Subaru Impreza WRX

wrxfanboy

Thanks for the info it is much appreciated!

c_hunter

The main thing (in addition to what Juice already said) is to avoid driving at a constant speed/rpm for any length of time. It's real good to vary the revs during breakin.

A few forays above 4000 rpm won't hurt either, so you can have a little fun. Just don't redline it!!

Oh, also, you might want to reset your ECU at 1000 miles, and re-teach it how to drive. My engine was lazy after all that gentle break-in driving, and an ECU reset really brought it back to life. Directions are given onthe scoobymods site.

Craig

c_hunter

What made you choose the TurboXS hardware? I'm thinking I'll pass on the up-pipe, but the turbo-back system looks like it would not be too hard. Is it worth it to just do the turbo-back mods?

Craig

bamawrx

I posted a question about this problem when I purchased my 02 WRX and found that lots of people had the problem. Then I read about the fix that was available and how many people were having trouble getting the work done. So, I decided to call my salesman and put the pressure on him. He scheduled the work and they performed it yesterday. No problem.

I haven't have much time to see what is different about the feel, but it is definitely different. Also, I was not wearing my normal shoes, which can make a difference.

On a side note, I am taking to car to have 4 new Michellen Pilot Sports installed. I noticed the tires are original equipment on the 911 and M5, so I figured they will be good enough for me.

bamawrx

Just got my new tires. They ROCK. If I had realized just how bad those factory tires were I would have replaced them immediately. Michellen Pilot Sport. Very smooth, quiet, total control under breaking, and a word awesome. $152/each

c_hunter

Cool, so I guess you stuck with the stock wheels?

I ordered some Bridgestone RE750s and 17" wheels from TireRack. Got three yesterday, one appears to be lost in the UPS system. Hopefully it will arrive soon so I can get out there and try out the new rubber.

Craig

sonya4

Where did you get the Michelins for that price? Were they 16" or 17"?

--sonya

bamawrx

I still have my stock wheels and you have struck a nerve with me because that is my only regret. Now that I have the good tires and see how great they look in addition to perform I wish I had purchased the 17" wheels like the silver BBS ones on the STI.

By the way, I did get the Z rated tires. They make lower ratings which are cheaper. 205 55ZR16. I'll check into posting a picture.

I purchased the tires from my local tire shop. I felt like the price was good, but I didn't shop them on price. What prices are you guys seeing?

PS My dealer in Mobile has several STI's and they are neat, but I think the fin is too much. They offered to replace the trunk with an 04 WRX trunk. So, if your thinking of buying and like me hate the way the fin looks, you now have an option. For business reasons I just can't drive something that looks like that. It sends the wrong message big time.

paisan

And your WRX sends a different message? IDK, but seems like the same message if you ask me.

-mike

stoner420

Definitely still worth it to just do the turboback and not up-pipe, I'd say. I did the turboback a week early, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. ;-) TurboXS build quality is great, they seem to have an excellent reputation in the marketplace, imo justified based on my experience. Their downpipe does seem to be the 'loudest' of all out there as a side effect of being so huge (you'll really hear the turbo whine and wastegate flutter). Less chance of getting P0420 CELs with the stock uppipe still in place, I think. I've gotten two already (the first was verified at autozone, the second just this morning but I'm sure it's the same thing.) :-P Gonna put in the MIL Eliminator this weekend, hopefully that'll help, but now I'm thinking I really need a Cobb AccessECU stage 2 flash at this point!

(Speaking of sending messages, I wonder what it is like being the driver of the car next to me when I shift down and hit the gas.. Gone in 0.60 seconds! :-D)

c_hunter

Howard,

I know you got the cat-system, so you were able to hook the second O2 sensor back up, correct?

Is the first O2 sensor in the downpipe, and is that the one giving you trouble?

Craig

stoner420

They moved it behind the new cat in the second pipe, so it reads the post-cat gas. Not all systems do this, most are guaranteed P0420 even with just a downpipe. I didn't get any CELs until after I installed the uppipe too.

Overall, it kind of feels now like I need to get a new ECU flash to properly tune for the new flow parameters... everything is basically running fine, but some of the 'smoothness' of the car is lost (I sat in a co-worker's 04 wrx wagon last night, it was fun to remember when mine sounded like that ;-), not that it's not smooth but there's a raw edge to it now that needs to be smoothed out (for instance, I think it generally runs richer than needed in the new configuration with stock programming parameters). I'm pretty sure I will get the Cobb AccessECU Stage 2, cuz for $395 and lots of rave reviews it sounds like a winner. Only downside is I would have to actually send them my ECU for reflashing, which is kind of eh..

bamawrx

Paisan,

I don't know how people are in Italy, but on this side of the pond most people don't know the WRX is any different from any other car. The small 02 hood scoop is a hint, but most people don't even notice the car. Car guys and gals will notice but that is a small segment. The huge fin will immediately attract everyones attention no matter how ignorant. That is not what I want and would be bad for business. If I were an employee at Walmart I wouldn't give a crap. Image matters.

c_hunter

Paisan is on this side of the pond; us Italian-Americans call our friends or countrymen "paisano"...

I think there has been a delete-spoiler option on the STis when ordered from the factory, can't remember.

It is a little outrageous, but still looks cool to me.

Craig

paisan

Very easily you can swap these parts out with stock WRX items, making your STi appear stock. Some will argue that the smaller scoop will effect the IC, but I doubt it unless you are out on the track lapping away on a hot day.

-mike

PS: yep, I live in NYC!

robmarch

negative. dealers might swap trunks, but there isn't a delete option from the factory.

bamawrx

10-4 on paisan heritage not geographical reference. Dealer informed me the scoop couldn't be changed due to water sprayer. Scoop is big, but I could live with it given a conservative overall image.

stoner420

Redid my uppipe this weekend.. I followed the hypothesis that fully loosening the turbo brackets is key to ensuring a solid connection with a non-flex pipe like mine. Loosened the turbo brackets so it had some play, tightened the manifold to the block, then the uppipe to the turbo, leaving the uppipe/manifold connection for last (unlike most instructions which say to do it first -- every time I tried that though, the joint would pull apart when reconnecting everything else, you could see the gap). This way I was able to get just enough flex on the entire turbo/pipe assembly so the uppipe/manifold connection was solid.

And awaay-ay-ay-ay we go! :-D

I also removed both of the bolts on one side of my rear diff protector rattling against the exhaust pipe (there are two on each side, and two in the back). I tried removing just one, then the pipe hit the other bolt @#$#@$. There are apparently some bolts that go in those holes stock, so I replaced a small one back inside (in stock location, not connected to the diff protector), I don't believe there are actually any load bearing components relying on those bolts, but just in case..? (I was going to just remove the diff protector completely and put it on the XT, but not gonna happen.. those bolts were @#$@$ tight)

paisan

I think that's horse dodo! Don't forget dealers generally know about 5% of what an informed consumer knows about their own products.

-mike

stoner420

Every day that I drive this car, I feel immense gratitude and appreciation for the engineers who designed it and the people who built it.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled chit-chat...

bluesubie

"Every day that I drive this car, I feel immense gratitude and appreciation for the engineers who designed it and the people who built it."

I've posted two used oil analysis' on an oil board, and they have nothing but praise for our engines after looking at the reports. Same goes for most of the Subaru reports there.

-Dennis

bamawrx

I take back what I said about the Michellen Pilot Sport tires being more quiet that the factory tires. They are quiet at slow speeds, but they start to roar a little until the wind noise at highway speeds drowns it out. Still very pleased, but thought I should post the update.

I love my new clutch after the dealer work. It works great cold and starts are smooth as they should be. Best part is getting a new clutch, flywheel etc at 36,000 miles for free.

c_hunter

Finally got my new wheels and tires mounted. From the original shipment last week, UPS lost one wheel, and one was scratched. Tire Rack straightened everything out, and I finally got four good wheels today. They look good, but the car shakes like crazy at high speed -- I'm guessing one of the wheels needs to be rebalanced (probably a rear, since the steering wheel was not jittery at all). Anyway, here's the requisite pic!

Craig

Kirstie_H

Make sure you get the balancing checked soon, so you don't get uneven wear on the tires. Sweet pic - it's a beautiful car, and I particularly like the color!

kirstie_h
Roving Host & Future Vehicles Host

bluesubie

rsholland

In that photo, it almost looks like a Candy Apple Red.

Bob

c_hunter

Thanks guys! Yeah, that color looks good when it's clean and waxed -- definitely has some candy apple red in there.

Once this hurricane passes, I think I'm going to swap a stock wheel/tire into each rear position, one at a time, to isolate the problem. The diameters are so close, it should be fine. Then, I can just hand carry the problem wheel and get it rebalanced. I need to call the Tire Rack, I think this should be covered on their dime...

Craig

sonya4

I like the color too--don't see too many of those around here. Mostly the blues, a few blacks...

--sonya

prayerfor

Running 1 stock rim with 3 aftermarket rims seems pretty ill-advised to me, especially at high speeds. The diameters don't have to be off by much to screw things up. Not only that but the weights of the rims/tires will be different too, which can't be good either.

A 4-wheel balance is only around 25 bux... the shop I go to recently balanced one wheel for me for free after it went out of balance from having a puncture plugged.

bluesubie

My guess is that they'll reimburse you if you get it balanced at one of their installers in your area.

-Dennis

stoner420

nyccarguy

Great color for your car as well as great looking wheels! Very original! Good luck with the balancing issue!

c_hunter

I was able to isolate the problem to the passenger side rear wheel. Upon closer inspection, the tire sticker (which was messed up in shipping and not easy to peel off like the others) seems to have caused a bunch of tar-like substance to collect on the tread in one spot. It was about 1/16" thick, and probably weighed a few ounces. Being located on the outer diameter of the tire, I am guessing this caused the problem -- both an imbalance and an out of round issue probably. So I spent 30 minutes cleaning off the tire and remounted it. Unfortunately, my car is running on fumes, and gas is scarce around here because of the hurricane (we just got electric power back today, after going 72 hours frontier-style). Not to mention that most roads are a mess. Hopefully I can find some gas and a clear road tomorrow to test things out. I'm optimistic that was the problem. When I took a quick spin with 3 new wheels and one stocker, the car was very smooth.

Dave (prayerfor) I understand your point, but this is actually much closer to "spec" than when we run the compact spare for temporary use. Other than weight (off by 10-15 lbs I estimate) the stock WRX wheel is quite close to my new wheels. Certainly closer than the spare!

Craig

ateixeira

That rex looks better than it did on the dealer lot. Nice wax job.

-juice

1hokie

Looks nice. I'd also advise against running anything but 4 of the same tires/rims with this car - not sure what the awd system would do if wheel diameters, weights, etc were different.

Sedona Red was my first choice - but my wife's car was red and we thought 2 red cars (of different shades) was too much. Now she's buying a black car - go figure! Silver looks good too - but the red really makes the car look even sportier. I'm thinking some grey metallic wheels would look nice with my silver paint.

b4z

Try to drive as little as possible.
Over the next few weeks and months there will be millions of roofing nails in the streets.
From those that came off of roofs in the storm, to those that have fallen off trucks moving debris.
After Hugo I had to put 22 plugs in my tires just to keep driving.
In '89 Goodyear Eagle GSCs were over $220 per tire. I drove with the plugs for a year before I bought new tires just to make sure all the roofing nails were gone.
Back to the WRX.

ateixeira

Ouch, and I've been to Philly and back, and need to do that trip again tomorrow night!

-juice

sensei1

1hokie- I've got silver on silver (antracite or gun metal they call it). Yeah pretty happy with it, good match.

Hope you folks from the east coast made it through okay!!

1hokie

The rims I am looking at are the dark metallic grey - like a much darker shade of silver - same metallic family. Think VW's "Silverstone". I think Mazda has a met. grey color like that too.

We survived the storm ok - lost power for a bit, and cable for a bit more, but no house/car damage, which is fortunate.

The rims will have to wait till next year. I think that will be my year for mods - cobb stg1, 17" rims, catback exhaust... $$$.

c_hunter

I think I will do a turbo-back exhaust next, and then maybe the Cobb reflash. After buying new wheels and tires, it will be a while before I can spend the $$ on the other stuff. That's OK, I will have plenty of time to dream about it.

I was thinking I would notice a performance penalty after getting heavier tires and wheels (added roughly 50 lbs of unsprung weight), but it's not bad at all (barely noticeable). So, no hurry to add more power.... yet.

Otherwise, I have to echo the praises from a couple weeks back -- the WRX is one great car. Man do I love mine!

Craig

barriostkd

I've had my silver '04 WRX for two months as of yesterday. Currently have 4,000 miles on it and I must say I'm very happy w/ my car. It's a big jump from my '95 Impreza OB that I have back in NJ.

Anyway, I wanted to get the windows tinted because I spend a lot of time in the East Bay and it gets really hot over there. I'm new to the Bay Area so if any of you could suggest a place where I could get my windows tinted I would really appreciate it. How much do those go for anyway?

I'm also considering 17" x 7.5" Rota Tarmacs. The set of four comes out to $550. As much as possible I want to spend approx. within the $1,000 range for the wheel & tire set. Can anyone suggest other brands of rims that are comparable to the Rotas in terms of price and quality/performance?

Thanks!

James B.

bluerex03

I just put 3000 miles on my new set of mille miglia 17x7.5 HT3 gray with good year F1 (225) from tire rack - 1800$ total. The wheels weight about 19lb each. Not bad only 3 lb more than stock, but I was able to tell the difference. I love these tires though. Stick like glue, very soft, excellent in the rain, quiet. Only problem I had is that they had to re balanced right away, even the tire rack said they did it. Wheels I like, nothing fancy, but good quality and looks, to me anyway, but the tires I highly recommend. Just read some reviews on the tire rack web site.
Its too bad that I have to put the stock back on for the winter. Chicago winter will not be kind to them...

c_hunter

I second Mille Miglia wheels from the Tire Rack (see my post/pic from a couple of days back). Just watch the weight. The wheels I went with (Avias) were 21 lb in 17". That's about the upper end of what you should consider. Beware, some 17" wheels are 26 lb or higher!! Mine were on clearance for $120, and they are great wheels. Much better quality than stock, nice finish, and I expect them to last a long time.

I got Bridgestone Potenza RE-750 tires, and they are great. The were about $140 each. Total cost for wheels, tires, and shipping was about $1100.

Rota makes some nice wheels, and most of them are light (16-18 lbs in 17"). I like the look of the Rota SDR on the WRX. They go for about $650 a set of four. I would definitely get these wheels, though I'm not sure how they compare to the Mille Miglias since I have never seen the Rotas in person. Some Rotas have ugly center caps, which was a turnoff for me, but otherwise, they look like good wheels at a good price. Just make sure the wheels you get are hub-centric -- some Rotas are lug centric.

I also had to rebalance one wheel/tire from the Tire Rack. In fact, the new balancing job is totally different than what the Tire Rack did, so I wonder what they were thinking. Maybe I should get the other three wheels rebalanced too! Luckily, Tire Rack offered to pick up the tab, I just need to fax them the bill.

Craig

xcskier

All this talk of tires makes me want an upgrade even more. I'm still running the OE Bridgestones. I have 34K miles total, but since I switch to snow tires in the winter I have about 23K on the Bridgestones and the remaining 11K on the snows.

They look pretty worn to me; I'm down to the wear bars on the fronts (yes, I rotate regularly). Does this seem like normal tire life? I guess I thought I'd get more out of the OE tires, but at the same time, it's a nice excuse to change.

BTW, I noticed a comment about gratitude to the engineers who designed and built the WRX. You might be interested in the observations of my 12-year old son, who is just now beginning to help with car maintenance in a serious way. In the last 2 weekends, he's changed the oil (with major supervision from dad) on the WRX and on a 94 Suburban. After doing the Suburban, and having oil run down his arm to the elbow during a valiant battle to remove the filter, he lamented, "Why is it so hard to reach the oil filter on Big Blue; couldn't they make it like the Rexy? Geez, Dad, who designed this thing?"

I told him to appreciate the thoughtfulness of the designer, and remember the lesson in 10 years when he's designing his own car.

I guess it could be worse. We could be pumping out the old oil like some Mercedes or BMWs I've heard about.

bluesubie

The RE92's have a low treadwear rating. I think it's around 160 or so. That's so you can upgrade to better tires faster.

-Dennis

c_hunter

I got about 50K out of Potenza RE92's on a 93 Civic, and about 60K out of them on my 97 Prelude (tires were down to the wear bars when I traded in 2000). I wasn't particularly hard on either car.

My Outback also has Potenzas, and they have 30K on them and look good -- I would expect to see at least 50K. I'm not very hard on this car either.

I have heard other people on NASIOC go through Potenzas in 20-30K on a WRX, so maybe it's the nature of the vehicle and the way we drive it! A TW rating of 160 is pretty low! Not sure what the TW rating is on each of the various Potenzas I have owned -- it may be higher on the Outback's version, for instance (I will check).

[edit] According to the TireRack, the RE92 has a TW rating of 360 in the sizes on my Outback and Prelude. So that's why they last longer!

Craig

1hokie

barriostkd - did you say you just moved to ebay? (that's all I got)

I have 10k miles on my oem tires, and they seem to be doing fine. I don't drive it too rough though, and my commute is only 10 miles, so the tires don't get much time to heat up and wear down. I was hoping these tires would last 40-50k, so that I can just buy some nice summer tires next year, and put the oem's on for the winters - that should get me many years out of them.

One question about rims - why are the Rota's so inexpensive? Will the bend/dent easily? Will the finish wear off in a year?

barriostkd

Craig, thanks for the input on the wheels. I've seen some Rotas in person and they look really nice. Looks like the Prodrive wheels that I saw in the Subaru dealership in Santa Cruz. I'm still debating whether I like the SDRs or the Tarmacs.

1hokie - I said I just moved to SF from NJ. But I spend a lot of time in the East Bay where it gets really hot, so I was considering getting tints for my windows.

-JB

c_hunter

Anybody see that Lexus commerical (for the ES sedan) where they do a bunch of spin outs? You can actually see black tire crumbs spraying off the tires. I'm not sure that's the proper message for Lexus to send....

Craig

prayerfor

I really like my silver Rota Formels (on a silver wagon). They look very much like the $$$ BBS rims available thru Subaru. The Formels have 10 spokes (at the hub) vs. 8 on the BBS wheels, but the overall visual impact is quite similar IMO. I have Continental ContiExtremeContact tires on mine, and am very happy with the combination for daily driving.