First of all hello from another Impreza owner on the list in Ireland, hopefully there'll be more.

I have a bit of a problem - I posted this to the drivetrain forum as well but could do with some info on who could solve/fix my problem in Ireland. I'm based in Sligo and can travel north, south or east. Basically the problem is .......

The other night I was heading home in MY94 and allthough I didn't give it a thrashing - a go but not a thrashing - and I felt a loss of power and noticed grey smoke - quite a bit coming from the exhaust. Luckily I was near home so I nursed it back. I tried it the next morning and it was running like a dog very shaky and still smoke, from the exhaust. I have to keep hitting the throttle to keep it alive of else it dies.

Well I had a bit of time with the car at the weekend and found that it seemed to be firing on three cylinders. I took out the plugs and found that the top of one of the plugs (back left when facing the engine from the front) was gone - gone before the curve.

I tried to get plugs meant for a subaru but only managed to get iridium plugs. Put them in and found it to tick over an awful lot better but still slightly noisy and has a tendency to cut out every so often.

When taken for a spin there is hardly any power - you can take of slowly but it feels like I'm towing a trailor....

Any help suggestions of what it might be would be greatly appreciated and who would be the person who you have confidence in to fix it. Sitting here worried.

Regards

Victor L.

vic

sorry to hear about your trouble
when you say the top of the spark plug was missing , was it melted or broken as i suspect you have either a melted or badly scored pisten/ring.If the turbo was gone the smoke would be very white. i once priced a rebuild on the legacy engine an i got a pirce of 300-400 plus parts and had to remove the block myself.i'm down south so i can't recomend anyone handy.

Is it an Irish spec car or an Import?

John,

Cheers for the info regarding the rebuild. I'm making my little investigations now -keep you informed.

Kevin,

It's a 94 Japanese STi import. Had no trouble with it so far except for the dreaded crankshaft position sensor leaving me without being able to start the car in the most awkward places.

Victor.

Whats a 93-94 WRX making these days?
£13,000-£14,000????
Regards
KEVO

13,000-14,000punts seems a hell of a money for a 93-94 WRX when over a year ago I bought my 96WRX for less?

David L

Ye but you are from the north so they are bound to be more reasonably priced.

Roughly a £10K car up north will cost near £13,270 just on currency conversion.....

THEN there's the VRT. roughly ~ £2,800

Comes to over £16K

Pretty damn annoying...

Before you know it £10K becomes £16K!!!

David - I know the cost of petrol is a hell of a lot dearer up north - but you still have £6K to play with & More than likely along with cheaper insurance.

Don't know if you agree with me Kevin but it irratates me beyond belief.

First car was a Renault 5 Turbo bought for £1,500 punt but cost £600 VRT.

Then a GT4 bought for £10K punt and cost near £2K VRT.

It's great to see a car in the likes of Auto Trader and your eyes light up and then reality kicks in when you figure the rough total cost in punt to actually drive it down here and you suddenly find yourself flicking to the next page.......

Victor.

When I said 13-14000 punts is dear and I got my 96 WRX for less I got it in the South. It cost under 13,000 punts over a year ago. Now I probably paid lower VAT on it compared to what you would pay but the difference is only a few percent.Is VRT what you pay when you import it from the North?
Petrol isn't dear it's actually cheap as I live close to the border :-)


David L

Eh, the infuriating thing is that you pay about 30% VRT on thenew price of a car even if it’s secondhand!

guy's

anyone price an jap import off the ship in dublin against a second hand n/ireland english car not icluding vrt.

That's the point i was trying to make. I got my car from a custom bonded yard. I saved over 2grand (that was a year ago) had a selection of cars (over 30) and after two trips found a mint 96 WRX and have no problems with it.
It's a chance because you have no test drive and no come back. But some of the rubbish I looked at in the North from apparently "good" import dealers. Made me take the chance and it has been worth it.
I am not being too hard when I say rubbish one car dealer only let me drive a mile. When he drove me back to the yard he had to overtake a car doing under 30mph. He accelerated, the impreza hit the overboost and cut out (like hitting a wall) and he said it was because the car has just been washed!!
That's only my view on it and I am not saying all import dealers in N. Ireland are bad only some.

David L

Anyone interested in an import can view cars and see exact prices on this site