Subaru Impreza WRX 04' Blobeye

[squareflops]

Now the Celica has gone I've had a few days to acclimatize to the Subaru. The Toyota was part ex'd and some additional money was paid and I collected on Monday night. When I first saw ZSX I thought "generic Impreza - meh" there was an 02' STI parted next to it which put it in the shadows a little. But it grew on me and after a few days of deliberation the deal was done. After owning a G 89' Celica I'm absolutely blown away by the jump in quality of - everything, the Celica was fun but there were sometimes issues (not to say I won't have any with this of course) like, what was that noise, why have the windscreen wipers stopped in the middle of the screen etc etc, a symptom of (some) old/older cars I guess but the point is, the WRX just - works. I love how the dash lights are bright, it's quiet, comfortable, everything JUST WORKS I actually have an outside tempt gauge, a temperature gauge that informs me how hot it is outside!, can you believe that! Sorry, I've never owned a car this new

Seriously though, I'm genuinely impressed, out of the box this is such a competent vehicle, I keep coming back to that word when describing it because it fits so well. It's done everything I've asked it to do far better than I could ever hope. It cruises effortlessly, it covers ground like nothing I've been in before, it's epicly stable and reassuring, it stops well, I can listen to the radio at low levels without being deafened by tyre noise or exhaust drone, NVH is very low. Over the week I've owned it it's become far more than just another 02c WR impreza (I have rolled eyes at these in the past as just a rally wannabe car) to one of the best affordable cars on the road. I'm smitten. '

Spec is largely standard as far as I know. It did have the odd 'JDM yo'' stickers which I've removed. Modifications as far as I can tell are:

Cat back Milltek exhaust. quiet at cruising but wakes up on boost and gives a great flat four burble.
Up rated front and rear drilled and grooved discs, unknown pads but feel OEM.
Aftermarket/copy front calipers, apparently genuine OEM items say Subaru on them, these say WRX Pro, I believe they're cheaper replacements, someone was feeling frugal when it came to replacing the calipers at some point it seems. The brakes do need a bleed, whoever swapped them over didn't score 100% on the job.
STI front strut brace.
A pillar boost gauge, lights up but not reading boost at the moment.
An ali gear knob to replace the ugly Momo item it came with.
A silly vortex? roof spoiler thingy. Seems strange that the Subaru guys would copy something that Mitsubishi put on the Evo first (think I'm right in saying that?) I would have taken it off but it's bonded with the worlds strongest glue and I don't want to damage the paintwork, will scratch my head on that one for a bit longer.

That's it. The ECU could have been remapped/flashed in the past, I'll have no idea until I can get it to a garage for the first bit of a major work which is the scheduled cam belt change at 90k, currently on 87k. The garage I'm looking to use will be able to determine if the map is standard or has been altered. It goes very well but feel around the 227hp it's purported to have in standard form

Before I purchased it I was thinking i'd make the odd improvement, change the wheels, change the dampers for KYB Ultra SRs etc but to be honest, the wheels have grown on me, nothing wrong with them, the standard suspension is first and compliant with good ground clearance and travel, why fix it if it isn't broken? I do want to replace the head unit before we go to France in a few months time for something bluetooth/iphone 5 enabled to I can stream stuff whilst on the continent but that's about it.

Tyres are contentious issue, someone has put 4 brand new Wanlis on it they seems fine for now, I don't make a point of pushing it 99% of the time but I don' really want them on there. The dilemma is that they are brand new. I'll do a few thousand miles on them I think, as we're coming into summer wet/cold weather performance should be less of an issue (hmm) but they'll be replaced with Yokohama Parada Spec 2s when I've had enough.

One thing I would like are the spot lights covers. I spoke to one chap who had a set for sale, £125, and that seems the going rate painted I really can't understand/justify why two side plate sized bits of abs plastic would command such a premium.

I may have got a little gooey eyed during this write up but I'm genuinely so impressed. I can see why they have a great following. The Subaru Impreza Owners Club on Facebook is a great resource and the people I've spoken to on there so far have been welcoming, polite, knowledgeable and very helpful.

First night



After a wash (lost my chamois dammit)





















Sorry about the qulity of the pictures, iphone is pretty bad with direct sunlight it seems

Edited by squareflops on Sunday 8th March 22:07

[snoopy25]

I actually really really like these, even though there are more powerful cars out there, these Impreza's always look ready to be ragged about everywhere

[andy118run]

Totally love these cars. Pound for pound, the best I've ever owned and yours looks so much like the one I had, I can't help but post a pic of it.

[ohtari]

I've had my silver wagon for a year and a half now, with similar mods albeit with the prodrive performance pack remap. My advice, get a remap done asap, it totally transforms the car. More torque than the standard peak from just 2750rpm through to near red line.

Utterly competent in all weathers and on any surface, mine still shocks me time to time. Be warned though, they get under your skin and I haven't been able to find a cure yet!

[squareflops]

looks great Andy, yours looks a little lower than mine is.

Very true Ohtari, really does give a lot of confidence, doubt we'll have any snow now but can imagine it does well in it.

I'm hoping it hasn't had the PPP map work as yet to be honest as I'll look forward to getting that done if it hasn't already. Along with the performance increase I hear it increases mpg too, win win.

Well, was just potching with it a little, cleaned the enjoy bay up, plastics treatment to get them back to black etc. Check the oil and other levels I thought. Low oil.

Thankfully haven't used it this week since picking it up apart from the drive home and one spirited drive. I would have assumed the pre sale inspection would include an oil level check.

The recommended oil from Opie is 5w40 synthetic. I had 1 litre of Magnatec 5w30 which i promptly put in; working on the assumption that similar oil is better than no oil. It won't be used until the oil and filter arrive from Opie in a few days.

Edit: Ordered Fuchs TITAN SUPERSYN 5W-40 High Performance, Fully Synthetic, Engine Oil -Oil and Filter Service Pack: 5L + UFI oil filter 23.259.00 ith. Code SUBIMP came to £35.18

Edited by squareflops on Sunday 8th March 19:09

Edited by squareflops on Monday 30th November 20:32

[ohtari]

Checking the oil on these things can be a bit of a pain. I think it's because of the boxer layout, the oil can either be way up the stick, or not showing at all if you're trying to check when warm. I've taken to only checking it when cold, and like to keep it between the F and the top hole. I have yet to figure out what the notch is for though! The stick always needs wiped off though. Thankfully mine doesn't drink it's oil, so it's easy to keep on top of.

I use Shell helix ultra 5w-40, and change every 5k miles. A 5L bottle is enough to fill it from empty, and then top up all that's needed for the next 5k miles. It's a nice change from the VW and Fords that I'm used to, going through 1L every thousand miles which is normal, apparently.

[MJ85]

Looks good! Minor point, previous owner of my old Impreza had new polished bolts made up for the engine bay. Really makes a difference (e.g., see washer bottle).

[squareflops]

That's interesting and slightly offsets my concern Ohtari I'm slightly concerned still, no one wants to see a dry dipstick but just under 2 litres has brought me up to the minimum mark for now and the next time it's started will be to warm the oil up just before it's dropped out for the new stuff.

Looks very clean MJ, that's some attention to detail your previous owner had, I'm happy with my current bolts, call me lazy

Realised I forgot a few modifications. The turbosmart dump valve, the rear wing of course and the mudflaps.

Will be booking it in for the cam belt change and general inspection in the next few weeks, will be going with either Three Arches garage or Indigo GT depending on price, both local to me in Cardiff/South Wales. Looking at around £4/450 at the moment. Eek

[squareflops]

Little update. Car has sat in the garage for the last few weeks awaiting cam belt change at the end of the month. Have decided (after much ringing around and haggling) to go with Three Arches Garage in Llanishen/Roath Cardiff which is handily very local to me. The boy doing the work there is very knowledgeable it seems and was more than happy to discuss requirements at length with me and come back with additional info when needed. Price will include new Dayco(sp?) belt, tensioner & new set of plugs fitted plus an inspection of the car/health check.

There's a few niggles I'd like sorting in addition which are:

seeing if we can get the a pillar boost gauge working
Seeing if we can get the keyless entry on the fob working, renewed the battery and tried a few programming tricks but it seems totally dead on the fob

Really want to take it out for a drive but my paranoia is in overdrive re the cam belt snapping so it's staying in the garage for now. No doubt it could probably go another 20k with it but for the sake of 2 weeks I'll just forget i own it for now

I've ordered a Japspeed magnetic sump plug and oil and filter are here from Opie, Haven't decided if I'll change these myself or ask Three Arches to do it as I'd like it recorded on the invoice as extra confirmation of servicing being carried out.

[squareflops]

Pulled from Scoobynet a few hours ago

update

Dropped the car off @ Three Arches Garage this morning for Dean to carry out the work. It was booked in for the main work of the cam belt and tensioner being changed, along with oil, filter & drain plug change/replacement. While Dean had the car he also gave it an inspection and I have a few advisory notes that I'll come to shortly.

Whilst Dean had the car he noted there was a whine when the car was running, I'd assumed this was an alternator bearing as this is where it seemed to be coming from. Dean advised it was the air con tensioner and he asked if I'd like it replaced along with the air con belt that was badly cracked. I gave the go ahead and; where before there was quite a loud whine when running the car is now much much quieter and I have the added peace of mind that the bearing won't fail and cause further damage to ancillary belts etc. The oil, filter and magnetic drain plug that I supplied were changed and a new set of PFR6B plugs installed.

Whilst Dean had it in he gave the car a thorough look over and talked me through his findings when I collected it. The list of advisories are:

my comments in ()

No belly pan (plastic sump cover, I'll need one of these)
Sump heavily corroded (as a result of above - this will need replacing at some point)
front drop links worn & knocking (audible knocking over bumps)
Front brake pads approx 50% worn (I'll change em soon)
Rear drop links worn & perished (will change these too)
n/s rocker cover gasket leaking (will ask Dean to sort this out)
mud flaps incorrectly fitted (I noticed 1 bolt on each mudflap is loose and not contacting the body)
A/c belt cracking (now replaced)
A/c idler pulley noisy (now replaced)

To be honest I'm not too phased at all by the above list, some items have already been replaced and the remainder are items I can do over the forthcoming weeks/months.

In addition Dean has adjusted the handbrake so it has a great action and little travel. He advised that the aftermarket a-pillar boost gauge is kaput and to replace with a mechanical gauge for reliability. He also advised the alarm ECU is dead and I'll need another one. If anyone has one send it my way

Over all I'm really pleased with how well the car did and I'm massively impressed by Deans & Three Arches Garage approach to working. Dean called me on 3 separate occasions throughout the day advising me of any slight changes to anything already discussed (cam belt brand) to clarify additional findings like the air con belt etc and to confirm that I was happy to go ahead with the additional work before starting anything that may cost me more money.

In the morning when I arrived there was a very nice blob eye STI on the ramps having the alignment done to Prodrive specs and Dean was familiar with the PCA Dynamics springs I've ordered with Peter. That's great because I'm now confident that Dean will be doing my alignment when the springs have gone on.

£500 spend today but I wouldn't have wanted to spend a penny less, I've got more confidence in the car now and I know It's been in the best of care.

I'll recommend Dean and Three Arches Garage to anyone in the South Wales area and beyond, he and all @ Three Arches are very professional whilst maintaining a warm family run business culture.

Right I'm off to go waste some petrol

[squareflops]

In addition to the above. When I received the log book back it of course had the previous owners name on it. A quick search on FB revealed the chap and I sent him a message inquiring about the car. He was very pleasant and volunteered info around his servicing of the car, he fitted the HIDs and the boost gauge, he noted he looked after the car and only sold it due to his up coming wedding day. Unfortunately he had no history with it.

I found this picture on his FB profile, what it used to look like



I wish ZSX still had that rear spoiler but it's only a small detail.

/stalker

More random pictures





That silly shark fin thing on the roof is actually growing on me. I'll probably leave it on.

I remembered a few days ago I had a set of 6.5jX17 O.Z. Chronos. Unfortunately the offset is such that they foul the calipers so back into the garage attic they go; unless someone on here wants to give me a small amount of money for them. A shame as I really think they would have looked great after a refurb



A good friend of mine was a professional audio installer in a previous life and as I like a qulity sound in the car we've been discussing options. In readiness I've ordered a Kenwood bluetooth head unit

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/bluetooth/head-uni...

We're yet to settle on speakers as we need to see what will fit behind the doors. I'm thinking 6" components up front, 6" co axials in the rear doors and a 12" Kicker Comp sub in the boot I know I know, it won't be in there much as I have it bloody hell why not. The speakers will be some kind of Kenwood to match the head unit as the Amps will be eventually. For now The front speakers and sub (yo) will be powered with a Vibe Black Box III and the rear speakers run from the head unit. All complimented with plenty of Silent Coat 2mm sound deadening material.

Oh and the car has had 12 previous owners, fking 12!

Edited by squareflops on Thursday 26th March 21:50

[squareflops]

Well decided to go a more familiar route with the wheels. Saw these advertised on FB locally and decided to pick them up. I'm happy enough with the standard wheels but those Wanli's were bothering me due to dire wet weather handling.

The new wheels are Inovit something-or-others 7X17 ET42. They're in near perfect condition and very light by the feel of them; I'll weight them against the OEM wheels and Wanli's and hope to see a weight saving. Tyres are Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s with 6mm of tread on all, more or less brand new. picked them up for less than the cost of the tyres. Also got open ended wheels nuts and adapter tool for all nuts (locking)

As a bonus I don't believe the WR blue and gold wheels theme as been done before so I'm very much looking forward to seeing how they work together.

Chances are I'll wait for the Prodrive Blue springs to arrive in May before I fit these, I'd rather see them when the car has a little less arch gap and the weather should be better by then. I'll keep the OEMs for winter/Rally nights use where I don't mind gravel rashing them a little and abusing the tyres a little more

[rb5er]

Looks nice. Far prefer the standard wheels but appreciate wanlis are not ideal

They are great cars for relatively little money.

[squareflops]

Not much of an update but now need to spend a bit more money following some faffing to get the WRX up to standard

Since I've had the car the brakes have been slightly spongy. Given the fact that it has the WRX Pro aftermarket front calipers on it I assumed someone hadn't done a great job of bleeding the system after fitting so yesterday I got around to bleeding the system with the help of a reluctant female.



The bleed itself went without incident and bled in what I assume is the correct manner, furthest away to closest to the MC. All lines were full of fluid rather than air except the front near side. That belches out large amounts of air before any fluid came through. Great I thought. That's the problem, easy fix.

Long answer is it didn't work. Somehow there must still be air in the system or there's something else slightly amiss as the pedal still needs an initial prod then a subsequent one in quick succession to realize full braking force. Not a problem exactly but an annoyance none the less. All pistons look in good condition from a very cursory inspection so I'll have another go at bleeding the system when I ... replace all discs and pads

I hadn't quite noticed that the brake discs are more or less shot to ****, I felt the edge of the discs when I was buying the car and there was no lip at all, brill I thought loads of life left in these but on closer inspection yesterday I see that there's hardly any/if any groove left on the face of the discs, they're almost smooth which points toward them being severely worn. Pads are ok but meh they'll get replaced too.

I'll be buying OEM spec discs and pads from Scoobyworld when they open again on the 14th (who closes for a whole week?) along with front and rear Whiteline arb drop links and arb bushes.

Next - thing



blown NSR damper. So; when I replace the Prodrive blue springs I won't be putting them on blown dampers, I'll be buying KYB Ultra SRs from Camskill and mating them all up. I want to retain as much OEM or OEM equivalence as possible in these areas and the KYBs are a good standard/uprated option along with the WRX matched shocks from PCA Dynamics.

money

Took advantage of the good weather and completed some cleaning therapy

Summer wheel clean







Took a surprising amount of hours to do all 4 properly.

Today I continued detailing the engine bay, removed intake hoses and gave them a good scrub along with the air box, cleaned the various reservoirs and reservoir caps etc etc. No pics of that.

And that brings us up to now

[ohtari]

Yep, you better like working on cars if you own an impreza

Regarding the front pads, save trying the oem spec and go straight for the kevlar pads off of Godspeed. I toyed around with a few different ones before landing with kevlar. Better fade resistance (and propensity to burn) than some I tried, and much better when cold than the mintex pads I tried. I just went for plain brembo discs off of ebay after I warped my previous discs, no issues so far.

On the dampers front, I lost a rear last year. The OE equivalent for the WRX is the KYB Excel-G, the ultra-sr's are the STI version and IIRC they're an inverted strut. A word of warning, the two lower bolts clamping the strut to the hub are bds! I had to buy replacement bolts from the subaru dealership as they're an odd size. They're a 10.9 bolt with a M14 metric fine thread, I got new lock nuts from a local fastener shop but they have to be 10.9 or 12.9, 8.8 or lower won't cut it! Other than that it's an easy enough job. You'll struggle to tighten up the strut rod nut without a through-socket, but an old socket clamped tight with vice grips get's it done. I had spring compressors for the job, but didn't use them in the end, there's enough length on the damper that there's very little pressure on the spring, just get a mate to hold it down whilst you tighten.

Oh, and don't put the whole lot back together and then wonder why you've a bump stop left over...

[squareflops]

Hi ohtari, I don't mind working on them, there's one or two points you mention about the strut swap that makes me stutter a little, cheers for the info on the bolts etc, I hope I don't need that info!

Well taken the Godspeed advice and ordered 4X discs & F&R kevlar pads, good to hear you've had a positive experience with them. £250 delivered which I'm happy with. I mentioned hoping the calipers aren't seized whilst on the phone with (I assume) Ian and he mentioned that as they're the WRX Pro calipers they should be OK as they haven't actually been around that long. No guarantees of course but he said he hasn't seen any major corrosion issues with them yet.

Popped to Halfords (again) after replacing my windscreen wipers for new Bosch units yesterday and picked up another set of axle stands to get all 4 wheels off the ground for the up coming brake replacement and suspension work and even a little garage stool (eBay) to save the knees as I'm working on it. Along with the breaker bar on the way, my new (shiny!) torque wrench, some penetrating (giggidy) fluid and de greaser spray I should have most things to do the job. I'm hoping I don't get stuck half way through the suspension job as that will be a bit of a PITA, that is some way off still though as the springs won't be in from Germany until May. When I do the brakes I'll make sure all the suspension components I'll need to replace have a good spray of - lets call it WD40 (I bought the Muc-Off equiv)

I hope ZSX appreciates all this time and money I'm throwing at it

and that sounds EXACTLY like something I'd do ohtari, I can almost guarantee it

[ohtari]

Let just say that my strut replacement for the NSR involved an angle grinder in the end... That bolt was not for moving!

For all the price of the bolts and nuts, I'd seriously suggest getting new before attacking the job. I think the bolts were less than £6ea (4of) and the nuts saw change from a fiver for the 4.

Also, before attacking the brakes (fronts especially), get a "brake pad pin kit", because unless some clever clogs has turned stainless pins in a lathe, they WILL be seized and you're gonna have a bad time. The springy wirey things that hold the pins also rot in place. I got lucky with the rears in that I had a spare set off of ebay reconditioned and had spare clips.

[squareflops]

Ahh jeez

OK dude I'll look into the ancillary bits and bobs needed for the job. I may palm the suspension job off to Dean at Three Arches if things look like needing some major garage tools etc to complete the job; I know my limits

[austinsmirk]

Lovely. I'm a big fan. I had a 2004 one in 2005. Lovely car. Quite rare as it had a factory full leather black interior. Mica black paint on the body.

One of those cars I really wished I could have kept forever.

Only thing I didn't like was plod seemed interested in me all the time, randomly stopping me and nothing ever happened!!

Prob when they stopped me and saw a man in a suit with radio 2 on they had the wrong demographic for the car ? .......


And chavs wanting to race.

[squareflops]

sounds nice austin, i'm consistently impressed by it tbh, I know what you mean it really is a surprisingly good machine, they can be had for small money if you so fancied

Sad to say my only 'yo' encounter was with a youth in an Focus ST and he absolutely destroyed me ah well I'm not proud..

And not been pulled yet; that jinxed it didn't it