Newbie questions

[PP]

Hi to all you guys, (and girls)

Just got my94 wrx and am after a few handy tips before I treat the car to some new bits.

What are the favourite tyres? (controversial one to start... )

consider I cover 2500 miles per month (mostly motorway) not worried about road noise or tyre life, just handling with about £600 for set of 4

What disc / pad set works,

Got standard callipers and don't want to change. Got EBC greens with drilled and 6 grooves but seem really poor. disks look pre-historic.

I think the turbo heat shield is vibrating (read it is a common problem) is there a simple fix when I stick a new one in?

I live in the Ashford area and need to get it on some rollers to see the real numbers, is there anyone around who is experienced with WRXs

What is the norm for the handling? I find that when pushed it suffers understeer that I can't power through to recover. The understeer is recoverable by bringing the back round by shutting the throttle but then I'm off the turbo. I suppose more practice required.....

I have Spax rsx kit fitted so don't know if handling is due to that or if it is normal , It could just be the s#1te tyres I have at moment? What is the norm?

Sorry for all the qns

Thanks in advance

[granby]

Well first off welcome to Kent Scoobies PP , i can answer a few of your questions.

I believe the standard brakes on your WRX are 2 pots which are crap, don't think there is a lot you can do with them apart from changing them to 4 pots of a later car or a uprated brake kit.

There is a rolling road day on the 10th September at power engineering where a load of us will be going on the rollers to find out how much power & torque we have (hopefully there should be a twist to this but i can't say at the moment )

As standard most Imprezas understeer when pushed, what you need is the suspension alignment adjusted preferably with prodrive settings and understeer should be no more

Hope this is of some help to you and the others should be along soon to hopefully help you with your other questions

Granby

[Pele]

Hi There & welcome to KentScoobies - would you like me to add you to our mailing list so you are kept up to date on meets & events?

Now to answer some of your questions....

Tyres - I think you will find most people favour Toyo Proxies for handling & grip, they are not too bad for wear either - as for price, it depends what size alloys you have....

Disks and pads - the only way you will get better braking is to change your calipers to 4 pots, not combination of disks and pads are going to be any good on Subaru 2 pots.... Also, EBC greens are no good for Subarus, you should go for the reds, or Pagid blues. I have 4 pots with Pagid blues & EBC dimpled & grooved disks, and I've stopped a lot better since I had 2 pots before & I had to start braking at the beginning of the road to stop at the end lol

Turbo heat shield vibrating is a very common problem, best fix is to remove it completely....

As for handling, yes lots of practice is a good idea to start with However, take it to Elite and get the laser alignment and the Prodrive settings, you won't be dissapointed, my car handled like a completely different car once I had this done.

Hope some of this helps, I'm sure someone else will be along with other ideas

Pele

[PP]

Granby, Pele

Thanks for your answers,

Pele, please add me to your distribution list for events.

It sounds like I'll have to prise the wallet open for some calipers to solve the brakes trouble.

Is there a specialist who can set up my subaru properly? thinking of boost and maybe a map, but need to keep it reliable but fancy a few more horses. The guy who sold it claimed over 300 but think he may have been optimistic....

I'd heard good things about the Toyo's and GSD3 goodies, I'll try the Toyos first.

Rollers in September should be interesting.

Thanks again

Cheers

[riceboy]

Hi PP, welcome to the club. Good to have someone close by, I live in folkestone.

I had 2pots on my 94wrx and agree with the rest, the performance is Best to save up for some 4pots or similar.

Most people seem to go for the Toyo T1R. I have these on mine and they are a great tyre

I had a full geometry set up done by Barrets Motorsport in canterbury 01227864537. Totally transformed the car

As for having 300bhp, i very much doubt it Your car comes with approx 240bhp when used in japan with their higher octane pump fuel. To reduce the chance of engine failure, dont run less than super unleaded and try and use an octane booster of some sorts. There is a rolling road on the old road through Capel-le-ferne on the way to Dover (SVA Imports, next to the plough pub) but have not tried this myself.

There are not many chip replacements avaliable for the early cars so you will probably need to get a fully mappable ecu fitted. The Apexi Power FC is a very good choice and Simon (Jolly Green Monster) can supply, fit and map this for you. Just send him a pm. (if not here try 22b.com)

Hope this is of some help. Thats what were all here for after all.

Nathan

[PP]

Hi nathan,

The boys at Barrets have been looking after my one since it landed in the UK in 2000.

It needs an oil change and a few small other jobs doing so I'll get them to check and set the suspension too.

I think its had a turbo change as I have no power until 4K then its picks up.

I guess I'll figure out exactly what it is over the next few months.

I'll keep my eyes open for you, mainly run across to Faversham and down to Ramsgate.

Paul

[The Daddy]

Hello and welcome...

I am still running 2pot callipers on my 97 wrx and i am pushing out 365Bhp they do suffer from fade when pushed hard but you can make them better by using red stuff pads vented, grooved and drilled disks, braded hoses and 5.1 fluid. I personally can not change to 4 pots because i use 15" wheels for drag racing and they dont fit.

As with your suspension and handling set-up are your shocks adjustable ride height and damper setting? if so you can lose some of the understeer by softening the front and hardening the rear. Apart from that a 4 wheel laser alignment is the only thing.

Turbo heat shield, if removed the turbo will cause more under bonnet heat and i can make you a stainless shield which has an alternative fitting arrangement.

With Tyres there are varied opinions and it all depends on budget and how long you want them to last?

Power Engineering are your best bet for tuning i would recommend if its not fitted full decat exhaust (including downpipe) K+N panel filter FSE fuel pump and adjustable pressure regulator. This will see an increase in boost, power and torque, taking your powe from 240Bhp to about 270. you can find out your standard horse power by using your model code and cross referenceing it to the inforamtion on the FAQ's model production run:

FAQ

Hope this helps

[PP]

The Daddy, cheers for that..

I have been spoilt for brakes in the past, my M5 would stop from 150 mph to stand in 180 metres so most now feel weak,

I've got 16's but think I'll try a set of new disks and pads before shelling out for the calipers.

The other thing the M5 tought me was tyre wear.. with the rears lasting 4 - 6 weeks (8-10K miles and the worst ever 3K ) so anything better than that will seem good. want to try and keep under £150 per corner.

The suspension is adjustable height and and damper setting. When I first picked it up it was set maximium all round on the damper. I have backed this out to 20 out of 28 on the front and 16 on the rear which is better for general driving. I'll get it alligned first then see what it does.

On the fuel front, I have been trying Optimax and Tesco 99 ron and don't really notice much difference. Is there a noticeable change on some of the higher output cars?

A stainless replacement heat shield would be good. what area are you live?

Thanks all for the warm welcome and help.

[The Daddy]

I touch goats

[The Guru]

The Daddy, If you go for a MOTORSPORT 15" wheel the offsets are different and this will enable you to run 4 pot brakes and 15" wheels.

If you need more info let me know.

Don't forget your fuel rails I still have M8.

Arron.

[The Daddy]

think we spoke about this before? i got a set of 15" for £40 so i wasnt going to worry at the time..however things may have to change soon!