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I've just fitted Godspeed discs & pads all round. Excellent quality and a very good price. I believe the blank discs come from Germany and Ian adds the grooves. Mark

For winter I had an old set of RE040s which were the original fitment. The fronts were down to ~3mm and they were terrible! As soon as the temp dropped they became rock hard! Not recommended! For winter use even in the dry you really want a tyre with more silica that operates at lower temperatures. It's only if you're driving on slush & snow that a full winter tyre with all the extra sipes cut into it really becomes effective. Full winter tyres have the mud & snow (M+S) marking to show they are approved. The Mytyres website let you sort by summer / winter / cold weather / all season tyres which is useful for comparison. In general any winter specific tyre, even budget ones, are going to be so much better than a summer tyre once the temperatures drop and the roads become greasy. When looking at winter tyres you can consider a H speed rating (max 130mph) and I would tend towards an XL load rating which usually have stiffer sidewalls. The Coopers I bought are a 91H and feel quite soft whereas the Nankangs are a 93V XL and feel great! For winter use I would buy the Nankangs again for £80 each, I don't see the point of paying almost double for a 'premium' brand. Apart from www.mytyres.co.uk (ship from Germany very quickly!) it's worth looking at www.clickontyres.com and www.camskill.co.uk Cheers, Mark

Thanks for all the feedback on McIndoe's. Certainly not enough positive views to consider using instead of Nobles, Extreme, SWM or any of the other know specialists. I'm a bit surprised that that haven't appeared on here! RE070s are great tyres; just not when it's very cold or the roads are greasy! Amazing grip & feel in the dry & wet. In spring / summer I think they are hard to beat although I can understand why some people don't like the very stiff sidewalls or the tramlining when they get worn. This winter I've tried full winter tyres; both Cooper Weather Master Snow and Nankang Snow SV. Both are 'budget' brands but are impressive on cold, wet roads. In the snow both were amazing, especially on slush & compressed snow. You could brake & steer with almost complete confidence. Overall I preferred the Nankangs, they felt more like a normal tyre. The Coopers have a very soft sidewall (225/45/17/91H rating) which makes for a nice ride but limited steering feel with a tendency to understeer even in the dry. Cheers, Mark

Have driven past it for years but didn't know they specialised with Subaru's! It's tucked down a small road behind the new Dobbie's Garden Centre. Has anyone ever used them? http://a89mot.co.uk/ Cheers, Mark

Why not phone Trafficmaster (was RAC Trackstar) and ask them? Tel 0870 050 3000. They usually just have the car registration as reference. Mark

There's a group test of the new STI in the latest EVO mag. They have also added one to their long term fleet. Gets a pretty good write up although they also comment on the price! Mark

Had BC's for a year without problems. Make sure you use the rubber (OEM style) rear top mounts to avoid the knocking issue and get the rear adjustment extenders. A set of camber bolts for the rear are also worthwhile fitting at the same time. A final trick is to rotate the front top mounts so that you can adjust for both camber & castor at the same time! Mark

Job done, adding instructions for future reference. A replacement boot hinge is £42 from Subaru but only comes primed, you'd need to get it painted. I managed to get one in the correct colour from Grade-A for only £23 delivered. Replacing the hinge is easiest if you remove the boot lid completely, 4 bolts, 2 on each side. Then relax the torsion bar on the hinge to be replaced by levering off the hinged bracket. The torsion bar can then be slide out of the way. To remove the actual boot hinge you need to undo the 3x bolts which are hidden under the parcel shelf. Removing the parcel shelf means the rear seats need to come out & all the side trim on the C-pillar needs to come off. Don't put the parcel shelf back until you've completed fitting the new hinge, have reset the torsion bar and refitted the boot lid. To realign the boot lid with the other panels you might need to adjust the 3x hinge bolts backwards or forwards. Once everything works you can put all the trim back. Cheers, Mark

At least the kits are modular and the bits are cheap if you do need to rebuild them! Worst case a replacement damper is about £50 but I think BC/Apex will rebuild them for less than that. Mark

Thanks guys. A replacement hinge is £42 from Subaru. Will have a look at repairing the original. Any ideas on how to remove the spring / torsion bar? It doesn't seem to unclip and I can't move it sideways. Cheers, Mark

I've had BC's fitted to my STI for the last 12 months / 6,000 miles. Overall very please although mine did originally knock at the rear; solved by fitted the rear OEM style rubber top mounts. Consider also a set of rear camber bolts to improve the alignment. It's a relatively easy job to fit yourself if you can undo the strut/hub bolts on the originals. However make sure you get somebody who knows what they are doing to set the ride height and wheel alignment. Mine rides similar to the OEM suspension with the Prodrive springs. Ride quality & handling are much improved over the tired originals! Cheers, Mark

Hi all, Hopefully somebody has come across this before. Basically the boot lid hinge has broken where the black spring bars attach to the hinge assembly. It means the boot doesn't close properly and the hinge rattles like buggery while driving. Does anyone know: 1) How do you remove the hinge and black spring bars? 2) Where can I get a replacement? I've tried to take a photo. Car is a 2002 Impreza STI Prodrive style. Many thanks, Mark

Steve Walker Bodyshop in Bathgate are very good and recommended by many on SIDC & Scottish Elises. Mark

If you're looking at Dell's website make sure you look at both the 'home' and 'business' sections. The business machines are usually cheaper, have a higher spec and more frequent special offers. The only real difference seems to be that the business machines do without surround sound and have a less pretty box! I ordered a Vostro 430 last week with i7-860, 4Gb RAM, 500GB HDD, descrete 512MB ATI graphics card & Win 7 Pro 64bit for £500 incl vat and delivery which was ~£100 cheaper than the equivalent Inspiron for the home market. Cheers, Mark

Sorry, wrong thread! Haven't been out for a while due to knee surgery!