don't over torque the struct brace.. off the top of my head the torque is really low... 20Nm. that way you don't snap anything.

Been there!!
Looks like OEM.

What's this bracket for just in front of the rear wheels both sides?

Tie down bracket, also useful as a jacking point as it's curved and sits nicely on a trolley jack large pad.

Thanks Don, that seems obvious now. I secretly hoped it was for some more STI kit.

Is there any part of the banana not rusty?

Just watched Throtl’s latest you tube effort on their hatch STI.

interesting vid of retrimming the headlining in suede, really fancy having a go at this now.

anyone done it?

Roof trim off, thumb sliced open!



Poor photo of clips

The clips weren't keen to slide for me, but a squirt of WD40 helped and they popped rather than slid!

I'm fitting the whiteline kdt907 hopefully this weekend, does anyone know the torque specs for the 4 main rear subframe bolts? Also the 4 bolts on the brackets of the subframe support plates?

Great thanks Don

Here's another one! How do these clips come off? Twist or pop out? Thanks

What are we looking at - location?
Found it!!
Rear Bumper mount bracket
Once the screws has been removed it should just lever off

Thanks Don, but it can't move in that direction ( to the right of my pic) because the wing prevents it. I'll get another photo

Edit..It may lever rather than slide, but I was worried about the white bits snapping

Remove screws, and the whole bracket should come away in one piece complete with the white clips, which are just square expanding plugs in a square hole.
If unlucky, it's possible that they may not come out of the holes without breaking but I've changed the ones on my saloon model without a problem.

Excellent, thanks.

I finally got around to doing mine after having some issues with the bolts, as discussed a while back in this thread. How did you get on? were you also cursing the lack of lube that Whiteline give you

Rusti's made me feel better about the state of my sub frame!

Its proper manky Hedge, which was why I had so much issues with the bolts if you remember. Whats really annoying is when to actually get them undone the rest of them is perfect but the heads took me ages to wire bush down to the point that when I started you could put a 21mm socket snugly on them

God knows why the rear subframe gets so corroded

lol tell me about it, there is a measly amount of grease that come with these in my opinion. I've had a bit of a nightmare with them to be honest. I didn't have an issue with the 4 subframe bolts, the one i had an problem cracking off was the diff bracket as I've also fitted the KDT903 inserts. With the subrame I got the 4 rear most inserts in (wasn't easy but managed it) I then moved onto the front two and the oem bushes were sort of crushed, I couldn't get them in at all.



You can't really see from that picture but there was no way they were going to go in even if i trimmed them.The original bushes have seen better days so I've decided to cut them out completely. I ordered the whiteline KDT907 which arrived today. So the fun and games will begin again tomorrow. The hardest part is going to be getting the old ones out I'm not looking forward to it tbh.



Did you do yours on axle stands?

Other jobs i've tackled are the recaro seat bolster, facelift bumper and braces. Yet to fit my whiteline rear arb and rally armour flaps.

nice work going all out with cutting them out and doing them completely. Yes I did do them on stands and it was a pig.

Your bolster, did you replace it or just repair?

Yes I completely agree it's been a pig of a job but will be worth it once done, how does your car feel now?

With the Recaro I ordered the bolster from subaru about a year ago but only come round to fitting it the other day. I took the seat apart only to find I had the wrong side bolster . So for now I patched it up with more foam/sponge and have the correct part on order. To be honest though the fix i've done feels solid and will probably do the trick but in the back on my mind I know it's not 100% right so i'll change it as soon as the genuine bolster arrives.

The inserts definitely made a positive difference so the full bushes will be awesome. Interesting that you can get the bolster from Subaru, I contacted Capital Seating who I have used for Recaros before and they didnt stock replacements so I never thought that Subaru would still have them. If you dont mind me asking how much are they?

I contacted Capital Seating too and they couldn't help. They are £50 from Subaru which i didn't think was too bad as i was quoted £60 by a local upholster to repair my damaged one. They didn't have it in stock so it's coming from Japan so could be a long wait that's why I patched it myself.

Same here, I had Capital Seating to repair mine (they didn't have replacements) and fit a lowering seat bracket at the same time.
They also dyed the cracked leather and looks like new.

Great work, where did you source the facelift bumper from?
It makes the front end much more purposeful and is better looking IMHO.