new member, advice much appreciated
 

Hi all,

I'm recently new to the forum, and have been using it to research a potential purchase, however, though I've tried searching, I still have a few questions I'm hoping you guys could answer.

1. Good value? The car I'm going to view today belongs to a friend-of-a-friend's uncle; an 02 STI Type-UK. It's black (exactly what I wanted) and has a few nice upgrades that saves me buying them myself, namely a stainless exhaust and 19" OZ Superleggera's. It is showing circa 70k miles, but had an engine rebuild 15k ago (I normally dismiss anything that has had a rebuild, but I'm told this was not as a result of catastrophic failure, but as preparation for serious power upgrades). I've already HPI'd the car, which came back totally clean. He's asking £6500, with room for a little negotiating. This, to me, seems a reasonable price, would you agree?

2. According to my research, in the my02, rust in the front subframe "C-section" seems to be a common issue. Is there any easy way to see this without the car being in the air? And if it is rotten, should I walk away or haggle hard and fix it myself? Are there any more known spots that invite rust?

3. I'm lead to believe Impreza's in general, but in particular the STI, are generally reliable and robust. Does this hold true? Other than the usual engine/gearbox stuff most people would check when buying a car, is there anything specific I should be looking for in the engine bay or on the test drive?

I've only seen pictures of the car so far, and it looks very nice, but I want to view it with an open mind. I know best practice when buying any car is to view/drive a few, but there aren't any STI UK'S for sale privately within a reasonable distance from me, and I'm not too keen on investing my hard-earned on anything from Clive's or Cheshire Performance (both localish to me), judging by some of their reviews on various forums.

Thanks in advance

Welcome.

C-section is not an issue as it's cheap and easy to replace, some models don't even have one due to weight saving, can pick one up off a breaker on here for peanuts. However there are other areas at the front and the rear arches that you need to have a look at for any rust, there will probably be a little light surface rust visible on roll bars etc, but that's not really a problem.

Gear box syncros are a known issue on earlier 6 speeds, symptoms are crunching at high revs usually 3rd to 4th.

Rear suspension can also knock.

Standard engines are usually pretty strong, I'd be wanting to know who did the rebuild and what parts were used and proof, as that will tell you if it's a bs claim about going for big power or not, with the standard V7 engine being one of the strongest and capable of running just shy of 500bhp they'd need to be some pretty serious parts to outshine them as in 650/ 700 bhp capable, which are not cheap, so you're talking a £5k plus rebuild.

Take the 19's off straight away if you do buy it.

On the roof near windscreen for rust, rear arches inside to out around the spoiler on boot lid as well.

+1

18's for show 17's for go. 19's = :nono: ;)

Any particular reason why? Other than decreasing acceleration, and not being to many people's taste.

All simple to check stuff then? Thanks for that, will be sure to check

I had read on a thread somewhere (may not have been on this forum) that 19's were ok, fit-wise, so long as the tyre profile was low enough so as to not increase the overall diameter of the wheel/tyre combined

Thanks for the replies so far btw!

Prbably rubbing on the arches and weight issues come to mind but im no expert

You definitely didn't read it here. probably SIOC where they like to use flamer kits and dump valves as well.

19' s are a no no, overwheel and pretty much ruin the reason why you bought the car in the first place.

Well thanks for all the replies folks, I did end up buying the car and I'm more than pleased with it. Look out for me popping up on the forum in future. Pics to follow

Alarm bells that would be ringing for me are why the original engine suffered a catastrophic failure as theyre known to be a strong factory block up to 400bhp and beyond.

19" wheels will ruin the handling and as said, 18's max or 17's if it gets regular spirited driving.

Does it have any aftermarket mods apart from the wheels? A serious rebuild would normally be accompanied by a remap and have other supporting mods to go with it (decat exhaust, 3 port boost solenoid, uprated panel filter) so your 1st call should be to get it map checked for fuelling etc.