MarkJHarris

Are you sure the covers you have are not surrounds with carbon film stuck on them? Daft Q I know. Sorry. I have both covers for mine and swap depending on the time of year and weather. Mine's a Spec D with fog lights but it is an STi as well....

Sti gives you a far stronger 6 speed gearbox, beefier diffs and hubs and the Brembo brakes as standard. Plus you get bigger injectors, intercooler and a steel crank. 2.0 litre cars have forged pistons as well. 2.5 cars have cheap rods and cheese pistons though with a semi-closed deck block. Any mods upping performance on a 2.5 will cause stretch on the head bolts and a head gasket failure eventually. An STi gives you a base level of kit that's far more ready to take further. With the WRX the gearbox is going to go first. But the turbo and intercooler limit performance so will need changing. You can get a WRX to STi levels but not much further. The STi enables you to move on. Later Hawks are ok, but you do need to budget for a forged motor as it is essential. Mine was done by Alan Jeffery, and is now 9,000miles old and in perfect health. It's still at 280hp but with an FMIC, injectors, map and turbo the potential is there for 500bhp+ without any worries at all. M<y car has benefitted more from the soil overs and handling upgrades than the extra power. 22mm Rear ARB, Anti-lift kit and 6/5kg BC ER series coilovers.

Oh the shame of it. I think mine needs a wash, I only do it when the Gulls leave me a present....

If you were running good quality Fully Synthetic oil then it shouldn't be a problem. You'll get flow to the bottom end right away and pressure will come up in a second or two after firing up. The fast idle will stop the cams getting a pasting (faster is less wearing) and the oil should reach them in 3-4 seconds with fully synth. The Turbo will not have much spinning force at all in fast idle with closed throttle so as long as you don't blip it, that will be fine too. As said above, get battery off and charged fully first and once it's started and running get your tyre pressures done ASAP. Then a damn good wash. Brake rust will take a 5-10 mile drive to clear off. Nice and gentle. Once done, go have some fun! Welcome home.

Good points. I drove cross the UK the other week, and saw maybe two scoobies all day long. On the Island, I can't drive anywhere without at least half a dozen going past me. This place is crawling with Imprezas of all ages, well, not many Hatches but that's no bad thing! I suppose they all drive about instead of sitting on their PCs!!!

What's a cat? Then again, what's one of these M.O.T. things either?

The WRX comes with fog lights and a switch, the STi has covers. The wiring is in place and the fit consists of the lights, relay and a switch. plug is behind the blank in the switch block and the wiring plug is usually taped up under the bumper next to the light. Quick fumble and you'll find it. Being recessed lights, the original covers and light surrounds are interchangeable- you can just cover the lights. This is the same on Blobs and Hawks too. My Sti Spec D has the lights but I got a set of standard STi covers for summer. Options back in the day were fogs for the STi, PIAA driving lights instead, that had a wiring mod to run them from a relay linked to the main beam, and no switch (I think the switch was possibly left there so you could stop them coming on if you wanted??) You could also get a subwoofer for fitting under the driver's seat too. Saw that on the parts catalogue disc I have.....

I agree it is a nicety to make existing metal cast parts tidy, but that diff does stand out for the wrong reasons. I'm sure the case will be blasted clean at the next rebuild. Coming on nicely now Baz, still think it's time to fit the heated screen and dump all that heater matrix, think of the weight saving! It spends winter in bits usually so can't be too much of a loss! An electric heater fan for really cold days that you plug in may be the answer! M

Err, three actually. The Front one is inside the gearbox and the rear one in the , well you know. Anyway, it is crutial to make sure you get them matched, and the normal and safe way is to buy a box and rear diff as a set. Mis match is pretty terminal within a few yards.....

For anyone still confused. Here's the Wiki. Japanese cars tend to have recessed audio unit. without external bezels on the radios. European radios are slot in so do have the bezel trims. Subaru mount the radio with a pair of 6-7" long angle brackets that screw to the facia panel and to the radios on the side. All the screws are the same. Either the Double DIN unit is fitted or a single DIN with a box that has a flap on the front. The box sticks out and once the outer facia centre trim is clipped back into place will be flush with it. The Box fronts are coded to match, I.e. the silver colour of 05 on cars. So when replacing the radio, either you fit a box or remove one. Any aftermarket radio unit will have a Bezel that is removeable or is supplied in the box not fitted. There will be chassis threaded holes that match those on your brackets. ALL Subarus, single or Double DIN share the same brackets and any car fitted with a radio that does not have the brackets is rare and a bodge job as it doesn't make sence, unless the previous owner had some kind of special fit system made and removed it? I would always recommend keeping hold of spare bits though, you never know. If you smash your car up, better put the O.E. rubbish radio in before you get it written off.

Ok, My turn. "Forging" What's all this talk of forging the engine, etc? 2.0 litre STis came with forged pistons and rods suitable for competition use. WRX cars and 2.5 cSTis have cast Pistons and rod and for upgrading ou fit forged components. Casting is where an alloy is mixed from raw ingredients, i.e. aluminium, copper and nickel, then melted together into a liquid and poured into a mould where it sets hard. The setting involves the actual alloying wher the aluminium would form a crystaline structure but this is interlaced with the copper and nickel, etc crystal structures to create a metal/metal composite alloy. The different metals have different properties of expansion, elasticity, etc. The finished lump of metal is then machined conventially to the shape required. Aluminium comes in various forms, some are stronger but expand more, others less so. Cooking shopping cars have low expansion pistions so run quietly when cold but break when you rev the shit out of them. Competition cars and Diesels have stronger pistions but rattle like a bugger when cold, until expanded to the right size for the bore. Cast iron or stel items work in the same way- steel is effectively iron mixed with 4% carbon. A Forged part may start ourt as a cast lump, but is then hammerd to shape, squeezing it makes the metal denser and denser forming a more rigid crystaling structure. Think of a sword made by a blacksmith with an anvil. This is primitive forging...er, in a Forge! You get stronger parts that can be now machined smaller and lighter and do a better job.

Confused. On the Impreza, the bezel is not fitted so you simply bolt it into the side plates and them to the panel with the outer surround the main clip in centre dash panel. Same for all New age cars. A pocket, flip cover from a Forrester or any other suitable Subaru fits perfectly in the lower half if you fit a single DIN unit. An off the shelf often comes with the BEZEL to fit onto a recessed panel, wheras Japanese standard is to not use an external bezel. So what you need is the Subaru lower pocket with cover. Easy to fit, comes to match earlier or later cars and can be got from your local dealer, or scrappy. I had a single DIN on my hawy, a Spec D and now have a nice Alpine touch scren double din unit. It's quite classy and looks fine turned off as the screen is a satin look anti-glare.

This year I mostly plan on laying my car up and cycling to work instead.....

What's wrong is the tosser in the Subaru frankly! The recovery was pretty lucky but the second overtake on a junction with the oncoming bas and parked car already there was uterly reckless, with or without severe winter conditions.

I have an AP organic single plate on my 2.5 and it's perfect and light too, considering it is a performance upgrade. On my fourth Launch control lift-off and it shows no sign of giving up the job.

You've got 4 x 5W bulbs on with that switch so the load on a 12v battery should only be 1.7A total. 1.52A for a charged 13.2V battery. In theory, that should take 30 odd hours to completely flatten a standard 48Ah battery. To pull it down to where it won't start the car maybe 10-12hrs? I'd try a new battery first, they should last 3-5 years on average. M

Shame I forgot to put a bit of power in to straighten my car up a few years ago....ouch. I must say nice recovery but doubt it was an intensional overtake manoever.....I bet the camera driver had a sphincter moment too!

Might be better to get the wiring to connect up the DCCD if that's missing? You can never have enough toys!

Deffo a DCCD unit!

Really enjoyed that episode. That a Bug WRX is only worth £1,500 is pretty damning though....Didn't it do well, and with a balcony seat too! Can't wait for next Sunday.

Get your remapped then to 1.5 BAR peak boost and wait...you'll be needing to spend some cash shortly after whe nthe car starts to smell of coolant and you see splashes around the overflow bottle..... PPP only gives 1.3BAR dropping to 1.0BAR at high revs which is slightly more than O.E. but still relatively safe. 1.5BAR will stretch the head bolts and weaken the HG. Then the fun begins......

You could always put a blob front end on it too for the complete look!

I do it all the time. If you can change your OP to spell braking properly that might be an idea too. I use it in karting bacause you have to and my work vehicle has left and right toe brakes where the pedals move opposite to each other independantly of the brakes. Try getting your head round that. Ok, I fly for a living if you hadn't guessed. Anyway, I've tried to left foot brake for years and can do it pretty well, but to be honest it's not much use on the road at all. I can heel and toe too, size 9's. I didn't activate the blipping feature on the EcuTek RaceRom setup on my car as I'm fine doing it myself. It's using the handbrake on a Scooby that's far more fun if you can master that!

I do it all the time. If you can change your OP to spell braking properly that might be an idea too. I use it in karting bacause you have to and my work vehicle has left and right toe brakes where the pedals move opposite to each other independantly of the brakes. Try getting your head round that. Ok, I fly for a living if you hadn't guessed. Anyway, I've tried to left foot brake for years and can do it pretty well, but to be honest it's not much use on the road at all. I can heel and toe too, size 9's. I didn't activate the blipping feature on the EcuTek RaceRom setup on my car as I'm fine doing it myself. It's using the handbrake on a Scooby that's far more fun if you can master that!

I also agree it looks out of place on the Hawkeye. The lines of the front are far smoother and sleeker than a Blob, and suit the smaller scoop perfectly. Mind you the aerodynamics aren't that much better, because a Hawk still tries to pull the front corners of the bonnet up at speed.