MarkJHarris

My car has a set of silver for Winter and Gold for Summer. All O.E. wheels as the car is a spec D in Crystal Grey. I do think it looks better with the Original silver ones to be honest, but as the Spec D is always the poor STI's cousin it needs to shout it's ability to stop the ****ers in the Golf GTIs and such like trying to race me. They know enough to leave full STI's alone.....

Sounds like head gasket failure big style. The pressure blows the coolant out and then it gets very hot indeed inside the engine leading to seizure of the No4 cylinder closest to the turbo. Judging by the language you used, I suspect you need to get a garage to look at it. And expect a big bill...Sorry. Most of us have been there....

Gold only works on an STi unfortunately. Silver is subtle on a silver car. Black a bit common, but hides the dirt well.

Lovely...and no dealer on the Island anymore....

Well so much for Flybe saving us..... I now work in Turkey. Commute home and the Scooby does all of 600 miles a year. I'll be commuting for work for the next 20 years now.....bummer.

Serious bits on that one. Bonnet and rear wing are lovelty, are they Carbon?

You must order them to your needs and not just get off the shelf. For example, I got the ER ones but ordered long travel an softer springs. I now have a plush car that deals with really crap roads. I can lift it for winter or drop for the track and adjust the damping from rock hard to Andrex soft and anything in between. I would recommend the pillow ball rear mounts as you can then order springs from anywhere to play. I started with 6/5 and assister springs, and now have 5/4 and ordered the rubber O.E. style mounts which was in hindsight a mistake. Pillow balls will cost me but then I can get normal 60mm springs in the length and rate I want to experiment. And as any coil over owner will tell you, any experiment will always mean softer springs!

I love my BC coil overs. Really smooth and controlled. Seriously. I use 5/4 springs and helpers as I ordered long travel ones to lift the car in winter. Unfortunately work stops me playing on it any more but it's way better than standard.

Ouch. triple gauges are the best investment I've put into my car since forging it. I can see what is going on real time the good old fashioned way.

Pretty hot for a car....no seriously, I'm almost as fast over the mountain in places (in my dreams) but far slower everywhere else. Clearly it's more of a road car under there than I thought. The gearbox is stock and that's where a Rally car really is different.

It is a design fault, well, feature..... The upside down design is meant to reduce unsprung weight but the twin tube motion means the seals get subjected to a lot of movement and the forces acting on the bushes do mean the grease gets cleaned off too easily. Re-greasing the outer bushes often "fixes" the problem for a while. In your case about a couple of years. The Strut damper unit will be perfectly serviceable, but your problem is the outer bush that locates the damper in the main lower body. I rid myself of the problem by going coil-over, and never looked back. RWU shocks also don't suffer this feature...there never was a truer case of "they all do that, Sir". Well maybe ringland failure....

Agree. My Hawk is modded and therefore virtually worthless. Spec D. Genuine Rear wings, BC ER coilovers Whiteline ALK, rear ARB and bushes. Engine Tuner rebuilt, forged and fitted motor and clutch. Looks like new, runs like new and has 48,000miles. Worthless. Wrong colour, too many miles, wrong engine and non standard suspension parts. So I'll just keep it and have fun. Bugger the lot of them!

Take a look for the Subaru Transmission Chart on the web. You'll find it easy enough, though for some reason I can't link it. The box you list needs a 4.111 Diff ratio.

The headers in that picture look equal length anyway. Here's the headfuk though..... If the cylinder numbering order on a EJ is like any other 4 cylinder and the crank is also the same, there are some interesting comparisons to an inline 4 to make. You can imaging a four, then move it so that Cylinder 2 and 4 are pulled round 180 degrees and 1 and 2 therefore produce an opposite motion of pistons both reaching TDC at the same time. Same for 3 and 4. The Firing order therefore has to reflect this with the two front cylinders firing 360 degrees apart. Itmust therefore be a firing order of 1-3-2-4. The headers are paired like this so you get Front Left, Back Left, Front Right, Back Right. A Normal in line gives 1243 so adjacent firing is NOT on a paired header. as usually on a branched manifold 1-4 and 2-3 are paired. Interesting. If you were to pair the left and right pair on an inline four you'd have a similar effect. This I believe gives some of the lumpy sound nature on it's own. Now, a N/A car needs exhaust scavenging to make its power far more than a Turbo. Equal length primaries (headers) help and the odd pairing will give differing frequencies and possibly more of the benefits of a 4 into 1 than a 4 into 2 into 1 give. It's a science of its own an well beyond my poor old brain. The Yanks will know more I guess.

I behave in Winter so run Pirelli SottoZero ll on my car from November till March. I've had quiet, safe and virtually no discernible wear these past three winters out of them. £180 a corner mind, but the difference on cold wintry mornings is like night and day. Wet grip, feel and composure is excellent and economy....can't tell. For Summer the O.E. spec Bridgestone RE070 is like I'm on rails, however silly I behave. I do wonder that when they do let go I'll be a goner, because I'm going so fast to get them to go I'll have no chance! I kind of know why folk do fit Ditchfinder tyres, so they can have fun at slow speed! I'm an "in line" kind of driver really.

You can actually fake a Scooby sound on most Chavmobiles. Basically most cars run cylinder 1- and 4 primary pipes joined and 2-3 then with equal length primaries and secondary pipes. We know the EJ has unequal length primary pipes due to the sump and layout, only fixed with the triangular sump on later cars and Jap STis. Well, it wouldn't be hard at all to fit a custom branch manifold to a Corsa or Nova with the Subaru layout of 1 and 3 joined and 2 and 4 and also unequal length. Add in a resonator mid box and large tailpipe and you'd get a sound fairly similar. (Might run like crap at points in the ref range though). I've thought about equal length headers to get rid of the sound on mine to be honest....I prefer the go to the sound, and like my Music too. What a heretic, eh?

114.5 x 5 PCD on yours mate. If buying aftermarket wheels watch out for the offset as it's critical. This is the measurement of the inner face of the mounting compared to the rims. Traditionally, 114.5mm PCD is a Nissan standard so aftermarket wheels might be for Nissan fitment by design. Not sure if Subaru and Nissan use the same offset. The last thing you need is incorrect offset, trust me. There is minimal clearance on the STi for both the callipers and the strut to inner rim as well. Check very carefully. You need to specify and have a written record of specifying that the wheels are for a 2005 on Impreza STi model just in case. Idiot's Guide; PCD= Pitch Circle Diameter. Offset is the offset of the centreline of the rim and therefore tyre to the mating surface on the hub of the wheel. Traditionally, FWD cars have a difference Offset to RWD cars. Less "dish" as it were... Rim Width. Also critical for clearance of both strut and wheel arch under maximum compression. The Width dictates the profile of the sidewall and affects handling and cornering feel. STi's prior to 2005 used a 7" Wide rim, and post 2005 ,I,e ,114.5mm PCD rims are 8" wide. All are critical to fitment and handling..

I've had mine off a few times to "adjust he sender to give a realistic tank level. Previous owner had a Walbro fitted (wrong model) and bent the float wire right round giving a half tank reading when empty.....Anyway, it is really easy to spill fuel all over the place, and the smell from that goes away after a DAY OR TWO. Thus, you must have a leaky seal. It's a P.I.A. to do but you can't drive about with petrol fumes in he car.

They'll be great for charging you a fortune to do a simple job, that I can be sure of....... I would order your shocks from either APEX direct if you want custom or from a specialist like Scoobyworld, etc. They are a bit cheaper, can get you the custom spec (forgot to say I ordered mine with softer damping valving). Also they can fit and set the car's geometry up for a lot less than your Main Dealer would. Regards, Mark

Andy, I have BC's on mine now and as I have an 06 STi I might be able to help. Is your car on standard dampers AND springs, i.e. not prodrive springs and bump stops? It matters which. BC Coilovers an be ordered directly from APEX and can be specced as required. Mine are the ER series with separate rebound and compression damping, but more importantly I went for the long travel versions. The Long travel is specced for the 4/3kg spring kit and gives about an extra inch of travel and longer bodies so you can't go as low, but can sit at normal ride height or higher for Winter if you want. The Standard STi has 4kg/mm front and 3 3/4kg/mm rear springs. However, it also runs very long progressive bump stops to assist the springs. Crap idea. Even the Mimi rode like crap as a result. I ran 6/5 springs and as they coilbound in less travel than the dampers, ran 50mm flat wound helpers in series. Thus I had lots of droop available and could choose my ride without compromise. I swapped recently to 5/4kg springs, (all with Special Subaru size spring top and rubber rear mounts) The difference is amazing and softened the car loads. I now run with only a few clicks out from full soft and the car is a lot more supple than O.E. I also have a few chassis mods- Whiteline ALK, 22mm rear ARB and mounts and stiffer rack bushes fitted. Very happy. I might try some stronger helper springs or softer yet one day to se, but a longer travel 4/3 kit would give you a ride like a slightly firm 2.0 Sport. Hope that helps.

The problem may indeed come down to the feeling of invincibility of said Chelsea Tractors or maybe the technical limitations of Auto Lighting. Light meters measure total light. Thus when it gets dark they work. But fog is not dark, is it? The total light in foggy conditions often is more than the trigger for auto lighting. I know for a fact Land Rover Discovery 3 Auto Lights do NOT work in 50m visibility fog. I had a "discussion" with a driver of one up on the Mountain. He was adamant his lights were on, so I asked him to get out of his car to see. His dash was lit, and the lights were indeed on Auto. I've never seen the blood drain from someone's face so quickly when he realised.. I got him to walk away from his Silver car and see....Needless to say when he got in the thing lit up like a Christmas tree before pulling away.. One convert 50,000 more to go on this Island lone. Please tell all your friends........ Auto Headlights DO NOT WORK IN FOG!

That only sorts the front and only then if you really want to drop it a way. But doesn't do the back. It's a longer ball joint basically. If you fit this and lower your car all round 1" then the roll centre is kept higher at the front and drops like a stone at the rear. The line that joins roll centres is the roll axis and by tilting this you get a very different feel under cornering. I've found by changing the ride height at the rear by 10mm I can totally alter the feel and make the car lean into the front corner instead of the rear. Small changes can make a big difference. If you don't believe me, try changing your toe out by one flat each side 1/6th of a turn and see how the car is transformed.

8 years? Is my Hawkeye that old? wow. I'll just have to keep it until Subaru or anyone else actually makes something better then......

Ricky Evans Motorsport. http://www.heatedwindscreen.com/

If you are changing springs, you'll really want to swap the "spring assisters", sorry bump stops. Prodrive did them and I think Peter Cambridge still does. The O.E. dampers give a ride height that just keeps you off the long progressive stops and once you corner the outer wheel is on them giving rise to a higher rate and under damped feel. The poor dampers get confused as the car bounces onto and off the rubber stops.....it isn't nice and any change of spring if you want a lower ride will leave you permanently on them. Remember the golden rule of Struts. If you drop ride height by 1" you'll lower your centre of gravity 1", but you'll lower your roll centre by 3-4"! Not good.