Now that I’ve done a small bit of work to the car I figured I’d make one of these. I probably won’t include regular maintenance unless it’s significant.
The car is a 2010 V50 T5 R-Design with the M66 in Titanium Grey Metallic with the two tone white and black seats. I found out about the car because I wanted a manual AWD wagon with a turbo. I didn’t think this car really existed but watched the used market for close to a year before this one popped up on Craigslist about 20 minutes from my apartment. Was in good mechanical condition, not amazing cosmetically, and had about 75k miles. It was purchased in New Jersey, lived somewhere in New York and Seattle before making it’s way to Boulder, CO.
January 2016 – Driving it home:
May 2017 – How it sits today:
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Contents:
- R Design Badge
- Interior Detailing
- OBD Link
- Rear brakes
- Headlights and Fogs
- Rad blue anodized license plate nuts
- Engine Bay Detailing
- Silicone coolant hoses
- LP illumination bulbs / City lights
- Super rad glasses storage
- eFocus Torque mount
- Fog lens correction
- Cam Seal leak/ shenanigans
- IPD Boost Gauge
- KW V1 Coilovers
- Focust ST gas pedal spacer
- Exterior Detailing……………………………………………………………..in work
- Turbosmart Wastegate Actuator
- Do88 Intercooler
- Snabb Intercooler piping
- Turbosmart Dual-Port Compressor Bypass Valve
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R Design Badge
First thing to take care of was the R badge on the front grille. The sticker was gone, like most. I was dumb and instead of ordering from Dave Barton, I found the entire mount on Amazon and removed the bumper to replace.
Interior Detailing
Next up, interior detailing. The PO gave me the “I got kids, man” and the car was gross. The Denver area can get quite dusty and dirty which was evident everywhere on this car. I’ll have a larger album hosted and linked on imgur soon but here are some highlights. Products used were a handheld steamer, 8:1 Optimum Power Clean, and Kirkland microfiber towels.
50/50 of the passenger seat
Some nest monster thing on the TOP of the right rear wheel well liner.
Shift boot trim.
Shampooing the carpets. Words do not describe how the smell changed after this day.
Winter pics
Got it out for some pics in it’s natural habitat
OBD Link
No boost gauge was an issue for me as it’s my first turbo car, so my (interim) solution was an OBD Link LX scanner paired to an old phone.
Coming from a 2.5i Impreza these numbers were quite different.
Rear Brakes
The PPI came up with the rear rotors needing to be replaced, so on went the Power Stop Z23 Evolution drilled and slotted kit with stainless braided lines.
Headlights and Fogs
These headlights are…not great. I replaced whatever halogen with Philips Crystal Vision Ultras. The PO had installed LEDs in the fogs that were too cold for my taste, so I went with a yellow LED I found on Amazon, the brand is called Calais.
Old setup:
New setup:
50/50
The fogs are pretty damn yellow. Honestly if they went out I’d go to a yellow halogen.
Blue LP nuts
Think I ordered something from IPD and was close to free shipping and these were on sale. Off went the rusted silver nuts and on went the blue anodized nuts. It’s the little things…
Engine bay detailed
I knew I’d be installing new coolant hoses so I gave it a detail. Used 10:1 simple green to clean, detailing brush to agitate and aerospace 303 to dress. I don’t have a before pic but think brown. Tons of dirt sitting on top of everything.
Coolant hoses
You guys scared me into dealing with the coolant hoses before they became a problem. This wasn’t a fun project but was the most I’d ever worked on a car so I’m a little proud of it haha.
The expansion tank was cracking so I replaced it too.
LP illumination bulbs/ city lights
Followed the LED bulb replacement guide and thought it really classed up the rear end.
Before:
After:
Had a city light out so used the opportunity to put 4.5k LEDs in. Looks good in the pic but next to an identical 6k bulb they look yellow. Will probably replace them when I do another LED order.
Before and after:
Glasses storage
The waterfall console looks cool, sure. But when you can’t see the tray behind it you leave your **** all the time. So in went the OEM glasses storage in place of the overhead handle. Groundbreaking, I know.
eFocus Torque Mount
Time to get to actual modding. This is the best $40 that has been spent on this car – after the blue anodized plate nuts of course. The install was a joke and the difference in shifting is incredible. Prior to this I thought I was just bad at driving stick. Now shifting is quick and firm and when I go into 2nd above 5k rpms the tires chirp. I don’t know what effect these have on autos but I can’t recommend them enough on manual P1 cars.
More to come!
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