Those ebay jobs are softer plastic than a lego separator, a kitchen spatula or pan scraper, so less likely to leave a mark.
And they're so cheap I don't mind if they don't last.

 

The wagon was developing a horrible creak from the rear passenger's side. A bit of experimenting with greasing various parts pointed to the trailing arm bushes, particularly those at the front of the arm.
Those bushes are pressed in, so replacing them is a particularly time consuming job.
However, I spotted a pair of these in the for sale section:



They're a pair of rust free re-inforced trailing arms, complete with almost new whiteline bushes, taken from Matty at MB developments 800bhp time attack car. And only £30 more than the bushes alone would have cost.



So as it's too cold to get under car and I'm having to do a lot of travelling for work I got the professionals to fit these, namely revivals in thriplow.

http://www.revivals59.com/

They previously did the coilover set up and geo on the wagon.
They reported back that the old bushes on the front of the arms were a mess, with rusted inserts and perished rubber, although the rears were in good shape.
The result is fantastic. A lot less creaking and the rear end feels a lot more controlled and planted. And no increase in noise or vibration in the cabin.

 

Nice find Stuart, no creaking from the rear of mine but should take a look at some point just to be sure!

 

I'm very happy with this. I changed the arms to get rid of the creak and it's also made a really positive change to how it drives, with no detrimental effect. Apart from my bank balance taking another hit.

 

So, credit to ZANY for the idea and for putting me in contact with the seller of a very immaculate hawkeye steering wheel.
The old momo steering wheel was starting to look a bit tatty, and even when new was fairly hard and shiny. Plus I really wanted something with a red stitch to match the new gear and handbrake gaiter.
It was a easy process.
First off was to disconnect the negative battery terminal then dress the brake to make sure there is no residual current. While I was under the bonnet I fitted a new alumininum battery clamp, thanks to Arch for supplying that.


Then it was a simple change over.
1. Undo torx screws on the side of the wheel. There are clips that stop them from coming all the way out, so loosen them as far as possible
2. Wiggle the old airbag out and undo the last few turn of the torx screws.
3. Carefully undo the very fragile clips connecting the airbag.
4. Undo the big nut holding on the steering wheel. I was pleasantly surprised how easy is was. I bought a gear puller just in case it put up some resistance, but it wasn't needed. A couple of yanks and the wheel came free.
Re-assembly is the reverse.
It looks and feels great:



However, it wasn't all plain sailing. When I was getting the plugs out of the back of the airbag I broke the pull-out clip. Possibly due to this the airbag light is now on...
Any suggestions?

 

Loving this thread!

I rejoined the Scooby gang last week with an 05 black WRX PPP wagon myself!

So it's great to follow this for advice and direction! It's currently got the loudest jap can they could find and with a missing load cover I'm starting to go deaf!

First jobs for me is a prodrive back box and load cover!

Best of luck and will be following closely your progress!

 

Thanks for the comments! Get some pictures up of your wagon.
To be honest I'm starting to run low on my to do list, without looking at more power.
I still would like to look into some handling mods for the front end, either anti lift kit or roll center correction, plus alloy arms (or all the above). Plus the EBC brake pads I've got fade horribly under sprited driving so they need to go at some point. Other than that I'm almost out of ideas...

 

Are you still on the OEM brakes Stuart? Just had Brembos fitted to mine (and therefore needed STi wheels to clear them). I haven't explored the difference in performance yet as the tyres I got with the wheels are awful, so getting new ones fitted this week, but when I did a trackday last year the brakes were definitely the weakest part of the package.

I've entered an event with 40 minutes of lapping the Silverstone GP circuit in Feb so hopefully will see the real difference there!

 

No, I've still got the wrx 4 pots, albeit refurbished ones on the front with braided hoses and a brake stopper. Brembos are tempting... perhaps I'll keep an eye on the for sale section.
I agree they're a weak spot. I'm not the fastest driver and even I have cooked them a few times. Last summer I had bad fade when just driving in the hills around lyme regis with family and luggage on board. If I was planning to go on track they'd definitely need upgrading.

 

You usually have to be quick to catch a bargain on the for sale section – one full set came up yesterday but are already sold.

I actually got mine from someone on southeastscoobies, paid £500 for fronts and rears with nearly new pads. One of them needed rethreading but that was done when they were fitted, for an extra £40 or so. I also got the front discs from the same guy for £40, but had to shell out £200 for new rear discs from Godspeed with adaptors for the WRX handbrake shoes (different diameter to the STi handbrake). Plus the STi wheels (another £200), plus the new tyres (£300), and fitting (£250) I actually don't want to add it all up!

If you're not doing track time you would still see an improvement from just changing the fronts and not worry about the rears, but it might upset the balance I suppose.

 

Never add it up!
I saw those Brembos and there are also refurbished sets on ebay for reasonable amounts. But when you factor in the cost of pads, discs and fittings then it is a big commitment. I think in the spring I'll get some better pads and discs and see how it goes.

 

Yeah, I should really get on and sell all the stuff I've removed, to make some of the money back and declutter my garage! Thankfully since changing the coilovers to the MeisterRs earlier this year, SWMBO hasn't talked any more about changing it for a 'sensible family car', so I am happy to keep upgrading bit by bit. I'm a long way from going for more power yet, it's so rarely useable now with just the PPP stuff.

 

Will get some pics up now xmas is over with!

Yeah brakes straight away don't feel that reassuring but with the previous owner fitting a 3" bore straight through system to a 5" jap can I'm going deaf pretty quickly and pissing off all the neighbours...

Need to get under it and see where it shrinks back down to 2.5" to try reverting it back to the prodrive system that it's mapped for.

Someone quoted me £70 for a load cover! Is that reasonable?!

 

3" to 5", that's huge! Did they remove the cats at the same time? I've found the prodrive/scorpion system on this wagon just about right. Loud enough so my kids know when I'm home but no so much my neighbours hate me or is too much on a long journey.
£70 for a new load cover sounds about right. There is always Matty at MB developments, he has broken a few wagons over the years and may have one.

 

Apologies for my fuzzy description!

It was a 5" tailpipe with 3" bore to the centre section. After closer inspection it married up to a 2.5" bore decat centre section so I just needed a quieter back box. £40 for a prodrive one off the bay and fitted it last night in -2 degrees!

I can now drive her without ear plugs! Decat wagons with jap cans creates a lot of cabin noise! And I like my heay metal!

Like the sound of the Brembo upgrade but the only STI wheels with the same PCD aren't to my taste... Unless you can get hold of those genuine BBS rims like another wagon project on here that he's using as winter tyres!!

Be honest, did the steering wheel retrim cost more than a 2nd hand set of brembos?

 

The brakes are the single most important mod on a WRX, IMHO.

If you want to keep your wheels, surely you can just fit some small spacers (5mm) to clear the Brembos? That's what I did with my APs.

 

Speaking of the steering wheel, I've sorted the airbag light. I just needed the clip part from these connectors:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142204235686

 

Brembos are a fairly expensive upgrade, I think you'll be looking at at least £500 for front calipers and used discs. And those sti Brembos are at least 10 years old so may need some tlc.
The steering wheel was only £75...
However this upgrade is tempting...

https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-par...l#post11906499

 

I picked up a prodrive back box from the same seller on Tuesday!

Very friendly and knowledgeable chap! Didn't mention he had this going for sale though

The thread mentions about retapping the hub for different bolts, not too tricky?

 

@Stuart, did you ever get the catch can fitted in the end?

 

No, and then I had a strop and sold it.
I still think it's a good idea, especially as I do a fair amount of town driving. I'd just need to think harder about how to fabricate a bracket to hang it from the strut mount or intercooler.
Are you going to go for one?

 

Just pondering at the moment, I've only just picked up a brake stopper and haven't fitted it yet, so I'm quite a few mods behind your progress (and even further behind modrich)!

I'm doing an event at Silverstone in a few weeks, plenty of the other entries will be vintage cars so the scrutineers have to deal with lots of leaky old stuff and will be hot on any drips, so people have been talking about catch tanks, but of a different type, more like if your radiator overheats and splurges fluid out onto the track!

 

Just read this back... Got this thread confused with another thread on a wagon where the guy got the steering wheel actually retrimmed! Don't I look silly...

 

I've a couple of weeks with not much activity on the car, as I've either been out of the country with work, had family stuff on or its been too cold or wet.
but I have collected a few new parts which I'll fit over the next few weeks.
So first up a strut brace. This is a bargin basement M2 brace from ebay. Fitting it has to have been one of the easiest mods I've done.


Only problem is that now I've opened the bonnet and seen how dirty it is under here I'll have to do something about it...
I'm suprised at how much of an impact this brace has on the car. You can really feel the difference. The steering feels a lot more direct and the front feels much more taught. £40 and 15 minutes well spent.

 

Next week it'll be something a bit more substantial (but not done by me).


Re skimmed/ground with new dowels and spigot bearing.

 

Having done a few miles with the strut brace I'm now found that under a bit of enthusiastic cornering the car now has more of a tendency to oversteer. I'm assuming this is because the front is now stiffer.
So to correct this I'll either have to remove it, fit a rear brace, or get an even bigger rear arb...

 

It never ends does it mate

 

That's the beauty of this hobby!

 

Any news on the new clutch Stuart?

I've just picked up some cheap STi ARBs (front and rear) off ebay, after my track session at Silverstone showed me that I've got too much body roll. You went with SuperPro bushes dincha? It seems like a straightforward job for the rear, but if you've got any tips or links, would be good to have some extra ammunition before I tackle it.

The Brembos were awesome on track, no fade whatsoever and I still didn't reach the limit of stopping power, despite gaining confidence through the session (one of my laps .

 

That looks like a lot of fun!
the new clutch was fitted last weekend (thanks Tim Farmer!) and I've now done 100 miles so it's just nicely bedded in. I have to say that the day after it was fitted I was really concerned, it was a nightmare to drive; juddering and really hard to control. But it gradually got better through the week.
I've got superpro ARB bushes front and rear.
the rear was fairly straight forward to change. My only tip is that if possible keep the weight of the car on the wheels to keep everything aligned. The fronts looked like hard work (Mr Farmer did mine). You're going to need some axle stands (or a lift) and a decent torque wrench as the front subframe has to come down in order to get at the bush brackets.
If you've got the car up in the air and a torque wrench handy have you thought about adding a h brace?