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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!

Steve's mobile is 07956 119962 Not sure he has an 'office' number!

I think the wagon springs are different; higher spring rate, bit longer.... not 100% sure. However I did run a set of P1 suspension on a MY98 wagon without any problems. Mark

Very unlikely, it will be the shocks that are knackered.

You're perfectly within your rights to decline the insurance company's recommended repairer. My wife recently bumped her car (twice) and we used Steve Walker's for the repairs. Both times the insurance company (Axa) wanted us to use Nationwide in Loanhead but a quick internet trawl for reviews quickly put me off that idea! Just bear in mind that if you use the non-insurance company repairer it will take longer to get the quote authorised and you probably won't get a loan car (unless you speak very nicely to Steve). We've used Steve Walker's for four repairs during the last 18 months and I've been very pleased with the results and the excellent level of service. Cheers, Mark

Car is an 02 STI with new BC coilovers, so it's not the OEM clunking problem. Yes, there is always eBay, B&Q, etc but wanted to make sure I had the right size, strength, etc. Fairly sure it's the ARB, droplinks or something closely related because the noise disappeared once I'd disconnected the passenger side droplink. Also not sure about the wear on the droplink bushes themselves. There seem to be some small cracks / splits, some go right across the bush but none of them seem very deep. How worn out are these and what's the expected lifetime? Thanks, Mark

Hi, Anyone know if it's possible to buy just a set of replacement bolts, nuts & washers for the Whiteline solid rear droplinks? The droplinks have been fitted to the car for ~5 years and the originals are very corroded. I think the corrosion, especially on the washers, is causing some of the clunks I'm hearing up through the suspension. I've tried cleaning them up and it's much better but really I think replacements are required. I was also surprised (disappointed?) that the Whiteline rear anti roll bar is also very corroded. All the original grey paint is flaking off and the bar is very rusty. Given the cost of these parts I would have expected better quality. Cheers, Mark

Didn't realise Whiteline did customer alignment setups! I went up there to pickup an ALK and Graeme was great at showing me around their race car and explaining what I needed to do to achieve optimum setup and the necessary alignment targets. Only problem now is that despite fitting BC's my car still has a knock / clunk from the nearside rear when I hit a pothole. I thought this was the old OEM STI strut problem but obviously not! The rest of the time it's great, just wish I could get this noise sorted! Any suggestions? Going back to the garage on Wednesday........ Mark

Depends on your tyres and how you like to drive. I'd try 33 front, 31 rear to start. I wouldn't go any lower than that but adding 2psi all around can improve the ride. Mark

The buttons on the key won't work. The factory central locking is replaced by the Sigma alarm / immobiliser / central locking when the cars come into the country. You just need the fob. Mark

The Scotsman (Thursday 26 Nov) Unbelievable! Can't believe this even made it to court. Hope they throw it out and bill him for wasting everyone's time! Mark