Today I finally got a chance to take it for a spin on the snow on my all-season Yokohama W4S tyres. Overall, my confidence level has definitely dropped after driving on these (compared to driving on snow-rated tyres). The car slides easily on the turns and locks tyres on breaking. I forced it few times in into the drift, just to feel the control. Luckily they are sort of predictible for now, perhaps because they're almost brand new. We'll see how they behave in a heavier snow storm.

Today, I finally got around to drop off my car for 30,000 miles, or so called Level D service. One of the reason I sped this process up was because I started to experience strange behaviors on first gear. It's quite common for Subaru manual gear box that first gear is not smooth. But after my Stage 2 reflash, it became fine. For some reason lately, first gear became very "unfriendly", car jerks, stalls etc, it's quite noticeable. Someone recommended that I change gear box fluid. Well I figured why not just go ahead and do this 30,000 service.

After this service, the "unfriendly" behavior is gone, so I am quite happy, I guess my buddy was right.

As for bad news they noticed bad rear sway bar end-links. They suggest new links, because OEM links were too weak for aftermarket swaybar, and thus they are probably trashed. Also they said that power steering fluid is dark, they recommend flushing.

Since two of my Bridgestone tyres ended up being a junk, I figured it's time to buy new set of tyres instead of replacing Bridgestones, since they're expensive RE070. So I went to TownFairTire and found a really good deal on Yokohama WS4. Free mount and balance, etc. So that's a good deal. However, after the car went in, they removed one lug nut and put it back on. Turns out TownFairTire has a new policy of putting aftermarket rims back on the car with OEM lug nuts — they do not do it, they require after market lug nut before they proceed with work.

On I went to find damn lug nuts, Pep Boys didn't have any, need to go out tomorrow to search for these things. Quite annoying. In the meantime, I have to ride on a doughnut tyre.

Today brought the car to zaksauto.com to have him try to locate the leak that I talked about earlier. In about five minutes he located and fixed it. It was a loose hose on the right side of the intercooler. Now car is good for now. I just have to stay away from any power mods for a while. I like to have a stable car.

For a while, strange whining sound has been coming from engine compartment on target boost. Only today did I manage to record sort of a decent video clip where sound could be somewhat easily heard. So far I have no idea what a hell this could be short of intake leak somewhere. I've posted a question on nasioc, let's see what that brings. Below is nasioc quote:

Hey guys, hopefully someone will be able to help me a bit with identifying a strange whine noise coming on load/target boost. This has been happening since I went to stage 2. It's very hard to tell for sure where exactly it is coming from, to me being in driver
position it seems like it's coming from driver side, even if all windows rolled down.

Power mods:

1. Turboback exhust (SPT catback + catted divorced Perrin downpipe).
2. Stage 2 Octane 93 COBB Access Port tune.

I've posted some clips here before but the quality wasn't that great, today somehow I managed to record better clip with all windows rolled up:

Strange whine noise on target boost from Vlad Kulchitski on Vimeo.

At first it may sound normal, so to qualify this I've outlined at which point in video this sound can be observed, it's not terribly annoying, but distinctive whining sound, so at the following times:

1. 00m03s — 00m05s
2. 00m10s — 00m12s
3. 00m22s — 00m24s
4. 00m59s — 01m01s
5. 00m02s — 01m04s

Any help and hints will be appreciated,
Thanks,
Vlad
p.s. maybe I am overly paranoid, I would be happy if this was the case

After a couple of weeks of driving without rear sway bar, it's finally on:

Now just need to make sure I don't have any intake leaks and I'll be all set to go for now.

Difficult day today, started off by trying to put new sway bar at Zak's Auto Industries. Turned out I left some bushings at home, and COBB ones did not work. So now I am riding swaybar-less until I get bushings and its brackets, which again, I have COBB ones, and I need OEM ones to fit Perrin sway bar.

As far as downpipe, everything went quite smooth, until the last bolt came into the play, the one that bolts intercooler. It broke. So Zak had to drill in and tap it.

Shiny new downpipe is visible from underneath, connected to already rusted SPT catback exhaust.

So it is now officially stage 2, we'll see where it goes next. System is still learning stage 2, reportedly needs up to hundred miles for learning process to get done.

Just got off the phone with COBB Tuning and have to admit, I am pleasantly surprised with customer support. They're sending me some revised hardware to fix sway bar problem. We'll see what I will end up doing given that I just ordered one piece sway bar now. Maybe I'll sell this COBB one then.

New upgrades are going on the car soon, the following are leaving warehouse today:

• Catted downpipe, to complete stage 2.
• 22mm rear sway bar, to replace COBB rear sway bar that is a piece of junk.

New parts are Perrin Performance products distributed by Subimods.com.

Today got my yearly NH inspection sticker on at DFA in Nashua. I was quite surprised by the guy not even paying attention to my tint. I proudly reminded him to check my medical waiver, to which he replied that "I was all set".

I was mostly afraid of the car not passing due to lose link on sway bar that is still lose. I need to get around to buying another sway bar.

Yesterday dropped the car off at Gatecity Collision Center to do some warranty work on trunk lid rusted spots. It's been only one day but I already miss it; also it's on ebay still with auction finishing in 23 hours. I do want to sell it, but at the same time I know I will miss it a lot.

As I was putting my STi spoiler back on, I decided to take before and after picture of OEM spoiler:

Insignificance of '08 OEM WRX Spoiler (on/off animation).

Today I finally got determined to fix a stupid COBB sway bar that became undone a while ago in Florida.

With nice jack stands and jack, car's up in no time.

Visibly entire sway bar is rust, but what can you do. I used metal brush to clean it off and re-secure end link.

Immediately, car felt different; and most importantly, I didn't have alignment problem any more! I did suspect that sway bar would affect alignment, so this is just a confirmation.

Unfortunately, on my way back from Black Swan Robotics, where I fixed my car, I did few errands. By the time I got home, sway bar was undone again. It must have been much less than 30 mi for it to come undone again.

At this point, probably this sway bar is junk. I will likely just buy a new one that is one piece.

Today, I had an oil change done, and finally remembered to mention to a Subaru dealer that my rear trunk lid is rusting away. On a almost brand new car no less. They were surprised but said that some sort of special "rep" should come check it out for them to decide whether to junk that trunk lid or respray it.

Another thing that I remembered to tell them to check was metallic noise from the rear suspension. They found that my COBB sway bar is detached on the left side... Nothing critical, I guess I have a "one-sided" sway now, but safe to travel to NH to take care of it. By the way, the sway is rusted to hell as well!

p.s. once again in case this isn't clear yet — this is an '08 car.

I think time has come to design a self-sufficient power system for laptop, phone, and other electronics in my car.

This morning the car wouldn't start. I did use quite a bit of battery power for laptop yesterday night at a fishing pier, but I drove after that too; that is, battery had some charge after. So it's strange that it was dead. I called Subaru Roadside Assistance and in about 30 min help arrived.

Will need to monitor this now, if battery is too weak, I might as well buy a new one.