Refreshing a 10 year old Impreza WRX STI - where to start?

[Ved]

My Impreza, while great, could be better and I'd like to give it a new lease of life to sharpen the whole package. I'd like to know where to start so I'm asking for some advice.

My first thoughts are to refresh the suspension and steering bushes to ensure anything that's perished or isn't up to scratch is back to factory. I'm hesitant to upgrade them to polyurethane ones as I don't want to introduce any more NVH in a car that's already pretty raw for me but I'm open to suggestions. The steering is a bit loose when pushing on around a bumpy corner so hopefully it'll make it feel much more solid. It also wants to turn left to a very noticeable degree off and on power and after having the geometry checked, everything seems to be spot on as are tyre pressures and wear. Something is doing it and I'm at a loss as to what I can be. Thoughts?

One thing I'm open to doing is changing the struts and springs as I can detect a slight knock at times, very similar to the traditional STI issue I had in my Hawkeye. I'd prefer a more compliant and calm ride too so coilovers are out of the question for me. I want to get rid of the jumpy nature as low speed and the wallowing at high speed - perhaps the latter is a rear ARB.

So aside from these items what else would you recommend doing?


David

Edited by Ved on Wednesday 16th April 10:58

[Ved]

74merc said:

What condition are your brake calipers in? Does that model have the chromed pistons or are they stainless steel?

Are you thinking it's biting on one side? There is a rubbing noise but nothing that would suggest that it's so severe that it's binding to the disc - certainly something to investigate though. They should be stainless pistons on the 4 and 2 pot Brembos.

It's going in to Subaru to have the power steering belt look at so I'll get them to check over the brake clearance while it's in.

Good call!

[Ved]

Gorgar said:

Have you got an 02 Bugeye? Might help if you gave a few more details, particularly as the 02 models understeered more than the older models imo.

Have a look in my garage for details on the car. However, as I said in the first post it is a 10 year old STI so that'll make it a 2004 vintage. There isn't any more understeer than any other Impreza and that wasn't a complaint I mentioned.

Edited by Ved on Wednesday 16th April 23:36

[Ved]

My Evil Twin said:

If it was my money again and I was using it daily.. i would spent the cash on decent (KYB) dampers (not cheap coilovers), changing these made a huge difference to daily driving, I do 25miles each way to work.
The links and rear ARB made it turn better, but I could easily have lived with how it was before.
I strongly suspect that the 17's will remove alot of the crashiness the 18's gave.. my studded winter tyres are 17s and are nice to drive with.

Which KYBs did you go for? I'm picking up some Prodrive springs soon which should help the ride a little bit more too.

[Ved]

Nuts. The springs don't have bumpstops with them. Utter lack of options out there to get a comfortable ride.

[Ved]

Thanks Dave. WRX dampers wouldn't solve much to be fair as it would just add more compression. Springs are the way forward but until I find a complete set, including the bump stops, I'll wait. The ride is just a bit choppy but this isn't my first STI so it's fine for the moment.

The pulling issue seems to be tyre related and all bushes are looking good so I'll look at a simple fast road setup and a new ARB next month. New tyres can wait until the current ones need replacing.