1WD Foz's

1WD Foz's Foz

Howdy guys and girls,

Im new around here and thought id start a journal to document my hopefully awesome adventure modding my 98 FOZ.

It all started about 7 months ago when i came up with the idea of buying a second car for my wife and I to use for our 1 hour long drive to work, giving our Honda a rest.
Initially i was looking for a cheap Land-rover discovery also thinking we could use this to do some camping and light 4x4ing on our days off, but quickly realised that a Discovery would eat my money in fuel alone so started looking for a cheaper alternative.
Then i noticed a nice looking 98 on gumtree for $2000 no reg no rw, 189k
and seller says clutch may be due.....
I hesitated in calling him for about 3 weeks as i just wasn't sure about Subaru's or Foresters in general, then one day noticed he dropped the price to $1000
So i gave the guy a call and went and looked at it.... $900 was his lowest and the clutch felt fine.
I drove her home (with a permit).

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Booked her in for a Rw the next week and listed defects found was:
~Replace wiper blades
~Rectify R/H tail light and stop light
~Replace drivers seat belt
~Secure spare wheel
~Secure battery
~Replace and bleed brake fluid
~Replace clutch & brake pedal pads
~Clean and rectify oil leaks
~Replace L/H inner cv boot
~Replace front & rear sway bar link bushes

So i did what i could and got mechanic to do the rest.
Next week i had rego :monkeydance:

I drove it around for a couple weeks and started to notice that if i put my foot flat.... some times it would slip, so i looked up clutches on ebay and took a gamble with a relatively new melbourne based brand "Blusteele' as they had crazy low prices, $250 new ,shipped, with 12 month warranty.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Blusteele-Clutch-Kit-for-Subaru-Forester-S10-2-0Ltr-SOHC-EJ20J-98-02-w-WARRANTY/182301956674?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I had it sitting there for when the Foz needed it and it wasn't long until i got the car bogged (in my front bloody yard mind you) :rotfl:
and the clutch was ruined after minimal attempts of getting out with road tires.

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look at the damage to my Neighbours front lawn :redface:
luckily it only cost a slab to recover.

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The truck that pulled me out :rotfl:

So i threw my car at the same mechanics that did my rw and they installed my clutch!!
Also had my flywheel machined and they found a leak in my rear main seal so replaced that while they where there....awesome!!

My wife and i started exploring how far down the dirt track this little foz could take us in places like Lerderderg State Park & LaL LaL & Bungal state forest. whilst we stuck to the chicken track mostly... I realised fast this was a capable little beast.
Next thing to go was me rear left shock...... i knew it was coming tho, and taking it offload didn't help a bit :shrug:
So I ordered rear KYB's and standard Kings springs from Archm-suspension in Bayswater as they had the best prices and the boys down there are really nice.
you can find them on ebay

https://stores.ebay.com.au/archmindustries/

So i had them Installed and straight away what a difference it made, the rears must have been so saggy before cause it looked lifted when i picked her up lol

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New rear kings springs and kyb shocks

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Old ride height :rotfl:

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New ride height

Then it was time for some new tires as i had a few issues with the old ones
I went with 4 x Yokohama Geolander G015 AT in 205/70/R15's

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The last issue i had was the speedo died, subaru wanted $350
wreckers cost $10 and i got 2 :rotfl:

And im trying to figure out what this loud noise is coming from my rear passenger wheel area, it comes and goes ,sounds like a loud grinding noise majority of the time around 90-100ks.

1WD
 
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yes 2x2.5 looks good. or if needed put harder spring on rear. i carry some crap in trunk sometimes and i]m still pretty happy and holding to my Self levels in rear. even with full car of people plus bags and stuff in trunk my rear sags just little.

oh so its your videos ? aha very cool then. wonder why so loud inside car. could it be that my outback have better sounds insulation . ha thou its not insulated from wind noises :/
now that im thinking about sound, when i drive i have sometimes very weird sounds just because my VDC starts to work and cuts engine power so its start sound real funny .. haha
 
My mechaninc is reccomending aftermarket CV boots, but I'm pretty sure I"ve read on here that OEM are better..

If you've been on white knuckle tracks, they're probably similar to some up here, but maybe without as deep ruts, or bigger bumps in the track.

To be honest, a lot of the tracks I've been on you could get over in a standard car if you took it carefully, except for the bump track, thats a beast.

edit: when I say a lot of the tracks you could get over in a standard car, you probably wouldn't get a standard car over any of them if it wasn't dry.
 
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Hey Ben
Let me know how the oem boots go mate
Interested to hear how the hold up
And would love to see any vids of your Foz’s adventures.

So far I’ve been able to carefully position my car so I avoid any damage (apart from the old exhaust lol)
on some gnarly tracks with deep ruts, cliff face on one side and a dirt wall on the other
I’ve tackled some steep hills
Both up and down
And taken my foz down many skinny moto tracks not designed for car use
Just because lol
To be honest I haven’t had the guts to put my foz through mud or water yet as most times I’m by myself so don’t wanna risk getting bogged..... again lol
most heavily rutted tracks have a chicken track that I opt for, have been know to make my own from time to time [emoji6]
Sometimes a little track maintenance is all that’s needed.

1WD
 
I believe I recall someone installing hilux boots and maybe it was over the top of the OEM boot for better protection :shrug:
 
scalman said:
oh so its your videos ? aha very cool then. wonder why so loud inside car. could it be that my outback have better sounds insulation . ha thou its not insulated from wind noises :/
now that im thinking about sound, when i drive i have sometimes very weird sounds just because my VDC starts to work and cuts engine power so its start sound real funny .. haha
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lol yeah mate thats my video lmfao
now i understand hahahaha
you thought i was just showing you a random forester :rotfl:
nope all mine :monkeydance:

honestly i think its just a super loud exhaust
plus having the uel headers may contribute lol
maybe time for you to get uel headers then ?? :lildevil:

1WD
 
Kevin said:
I believe I recall someone installing hilux boots and maybe it was over the top of the OEM boot for better protection :shrug:
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Very interesting indeed Kevin :biggrin:

thats a great idea

so long as the ribs on both cv boots line up im guessing it should work just fine

1WD
 
1WD Foz said:
lol yeah mate thats my video lmfao
now i understand hahahaha
you thought i was just showing you a random forester :rotfl:
nope all mine :monkeydance:

honestly i think its just a super loud exhaust
plus having the uel headers may contribute lol
maybe time for you to get uel headers then ?? :lildevil:

1WD
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could that be because rear muffler box ? you know when its sounds best ? when you remove everything after catalyst box ...wow how its sounds then .. like beast :twisted::twisted:

my exaust sounds similar to your video from rear outside. but inside its not loud at all, just gives me that tune of little rumble when you press pedal. and i do it all time. :cool:

about OEM cv vs aftermarkets everyone told me that used OEM CV's are way better then aftermarket new ones. and now as i changed couple pairs in front and rear to used ones i can tell that they hold very very well. and i no drive carefully. if i go forest track or snow i drive pretty hard on them. and even with broken rubber boot they hold long time and not making any sound. now im driving with broken rear CV rubber boot and its just fine. OEM CV's are holding like tanks really.
another cheap way is older impreza FWD model front axles. as they are stronger and heavier as 4wd models.
 
@ scalman, yes the oem CV's are the only good ones, the question is about CV boots...oem or aftermarket ? Everybody says that oem are better but I had aftermarket boots with the Heri axles and they held great too.
 
1WD Foz said:
Very interesting indeed Kevin :biggrin:

thats a great idea

so long as the ribs on both cv boots line up im guessing it should work just fine

1WD
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Here's a thread re hilux boots, there may be more:

https://offroadsubarus.com/showthread.php?t=4360

Also from Taza in 2014 "I have recently changed my inner CV boots front and back to lifted hilux boots as reinsurance."
taza said:
Found a solution for the ripping CV boots. There was a thread over on AuSubaru.

Davidov on here has his front boots rip after 2 weeks of having a 3" strut lift put in. Ended up going o a CV joint place but instead of getting normal Subaru boots.
He got boots that are designed for a lifted Toyota Hilux. They are thicker and longer than standard boots, especially for a Subaru, thus making them more heavy duty.

Cost about $250 for the two front inner boots and fitted. Now another 2 guys on AuSubaru have gone to the same place and are getting the same boots put on.

I think this type of boot could me more suited to people who have exteme angles on their Subies.

taza
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Ohh boots as those rubber ones? Ahh ok know i get it what you call boots then haha. I just buy any aftermarket boots that i find and they hold ok just not front one that are on top of catalyst. That part just get so much heat that they cook i think. Other side holds fine some chinese made i think. But that one on top catalyst is allways braking like in week.
So you need hilux rubber boot? But that one will be same aftermarket as well if i look in shop.
 
Well it’s official
My foz is now part of the SubieLiftOz club
Waiting for an alignment right now [emoji6]
 
BIG thanks to NachaLuva for his awesome lift kit and advice /support
NachaLuva’s foz is even better in real life [emoji6][emoji6]
 
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Will get some better shots soon
Took a little longer than expected to install so had to sleep over my mates house, ended up finishing this morning lol
So once i finally get home I’ll probly pass out then wake up tomorrow and take pics
All in all absolutely stoked with the lift kit and how it looks
And without the amazing instructions that came with the kit I don’t think I’d be anywhere near halfway yet or would have destroyed half the suspension in the process

1WD
 
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Looks awesome!
So what lift did you go for in the end? looks awfully similar in height to mine from the side..
(Maybe Nacha should be colour coding them :ebiggrin:)
 
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[MENTION=432]Ben[/MENTION] - Thanks heaps mate, I went with 2"F 2.5"R
:monkeydance::monkeydance:

1WD
 
Before

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After


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[emoji38][emoji1360]
 
Looks good! Welcome to the "higher car" club :-)
 
nice looks . just need repaint rims or put better ones and proper tires now.
i want just ask one thing about front spacers camber and caster offsets. like how much they are off. i was reading in other place that its like 0,65-0,7cm more inside. is that about correct ?and it goes to side too not just up. wonder how much to side and how much up from original bolts it goes
 
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