Lee

Well Sam, I have all you have apart from the VF23. I've covered 53K miles now and done numerous trackdays. Apart from a tired lambda sensor, no mechanical problems to report.

Sam Elassar

i have lost all my confidence in my car and i am starting to doubt if i have made the right choice buying a scoob.

the reason i have bought my car MY99 because of its rally heritage and the fact it is a great performance car. JD power survey etc..

i have modified the car my means of link,exhaust, vf23 etc.. so i am happy with the performance aspect. however i have been getting a lot of problems with the car just over the last month ot so!!! clutch is gone ? now i have to replace the gear box due to synchro problem had to pay for every thinking myself so you can imagine the cost!! . now i read the stef thread and i am worried that my engine will blow up if i keep doing track days ???

have i really made the biggest and most expensive mistake of my life? should i have just bought an EVO VI ( could have with the amount of money i have paid so far )which does not seem to have the same inherent problems that we are starting to hear about the scoob ? or are they just as bad.

rant over
sam
very confused and kind pissed off
the reason i bought my car was to do track days ?

stage 1

Any car is going to get stressed on the track and with uprating - your just feeling the after effects.
Think of how many people use this board and the amount that do trackdays etc... with no problems - you will find the ones with problems make up a very little percentage and that you should just get on with enjoying your car
Also didnt realise there was a linked Vf23 etc... modded car up here in scotland - when do I get a passenger run

Martin

Sam Elassar

martin
i know what you mean. however i have only dones 20k which i think is very low to replace the gear box. if you ever come at any of the sidc track days i will be more than happy to give you a run. if the engine has not blown up on me by that time

lee
i think you will be surprised how many scoob have had gear box problems i know of at least 2 that have had the gearbox replaced they were MY98s!! not every scooby driver posts on this board.
what i am worried about is that just because MY99 are relatively newish we are not getting many engine failures and getting them on the MY98 instead and it is only a matter of time ?

stage 1

I'm doing the Knockhill trackday in Feb if it goes ahead so see you then
Martin

CB1

Sorry to hear about your problems. Sadly I too had similar. My 3rd and 4th syncro's went at 38K miles (GGR took it apart and found that they were made with a weakness, rather than going through abuse).

However, I would say that this is rare and indeed my Impreza has not missed a beat since.

I would also point out that any car used on a track will quickly become tired. You will not realise it, but drive a well used track car (even a scoob) and you realise the how tight and new the non track car feels against it.

Don't be put off, Impreza's are well and truly a legend. Yes I'm biased because I own one, but I also have a Merc. and don't put that in the same bracket (nor 95% of other cars on the road).

Happy driving

CB

Sam Elassar

martin
i will be there if it goes ahead, so i will see you there.

CB
my point exactly my synchro went on normal driving and it was not track related. just out of interest did you just fix the gear box and how much did it cost you to repair it ?
why wouldn't it happen again ?

sam

Nick

99my UK car not tracked.

After 30k miles I've just had my gearbox repaired under warranty. The syncro had gone 3rd to 4th.

Still arguing with my dealer about my brake disks cracked to bits at the same mileage.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Sam,

you can keep the faith of you are realistic.

I know this might sound rude - however your car is running around 30% more power than standard spec - and you are further stressing it due to tracking it and running it at the edge of the perforance envelope.

IMHO the car will need some extra 'consumables' to cope with this - clutches and brakes being the main ones. Wouldn't you prefer to run more power and replace the clutch every 20k miles - than replace the 'box or crank or whatever...

In terms of gearboxes - I've forgotten the name of the component, but the MY99 boxes do have a synchro ring weakness which is primarily apparent for cars than did not run the box in. This is more apparent on STis as they are running more power.

If your box was run in well then fine - get the 'box oil changed as a precaution. Mine has been fine, but I am aware of more than a dozen STis that have had a problem with synchro at less then 10k miles (some under 1000!!!).

Remember, your car is under more stress than it was designed for and so you must monitor oil pressure, temps, usual stuff - which I am sure that you already do.

Oh, finally, I have also heard that Evos are probably even more expensive to run - lots of ancilliary issues, expensive service and they burn even more fuel than you do

May the force be with you!

Cheers,

R

sunilp

Well put Rannoch

Blow Dog

re. evo's.
4 times the service costs (at least) and double fuel costs.

Sam Elassar

thanks david
i think i was just pissed off with the gear box when it happend hence the post.

i have already changed the clutch to AP after i lost most of my clutch at brands very early in the morning. the fly wheel is skimmed and i am very pleased with the result.
the only problem is that the gear box is not an upgrade like every thing else i have done to the car. it is just the same one. so i hope it does not happen again? should not the dealer be keeping and eye on the gearbox oil etc.?
my car is serviced at the dealers every 7.5k as per the manual but the oil is changed after every couple of track days in between the dealer services.

No track days for the winter months so that should put the running costs down hopefully . unless i go for the surge tank, oit sump, waterinjection ideas that i have been toying with

nick sorry to hear about your gear box mate. it just proves the point that track days are not the main reason for the failure but there is a problem with the MY99 year model!!

SimonM

As I'm sure we've all heard many times before, it is TORQUE that destroys gearbox more than out right BHP.

I remember reading a post with interest on 22B.com a few months ago about your car Sam. If I remember correctly, at that time you were running around 280lbs/ft of torque, which is 30% above standard(214), and I would guess you are still using the standard gearbox. It is not really that suprising that the gearbox is failed, as I don't think for 1 minute that they are manufactured to handle that kind of increase.

There is a reason that Subaru do not sell the cars from the factory running 18PSI of boost with 280LBs of torque, and I would guess this for reliability. So if you are increasing power (without spending an absolute fortune) then you are, in effect, decreasing reliability.

SimonM