Impreza WRX newby..
 

Hello all, been lurking here for a while learning about WRXs before getting one! Finally taken the plunge and bought this 2003 model.

As I'm not that mechanically minded I was hoping that the more experienced people here wouldn't mind offering advice on what customising I should consider? Would like to do things with it, but not to the detriment of eventual resale.

So the things I am thinking of are:

• Prodrive pack install
• Tuning
• Spoiler
• wheel change

(The car is sound pretty much, will need a new partial exhaust soon anyway and air con compressor, but other than that she's in good shape.)

Apologies for such an open ended question, just thought I would ask what the experts would do if they had this motor and wanted to make some improvements!

Welcome, but wow nearly 10k for a 19yr old WRX, prices really have gone thru the roof if your buying off a dealer:Suspiciou

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...efef88bc0c.png
I don't want to be all doom and gloom either but going by its MOT history I'd get it up on a lift and inspect the underneath to see how bad the corrosion is first, it's had advisory after advisory for yrs for corrosion and Subaru's are prone to rust, it might be nowt to worry about but you don't want to chucking loads of money at a car that might turn out to be a rot box, not trying to alarm you or nowt sorry:norty:​​​​​​

As above , give it a real good look around for rust , worth getting a garage to check it , if it’s rotten then maybe back to the seller , the mot jobs may have been done , or possibly bodged or covered over with sealer , rear arches and sills are a bit of a weak point , tuning wise , a sports cat down pipe helps, a mid section exhaust silencer/possible cat delete plus a good back box helps with a few bhp and better flow and noise , but when you do the sports cat you need to re map and change the fuel pump or things will go wrong , the prodrive spoiler looks good but once fitted seeing out the back window can become a challenge 😂 , wheels look ok your call , but main thing is check for that possible rust , hopefully it’s been properly repaired , as it’s only done 800 miles after that last mot in the last year so fingers crossed it was off the road being repaired , as the next ( hopefully honest ) mot shows no issues 👍

Yeah it makes you wonder if it's now gotta dodgy ticket on it or its been tested by a very lenient MOT tester, it's had yr after yr of pretty much the same advisories and now all of a sudden this MOT is advisory free, like been said all the advisories may of been addressed but best to get it checked.

Yea looks vgc from outside ,,underneath tho ?!
£10k Wonder how much the garage brought that for:freak3:

Cheers for the positivity guys! Got it thoroughly checked out - it's sound apart from the items I mentioned. The rear sills are all clean, one has a very small patch that needs some preventative treatment, but in no way a repair. Thanks for the help and a good day to you all.

She looks nice mate and these days originality is the way forward. I think she looks great and the upgrades your considering I wouldn’t bother with 👍👍

on the other hand if your heart is set on the upgrades make sure it’s mapped etc by someone with a good reputation 👍

good luck 👍

Welcome aboard, I am sure you will love it!

With regard to the advice on mods etc, I have to agree to a certain extent with the above. If you wan't to keep the value you paid for the car in the car, I would avoid significant modifications and try to stay close to original. If you really want to make modifications, try to keep them all Prodrive parts, so the exhaust, air filter and spoiler if you want to change these and a Walbro fuel pump. A sports CAT and a map will give you all the power you will ever need.

As for wheels, go for anything you fancy and keep the original ones safe to go back on later. What I will say though, if you go 18" wheels it will look like a tractor so will need lowering to look right. The issue with modifications is that they almost always have a knock on effect that means you have to do something else, like in the way you can't replace the CAT alone, you need to have it mapped afterwards and once mapped, you need to run it on super unleaded.

If you are not worried about keeping the originality, then the world really is your oyster, but if you mod it heavily, it will lose the premium you paid for an original car.

Good luck with it and try not to worry too much about problems, just enjoy it!

Ian

on the mod side , i only ever do , sports cat down pipe , centre section silencer delete , sports back box , fuel pump and a re map , bc or tein coilovers , then some decent brake pads , no point having more power and can’t stop , prodrive back box looks good but is quite quiet but it depends on what you want , a remap with its other bits makes a lot of difference 👍

Regardless if the car is standard or modified, you need to run it on super unleaded, not just if it’s remapped as stated above.

I also would say that a pro drive exhaust system is not overly quiet. I have one on mine and our dogs can hear my wife come home from work way before she pulls into our road and our driveway (she comes home different time each day so they don’t know when she is coming home) but is not overly obtrusive or attention grabbing either.

Brake pads as mentioned are definitely on the shopping list if you upgrade performance.
I find Godspeed Kevlar pads for a cheap pad are ok for road use if you follow the bedding in advice. I’ve had several sets of these and performance wasn’t as good when not following the bedding in advice. Don’t be fooled by cheaper Brembo pads you can buy they are rubbish. Top notch pads from performance friction, CL, Ferodo etc are 150-200 a set for fronts though.

The full prodrive performance pack included a different ecu. If you can find one and just stick to the other ppp mods the car won’t need a remap (if fitting the ppp ecu also)

Good luck, looks a nice example if the mentioned corrosion has been sorted.

Also if you are looking to upgrade to an STI rear spoiler I believe the springs for the boot lid hinge are uprated to deal with the heavier spoiler so bare that in mind or you will end up with the boot latch mechanism digging in the top of your head when you go in the boot.

They also bolt to the boot lid in more places than a standard WRX spoiler so that will involve drilling more holes in the boot lid or replacing the boot lid with an STI lid if you want to retain the original.

You can map the car on any fuel you like. If you map the car with a full tank of Super Unleaded, then you'll need to run it on SUL in future for reliability and best performance. However, you could also fill the tank with 95ron fuel and then map it. You'll have gained less power but you could safely use any fuel =>95ron in future.