New member Subaru liberty gen 5 Isports premium

[Yograj]

Hello everyone, My name is Raj. I have recently bought 2012 Subaru liberty isports premiuim in peral white colour. I would love to modify my car with looks and power. I have gone through some forums here and found very intersting stuff.
I have few questions, I realised that sports model liberty does not come with turbo or double muffler, which is very disappointing. After doing more research I found out that it only produce 123kw power whereas some liberty models reach 193kw. I know I should have done my research before. Nonetheless I love my car. Since my car has single muffler, is it possible to get double muffler installed ( Noob question).
This model already comes with sports suspensions but it is not low enough. Is it worth puting some other coilovers?
is it only my car or all subaru liberties have heavy sterring wheel while turning?

I am posting some before and after pics of my car. I have done some changes to the looks of my car. Hopefully yo all like it. Everything has been done on avery tight budget.

Sorry guys I have so many questions and it is pretty hard to find aftermarket stuff for gen 5. Any help will be appreciated.

[Yograj]

Sorry guys, all the after pics i have of my car are high in resolution and if i try to compress them, they lose the quality. Any other way of posting those pics here?

[bigBADbenny]

I use a photo resize app to compress to say 600x800px

[Stifull]

IMGUR is a free photo storage site that works well for editing sizes, cropping etc for forums etc.

[Yograj]

Here are the some after pics,

I have painted wheels matt black
Red calpiers
Chrome delete on front grill
Black mirrors
Just some exterior stuff

[LibertyTragic]

Welcome mate, nice looking Gen5. Enjoy it!

While you can likely fit exhausts from the GT and 3.6R models (dual) from axel back, you might have the issue of the rear bumper not having a slot for the 2nd tip? Or is there a blank cover piece you can remove? Otherwise if you just want a bit of sound, go to any generic muffler place and just replace the muffler with something sportier. Custom would be your only option as there are no aftermarket options for the gen5 2.5 non-turbo.

For lowering, coilovers are great, but they are a pricey option for just lowering the car. You will also sacrifice some comfort and add quite a bit of road noise. If money is no object and you don't mind the downsides, go for it, but suggest to consider lowering springs instead, especially if your car came with bilsteins (yellow struts)? Also, adding a front lip to the car (an sti one or a replica) can give the appearance of the car being lower,, which is quite a cheap and simple mod.

[Yograj]

[quote="LibertyTragic"]Welcome mate, nice looking Gen5. Enjoy it!

Thanks for the detail information. Right now I am on a tight budget since I just bought the car. The does have space for dual exhaust but i think if will ask to go for dual exhaust it will be very costly ( I reckon).
With lowering the car, I like your advise of not to compromise with comfort and sound. Instead I should go for lowering springs which would be cost effective too.
I read some of your posts where you mentioned that you ordered rear diffuser from kazashtan. Did you ever put it on? If yes can you please share the pictures.

Thanks

[Yograj]

Also is worth putting cold air intake system on? I know it doesn’t do much for the performance but it does sound good.
Should I go for it or not? If yes what brand you guys recommend?

[Yowie]

Nice looking car.

Regarding performance mods, some things will be good value (handling, looks, sound, etc) BUT trying to wring more power out of a small-displacement 4 cylinder naturally aspirated engine pushing a heavy AWD car is going to be a very inefficient use of your time and money.

If you like the car and will hang onto it for a while, I recommend focussing on the "bang for buck" improvement areas. If you really want more power, make a plan to get a turbocharged or large-displacement (or both!) car and put your money towards saving for that rather than modifying your Liberty.

Also is worth putting cold air intake system on? I know it doesn’t do much for the performance but it does sound good.
Should I go for it or not? If yes what brand you guys recommend?

A lot of so-called "cold air intakes" are just pod filters in the engine bay - with or without some sort of ineffectual shielding. Hot air is counter-productive to performance because the air is less dense AND the ECU retards the ignition timing (as knock prevention). If you just like the look/sound and can handle the loss of some power maybe this is ok for you.

If you find a commercial off-the-shelf system that genuinely draws cool air because the air filter is isolated from the engine bay then you can consider it on its merits - including price!

A lot of people get a better intake sound by removing the resonator from the factory airbox then extending the resulting hole with the use of pipes to a cool pickup point.

I used alloy and silicone tube sections (see this page of my build thread viewtopic.php?f=10&t=36234&start=15 ) but others have had success with Bunnings-spec PVC pipe.

I've done something similar with a naturally aspirated car before (3.8L commodore). They do sound better and draw cooler air. The down-sides include the need to change the air filter more often (depending on air pickup placement) and a load of "experts" whinging at you that the engine will ingest a load of water and die (which has never happened to me - after a torrential rain freeway trip the only thing that happened was a soggy air filter).

If you want the better sound and don't care about hot air, just remove the resonator from the airbox and leave things at that.

Good luck with it whatever you chose.


EDIT - For the sake of completeness it is worth mentioning that intake resonators are sometimes for noise-reduction, sometimes for extra power (tuned frequencies etc) and sometimes both. Such features can be important on a naturally aspirated engine. "The internet" will debate until the end of time whether (eg) removing the resonator will affect power in a given car. Nobody seems to have the budget for comparable dyno runs except for "buy our stuff" manufacturers whose results should be treated with caution.

If you make your resonator removal (& perhaps replacement with piping) non-permanent* at least you can swap things back if you don't like the modification.

My guess is that nobody would notice any slight loss of power that may occur at n,550 revs because the resonator has been replaced with a secondary cold-air feed. The "sounds better" psychological kilowatts would make up for it

(*either with original parts OR by getting an unmolested airbox from the wreckers when you want to swap things back).

[Stifull]

If you mean a pod in the engine bay then my answer would be "NO". It just makes the intake air hot and looses power.. . A proper one with the pod in the front guard, then "YES". OR you could just get rid of the resonator bottle that connects to the bottom of the air box. It's quick, easy, free and may add sucking noise.. Not sure about NA engines but it works well on a turbo.. Your car is looking soo much better now. If you are a rex fan , there is room behind the grill for a couple of hellas. Red ones would go with your callipers. I have bright yellow callipers and hellas. I get the rex mob waving at me all the time.. LOL..I think it confuses some as the Gen 4 libs have a similar front to the peanut rexs.. What mud flaps did you use. My offset and 9" (maybe 9.5) and a little camber makes then stick out a little and it makes the car very dirty. Have been thinking about mud flaps for a while.

[Yograj]

Thank you guys for the detailed information. I will be sure to put all the facts into consideration while doing any modification. Feels great to join the subaru community. Really appreciate it

[Yograj]

If you mean a pod in the engine bay then my answer would be "NO". It just makes the intake air hot and looses power.. . A proper one with the pod in the front guard, then "YES". OR you could just get rid of the resonator bottle that connects to the bottom of the air box. It's quick, easy, free and may add sucking noise.. Not sure about NA engines but it works well on a turbo.. Your car is looking soo much better now. If you are a rex fan , there is room behind the grill for a couple of hellas. Red ones would go with your callipers. I have bright yellow callipers and hellas. I get the rex mob waving at me all the time.. LOL..I think it confuses some as the Gen 4 libs have a similar front to the peanut rexs.. What mud flaps did you use. My offset and 9" (maybe 9.5) and a little camber makes then stick out a little and it makes the car very dirty. Have been thinking about mud flaps for a while.

These came with the car. I think they come with the sports model but I will check again in the evening and will confirm you. If it’s any specific brand I will post the pictures.

[LibertyTragic]

I read some of your posts where you mentioned that you ordered rear diffuser from kazashtan. Did you ever put it on? If yes can you please share the pictures.

Thanks

That was a user on here "nay" who was looking into a rear diffuser. I haven't seen him post on the forum since so not sure if he has received it and installed it.

My Lib came with a factory rear bar and exhaust shrouds so I have no need for something else.

[Yograj]

If you mean a pod in the engine bay then my answer would be "NO". It just makes the intake air hot and looses power.. . A proper one with the pod in the front guard, then "YES". OR you could just get rid of the resonator bottle that connects to the bottom of the air box. It's quick, easy, free and may add sucking noise.. Not sure about NA engines but it works well on a turbo.. Your car is looking soo much better now. If you are a rex fan , there is room behind the grill for a couple of hellas. Red ones would go with your callipers. I have bright yellow callipers and hellas. I get the rex mob waving at me all the time.. LOL..I think it confuses some as the Gen 4 libs have a similar front to the peanut rexs.. What mud flaps did you use. My offset and 9" (maybe 9.5) and a little camber makes then stick out a little and it makes the car very dirty. Have been thinking about mud flaps for a while.

These are the mud guards I have got on my car.

[Stifull]

Thanks for the pics. They tie in nicely. I wonder if they are Subaru or just a nice fitting generic brand.