I have a 2005 WRX with PPP, panel filter and turbo back decat. The car's been that way since I bought it, been running it for 3 years now.

I've been doing a bit of reading recently and apparently it's a big no no to fit a decat exhaust without remapping, causes overboosting/boost spikes.

Given that the car's been running like this for years, what's the likely damage? I'm in the process of moving to a higher power level (300-320bhp), am I likely to find a big problem when I do that?

 

Im no pro so this is not gospel . I would say don't worry and just get it mapped. Obviously its ideal to have it mapped as soon as any performance enhancing mods are done, but at the same time a decat without mapping is not the end of the world imo.

 

It could be running a little lean at times but as it has the PPP map on there which is mapped for sportscat then it shouldn't be too bad.
If your going bigger power then you'll be remapping anyway.

 

This would be my biggest fear, the damage already done.

 

Thanks for the replies folks. I'll drive it gently from now on and have it remapped on the day that the rest of the mods go on. I'll put a bit of extra cash in the "just in case" fund to cover anything that let's go at the higher power level.

 

Tbh the difference between sports cat and decat turbo back isn't that big a deal, unless you're on high boost a lot of the time I doubt there will be any damage. The boost and det issues come when you decat the uppipe without a remap.