Squarepant5

monumental hangover today

Yea Trooper Sheep Warrior is right, what Bob offered due to the Exedys not being available at the moment.

Cheers SW always good for a read for the rest of us if you were to throw something up. When I got the Subaru I half promised myself that I'd stay away from the forum/thread aspect of ownership, not that there's anything wrong with that of course and SN is a superb resource with lots of good types, I just wanted to enjoy the car and basically - not be on here all the time seeing stuff I want to buy and convince myself I need! Kind of echoes PPs thoughts on that one, I know exactly what you mean Peter I've found though a thread is a good way of keeping a time line of work completed and gives any potential buyers a feel for the car when it comes time to move on. I'll read yours with interest if it ever materializes.

Update on the flywheel, looks like I'm going to keep it and get it fitted. Bob and I have come to an arrangement so seen as it's sat here I may as well utilize it (what was that you were saying again Peter? ) I've read good things about the results of these so will be interesting to see the differences.

Hoping to get up early tomorrow and fit the ARB stuff, might flush the coolant system if I can get hold of a new thermostat. A wasted day today, I'm glad I don't drink often it'll take me until Wednesday to feel right again

Squarepant5

Well what a **** of a day Had hopes of the ARB drop link and bushes job going straightforwardly but that did not occur. Very rusted nuts & bolts, little space to work and a few unexpected issues along the way meant I'm still not done (about 7 hours work in all - how the hell did that take 7 hours!) My plan was to remove both ARBs, remove the rust and spray them with hammerite hammer finish black. With the front I didn't realize you can't drop the ARB without removing the under bracing etc and I wasn't going to start doing that today. I replaced the bushes easily enough, I had to saw through both front drop links at they'd seized pretty solid. When fitting the new drop links I had to ask a random neighbor to put weight on the front of the car to bring the mounts in line. Annoyingly I forgot to grease the bolts so I'll have to split them again and grease correctly.

The rears were a little less problematic but oddly having measured the ARB at 20mm I noticed before I dropped the mounts off that the bushes on the car had 19 written on them; 19mm? not sure. That was enough to stop me pulling off the mounts only to find they're potentially the wrong size. I fitted new drop links on the rear, again a bit annoying as there's play in the old bushes so the mix of new and old isn't ideal.

Results are good for now though. The knocking especially from the front has gone and although it may just an imagined improvement the car feels slightly stiffer and controlled when cornering - who knows.

Few pics from the job



grrr



double grrr



awful picture of the front near side fitted







Not as satisfactory a job as the brakes but 90% there and after a few more days I should be where I wan't to be.

dave_t

iTrader: (1)

Good stuff happening and nice to see a fella that's up for having a go...
Your pretty much were I started Scooby life.
I opted to tighten up the brakes on mine (which were all Pagid standard stuff at one stage) which worked fine until you got them hot when they became lethal. I opted for MTEC discs with Porterfield R4S (which are absolutely superb and very low dust).
No disrespect to you're choice or Ians kit which i've used before and happily (p.s. Ian you should grab a few sets and test the Porterfields )

If ya going to fit spings/droplinks IMHO you want to be considering an ARB upgrade (22mm rear only, or 24mm rear & 22mm front) while you are there (Whiteline which you hand paint before fitting or you can buy CDF racing ones that are apparently rebadged Whitelines ). That combo will have you feeling like you are on rails in comparison...

Finally no Scoob is happier than a mapped Scoob, so get hold of Duncan @ RaceDynamix (he was close to JGM and continues with his clients) to put some wind in your sails....you'll be blown away by the transformation & daily usability.

3 CATS, one in the uppipe as you say (can be removed but many will tell you that it is very rare for them to go) and if it does its £75 for a used TD04??.
Two in the downpipe, the first coming down is the main, the second (scrubber) can be removed without emissions issues. Replacement pipe £40 s/h and 20 min swap. No need for downpipe replacement for decat/sportscat unless you looking for numbers and want to MOT unfriendly. If i was in your boots (which i was) i loose the scrubber and grab a remap...

p.s. where is home fella?

Squarepant5

Cheers Dave, interesting comments re the brakes, I've heard some alternating reviews from the rally boys etc; I'm happy with them so far and I wouldn't say I'm particularly hard on brakes so will see how they do in time.

I'm really trying to not modify this one too much I went far too far with my previous Celica so I'm enjoying putting funds into other things (more of that in a moment) I'm sure the Whiteline ARBs are superb and I may still go there but it won't be for a while. Re power, again; I'm happy with how fast it is at the moment! and all I seem to be reading/seeing at the moment on various forums is 'is this noise normal' vids where clearly the bottom ends have failed, I wan't no such vid! less boost = safer. That's what I'm working on anyway!

I'll keep in mind your comments re map & exhaust, I'll probably break one day and order up some bits and a remap

Well was bored today and have noticed over the last few weeks my ramps were looking a little sorry for themselves. So got to work.

From





to





I'm storing them inside the garage now so they will be less susceptible to rust and should last a few years more.

On the garage front I'm keen on getting a few more workshop tools. I've been looking at compressors and accessories and have penciled in these







These should make the suspension swap job easier if I decide to do it myself. Talking of work, Dean and the guys @ 3 Arches are hopefully fitting my clutch and 6kg flywheel on Thursday so looking forward to that. Dean if you see this I'll call you to discuss further before Thursday!

Squarepant5

The car come back from Dean @ Three Arches yesterday. It went in for the clutch and flywheel fitting as we already know. During the work a few more issues came up related to the job which meant Dean had to spin a few more spanners and replace a few more items. As the down pipe was removed a few studs snapped in the turbo housing which is to be expected on a car of this age and unfortunately the secondary cat all but fell in half as it was being removed due to excessive rust. A few gaskets needed replacing the rear crank seal was also changed for prosperity.

Dean also fitted the rear ARB bushes and - ahem.. re-fitted the front ARB correctly as I'd installed the drop links with the ARB in the wrong position



Oops..

The results are brilliant. The Milltek is now a lot quieter in the cabin as you'd imagine due to the 2nd cat pipe not blowing anymore. There was an odd noise coming from the bulkhead area under boost which albeit not a standard exhaust blow noise was annoying nonetheless has gone and the system now sounds as it should. It's great to know that everything is buttoned up tight and as it should be on the exhaust side, it would have been a pain if the thing had fallen in half on the way to France (which is what happened in the MX5 last year). Dean gave me the option of sourcing my own cat replacement pipe but I've promised myself I'm not going down the more power/remap path just yet, it was replaced with a new genuine Subaru 2nd cat pipe which I'm more than happy with.

The clutch and flywheel combo is great too. The pedal is only slightly heavier than stock and engagement is now as it should with a low biting point and plenty of feel. Having had paddle clutches in the past in my BMW and GT-Four I was interested to see how the power was taken with carbon kevlar unit. The feel is as OEM, it can still be slipped during low speed maneuvering, there's no on-off feel associated with a paddle. I haven't put too much torque through it yet as It'll need running in but I'm really pleased with it so far.

The 6kg flywheel is also proving itself. Revving in neutral from idle is noticeably quicker and equally settling back down to tick over. Acceleration in 1st, 2nd and 3rd particularly is better, it feels like I've had a slight performance increase; a great improvement. Dean noted that it was just as well I went for the flywheel in hindsight as; as he showed me the standard flywheel was cracked around it face. Previously someone has run the clutch down to the rivets and scored the flywheel so badly it caused it to split. As I said "she's certainly had a past this one huh". Indeed..

Overall I'm thoroughly impressed with the improvements Dean/3 Arches have made and the car now drives far better than it did before, quieter and more refined. Dean again kept me up to date with any developments as the job went along and clarified any additional costs before going ahead with the work. I really do count myself lucky to have such a specialist just around the corner.

Squarepant5

Well got the Inovits fitted, was going to wait until the suspension was renewed but my will broke. They've grown on me over the last few days although I can't really comment on the change in grip levels from the Wanlis to the Eagle F1s as the grip generated by 4x4 seems to have kept things stuck firmly to the floor whatever the tyre used. No doubt the Goodyears are better but I haven't really felt the difference @ sedate speeds









I noticed a slight wobble through the wheel so the car went to Dean @ 3 Arches for balancing. Whilst there I requested he take a look at the Turbosmart mechanical boost gauge I'd fitted 2 days previous as the needle was bouncing around @ 0 throttle; odd. Identified as a broken gauge so back to the seller and a new one on order, lets see it the replacement works.

Dean did an excellent job at balancing the wheels and they're now perfectly balanced with no annoying wheel wobble @ 70-75. I'm likely to also replace the Turbosmart dump valve with an OEM recirc valve that Dean is supplying, should make it a little less 'yo', I already feel like a bit of a yob, especially with the gold wheels on

Cheers again to 3 Arches Garage, always impressed by their work and approach to working which is as important from a customer point of view.

Braap

Peter Pan

iTrader: (6)

Nice work fella and I like the wheels as well.

STI Glenn

Yes wheels suite it

Squarepant5

Been potching today. The engine was rocking longitudinally when coming off throttle etc so had a quick word with Dean @ 3 Arches and he suggested replacing the pitch stop mount. Looked around and to be fair the up rated mounts seem to be well overpriced. For whats a bit of ali and two poly mounts £100 is a bit silly I thought. I ended up going for the oem STI 'group N' item and pleased that its made acceleration/deceleration much firmer and the car now feels more responsive. The old mount had quite a bit of play in it so really pleased with the result and £45 from Scoobyparts isn't too bad.

One of the boys sorted me out with some proper floor paint this morning; the garage floor had started to wear so timing was good.



Prepped the floor and masked up, pretty straight forward job



cutting in with a brush





then on to the roller



after its first coat



gave it another one after this, might give it a final 3rd coat tomorrow as I have about 50 gallons of the stuff

After that was done turned my attention to the car. It was a little dusty so got to work. I normally go from a hose rinse straight to wash with shampoo/sponge phase but due to the dust I added a step of pulling any left over dust that the water hadn't taken off with a damp/wet microfiber cloth. Results were interesting



think I'll use this extra step from now on as I don't want to grind all the grime into the paint during the wash.

Got carried away again, wheels off





interior tomorrow

Squarepant5

Well what a few hours..

Back to 3 Arches for a few jobs today; fitting the suspension and sorting a few issued with the HKB boss. Suspension has been a bit of a debacle over the last few weeks. Camskill apparently no longer stock the Excel G dampers that mirror OEM units. I then went to ... some other company autofactorsuk I think? who stocked the same units. ordered them, waited about 2 weeks for them to arrive, called and was told the order had been lost in the system. Another few days waiting for them to look into it and then told they have 3 of the 4 dampers in stock and a weeks wait on the 4th. No good to me so cancelled that order and went totally oem spec from Import Car Parts (ICP) whom I've had good dealings with in the past. The units turned up the next day and saved me about £100 over the Gs. I wanted oem kit as a) I'm trying not to 'improve' the WRX too much and more importantly b) the Prodrive springs from PCA Dynamics are tuned to match oem dampers.

The dampers from ICP are branded Optimal. They appear to be big news in Germany, they're black and .. damperish.

The kit that's been fitted



so in the boot and off to 3 Arches



Picked the car up earlier and wooow what a difference. I can't emphasize enough what a stark difference there is in the handling. Before the car would pitch and wallow around corners, I never thought I wouldn't make a bend at speed but it did complain a little in the process. Now however I cannot believe how flat it is through the corners, there's no perceivable roll or leaning during spirited driving, its superb, I actually let out a laugh and started clapping after a series of bends going over Caerphilly mountain I was that impressed. Love it, perfect. Thanks to Peter @ PCA Dynamics he really does know what he's doing. The ride is still comfortable and compliant at normal speeds, it feels standard but press on and it transforms. Amazing.

The drop isn't too severe which is great as I didn't want to lose driveability around town etc, there's a subtle drop that particularly reduces the front arch gap and makes the drop uniform front and back.

before



after



If you're looking for stance these may not be the ones for you but for a usable daily with a transformed ride I can't recommend it enough. 3 Arches gave me a choice of road, fast road or track alignment setup, I opted for fast road as track would probably just eat the inside of the tyres and, well its a road car, fast road is about perfect

Cheers again to the boys at 3 Arches, superb work, cannot fault them, highly recommended.

Well, my group buy Scoobyworld mudflaps turned up. Thought it would be rude not to fit them given the new suspension, could have waited until tomorrow but weather is supposed to be dire this weekend so I got to work. Took longer than expected.

Started off with optimism, only 3 bolts per flap, what could be easier not the hardest job ive ever done but most of the nuts had seized inside the arches so had to be a little rougher than I wanted but nothing bent or broke and got the new ones on with no real issues apart from fighting with the 8 or so seized bolts.

Start of the job



The old flaps actually turned out to be Scoobyworld items, exactly the same as the new ones but they were badly faded and the fronts particularly weren't fitted well; the inside portion being left unsecured and causing rubbing issues on lock

old left vs new right. yes it had started raining by that point



Fitted the fronts correctly albeit with 1 self tapper rather than the recommended 2, couldn't see the need to drill another hole



random strut shots











Well that brings us up to now.

Oh new wheel fitted



Fantastic addition as far as I'm concerned, the standard Momo is rather large makes the steering feel slow and ponderous, this sharpens it right up makes it feel all ... rallyish. In my eyes it's basically Grp A spec now

and of course



time for a beer..

Squarepant5

Well just got back from France, was a great trip and the Impreza didn't miss a beat (more than could be said for my Garmin Nuvi sat nav)

Put around 820 miles on all told, may have been a little less had it not been for the already mentioned sat nav issue but hey-ho no one died. Stayed in the Mayenne region which is pretty rural, our second time out there; staying in a small cottage on a lake with the nearest town being 2 mins away by car. Most places enjoy 2 / 2 1/2 hour lunches most days so the pace is pretty slow, there's some great ex pat pubs around where most patrons seem to be from the Greater London area and seem to be enjoying a slower pace of life in rural France. OH and I don't speak or read a word of French which was interesting at points, trying to buy 98 at a self service station almost had me self immolating, had I been able to get any petrol out the pump which I couldn't. That was after getting lost in lanes for most of the afternoon in 30c heat, a rare annoyance during a largely very relaxing week. The gite we stayed in had lots of fish to feed bread to in the lake, 2 goats to try and chew our fingers off, 2 bernese mountain dogs and 3 ducks. I did end up carrying bails of hay around a field to feed the goats, certainly not an all-inclusive type break but perfect if you want a bit of involvement rather than being waited on.

3/4 of a tank to get to the destination 247, which I was happy with. (i'll apologize again for the terrible washed out photos from my iphone, the inside of the lens still has a load of dust on it)

Saw this on the way, very cool



picture of car on ferry



arrival





realxing the first day with Evo and the nicest cidre I've ever tasted, only 2% but 2euros a bottle; incroyable. Brought about 30 bottles back, should see us for a week or so.



car in a bush



we took a trip one day to Le Mans, about an hour away. Thanks to those who recommended the trip on a thread I put up when we had a little wifi



The museum was brilliant, a lot of pre war stuff but some very interesting cars and the history to go with them. For some reason I decided to leave the Cannon EOS 1200D in the car, not a great decision on hindsight



This went over the Himalayas apparently, must have been parky

















There's hundreds of cars there, well worth a trip if you're in the area. On the way back we got a chance to drive Arnage and around to the end of Mulsanne (driving the circuit in reverse) it's a public road of course most of the time but was still cool to hit a few kerbs. Stopped at the bottom of the straight for a picture







Got home via Caen-Portsmouth without a hitch. The car was filthy by this point, I could hardly see out of the windscreen for bugs and the front of the car was almost black from the same. Elsewhere was the usual grime from a weeks driving with no tlc. Not got a before and after but washed the car today (took a bit of time) and pulled out the Canon, might have to learn how to use this thing properly!







blue again



Should have another service before too long.

That was my week

Squarepant5

Update 1

Next on the list is fitting the Hertz Energy ESK 165.5s in the front doors.



Plan is to build ring spacers to allow the magnets to clear the window glass. I won't be using the rear door speakers as yet, the Hertz are rated @ 100wrms and 93db/spl so should be plenty loud enough and being 6'5" should provide decent frequency range. Will see how they sound and may plumb in some 5.25" in the rears if needs be. I will be putting a 12" Kicker Comp in the boot. To help the sound along I've got 8sq ft of dynamat (or Silent Coat) to do the front (and maybe) rear doors and the boot area.

Update 2

well washed the car again today (stop all of the presses)

About a week ago was it we had that Saharan rain come over which the Impreza got caught in, covering it in sand; great.








Didn't want to touch it until I got the tools needed to get it off without risking the paint too much. Bit the bullet today and went to get me a pressure washer. Was looking at Karcher K2 Compact as that seemed to be the Apple of PWs. Bit of reading up and it seems the K2 has a plastic pump/impeller and a few guys on Detailingworld recommended the Nilfisk as an alternative due to its metal gubbins and good output. Found the Nilfisk @ Maplins at a good price so picked it up



Must say I'm really impressed. The kit comes with a main attachment and two different heads for various flows, a brush thingy which I doubt I'll use and the most/all important foam lance. With the main water jet attachment it's very powerful and got the car wet in quick time, moved onto the snow foam stage with great results, totally covered the car and turned it white, by the time i took these pictures it had dissipated slightly.





On checking the surface with the car still wet (having washed the foam off) most of the sand had been removed which is exactly what I was after of course. A quick wipe with a microfiber cloth confirmed this. Then onto the wash as normal. haven't taken any after pics this time as the last thing any of us need is any more pictures of my car looking clean; needles to say it's shiny and blue for the most part.

As an aside, can't remember what podcast it was mentioned on but apparently this is a good read



I may even read it at some point, probably the 3rd book I'll have ever read

Update 3

something a little different this evening, this thread is taking some twists and turns.

As mentioned I picked up a Fabia vRS last weekend to replace the MX-5 () time for something slightly more practical and less prone to rust related issues in the future. So I've swapped to something with wiring related issues in the present (ish)

Got a relatively good deal on the MX and there seems to be quite a following for these little Skodas and I'm starting to see why. First the bad though.

After picking it up and looking at it a little more closely (I bought it by the 'stand 50 ft away from the car and ask if it's a good one' method) I notice a few rice related additions. a stainless cat back exhaust, a carbon tubular air filter thingy, a strut brace (race car) an adjustable anti roll bar (such race car) and a load of dynamat in the boot where someone had obviously had sweet stereo bruhh.. Money had been spent in these wrong areas. This was confirmed after I booked it in with Dean and the boys at 3 Arches Garage for a thorough inspection and minor service consisting of oil and filter; cam belt was done not long ago.

The list of things needed is as follows:

Interim Service
Inspection

Supply & fit osf steering arm (wheel was a bit wobbly see)
Supply & fit alternator belt
Supply & fit nsf drop link (such clunk)
Tracking

Parts used were

Oil filter
Engine oil
Screen wash
Drop link
Steering arm
Alternator belt
Pollen filter

Labour

Also fixed whilst there was a loose dog bone mount which re secured the engine as it should be and Dean tidied up some wiring in the engine bay putting it back to factory condition.

So some money later the vRS now feels and goes superbly. The clonks from the front have disappeared, acceleration feels more eager and the whole car feels more taught. I'm extremely happy with it now, 3 Arches have done a great job, that's the Impreza and the daily being looked after by the 3 Arches boys.

So first impressions on the car. It's my first diesel so I'm having to learn how to drive again. I have no point of reference but rather than revving on to gain speed as you would in a petrol, it seems its all about gears in the derv. The power is from 2k to 3/3.5k, after that the power delivery seems to flat line and progress reduces. I struggled with this concept for a few days and thought - is there something wrong? It doesn't seem so, rather than revving on (which my small brain is programmed to do) you just give it another gear @ around 3.5k and off the thing goes again, so it's all about gears not revs. I can see why it's a 6 speed now.

The handling is ridiculously good. As far as I know it's on standard suspension (springs are same green as the calipers?) and it's pretty roomy in the arches so don't thinks it's been dropped but crikey it's confidence inspiring in the corners. I went over Caerphilly Mountain earlier pretty much as fast as I could and it just stuck, no fuss, no roll. Really impressed. Brakes are crap though.

Well, that was probably an incredibly boring read for those of you who didn't tldr.

Why we're all here, pictures (the sun was in exactly the wrong spot for these) after a wash







I laid on the floor here for you all I hope you're grateful









handy foldy seaty things













Not going to start it's own thread for this, as much as I like it it's a daily and isnt going to get the same attention as Impreza, so this is probably a one off 'for info only' thing.

One thing I do want to do is swap the wheels back other to the correct OEM for this MY. These ones are lovely and in surprisingly good condition, they look new, but I want the other ones.

So there..

Squarepant5

It rained today, a lot.

Which was a pain because this was the day we got to sorting out the 'sounds'. Arrived at my mates who was a dedicated audio installer in a previous incarnation at about half 8 this morning and left at around half 5 having had no breaks. What a day. We got the Hertz in the fronts, a Vibe Black Box 3 amp powered with 4 guage in the boot along with a Kicker Comp 12" in a sealed box. The results are excellent.

The time was taken up stripping the car to lay the cabling and RCAs, doing the door builds and dynamting the front doors, so; everything took time really. Given time constraints this a 'phase 1 of 2' kind of deal at the moment as things can be improved with more time spent. We ended up tapping in to the existing stereo harness so next time will be running heavier gauge wiring through the doors, doing a rear door build also and tidying up the boot as the amp and sub are not nailed in as yet (they're not loose either but they're yet to find their final resting place).

Pictures (again again again sorry for the iphone pics, regular readers will know my iphone camera's ****ed)

Out with the old 5.25" Fusions, these weren't actually that bad but not good enough to keep



Notice no sound deadening, tapping the doors was like hitting a metal bin with a jack handle

stripping stuff out





the rain came pretty early and stayed most of the day, sometimes torrentially



This gazeebo thing saved us



Started with the silent coat, this stuff is actually pretty good, goes on easily and is pretty malleable, id recommend it at a fraction of the cost of proper dynamat. I didn't cover every square inch of the doors, 1.5 sq feet on the out skin of each door and another half sq ft on the inner door skin roughly, the difference is very noticeable



from twang to thud



knocking up the new rings, 19mm and the drivers barely clear the windows, but clear they do, yay





almost fitted, everything was tidied up of course and buttoned down to eliminate vibrations



That's all the evidence I have of the day but the results are amazing, it's been a while since I've had a quality install and it's great to have one again. The Hertz components are astoundingly clear and deliver a heavy punch while the sub hits so awesome lows and adds huge volume to the over all sound. Very pleased.

I'm so tired..

oh and I washed the car the other day, took loads of pics, no one needs to see my car clean again though, I'll spare you all.

(it was one of these types of wash tho)

williamw1987

How you getting on with the car dude? I've recently got a Blue 04 Blobeye and your's has definitely given me a few ideas!

Squarepant5

Amazing dude, loving every minute. Attended the 100Lanes Rally in it 2 weekends ago and the drive back from Abergavenny really showed up the handling through the lanes on the way home. MY passenger is now seriously considering picking himself up a scoob too

I admit I haven't been keeping this tread up to date but I am making updates when applicable on PH

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...eye&mid=151236

If you've got a thread for yours I'd be interested to see it

williamw1987

That's awesome man, glad it's going well . I don't blame him for wanting to pick one up, they're awesome cars!

Ah cool, I'll have a gander at your PH thread now ta dude! I don't have a thread for mine as of yet, but might do at some point (I don't intend on doing anything more than getting the condition of it up to scratch etc, not much in the way of mods for mine!).

Cheers dude