GR Tyler's 2010 AW STI SE: Stage 2 and counting!

[06STI360]

Tyler's 2010 AW STI SE

Well a little history about myself I guess, My name's Tyler, born and raised in Southern California in a little town outside of San Diego. My love for all things Subaru began late 2006 with the purchase of a 2006 OBP/Gold STI, it had 8 miles on it when I took it off the showroom floor. It was a great car, never had any problems with it and I left her pretty much stock.
Fast forward to begining of this year, my lease was about to be up and I had stopped by the dealership to order a fog light cover that had gone missing when I saw the SE sitting on the showroom floor in the very spot my 06 had once sit. I went in and looked at it but the sales guy didn't know too much about the differences so I went home and did some research. Decided I liked what it had to offer so I went down and bought it on 3/11/2010, including my test drive it had 17 miles on it.
I think I like this one a little bit better than the 06, sure the GD was louder and a drivers car for sure. But I have a long commute to work so the comfort and quietness of the GR was more up my alley. She currently has about 16K miles on her and hasn't given me any problems. I will be updating this quite frequently as the mod bug hit me strong with this one.

Current Mods:

Engine/Performance:

- Cobb AccessPort Stage 2 v1.04 LWG
- Invidia Catless DP
- Greddy Ti-C single exit exhaust(functon > form)
- AEM CAI( currently not installed, had a lot of knock problems with it)
- Cobb SS Heatshield
- Beatrush Pitchstop

Exterior/Interior goodies:
- RA mudflaps v1
- DIY grill mustache blackout
- DIY rear reflector blackout
- 2.5% rear, 5% front tint
- 55w 8,500K HID conversion

Car is currently stage 2 as of this weekend, runs amazingly as of now. I have recently joined the Air Force so I will be moving out of California. I plan on converting to E85 if I move to a state where it is readily available.

 

[06STI360]

Reserved.

 

[06STI360]

My first ? for you guys, I went stage 2 over the weekend(catless) and my exhaust is way too loud now. I feel like it will draw a bit too much attention to my now catless(not very legal) exhaust. I have a silencer that I put in but I don't like it for two reasons; 1: its too quiet with it on and makes the exhaust note crappy, 2: it looks terrible IMO. I need to find a happy medium in there somehwere, Is there any way to do this??

 

[LikaGhst]

My friend has the same exact car but it's an 08 AW STi he made it look so good too as did you!

 

[Paul.c]

car looks great man. I love the SE wheels. The SE is how the GR should have been made from the beginning IMHO. Just a basic car with a well tuned suspension. I have to admit though the HID lights are a great feature and will be a must have on all of my future cars. Loking forward to seeing this car progress. Any Autocross or track days planned?

 

[IGOTASTi]

I was gonna get a SE before I found my 04 with 4600 miles on it. I couldn't find a SE and my dealer said there was none around. Great looking ride I really liked the white SE with them wheels. Very nice, very nice.

 

[06STI360]

car looks great man. I love the SE wheels. The SE is how the GR should have been made from the beginning IMHO. Just a basic car with a well tuned suspension. I have to admit though the HID lights are a great feature and will be a must have on all of my future cars. Loking forward to seeing this car progress. Any Autocross or track days planned?

Yeah the projector's that came with the car were a joke. The HID lights I got are 55w where as factory HID lights are 35w so they are pretty bright, I was able to aim them down a bit to get a wider field of vision. As far as autocross, I have always wanted to but there doesn't seem to be any of them around where I live. I didn't do any with my old STI but I think I will try to get to a few of them with this one.. maybe when these factory tires are on their last leg I will send them out in style with a little auto-x.

As for the car, I agree with you. I drove a 08 when they first came out and it just seemed a bit heavy and over optioned to me. I was very lucky to get it, the dealership said there were only 2 AW SE's shipped into San Diego.

 

[06STI360]

Well, its been exactly a week since I went stage 2. So naturally the mod bug is like "hey remember me". I have a AEM intake taking up space in my garage, I can't decide weather to try and go stage 2+AEM or sell the damn thing. I had nothing but problems with stage 1+AEM but I have heard nothing but good things about 2+AEM. Why does that sound have to be so cool??? :rofl: Not like its difficult to put in but taking 2 hours out of my day (install/uninstall) just to find out is STILL doesn't work would really suck. What do you guys think? Should I just stick with a good thing(stage 2) or let the mod bug prevail once again and put the intake on. OR I could sell it and use the money for a strut tower brace! That would be my first handling mod and some nice engine bay bling bling.

 

[IGOTASTi]

Well for what the guys have told me the stock intake's are good up to 400 HP. Also the strut bar is useless and is just eye candy so don't waste you money on mods that do nothing for your car. The guys will have to chime in on the AEM intake cause I know if you don't have a pro-tune you wanna stay stock.

 

[06STI360]

Cobb has maps for stage 2 + a AEM intake system, so the tune would be fine. But even with the correct tune it doesn't mean it will run right(as I found out with the stage 1 map). In that case, I guess I am at a interesting cross-road with my car. It makes more than enough power, looks good, and handles well. I don't want to get into suspension stuff since I drive it a lot and it needs to stay somewhat comfortable. What to do, what to do..

 

[IGOTASTi]

Yeah you just wanna do mods that make sense and mods that give you the best bang for the buck! You need to forget about stage 2 and upgrade your membership, LOL, just playing!

 

[06STI360]

Im working on it! Gosh! :rofl: In that case.. anyone want to buy a AEM intake for a 2008+ STI??? Ill make a FS thread for it! Besides uprading my membership, what would you consider to be a solid mod for a couple hundred bucks. I still really want to get a set of fogs but they are terribly hard to find and the stealer...I mean dealership wants $350 bucks for them.

 

[IGOTASTi]

Well tell me what you wanna do? More power or handling? And the $40 mod membership is worth it, trust me I know my was a lot more for this membership, lol!

 

[06STI360]

I would like to tighen it up a bit, but like I said shes a DD so it needs to remain comfortable. I REALLY want to take it to the dealership so then can fix my stupid speaker rattle.. but I don't want them to see my stage 2 goooooodies.

 

[IGOTASTi]

I would start with a white-line sways to tighten it up a bit. That's what I'm doing first as people have told me it makes the car handle on a dime!

 

[06STI360]

Yeah I have heard that, but I already have larger sways with the SE so I'm wondering if I would get the same drastic improvment?

 

[IGOTASTi]

That's a great question I will have to look into that and see what I find out for you.

 

[06STI360]

Im pretty happy with power right now, my IDC's were in the 90% range stage 1, I haven't logged them yet but I would guess they are over 100%. I've been told up to 110% is ok. Unless I misunderstand the concept I would just assume they are higher with stage 2. I have been thinking about doing a brake flush since im closing in on 20K miles but I wanted to do SS lines at the same time and haven't pick a pair up nor do I think I will benifit from them.

I installed a set of HID headlights in my car, they came with a grommet that wasn't quite big enough to fill the hole on the bottom of the headlight assembly. So I ended up siliconing them in there and somehow the inside of the lens got pretty foggy, there isn't anything wrong with it but it looks like shit. I've tried taking the cover off the back and letting it sit outside to see if that would clear it up but it didn't. So unless anyone knows how to fix that I will be needing a new one because I can't stand the way it looks. FWIW I did both sides exactly the same, driver side has no issues.

Anyway, I think the next thing I will take on is a 20K service. Thinking about doing the tranny fluid, diff and brake fluid/SS lines. Maybe I'll change the coolant too, I could have sworn I read somewhere that Subaru switched to the "super blue" coolant a few years ago. Mine is green so IDK. But I think I'll change it so I don't have to worry about it when summer rolls around, my car likes to eat coolant anyways.

 

[IGOTASTi]

Is there water inside the light? Can you post a picture for me to see it? Also have you ever flashed to stage 2 yet at all?

 

[06STI360]

Yes its flashed to V. 104 Stage 2 ACN LWG. I will go snap a pic of it right now and post it.. condensation doesn't build up in there so IDK whats going on.