I am drawn towards buying an S reg WRX Type R, however I have heard nasty things about piston slap on late 90's cars.

Does anyone know which models and which vehicles were affected by this or fitted with the offending block? VIN numbers?? I think I'm right in saying it is to do with the plating tolerances on the bores.

Someone with detailed knowledge of the production of classic shape Impreza please speak up!

I think STI's have different pistons to the UK cars, which is what the problem was with..!!

Dan:D

I had slap in my UK98 and was refused repair by Subaru under their extended warranty deal as I had a FSE valve which they said caused it !!!!!!!
They did refund the warranty £580 ish. They also said slap was nothing to worry about - not an engine threatening problem.

When I recently rebuilt/upgraded the engine I had it rebored to get rid of the slap and fitted cossie pistons - it now is slappier than before !
AFAIK, as long as it is not too slappy when hot it is OK.
Thats all I can contribute !
Stan

Cossie pistons are very slappy due to the high clearances they require.

Scoobs usually run between .5 and 1 thou, limit is around 2.5 thou iirc. Cosworth pistons need 2.5 +.

Cheers peeps, keep up the good info. Now I've also got to decide if I can live without ABS and get an STI type R. Hmmmm