2004 Impreza WRX blobeye Wagon

[CarlosV8]

Damn you EBay! My bidding finger got the better of me again and I've ended up with a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon SL as my daily driver.

A week in and I quite like it. Civilised, practical but a bit naughty when you want it to be. It's supposedly got the Prodrive Performance Pack, which gives it a bit more power and torque, which is always a good thing. Need to get use to the total lack of response at low revs, but seems to go well once you get it wound up.

The bodywork is showing a few battle scars, but hopefully I'll get a some of this sorted as time goes on. Mechanically it's been well looked after with no silly mods, just needs an oil change done fairly imminently (on order from Opie!).

Some photos of the old girl:







And job number 1 done:



A new grille badge

Edited by CarlosV8 on Monday 31st July 21:21

[TVR Sagaris]

Nice. I was looking at these the other day and was surprised how cheap they've become.

[CarlosV8]

TVR Sagaris said:

Nice. I was looking at these the other day and was surprised how cheap they've become.

Me too!

Probably not quite so good value for money when I add in tax, insurance, fuel, maintenance etc. But never mind, I'll try not to think about that lol

[SuperVM]

I've had two bugeye wagons, one I bought as a cheap family car and the other was a part-ex for my old E39 M5. They're not bad little cars, but once the WRXes get much above 100k miles they start to need engine rebuilds.

[CarlosV8]

SuperVM said:

I've had two bugeye wagons, one I bought as a cheap family car and the other was a part-ex for my old E39 M5. They're not bad little cars, but once the WRXes get much above 100k miles they start to need engine rebuilds.

Really? Can't say I've seen much evidence of that, but anyway this one has decent service history and I will look after it so we'll see how it goes. Its on 98k mikes

[kayzee]

Not bad! I had a blobeye (non-wagon) and it was a great car... just cost a bomb to run.

Seats actually look nicer in yours just get rid of that side strip lol, what is that all about.

[CarlosV8]

kayzee said:

Not bad! I had a blobeye (non-wagon) and it was a great car... just cost a bomb to run.

Seats actually look nicer in yours just get rid of that side strip lol, what is that all about.

Yeah I'm not expecting it to be cheap to run, but I don't do too many miles so hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll do all the routine bits of maintenance myself as well, which will help keep costs down.

Seats are OK but not a huge amount of support. However, as it's the SL it gets heated leather which'll be nice when it gets colder. Interior/equipment is fairly basic, but it's got the stuff I need and seems well put together.

Are the bump strips not standard then? Looking at Google images, maybe not. Will take a closer look later.

First fill up gives 26mpg which I thought was pretty good

[CarlosV8]

With a bit if juggling I managed to squeeze the Impreza in the garage today so I could change the oil and filter in the dry...



It clearly needed doing...



Now replaced with genuine Subaru filter and fully synthetic 5w40. Exhaust also looking a bit crusty so will look into a replacement, and maybe a clean up and paint of the sump too.

Also found a manual for the alarm on t'internet and have managed to turn off the annoying full volume bleep of the siren when locking/unlocking the car. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?!

With the new daily driver I'm quite happy with the fleet at the moment...

Edited by CarlosV8 on Monday 31st July 21:22

Edited by CarlosV8 on Monday 31st July 21:23

[Cambs_Stuart]

I've got a 2005 blob wagon with the ppp fitted, although not the heated leather seats. I've had mine for two years and done a fair amount of tinkering. It's a great car in many ways. Only really downside is the lack of creature comforts and the cars reputation.
Apologies if this is bad form but you can find my thread here:

https://www.scoobynet.com/projects-40/1031303-2005...

[CarlosV8]

Cheers Stuart, I'll have a look. Didn't do much in the way of research before bidding, so reading up a lot now!

Also got a cheap OBD2 dongle and hooked it up this week as I wanted to check boost levels..



Pretty much where it should be at 14.3 PSI I think. Will have a play with the data logging tomorrow, for no particular reason other than being a bit of a geek

Edited by CarlosV8 on Monday 31st July 21:23

[mattyowen5]

Snap with the 205 and impreza fleet.

[Cambs_Stuart]

This is also a good thread. I covers a lot of the same ground as mine, but with more skill, less swearing and better grammar.
https://www.scoobynet.com/members-gallery-5/100484...

[CarlosV8]

Nice examples Mattyowen

You're thread is very interesting Stuart, nothing wrong with a bit of well placed swearing when working on the cars! I can't help but think mine's a little flat at the top end so you've given me a few things to check out.

Been on load lugging duties today:

Edited by CarlosV8 on Monday 31st July 21:23

[CarlosV8]

Time for some TLC... Since this is my daily driver I want to make sure it's running as well as it can be, as well as sorting out a few niggles. So tonights jobs were as follows:

1. Remove Prodrive sticker from the boot as not my cup of tea. A winning combination of baby wipes and WD40 shifted this.
2. Sort out annoying squeak when pulling out front seat belts. Turns out this is due to the belt rubbing on the B pillar plastic trim, so a few minutes with the dremel and it's all sorted:

3. Clean out boost solenoid to ensure wastegate is opening when it should. Apparently the solenoids can get gunked up causing boost issues, but after removing and cleaning with carb cleaner there was no dirt to be seen.
4. Clean MAF.
5. Clean K&N air filter. Glad I checked this one as the filter was filthy. Luckily I had a cleaning kit in the garage as this is the crap that came out of it:

Just letting it dry now so I can re-oil and re-fit.
6. Remove slack from throttle cable.

Next on the list is to remove and clean the intercooler.

[bullawayo]

Nice car.

I had a prodrive WRX blobeye and loved it. Great cars, shouldn't have sold it!

I know you've mentioned it but definitely clean the intercooler out. Mine was puffing smoke until I did so. They have a tendency to collect minor amounts of oil.

[CarlosV8]

bullawayo said:

Nice car.

I had a prodrive WRX blobeye and loved it. Great cars, shouldn't have sold it!

I know you've mentioned it but definitely clean the intercooler out. Mine was puffing smoke until I did so. They have a tendency to collect minor amounts of oil.

Yeah I'll do it at some point in the next few weeks. No sign of smoke, but at the very least the fins need cleaning out:

I'm sure the insides would benefit from a clean too!

Got the re-oiled air filter back in and went out for a drive last night and I can't help but think the engine is a little lacking at the top end. It might just be me expecting too much from a 4 pot turbo, as I remember being slightly underwhelmed by the bugeye WRX I drove new many years back. Once I finish all the little niggly jobs I'll try and find a local rolling road to check what power it's putting out. Should also help confirm if I really do have the PPP fitted.

[UberMeister]

I might be mistaken but I thought PPP on these consisted of Blue Prodrive intercooler pipe, a Prodrive ECU and Prodrive backbox.

The pipe you should be able to see under the intercooler and the ECU is in the passenger footwell.

I had a non PPP wagon last year and it was very versatile - really enjoyed the car as a daily.

[Konan]

Prodrive ECU is a flash by that year rather than the daugterboard, so you can't tell by looking. You'd need to download the map.

14psi is closer to the standard map than the prodrive, which runs up to about 19, so if it is a ppp you're not making what you should.

If it isn't, then that would tie up with what you're saying about a lack of go at low rpm. I had an unmodified bug before going to a PPP and it used to drive me nuts having to drop a gear to make a sedate pass!

[SuperVM]

CarlosV8 said:

Yeah I'll do it at some point in the next few weeks. No sign of smoke, but at the very least the fins need cleaning out:

I'm sure the insides would benefit from a clean too!

Got the re-oiled air filter back in and went out for a drive last night and I can't help but think the engine is a little lacking at the top end. It might just be me expecting too much from a 4 pot turbo, as I remember being slightly underwhelmed by the bugeye WRX I drove new many years back. Once I finish all the little niggly jobs I'll try and find a local rolling road to check what power it's putting out. Should also help confirm if I really do have the PPP fitted.

I'd just go with some pinks, VF31 and a walbro or similar. Having said that, I had one with those parts fitted and still didn't feel it was particularly quick, I guess it entirely depends on what you're used to driving otherwise.

[CarlosV8]

Well my other car is a 205 with ITBs that screams round to the red line. Before that I suppose the quicker cars were big V8s so i'm not used to turbos spooling up and the associated power bands. I'm sure thats a factor.

My car has the Prodrive backbox, but the intercooler pipe is an aftermarket Mishimoto item. No signs of any Prodrive stickers in the door shuts and no documentation in the history. I've also tried emailing my local dealer to see if there's any way to check if it had the PPP option.

Don't get me wrong, I like the car and it's fairly quick, just not as quick as I think it should be based on the PPP output. Which is why I suspect it's just a standard WRX. From what Konan says the boost levels would also support this.

SuperVM said:

I'd just go with some pinks, VF31 and a walbro or similar

Care to expand... my Scooby knowledge is very limited still
I'm not too fussed about modifying for more power, I just want to know everything is working as it should. As a daily driver it's plenty quick enough, just needs a bit of cog swapping if you want move quickly!