Tag Archives: Subaru Impreza
Subaru Impreza DIY – How to replace front signal light
We love our 2011 Impreza, it’s an excellent car! However, at around 8500 KM under the sudden change of temperature, the left turn signal light died (you can tell from the rapid relay sound when using the signal). Okay, I flipped through the user manual and found this, quote “Front turn signal light: It may be difficult to replace the bulbs. Have the bulbs replaced by your SUBARU dealer if necessary.”
Note that they used the word “may be” and “if necessary”, what does that mean? It means you can DIY for sure. Since I only got the left signal problem, I am going to show you how to do it on left side only, go figure it out yourself if you have the other side problem. Quote “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Wanring: Do not perform the steps if you are have big hands, you will get stuck. So, put your cell phone in your pocket just in case you need to call 911 for fire fighters to save you.
- First you need light bulbs, 1157NA is the bulb you need, around $5 CAD for 2
- Disconnect the battery negative connection by removing the screw
- Remove the battery holder bracket (you need a long socket)
- Move the battery aside (towards the engine) to make space and locate the bulb
- Stick your hand there and remove the bulb holder by turning counterclockwise
- Replace the old bulb with new one
- Put the bulb holder back carefully, make sure the rubber seal is tight when you secure the holder back to the original position
- Put everything else back (bracket and negative battery terminal)
- Done
It took me 20 min to do it for first time, I am not sure why the manual said it’s difficult and it didn’t even tell you how to do it. The simple description on the manual should be: The bulb is hiding in tight space and it requires the removable of battery. Do it at your own risk.
Subaru Impreza DIY – Changing snow tires using center lifting points
Subaru is very similar to stupid Toyota/Lexus, they have the pitch rail design on the side of the lifting point. Read my Venza snow tire article for more information. I am sick of this every time I need to lift up the car, so I need to find the Center lifting points for Impreza.
Before doing anything, detailed research MUST be done properly. So I downloaded the Impreza Mega Manual from Internet, search for “Impreza 99-01 mega manual.pdf” on Google. The manual is for older model 1999-2001 but it’s good enough for reference since basic lifting points does not have major change even for 2011.
There are two major benefits of using center lifting points, first you don’t need that pitch rail adapter which saves you some money, secondly you will be lifting 2 wheels at the same time and this will speed up your tire changing process a lot more. You need to get a good 3-ton floor jack, although 2.5 ton will work on small cars like Impreza, but 3-ton is strongly recommended for safety reason.
If your floor jack does not come with rubber pad for the saddle, you can do one of the following:
- Cut a piece of 2×4 making sure it is perfectly level sitting on the saddle without gap otherwise it will crack
- Buy a piece of rubber called ‘prothane jack pads’ Google it
- Get a hockey puck
It is very important to do this, because bare metal contact will damage the protective coating of your car and it will rust. Since I don’t play hockey and I do have some extra 2×4 around, so I went with the first option.
Tips: If your floor jack is not a low profile model, you may not have enough space to lift up front (back is fine). For workaround, I had to drive the car on a 2×6 to make 1.5″ more space in height. As you see in the photos, this makes swapping summer/winter tires easier.
For snow tires, we re-used the rubber 205/55/R16 from Deb’s old car (which we traded-in for the Subaru), as you can see in the photo of the golden color alloy rims were really old and it had bolt pattern 5-120 mm which does not fit the Impreza, so I had to buy the steel rims to re-mount them. Sigh…. Well, you definitely don’t have to follow what we have done, it will be way cheaper if you go with 15″ instead. Usually it will be better to go smaller size for winter tires -1 (15″) or even -2 (14″) would work provided that there is enough space for the rotor. Read the articles and forums on why smaller size is better in snow.
2009 – 2011 Impreza Information
- Tire pressure: 32 psi front, 30 psi back
- Wheel torque: 65 ft/lb (88 NM) – In user manual, there is a +/- 10 ft/lb range given, 65 ft/lb is the best, read the forums yourself
- Bolt thread size: M12 x 1.25 (Canadian Tire – “Mr. Lug Nuts” for snow tires)
- McGard 24152 Wheel Locks (Tips: Buy from Amazon.com cheap $16.67 US, ship to CBI USA, pick it up when you have time. Hard to find locally coz of 1.25 thread)
- Snow Tires: 205/55/R16 Michelin Primacy Alpin
- Steel Rim: Costco X41657 16″ x 6.5″, Bolt pattern: 5 bolts 100mm (5-100)
Most photos were taking using iPhone resulting in poor quality, some were taking using DSLR as you can tell.