It's probably time to get a journal going and start posting rather than just lurking.
My journey had a rather common start, a WRX. Bought it new in 2010, first new car, second car I've owned (first was a 96' Accord V6 I got at an auto-auction as my first car). That car was fantastic and a huge leap from the Accord (duh...). Well, about two years of owning that car and I had come to find the limits of it's abilities. I tossed a Cobb on it with stage one and put a rear-sway on to balance it out, but there was always a great deal of pining...
Really didn't help that after a few rotations at work I landed a permenant job working very closely with the one they call t00mes... STI exposure went through the roof. A few other friends at work rode around in Evos but after a test drive it just didn't feel right.
Sooo.... the search began, was put on hold, then resumed again.
Eventually I went out on a whim and test-drove a 2008 diamond grey STI with just under 60,000 miles on it at Subaru of Nashua. After talking with the salesman for a bit he let me take it out and we went for a rather long drive through some quality backroads. I was a bit skeptical as it had carbon fiber skirts and a Perrin re-circ (clearly modded), oh, and it was an 08, but the price was right. Sold.
It went stage 1 in the dealer parking lot, stage 2 about a month later (Invidia catted DP & Q300), sounded fantastic!
As a start of bad omens for this car, when I changed the brake pads I found that one of my wheel studs was, well, destroyed... The middle bit of the stud was completely mangled and the nut was shredded. Okay... no big deal... just need a new stud, pop the caliper and rotor and the how-to looks easy enough.
Both caliper bolts snapped when I tried to take them off.
Pretty sure I could have done a better job of shocking them and being careful, but those damn things had zero desire to come out. Ended up having to drill both of them out. Aced it with one and just pushed it through, no such luck with the second, just had to drill through it and re-tap. Crappy few days of downtime but oh, well, learning experience.
And then...
A few weeks ago I was driving home through the Mass Pike tunnels under Boston, heard a faint ticking sound, thought it was the modded Evo 8 that had just pulled in front of me. Whatever. I was just cruising home, 65 in 6th, puttering about.
Clack, clack, clack
WTF...
It stopped and then came back, by this point I was at the 128 tolls (for those not around Boston, that was about 6 miles of very tepid driving).
When I slowed for the toss the noise came back, only much worse. Guessed it was the bearing and pretty much knew the motor was shot at this point. It was around one in the morning and my mentality was "eff it, please just get me home before you die". Almost. Died in a parking lot shortly after getting off the pike about 4 miles from home.
Got it towed, pushed it into the garage. Pulled the motor a few days later (when I say pulled, I mean I watched while Steve pulled it... trying to take mental notes of everything).
So now it's time to start re-building. Step 1: start a journal, step 2: fix the car!
*** Log ***
59,810 ... Bought this 2008 STI used
59,810 ... married my Cobb AP in the parking lot at the dealer and went stage 1 :thumbsup:
61,000 ... Invidia catted downpipe installed, Stage 2 flashed, oil change with Amsoil 5W-30
63,000 ... Invidia Q300 installed for full turbo-back
64,500 ... StopTech brake pads installed, brakes bled, broke & re-tapped both rear-driver side caliper bolts
64,700 ... boom goes the motor! :bang:
My journey had a rather common start, a WRX. Bought it new in 2010, first new car, second car I've owned (first was a 96' Accord V6 I got at an auto-auction as my first car). That car was fantastic and a huge leap from the Accord (duh...). Well, about two years of owning that car and I had come to find the limits of it's abilities. I tossed a Cobb on it with stage one and put a rear-sway on to balance it out, but there was always a great deal of pining...
Really didn't help that after a few rotations at work I landed a permenant job working very closely with the one they call t00mes... STI exposure went through the roof. A few other friends at work rode around in Evos but after a test drive it just didn't feel right.
Sooo.... the search began, was put on hold, then resumed again.
Eventually I went out on a whim and test-drove a 2008 diamond grey STI with just under 60,000 miles on it at Subaru of Nashua. After talking with the salesman for a bit he let me take it out and we went for a rather long drive through some quality backroads. I was a bit skeptical as it had carbon fiber skirts and a Perrin re-circ (clearly modded), oh, and it was an 08, but the price was right. Sold.
It went stage 1 in the dealer parking lot, stage 2 about a month later (Invidia catted DP & Q300), sounded fantastic!
As a start of bad omens for this car, when I changed the brake pads I found that one of my wheel studs was, well, destroyed... The middle bit of the stud was completely mangled and the nut was shredded. Okay... no big deal... just need a new stud, pop the caliper and rotor and the how-to looks easy enough.
Both caliper bolts snapped when I tried to take them off.
Pretty sure I could have done a better job of shocking them and being careful, but those damn things had zero desire to come out. Ended up having to drill both of them out. Aced it with one and just pushed it through, no such luck with the second, just had to drill through it and re-tap. Crappy few days of downtime but oh, well, learning experience.
And then...
A few weeks ago I was driving home through the Mass Pike tunnels under Boston, heard a faint ticking sound, thought it was the modded Evo 8 that had just pulled in front of me. Whatever. I was just cruising home, 65 in 6th, puttering about.
Clack, clack, clack
WTF...
It stopped and then came back, by this point I was at the 128 tolls (for those not around Boston, that was about 6 miles of very tepid driving).
When I slowed for the toss the noise came back, only much worse. Guessed it was the bearing and pretty much knew the motor was shot at this point. It was around one in the morning and my mentality was "eff it, please just get me home before you die". Almost. Died in a parking lot shortly after getting off the pike about 4 miles from home.
Got it towed, pushed it into the garage. Pulled the motor a few days later (when I say pulled, I mean I watched while Steve pulled it... trying to take mental notes of everything).
So now it's time to start re-building. Step 1: start a journal, step 2: fix the car!
*** Log ***
59,810 ... Bought this 2008 STI used
59,810 ... married my Cobb AP in the parking lot at the dealer and went stage 1 :thumbsup:
61,000 ... Invidia catted downpipe installed, Stage 2 flashed, oil change with Amsoil 5W-30
63,000 ... Invidia Q300 installed for full turbo-back
64,500 ... StopTech brake pads installed, brakes bled, broke & re-tapped both rear-driver side caliper bolts
64,700 ... boom goes the motor! :bang:
