraded sway-bars are worth it, on these models - not sure what the stock ones are...?

Cheers,

EG

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:29 am
by sheppo9
$400 is what I paid KiDo (Matt Mcleod) years ago, the car went a bit better - mainly due to the DBW tuning, but he also changes when the fans come on to help with *possible* head gasket issues.
If you put an exhaust (just mufflers will do), the auto's do the VW DSG 'noise' when changing gears higher up in the revs.
The fuel economy was a little bit better too.

Sway bars would be my first mod, best bang for buck, especially on a wagon.
Rear only if you don't want to drop headers, and undo the lower control arm brackets... rear is just remove/possibly just drop the rear mufflers.

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2020 8:21 pm
by Tonic
Agree with a KIDO tune. Bit better performance and better fuel economy so that paid for the cost over about 25,000km

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 4:29 am
by bigBADbenny
Health check the car before tuning.
Its best to start with a clean sheet, not tune a car with issues.
Heaps of diys here, just holler if you need pointers.

I’d start with Btssm or at least Torque app.
Overhaul the cooling system and backflush the heater core, replace radiator over 150k km, etc.
Check avcs operation and look for oil leaks on top of engine (beware loom oil contamination), inlet pressure test and so on.

Put your money into upgrading the relieved stock bushes with solid items and don’t upgrade sways, get Shockworks coilovers instead.

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:21 pm
by evilgus
Thanks, guys, I will get everything checked out and then chase up a KiDo tune, at some point. (Do I have to do this remotely?) Still getting used to the auto and best use of the I/S/S+ and manual-shift modes, but the car does seem to guzzle a fair bit of fuel. Did a small trip from Sydney up to Patonga on the weekend, with a bit of highway driving, but only got around 350Km on a full tank. That’s actually worse than my un-tuned Forester GT with TD04 and they run pretty rich! Maybe I was expecting too much from a 3.0l engine and auto? :lol:

Cheers,

EG

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:41 am
by bigBADbenny
You’d do a log and learning view in Romraider or Btssm, or use a shop scanner to note ecu parameter AF Learning 1.

It should be within +/-5% or suspect inlet leaks etc.

Also check avcs vvt angles are in sync, during open and closed loop/cruise driving conditions.

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:55 pm
by evilgus
Ok, so my OBD2 Bluetooth transmitter arrived today, so I've got some stuff to learn about logging. I downloaded Car Scanner (iPhone) to try out and did a drive (within the 60Km speed limit) for a few Km, but honestly don't know what values are normal, for most readings, especially the O2 sensors and Fuel Trim settings. Here's a few simple things that I noticed:

1. Average Fuel Consumption is reading at about 22L/100Km. Yep, pretty awful!
2. Calculated Instant Fuel Consumption seemed to range from 5 to over 250! ???
3. Engine Coolant started at 25 (ambient temp), went up to about 92 and stayed there.
4. Fuel/Air Commanded Equivalence Ratio seems to range between about 14.58 and 14.84.
5. MAF Airflow Rate seems to sit below 5g/sec for idle, but can shoot up to 55.
6. Timing Advance seemed to sit around 15, but shot up to 35 on one occasion. (And down to 7, on another.)
7. There were no fault codes, but it looks like they were cleared not long before I bought the car. (The seller did get it serviced, just before advertising.)

Could "AF Learning" be called something else, depending on the software?

Cheers,

EG

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:19 am
by Yowie
Apart from fuel consumption that looks like a fairly normal set of data.

4. Fuel/Air Commanded Equivalence Ratio seems to range between about 14.58 and 14.84


This is likely during closed-loop stoichiometric mode (i.e normal driving).

You will find that the number goes higher (leaner) on throttle-off cruising down a hill and lower (richer) during acceleration.

Re: Bye Fozzie, Hello Spec B Wagon!

PostPosted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:22 pm
by bigBADbenny
I’d say you’ll need BtSsm or Romraider to see that data.

Its simply fuel learning related based on a/f sensor trying to adjust for stoich under varying loads.

Generic obdii is ok for temp, boost/vac, speed.