Aberdeen Chris

Hi David.

If you were closer to Aberdeen you could have done the welding in my garage.

I've done sills inner and outer and various other bits n bobs  on scoobies; then acid etch primed, 2k primed and finished with lots of waxol.

How come yours is so dry and got tin worm; has it lived by the sea??

I hope you get somebody more local. These cars can last a long time if kept well

Chris

I never see another XV on the road around Aberdeen, then tonight driving home I end up following a 2015 white one, (same colour as mine) for five miles into Peterculter.

They pulled in to houses round the corner from me...

Then to add there's a silver XV parked across the road from my drive when I get home.

😂

Looks like fun. We drove 370 miles on Saturday  and averaged 51mpg which isn't bad. On one part of the journey of 130 miles got average 57 mpg.

So the winter tyres don't  hit economy  to bad, also they are no louder than stock.

I want some of your snow to play on please.

We've had lots of ice and frost so thick it looks like snow.

But bring on the real stuff lol

To be honest the wheels don't look to have any curbing damage and being your winter wheels will get abused by chemicals and nasty grit anyway.

Wouldn't it be possible to get a local body shop to touch up the centres cheap .

Also 152255740277 on eBay. 

These tpms valves look same as mine and should work for you. the tyre fitters have to be more careful when fitting the tyres but 150 pounds is cheap and you can fit them yourself.

Hope you find some good winter tyres for them.

Chris

Looks great, and it will do exactly the same job 

They look great : - )

Good luck getting some winter rubber.

If it was me I'd scuff them down, prime the bad bits with the 2k acid etch primer u-Pol make for alloy wheels, respray and 2k clearcoat.

I've seen that corrosion on most BMW wheels. perhaps it's caused by the center cap being a different metal.

There's some center caps on eBay for a tenner  item 262705905949 .

They're going to look fab when you get them on.

Chris 

Lol,

You'll  have the light on but Dealer said it doesn't effect anything other than having a warning light.

BTW Subaru were only £250 for four TPMS valves fitted.

Chris 

They are the same 

Hey Dogconker,

I'm shure your right.

IMO  Rycroft was picking up on the point that the rubber used in construction of the Geolanders is a generic all season, and no doubt global use compound.

Apart from the sipes the critical component in winter rubber is the copius quantities of silicon in the rubber compound. which keeps the rubber very flexible at temperatures below 7°C, consequently keeping more contact with the ground. Normal tyre compound becomes harder and less flexible below this temperature  and thus the tyre doesn't get such a complete contact when it's  very cold. 

The geolanders seem like a great tyre and were designed specifically for the XV/Crosstrek and are designed for use in  the hottest  countries as well as our roads.

I've been using winter tyres from various manufacturers  for over twenty years and believe they pay for themselves if you have a car long  enough and drive for several months in  temperatures below 7°C.

Having said that I've also found that not all winter tyres are equal !

But up against top winter tyres the geolanders IMO will never match the lateral grip or traction when you lay down the power.

But most of all, what could be better than an XV on great winter tyres when some bits of a country back road are covered in black ice on bends and around junctions.

Only a couple of years back I managed to avoid a car which shot out onto the main road I was travelling along because they couldn't stop. they managed to stop before the other side of the main  road but I was doing thirty and they were only ten feet in front coming out of a side road. Having good winter rubber enabled me to cross to the wrong side of the road and back again before they even stopped !

Without that extra grip I would have slammed into their driver side at at least 25 mph. so they've already paid for themselves for me.

Of course  it depends on your commute. but I've known own all the roads in the centre of Aberdeen  become one giant ice ring and on more than one or two occasions. it's funny watching a BMW x3 struggle to get up a 30% slope and I've  seen a dustbin lorry slide at 2mph down the entire length of a street.

Chris

Hi RyeCroft,

the wheels and tyres are the standard 17 inch.

I believe the forester wheels 17" should also fit as the hub and chassis on all new Subaru is same, but with different body as from 2016.

See pic

I've had a few -6°C mornings and driven through snow  between Turriff  and Fraserburgh . 

The Michelin Alpin tyres are great, especially on nasty black ice.

Chris

On 11/11/2016 at 8:48 AM, Swayze88 said:

None specific for the XV yet from what I can see. It's more rims I'm interested in than tyres. As you said, tyres is well covered, but it would be nice to see what people have put on the XV as winter beaters.

I've  got a spare set of wheels with Michelin Alpin 5. the wheels are in the accessories catalog for XV from main dealer. Also needed TPMS valves.

Not cheap solution but if I can get six years out of both sets of wheels on a six month turn around  it should offsetting the cist mostly.

We have had some black ice already and even going down a steep hill of ice didn't come close to activating the ABS under hard test braking.

Also the XV seems pretty good for lack of extra road noise from winter tyres - even at speed.

I forgot to mention the previous pic of the back of the Kicker speaker shows also to the right the origional equipment speaker with it's tiny magnet. So you can see the difference in driver magnet size for your self...

I have ordered this kit which is made as a direct fit and is offered as an OEM upgrade in USA by Subaru dealers

OEM Speaker Upgrade Kit by Kicker for SUBARU Impreza & XV Crosstrek - H631SFJ001

You can see from the pic that they have decent magnets and I believe are a good solution as although expensive at just over 200 quid del, have the correct connectors and are a direct replacement for the original speakers. You can see they have slightly larger magnets also.

" Upgrade your speakers and enhance sound clarity and high-end definition with this Genuine Subaru Speaker Upgrade Kit by Kicker®.

• Manufactured for Subaru by Kicker®
• Set of 4 - Includes front and rear speakers. "

I Have no doubt they will have the XV's infotainment system sounding good, and I don't think any extra amplification will be needed, nor the upgraded tweeter kit which is also available as the lacking part of the current sound is bass and also distortion when the volume gets ramped up while driving at greater speeds.

If I had bought a WRX I'm sure the beautiful sound of the engine would have sufficed, but coming from a nice sounding 2.5GX with an awesome sound system I can't live with only the lovely sound of the turbo being drowned out by the diesel undertones, and a fantastic HK audio system being let down terribly by awful speakers not worthy of a kitchen tranny, and to top it all the chassis of the stock speaker is made of thin plastic which I'm shure could wilt under a hard stare.

Shure the kit's a bit overpriced, I know I could get speakers as good or better for much less; but they're designed to fit straight in and have the correct connectors and offset plastic mountings and foam seals at the back and the front for a snug trouble free fit against the door card. In my book that all makes sense, Subaru engineering sense!  

5, A standard trim removal tool was unable to rebove the more stubben clips,

6, a heavier tool got them out easily,

7, pic of door card where clip detatched and 8, the removed clip re-inserted in advance of re-fitting the door card,

9, the speaker removed had the feel of 'Much Cheapness'

10, from the back you can see it's structure is all plastic apart from the minuscule magnet,

11, I took a photo with a two pound coin, and a one pound coin to to give scale to the tiny proportions of the magnets that drive the speakers. If you look more closely you will see they are rated for a whopping 35 Watts... Awesome-Not!  

12, there is a special connector for the speaker

Ok, si I was wondering if the premium 2016/7 XV actually had the HK speakers as it has the 7" HK infotainment system. Which is the same as a WRX gets but I've read somewhere that the Legacy premium gets the better HK speakers, which makes the Kicker upgrade speaker kit redundant.

My ears tell me the speakers in my car are rubbish, but I didn't want to order the upgrade kit before checking what was actually in the doors.

Hear's what I found :-

1, the speakers sit of the door in a specially constructed aperture housing.

2, when you remove the door card there is one side quick release tab to push in to disconnect the connector block for the electrics,

3 the speaker is attached by three screws rather than the usual four,

4, some of the white door card clips did not release with the door card, but stayed in the door. so it was nessesary to remove them from the door and re-fitt them to the door card prior to re-fitting the door card. 

6 hours ago, Rizmo said:

Nice! What wheels are they, out of interest? I will, hopefully, be getting my standard wheels colour coded (black insert paint changed to body colour), and having a second set will allow me to keep the car on the road.

They're Borbet wheels from the Subaru main dealer. they came with a different set of wheel nuts which are a little bigger on the flange but same socket size. because of the TPMS valves I needed a set of those as well (250 fitted), and I ordered them at the same time as the XV, had them paired to the vehicle and just fitted them myself at the weekend

I live in Royal Deeside and drive through a couple of woods and a few miles on mostly untreated roads through winter so I always run winter tyres through the season. 

The initial set up was expensive but if I can get six years out of both sets of tyres which is about the average life of the batteries in the TPMS valves then hopefully their overall cost should be off sett, plus I can keep my rims in good order as I have equipment to respray with 2k and clear-coat already in my garage. Having observed the 'diamond cut' parts of XV wheels starting to corrode under the clear-coat finish.

I'm sure your wheels will look great colour coded to your car, and be unique :¬)

Hi Dug,

I think they come with a foam seal at the front and a sticky foam bit to fit round the block connector which should avoid rattles.

I'm  guessing around £300 from the US of A. I still need to try my main dealer although I'm  shure their price will be North of 300, but I can get the correct part number from them.

I just don't understand why such c*** speakers are being put in to the XV and same in WRX?

Chris

Fitted snow tyres to realise the full potential of the subaru AWD system through the winter months; on a separate set of wheels to protect the standard wheels from corrosion : - )

Has anybody upgraded the speakers on their XV?

I'm  finding mine to be lacking especially for any Base and have seen an upgrade kit by kicker. their kit has 4 door speakers with mouldings as a direct replacement and a tweeter kit for the dash.

Has anyone fitted this or an alternative to improve the sound. 

My 2.5GX Leggy has much better sound and the lack of oomph in the standard XV speakers appears to be because the magnets on them are tiny!

Chris

Just as well it's  not a BMW, they seem to have removed the dip stick completely leaving no manual way to check the level lol.

The diesal XV takes about 5.9L of oil which is rather a lot, so must take longer to reach normal operating temperature, even when the engine cold light has gone out the oil still needs longer to get up to normal temperature. 

Chris

Sounds like a computer glitch, perhaps sorted after you turned the system  off then on again!

It may show up if connected to an obd 2 scanner. do you get a dealer service, as it would show up as a logged incident on their scanner..

Last thing you need on a cold morning...

Chris

Thanks Dogconker,

Dog is very small Jack Russell, and I've been training her to stay in the boot.

She actually seems to like it there and she can put her paws up on the back of the rear seats or the deep trim of the rear window and see all around.

She even stayed in on her big cushion when I went into the house and she was in the boot with the back door open.  Normally she would always jump out and follow me, so I think the is comfy there and feels secure.

I've  a guard comming this week and I may get a rubber inset for the floor which will make hoovering easier. already got the sun shades fitted in the back windows which keeps it cool on a hot day with the sunroof  cracked open.

Thanks, if she was bigger like a lab I  think your choice would be perfect, but she's  a short legged Jack Russell and has a good space in the boot, even with some bags of shopping lol

Chris

I fitted a towbar to my leggy. It's a whitter brackets and logicon zr2500 towing interface wiring kit for 12n and 12s.

On the xv ebay do a couple of kit and there's a couple of really good video on YouTube  fitting one to the xv.

Wiring and brackets cost about 250 and no doubt the detachable tow ball will be extra.

Subaru do a wiring kit for the newer 13 pin set up. It's  plug and play to a socket behind the trim in the boot. The connector I'm told has its  own power for the extra connections and loads needed for the fridge and Battery charging of a caravan.

The main dealers are 550 for a towbar and detachable ball fitted. They're fitting the wiring kit next week and I asked for a 12n and 12s kit which should be available. But they did say it may be the new type 13 pin socket I get which doesn't  really matter. I can get a converter cable of eBay. 

I noticed when they had fitted the tow bar that they had removed the bumper crash beam. So the bumper feels a bit squidgy.  I've chased them up to get back the  crash beam as should I remove the tow bar in the future  I'll need to reinstall the crash beam. It says so in the owners manual.

Also I may actually remove the bumper and find a way to have both together as I did on the leggy. It's quite nice to have a strong behind lol, and I don't mind a bit of welding if need be.

The tow ball and bar the main dealer fitted are made by whitter. There's a couple of bolts go in each chassis leg where the parts of the tow bar slot in, and I think a couple of bolts either side of the back panel. Kits usually have all the bolts you need  included.

So if you don't mind taking your bumper off and some internal  body trim it should be a good weekend job. I was lazy this time letting the dealer do it; but it's a new car so thought I'd  have it easy for a change.

I'll get back with what they charged for the lectics next week so you have a main dealer all in price to compare with.

Chris 

It may be your brakes on caravan aren't adjusted correctly, the 'spreadlever' brakes on the van may be binding. this would be noticeable after reversing and you move forwards again you'll hear/feel the caravan bind then suddenly release as you pull.

I had a similar problem when reversing at a slight angle and slightly uphill.

Thing is the car's quite powerful so it's easy not to feel that much resistance, it's just when you go forwards again you can hear/feel it grab then let go.

The extra load on the clutch will cause some heat build up and in the car you may smell it, and it smells like a fish just died lol.

If you think your symptoms relate, the solution is to adjust the caravan brakes, or if they haven't been changed for a while the shoe may be binding in the drum when reversing.

What kind of van do you tow and what year is it ?

Chris    

Lol,

That sounds fab Rizmo. My wee Jack Russell likes to sit on the armrest between the front seats, and sit up like a meerkat.

She thinks their's three  seats across the front and one was just made for her !

Chris