The Salty XT

Liberty Valance · Post by **Liberty Valance** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:56 pm

Here's some pics of my MY07 Subaru Forester XT Luxury, I bought it stock standard in April last year and have been modifying since. I have done almost all the custom work, modifications and fitted all accessories myself. There's been a lot of attention to detail to get everything looking and performing just right as this car is a keeper.

I have purpose built it for beach work and towing a camper trailer with the following mods:

Protection:
Subaxtreme Front Bar (customised)
Subaxtreme Rear Bar (customised)
Subaxtreme Sump Guard (customised)
Custom Lower Radiator Guard

Suspension:
KYB Excel G Struts
Scorpion Subaru 50mm Strut lift (front)
Subaxtreme 40mm Strut lift (rear)
Dobbinsons Standard Springs (rear)
Whiteline Camber bolts (rear)
Subaxtreme rear sway bar linkage extensions
Custom 50mm Trailing Arm Spacers

Tires:
16” Forester GT rims
215/70r16 BF Goodrich AT Tires

Engine:
Ultrex 3” WRX stainless dump-pipe and mid-section
Magnaflow muffler
Process West Intercooler and splitter
ECU Tune by PITS
Digital Boost Gauge
EGR System Delete

Transmission:
B&M Transmission Cooler
4EAT MPT Clutch Lockup Mod

Electronics:
3400 lumen LED Driving lights
2250 lumen LED work light
LED Combination Stop/Tail/ Reverse/Indicator lights
Oricom UHF Radio
OBDII Bluetooth Dongle

Body:
Thule Roof Racks
02 STI Hoop Scoop
Subaxtreme picnic table boot floor
Liberal application of rustproofing products

And being an XT Luxury it had these Factory Options:
Satnav
Vehicle Dynamic Control
Sunroof
Black Leather interior
Privacy glass
Premium Sound System
Headlight washers (deleted)
Foglights (deleted)
Urban Grey Metallic Paint

Hope you like it, I think it has turned out quite nice

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:32 pm

Looks tops mate, very well setup and probably even more capable!

It reminds me of a modernised version of my setup in the L series with that stance/height

Cheers

Bennie

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:52 pm

Hi Liberty Valance,

That is one very good looking Forester!

Need to get a few tips from you...

Tell us more about the MPT Clutch Lockup mod, I would've thought your vintage Forester (same as mine) would have come with the VTD centre diff and Prodrive transmission control unit. Did you swap that out for the MPT centre? Having the VDC option fitted in your car, didn't that interfere?

Love those square bars front and back, what customising mods did you do to them? Front bar looks to be mounted a bit higher than it should?!

Cheers,
Pedro.

Liberty Valance · Post by **Liberty Valance** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:13 pm

In it's simplest form an MTP Lockup mod just requires a switch in the wire from the TCU to the duty C solenoid. No volts means full lock up. This will produce some error codes and the better way to do the mod is with a two way rocker switch which swap between the duty C solenoid and a dummy load. For my dummy load I used a old solenoid but you can also use resistor. Just google it there's heaps of detailed how to write ups on the web. I had VTD in my old liberty but I'm sorry I've never heard of a Prodrive TCU and I wasn't aware that 2007 XT's had VTD as standard.

The front bar is from the earlier model SG5 forester. I to cut away about one third of the back of it and removed the headlight infill sections to bring it up to the quarter panel level on the SG9. In my opinion this looks 1000% better than using the standard mounting points. I then had to cut my front bumper, grill, washer bottle, guard liners and resonator to make everything fit. The approach angle is better this way and the lines of the car look so much nicer than having plastic bumper between the quarter panel and the front bar.

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:35 pm

Liberty Valance wrote:I've never heard of a Prodrive TCU and I wasn't aware that 2007 XT's had VTD as standard.

The sportshift tip-tronic feature is a product of the Prodrive TCU... Subaru had an association with them for a while until they started using their CVT gearboxes...

From what I've read over time, the Prodrive TCU combined with the VTD centre diff locks torque 50:50 when gear lever is on 1 or 2. Have you felt a lot of difference with the lock-up mod?

And great work on the bars! I agree with you that they look much better than original Subaxtreme!

Pedro.

Tigger · Post by **Tigger** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:48 am

I'm in love with the look of this Forester!!! Looks so awesome! You've done a great job and I love the look of that Front Bar!! So much better approach angle than the standard SubaXtreme one for that model!!

Liberty Valance · Post by **Liberty Valance** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 6:10 pm

Tigger wrote:I'm in love with the look of this Forester!!! Looks so awesome! You've done a great job and I love the look of that Front Bar!! So much better approach angle than the standard SubaXtreme one for that model!!

Thanks Tigger and Pedro, that front bar on my car sits even higher than it does on the previous model. You both have a keen eye for angles !

It took some serious beer time to work up the courage to chop the new bar apart to make it fit properly but I agree the result was worth it!

Liberty Valance · Post by **Liberty Valance** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 2:58 pm

pezimm wrote: From what I've read over time, the Prodrive TCU combined with the VTD centre diff locks torque 50:50 when gear lever is on 1 or 2. Have you felt a lot of difference with the lock-up mod?

I used to think that locking the car in first would automatically lock the MPT Clutch but it doesn't. There is graph get around somewhere on the interweb which shows the torque distribution is still dependent on throttle position albeit with a more aggressive curve on the graph.

The problem with relying on the vehicle speed sensors to lockup the center clutch is that by the time the TCU reduces the duty signal the clutch plates are already slipping. For frequent offroad driving this puts too much stress on the clutch plates and you will burn them out.

Think about this scenario. You are slowly crawling up a gravelly hill and the front wheels loose traction and start to spin. The TCU decides it's time to send more torque to the rear and tightens up the already slipping clutch. You are trying to catch something that is already slipping which creates heat and wear. The better approach is to have the clutch pack already locked up in anticipation by switching out the solenoid which controls it.

This doubly applies when you are crawling along and lift one front wheel into the air. In the time it takes the TCU to respond and tighten the MTP clutch and send more torque to the rear you have already lost forward momentum. This is where it really pays to have a lockup mod as you can drive through situations a lot more fluidly with no heat buildup in the clutch pack.

Lastly, try parking in soft dry sand and then starting again. When you start 90% of the torque goes immediately to the front wheels which spin and dig in deeper before the rear end receives any drive. Much easier on the car and driver if the front is locked to the rear before the car even attempts to move.

That my take on it anyway.

Ps. My car is an MY07 but built in Dec 06. From what I've read on subaruforester.org VTD was only fitted to 2007+ XT Sports Automatics so I may have missed out which is a shame as they are the better option for off-roading

pezimm · Post by **pezimm** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 8:46 pm

^ Thanks for the reply... I think your points make a lot of sense, and I'm starting to agree that the centre diff is not fully and properly locked when first gear is selected as I get no hopping when doing a tight turn on bitumen, for example...

I might need to get myself a switch and some resistors!

Info in SubaruForester.org is very USDM centric - with cars built in USA. It doesn't necessarily mean it applies to Australian market vehicles, built in Japan. Having said that, I'm not sure how to verify specs by number checking. Surely the experts on the forum will be able to advise?!

Cheers!
Pedro.

Liberty Valance · Post by **Liberty Valance** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:53 pm

pezimm wrote:....I'm starting to agree that the centre diff is not fully and properly locked when first gear is selected as I get no hopping when doing a tight turn on bitumen, for example...

That's a perfect example. Everyone hates it when their 4EAT develops torque bind, the feeling of a locked MPT Clutch is very obvious when performing tight turns on hard surfaces. However if you manually select 1st gear and do tight circles the same torque bind isn't evident.

4EAT torque bind occurs when the MPT Clutch solenoid fails do maintain it's duty cycle or open circuits. Lucky for us offroaders we can reproduce this situation by switching the Duty C solenoid off at will !