chris555

Excellent, see you there. Chris

Yes thought it may be bad news. Thanks

Hi, I have just bought a MY99 Impreza turbo 2000. Generally the car is very sound except the place on the sills where the garage hydraulic lift pads place their load. The rear points whilst not rotten thro are not as sound as they should be. They have rusted and become thin as a layer of rusted metal has flaked off. Can anyone suggest best way of restoring the strength to these areas? I want to keep the car as unmolested as possible. Thank you.

Thanks Mark, weather permitting and thieves permitting I will be there!

Hope to be there Mark ..... In my vauxhall! Chris

Thanks to all for support. It helps.

I thought I should share this: On Sunday 19th June I picked up a new STI from a dealer in Christchurch, low mileage one owner immaculate car in silver. I live in a small village near Cambridge. The car was parked on my drive outside of the house probably 100 yards from the main road. On wednesday 22 June at approx 2.00pm in the afternoon, some "person" smashed down the front door of my house with what can only have been some sort of ram as it completely smashed the front door and door frame. They found my car keys which were not on view and hidden in a kitchen cupboard. Stole the car and escaped unchallenged. They then drove only approx 30 miles away and parked the car in a quiet place no doubt to see if the car had a tracker fitted. The car does have a tracker and the police located the car later the same evening. The police attended and have taken finger prints of the house and also the car was taken to their compound to be checked for finger prints etc. I have not been allowed to touch the vehicle but it does not appear to be damaged in any way. The shocking thing with this is the nature of the theft, that someone can batter down the door of a house in the middle of the day and get away with it. We are now scared being in the property and will have to install new doors and for peace of mind will now get a house alarm linked to the police station. Our thoughts are that the pleasure of owning an STI is not worth this amount of heartache, all the locks and alarm will have to be changed now as the thieves still have a set of keys. How do people out there protect their STIs, I had a wrx before this and never had this situation. Admittedly I did not have any secondary security other than the alarm, but would that have made any difference , I think not unless the keys for that were separate to the car keys... where do you stop. Any advice welcome, but really thought I should share this as a wake up call to everyone. The car will not be coming back home to us, we don't want the threat anymore, it will go direct to the garage to have the alarm and key locks changed and then will be sold from the garage. So if anyone wants a MY05 STI with only 39K miles and two previous owners in silver, completely standard with full subaru main dealer service history... you could get it at a bargain price!

I bought a Chipex kit, got really good results with chips but I just cannot get it right on thin hairline scratches. I just remove the paint when I try and blend it. I spoke to chipex who are very helpful and I think it is a lot to do with the technique .... I just havn't any!! Micro fibre brushs that come in the kit are brilliant. Make sure you clean off the paint from them so you can use them again.

Thanks Barry, Oh well it is a good car so it looks like I will stick with it. Chris

Oh Kim, does yours have the DCCD? chris

Thanks Kim, Its so disappointing when the heart overrules the head, I really like the car and it is very mint but this situation has taken the shine off it. I should know better at my age! Perhaps I will just keep it, I had been looking for a mint unmolested STI for ages. Good luck with your situation.

I have just bought a Subaru STI from a dealer in christchurch. The car is mint and beautiful. But in my excitement (or stupidity) I did not read the documents sufficiently well. The car was registered in UK in 2005 and has been serviced by Subaru main dealers here in the UK. But the first dealer was from Cyprus even though the first owner was in the UK, so I guess it is an import from Cyprus. It does not have a factory fitted alarm, it has a laserline alarm instead. It does not have DCCD, should all STIs in the UK have DCCD? Can DCCD be retro fitted? Do I keep it or try and get my money back? Will it be worth the market value when I come to sell it? Any advice welcome.

I have just had mine done by wheelworx in colchester, highly recommended. Full strip and powder coating for £60 per wheel. Very very good.

Welcome, Me too! bought my wrx MY04 just three months ago. Amazing car and equally amazing how much money it can suck out of the wallet for accessories!!

Thanks Mark for the reminder , see you there