Cheap WRX STI hatch - what could possibly go wrong?!

[drgoatboy]

Went to drop some old alloys off at a local scrap metal yard today in the Impreza.

They make you go on the weighbridge



That's with me (about 100kg) and a full tank of petrol, so pretty close to he published numbers.
Obviously not exactly accurate but it's an indication. Not light is it!!

[drgoatboy]

So decided to give the car a proper wash, something I always like to do with a new car as it gives you a proper chance to check it over.
Unnecessary snow foam shot....



The eagle eyed amongst you will notice I decided to take off the sill covers, I could see hints of rust and a load of gunk. This came out of the front wings.



Quite a lot of gunk at the rear of the sills too.



As well as this empty package, wtf?



The bottom edge of the sill looked a bit crusty so wire attachment got put on the rotary polisher and it was cleaned up, treated and then epoxy coated (hard to photo)







But the rear of the sill looked like this,



and once cleaned up looked like this



Bobbins! Unless the sill covers had come off there was very little sign that it was like this. Pinch welds were a bit scabby but you could put that down to bad jacking practices. I wonder how many others are like this.

Luckily it only extends to under the sill covers so hopefully can get it repaired without having to respray major sections. Wish I knew a decent welder! (Anyone on here can weld from Hemel Hempstead!?)

[drgoatboy]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Ouch! I didn't realise these rusted. Is it just at the end? So around the inner and the strut tower all ok?

I haven't stripped back the liner and had a proper look yet. I hope it's ok! Looks like where the sill covers had trapped dirt but hard to say

[drgoatboy]

Court_S said:

Annoying about the rust. Do you have a friendly body shop who don’t charge the earth?

That's the tricky bit, finding someone to do more than just a quick patch that isn't a classic car restorer....

[drgoatboy]

S100HP said:

Did the sill covers come away easily? I ask from a selfish point of view as I could do with removing mine...

Yep they are just clipped on, plastic rivnut things in the wheel arches and underneath then just pull off (open the doors first though!)

[drgoatboy]

emmetb said:

I've had lots of Imprezas and they all rust like this and usually you can't see the worst bits. If I were the OP I would give it a really good inspection and get anything nasty sorted asap. Great cars, but unfortunately the tin worm loves them too.

Generally the plan. It's been under sealed at some point so not immediately obvious...

[drgoatboy]

CalisenQX said:

Know someone near Leighton Buzzard if you’re willing to travel down the road a bit…

That's not too far! If you could let me have the details I would appreciate it

[drgoatboy]

Rust continued...

In my search to find someone to weld the sills a lot of people were understandably asking for photos. So I decided to take the arch liners out and get busy cleaning with the wire brush attachment again...

Before...



During...



After...



Good opportunity to look inside the sill. My biggest fear was the whole sill would be shot be it really only seems to extend a few inches and from what I can tell the rest of the inner sill looks fine (phew!)

[drgoatboy]

Although the car currently resembles Swiss cheese I decided I couldn't live with the asymmetrical rear lights.
Before



After



Very easy swap, pull off the interior trim, then just 3 bolts (and a new gasket)


Next step is to try and tone down the clearness of the lights which looks very dated, but that can wait.

[drgoatboy]

ajprice said:

Is that a red LED in there now or a silver bulb?

Neither yet, probably go led. It's just the fog light so not too excited about it as I'm unlikely to drive in the fog anytime soon!

Court_S said:

The clear lights were a thing back then…I’m not a fan either. Hated them on my 325ti.

Any joy in finding someone to tackle the rust?

It's booked in with a restorer down near reading. Would have preferred somewhere closer to home but really struggled to find someone with a good reputation. These guys come recommend and have been super helpful.

[drgoatboy]

Dylano said:

The nearside light looks like it's got moisture ingress with green algae growing inside?

It does, I ordered a new seal and will clean it out once it gets here. Hopefully an easy fix.

Alex_225 said:

I think after the initial shock of the Impreza becoming a hatch back, over the years these have aged well. Looks like some sterling work de-barrying it!!

I saw you were using one of those deodoriser cans to freshen the interior up. If that doesn't work, give one of these a go from Amazon. It's a one time use set of pots, you mix together with water, leave inside the car for 8 hours and circulate the vents mid way through. It's essentially chlorine gas so don't give it a sniff! haha




Keep us updated on the progress OP.

Thanks I have used one of these before so may do again, the can has worked surprisingly well to be honest although I find once the weather warms up the odor can reappear. It wasn't too horrendous to be honest, mostly just a bit stale smelling

[drgoatboy]

RB Will said:

This was my favourite way of doing the rear lights on these

[

Think that's the look I am going to go for. But maybe not with the precut overlays.

[drgoatboy]

Minor update.... Cleared out the other rear light. It was really yucky with a lot of damp and mold. I tried separating the lense but failed. So I gave it a good scrub, dried it out and ran a bead of clear silicone, round the outside edge. It's not perfect but with the new gasket it should hopefully stop it getting wet again. You can only really see the silicone if you look really closely.



(Not sure why the right light has a weird orange tinge to it. Doesn't in real life)

Elsewhere I noticed the steering had got a bit lumpy and you could feel the steering wheel bouncing at full lock. Bobbins.
I decided to take a chance and just change the fluid which I have had good results doing before...

Love his little pump...



The fluid was pretty nasty.



And the reservoir was black inside with stuck on grime.



So I took it out and gave it a good clean.



Much better!

I refilled and bled the system (a few turns side to side with the cap off). It was seemingly better for a short while but soon became lumpy again.

On closer inspection you could see the pulley stalling out on the pump when turning the steering wheel. Belt tension was fine and belt was pretty new. Rack seemed fine and wasn't leaking so I took a punt on a new aftermarket pump. At £140 it was worth a try as the rack is a lot more expensive and harder to get off. (Plus I didn't want the pump seizing and taking the alternator with it)

It's really easy to get to on a Subaru. Plastic cover over the belts and it's right at the top front of the engine.



The alternator adjusts to tighten the shared belt. It's a neat setup actually one of the better ones I have worked on. Once the belt is off, 3 bolts take off the pump...



Swap the brackets over and refit.



Took less than a couple of hours even with my 9 year old daughter "assisting"

Lumpiness all gone!
The other good news is I always felt the steering was really light, and had loads of slop in it particularly around dead centre. The new pump has really helped, it's weighted up and is much more direct. (It ain't no lotus though!)

In other news rust is booked in for repair 3rd week in May, engine is stilling running in (I haven't been anywhere and I didn't want to go too far with the lumpy steering).

Also it's developed a bit of an oil leak. Really hoping it's just the rocker covers gasket...

[drgoatboy]

Another round of mod improvements. (Mod mods?)

A rather loud BOV (HKS SQV?) had been put on the car to replace the standard recirculation valve. (See big silver thing on front of the intercooler)



which sounds like this... (Excuse terrible video)

https://youtu.be/JjUgCohOovc

Now as much as it initially made me giggle like the 90s schoolboy I am inside it soon got old. It was noisy from anything over 3k revs so basically all the time. Kinda a bit much for me!

I didn't really want to go back to standard so purchased a GFB recirc only valve. I used GFB kit on my mini and it seemed good quality and reasonable in pricing, I reckoned if I could sell the HKS and get most of my money back....
I didn't realize I needed the elbow off a standard valve, so I had to go buy one. Bobbins! More money.

Now I don't know what's going on with 2nd hand parts at the moment but prices for these valves, which basically most people take off and throw away, are all over the place, from £30 to £170. I had an offer from one breaker and when I politely declined his offer as it was more than I wanted to spend, he got pretty abusive and advised me I needed to buy a Vauxhall to get cheap parts. (Charming) Apparently Subaru parts are made of unobtainium.

Anyways a kind soul on the Subaru groups on Facebook sold me his unwanted one for £25



I removed the elbow and gave it a few coats of VHT paint and bolted it on.



Old valve off.



Mating faces were cleaned up and new one on



Hooray! My car doesn't sneeze anymore. Idle also seems more stable now too which is a bonus
(My inner child misses the pppsstttt a bit though)

Apologies another dull update really. Rust being sorted next week....

[drgoatboy]

Tango13 said:

Can you remember where you got the syringe/pump from? One of those would've been very useful when I was changing the gear box and diff oil on my 370 a few weeks back.

Think I just got it off a market stall!
But they do a very similar looking one on Amazon

Hyfive Syphon Pump Oil Fuel Petrol Diesel Hand Sifon Water Siphon Transfer Kit Inflator https://amzn.eu/d/8ZfyFGm

[drgoatboy]

thomasrs50 said:

When they first came out, I really couldn't get used to these (and every other subaru from this generation), but I've grown to really like them.

Good to see someone giving this car the much needed care.

Thank you! I always quite liked the shape. If you disregard what came before it's a reasonably handsome car.


Got to over 600 miles since the engine build so finally got it past 3500 revs today. Pulls well but not convinced I had full boost. Needs investigation...

[drgoatboy]

RB Will said:

Has it been mapped for full boost? When I had mine built the mapper set it to only boost to about 1-1.2 bar while running in, then had to go back for a remap for the full 1.8bar tune.

No idea. It's not quite making stock boost at the moment.

[drgoatboy]

Took the car for a longer drive last week and popped up to Sywell aerodromes.
I had no idea there was a supercar event on the following day. Lots of interesting things in the car park.



(Mine was louder)

Also a loads of interesting things being set out for the next day



What it did mean is I am pretty sure I have 600+ miles on the engine since it was built!
yay




As a treat I gave it an oil change.



10-50w is heavier than OEM but recommend by the engine builder for the forged spec I have.

Oil coming out looked pretty clean and no scary metal lumps or anything! Phew!

[drgoatboy]

Cambs_Stuart said:

That oil looks nice and clean. I think whoever built it has mapped it to restrict boost until the running in process is finshed. How far are you from the original mapper?

The engine was built without the car so I'm 95% sure it wasn't that.

[drgoatboy]

At last the rust has been fixed. Ended up costing a bit more than I hoped but I am happy it's sorted.

The guy who did it (company called Wisewagen) did a great job and gave the rest of the underneath a good look over clearing off any flaking waxoyl and didn't find any other horrors which I was relieved about.
He did find a failed bush on the front suspension but more on that in a later post.












Other side








(Spot the cavity wax dripping out the sills....)


Back of the inner arches







And in other news, I changed the headunit.
Wasn't high on my list but someone localish was selling second hand and it seemed like a bargain. Not so keen on the new facia, but too black.....