scoobydude

Look at the brakes. If it's a stock STI on an 05 plate it will have gold brembro calipers front and rear and dinner plates for rotors. If the calipers are red with Subaru on them it's a WRX. Of course if hes had the brakes upgraded it doesn't count.

When the air is dumped to atmosphere rather than recirculated past the MAF sensor, there is essentialy some air "missing" from the circuit. The ECU adjusts the fueling for the missing air, and if you are really pushing the engine this will lead to damage (usualy on piston 3 in my experience) . If however you have the engine mapped to acount for the missing air anomaly it shouldn't be an issue. Oily filter induction kits can end up coating the MAF in oil which will again confuse the ECU and lead to engine damage. No amount of remapping will be able to sort this one out. HTH

I wave to saloon drivers, I flick the V at wagon drivers, I can't repeat what I do to hatch drivers

If you had one fitted it would be immediately obvious. The standard CBV just looks like a big milk bottle top. The Baily BOV looks like a vented cylinder with a small pipe sticking out of the top. The noise from the BOV is hard to mistake as well

It's more of a problem in the USA because of the fairy liquid they have for fuel over there. The US customers are explicitly warned about running unboosted pump fuels in their scoobs, but some of them don't seem to get the message

Replacing the CBV with a BOV isn't a great idea on a car with a closed loop air circuit (if the car has a MAF sensor in other words). You''l be dumping air to atmosphere which the engine is expecting to be recirculated. If you don't do a lot of miles you probably wont notice any problems. If you use it all the time (daily driver or track slag) you will break your engine eventualy. The BOV will reduce what little turbo lag these cars have anyway, so the main benefit is the noise they make. I can recommend the big HKS jobbies with the arrow shaped whistlers fixed to the vents if that's what floats your boat . They aren't my bag, but each to their own i suppose

There have been a few failures on the hatches , most of the ones I've come across have been fitted with a ppp. The prodrive map seems to be problematic on some of the ej25 engines. The only warranty refusals I'm aware of were for second and consequent engine failures.

it sounds like turbo oil seal failure to me. It's hard to say 100 percent without Actualy seeing the problem. If it is turbo oil seal failure that's going to require a new turbo. Oily smoke is likely to poison the catalytic converters as well which is not good news either. Like I say it's just a guess without Actualy seeing the problem first hand. I hope it's not as serious as that though

The bonnet on my blobeye did used to move and flex a lot especialy at autobahn speeds. It never Actualy opened completely but I did get a flash from the door open light once or twice. The hawkeye dies flex a bit but no where near as much as the blobeye did.

Green clock green dial lights on mine as well

I had an Evo which did have an automatic spray when the temp went over 60c, my STI was a manual only. It did used to get blocked now and again because of the distance from the tank (in the boot) and the nozzle (in the scoop). In the end I used the washer jet supply with a t piece in the hose most of the time. It didn't seem to do it any harm. I left the boot tank attatched as well I just didn't use it much.

The top mounts can be a bit flakey on new age scoobs as well

I use EBC reds. Forget the nonsense you'll be told about them not working when they're cold. I originaly fitted them for a track day. They also work perfectly well for normal day to day driving. It saves messing around switching pads around after the track day's over as well . They are really effective and not too expensive.

I used to regularly drive my STI on the Autobahns. The amount of flexing movement from the rear wing at 160 mph was quite scary . I never had it detatch completely though. That must've **** him up a treat.

It's going to be a merc c180k with all sorts of heavy and mostly useless electronic **** in it. It could have been a lot worse. The chop shop offered me a ford ka. Good job the accident wasn't my fault.

Use it whe you are stuck in traffic on a warm day or just before you start an overtake. My blobeye sti had one fitted and it really makes a difference in reducing the det when stuck in a jam. My gb270 doesn't have a sprayer but so far I haven't missed it oddly

Someone rear ended my gb270 at a set of traffic lights today. Because the third party put their hands up and took the blame I get an "equivalent" courtesy car. I can't see them getting hold of another gb270 so what do we think I'll get The damage isn't too severe ( just a crunched rear bumper) so it won't be for long.

I was chatting to my friendly local scoob dealer today and they seem to think the saloon will be made available in rhd probably from march 2011. It will be assmebled at the us plant initialy

If you've never had a scoob before even the hatch will feel a million times better than what you've been used to. If the price is right do it I say. The hatch isn't my cup of tea but it's not a bad car it's all things relative.

I personaly know 3 people who have a hatchback wrx / sti. They all got them as company cars on a lease scheme and they all changed from hawkeye saloons. They are all handing them back at the end of the lease term and they are all far from complementary about them. I think the reasons that the hatches are cheap is because they are not terribly popular. Also Subaru had to heavily discount the hatch wrx which instantly sunk the residuals.

At 22 I'd forget about the sti, simply because it's much heavier on service,fuel,insurance and parts. It depends on which year model your after as to exact specs and so on. As an example a blobeye sti will have a six speed box with dccd wheras the wrx has a five speed box and no dccd. The sti has much better stock brakes than the wrx. The sti will be giving 260 bhp stock the wrx is putting out about 230 stock. The sti is an old insurance group 20 the wrx is lower (17 or 19 iirc). The sti has far better seats as well. If I was you I'd either go for a classic sti or stick to a more recent wrx. I don't know what your budgetery constraints are though.

I struggled to get my ej20 engined blobeye sti to return 23 mpg. My ej25 engined gb270 is giving me 30 mpg on a run a little less on a hoon.

I really dislike the hatchback sti. It looks like Subaru may have realised how suicidaly daft it was to impose such a horror on it's impreza customers. Fortunately they seem to have adressed the problem and about time as well. I hope the saloon will be available in the uk as I think it's gorgeous and I would certainly consider buying one when I've had enough of my GB270. I really wouldn't have even considered a hatch sti after I drove one last year.

I live in Hampshire, there's been no shortage round here. When I asked the guy in the last shell station I used (on Monday) about a shortage of Vpower he looked at me like I'd grown a second head

Don't bother with the bottled octane boosters, they aren't much cop. You'd be better off adding 10% methanol to a tank of Vpower, it'll be cheaper and better IMHO