To be honest, I was convinced that by this time the latent heat of vaporization would be automatically released thanks to my hobby project. However, holidays have their own rules, and the whole thing has been slightly delayed. Nevertheless, some very minor progress has been made.

I replaced the original four-liter tank with the Spec-C version, which has a capacity of twelve liters; I also removed the stand on which the smaller one was mounted - seems like a simple thing, but there’s one nut hidden underneath, in a rather non-obvious spot.

Maybe the Impreza isn’t a classic? Or maybe it’s not a classic just yet? But for sure it’s slowly approaching the “NLA” status — no longer available for purchase. And that’s exactly the status I saw while looking for 90871FE040 a replacement reinforcement panel for the scoop. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it’s been giving me gray hairs for a long time every time I opened the hood. So I finally decided to go to war with this wee plate.

Almost there — just about ready to go. I’ve gathered all the missing parts. A local machinist came to the rescue and turned a custom adapter fitting, modeled after a T-joint, to make everything connect neatly. He’s an old-school kind of a guy — the type who can tell you the thread pitch in turns per inch without putting on his glasses and we mostly use metrics here.

The T-joint:

For the record, I’m reporting that the Forester got a new dose of oil (Castrol Edge LL 5W30), plus the filters (air and oil); mileage: 332430 km.

And since I was already tinkering with it, I also fixed the wipers. The plastic bushings in the linkages were completely worn out, which resulted in the wipers mainly focusing on the A-pillar and the cowl panel. A simple fix, though a bit costly; I know that the plastic parts alone are available, but I didn’t manage to find them and with a holiday trip fast approaching I went for the whole set. You just need to unscrew the wiper arms and remove the cowl panel.

This post could’ve been just one sentence: “I bought a great dead pedal — anyone who owns a GD STI should have it.” If it weren’t for one detail — or rather, another dead pedal I also bought. Let me explain.

I read somewhere that the dead pedal from the BRZ (part number 38010CA010) fits the Impreza, so I bought it. It looks like this:

As with all OEM parts, it’s well made, with a nicely formed aluminum plate mounted on a plastic base. But what caught my attention were the screws holding the aluminum — not the ones in the photo above, since I’ve already replaced those — but these:

That’s kind of what it looks like — but every now and then, the Forester gets some love too. That moment has finally come. First up: gauge cluster backlighting. I’ve done this twice already, and this time I said enough’s enough, time for LEDs.

The only complication was that, because of the boost gauge, I had to lower the entire steering column to get the cluster out.

One of the three main bulbs burned out, the one behind the rev-counter:

This isn’t up for a debate — it’s simply a fact: the best-looking wheels for the Forester SG are the ones that came standard on the XT versions from the factory, part number 28111SA020. Period!

And so, I bought a second set for my Forester. No more swapping tires between summer and winter — I’ll just swap the entire wheels myself. Let’s be honest: the Forester SG is a bit of an acquired taste these days, but the upside is that a full set of wheels in great condition costs about as much as three tire swaps at a tire shop.

This remote kept bothering me. And while I concluded that programming it was indeed impossible, I still kept thinking how to make it work with the USDM fob. The solution turned out to be quite a hack, so a full disclaimer is in order: PCB boards suffered during the process, those of you with a delicate, electronic heart, are encouraged to skip this post.

Just as the saying in the title goes, I was determined to fit the original key’s PCB into the American one, no matter what. The first obstacle was the switches, which were permanently soldered to the board. I came to the conclusion that this was too small of a component for my skills (because although I do have a soldering iron and I’m not afraid to use it, there have to be limits), so I begged a technician at Lispol to do it for me. Big thanks to this guy - no one in Kraków wanted to take on the task, and I went to many a places, but he did and even called me to consult the length of the wires.

The time has come again. The weekend is reserved, the route, in general, is planned, the stages have been reviewed, and it’s time to begin the third edition of Rallye Boží Bojovníci. This year, we decided to drive around the Tatras, and with that, experience stages from Rajd Śląska, Rally Liptov, and Rallye Tatry. Here are some stages we’ve driven:

• Hażlach,
• Huty,
• Toporec,
• Rel’ov.

Slovakia is a beautiful country, and it’s fantastic to drive when the Tatras, Veľká Fatra, or Malá Fatra are constantly in the horizon. The winding, narrow, up-and-down roads are just perfect for Impreza with its 525nm of torque. The people are also very friendly and open. Honestly, I’ve never had so many people wave at me and greet me as I did in Slovakia. At every petrol station, and I do mean every single one, someone would stop to talk about the car. The best moment was when we stopped in Spišské Hanušovce, where the Impreza was idling, cooling off the turbo, and we planned to go to the Potraviny to get some bread for breakfast. Suddenly, we saw two guys walking from the other side of the road, dressed in workshop clothes, and waving at us to drive into their yard. So, we hopped in the car and drove over to them. They were from Baka Motorsport, super friendly bunch. We chatted, and they showed us what they had in their yard, which was quite a lot: from GC8 to VA, and from Evo VI who someone had managed to roll to a GT-R hidden in a storage under a blanket. They liked the Impreza so much that they wanted to buy it. They said they were going to Nowy Targ in the evening to pick up another Impreza and an Evo, and invited us to join them, so they could show us some local tricks. However, we were heading west, so we waved goodbye and parted ways.

I did some detective work and am 99% sure this is my car:

In those clips the first owner behind the wheel, about 16 years ago, which is just over a year after purchasing it (best wishes if you’re reading this!).

The same owner kept the car for many a years, despite driving a whole bunch of very unusual cars during that time (looking at you, Fiesta R2 and DS3 R3T). I’m mentioning this because on Friday, I removed the aramid skid plate from under the engine, a memento from those days. The aramid plate is cool, but for my usage and how I drive the car, it’s definitely an overkill. It also had one flaw: the front is securely held on with two bolts, but the rear has a, rather poorly designed, pair of tabs, which slides into holes in the plastic underbody shields (I had to have those floor pan splash shields welded back in the day). This is not a great solution. Not only does the skid plate not stay rigid and hits the underbody on bumps, giving me a mini heart attack every time it does that, but over time, it also cracks the shields it’s inserted into. I think this plate might have been a part of a bigger N12 kit, and perhaps it was better integrated with the other shields?