The_Bronze

Hi all, So I've now turned my attention to the chassis on the Impreza. I want to effect a few mods to the power and handling side of the car but externally I want it to remain looking like a stock 2000 Turbo. I've just fitted a Whiteline 22mm adjustable rear ARB and the difference is crazy! gone is the mild, floaty understeer, car feels to have a lot more grip and is now more predictable, happy! definitely for £139 all in! Also incredibly easy, I did it in the rain last night under feeble torch light in 25 minutes, and I'm not the fastest worker. I'm going for a full bushing refresh with all the main suspension bushes being done first, I'm going to do it gradually over time. I'm not a fan of polyurethane bushes so I'm going to be going with Group N stuff where possible. I'd also like some uprated springs but again, to maintain the stealth look and to retain full driveability I'd prefer uprated springs which either don't drop the car at all or only very, very slightly ( one inch or less, ideally.) I'll also be fitting new dampers, probably KYBs. I don't want coilovers as good sets are costly and also seem to ride way to firmly, so does anyone know of a set of springs which are uprated but don't appreciably lower the car?

Haha! I've not played any racing games for a while now, I know I'd be terrible so I don't want to depress myself!

Lol, me too Gambit! in fact that's what I'm doing right now! lots of tea consumed too!

Hey all, Soooo, what do you do when you can't get out on your car because the weather is super naff? you get a cup of tea on the go, a pile of biscuits and sit on youtube all day! If you've not watched any of these get on them today (though seeing as I think we're pretty much all petrol heads on here I doubt that!). The MotorTrend channel has quite a few good bits and bobs, I particularly like 'Roadkill', those guys are funny. 'Chris Harris on cars' is also good. Fast and Loud is worth a watch (Gas Monkey Garage), they've done some pretty cool cars. My favourite probably being the AMC Rambler surf wagon they did. 'Mighty Car Mods' is also pretty decent with lots of little how to type guides for various things, and one of the presenters owns a Subaru Liberty wagon with full STi running gear. The two feature films they made are also more than worth a watch, 'Turbos and Temples' and 'Kei to the City'. The soundtracks are also superb! Finally, I've not watched it yet but a mate has been telling me I need to watch 'Street Outlaws', they own 'The Farmtruck', looks like what it says it is, but can do some crazy times down the quarter mile. https://www.youtube.com/user/mightycarmods Click and enjoy while it pizzles down outside! <_<

&#33;Removed&#33; hell, that's a pretty decent saving! cheers for letting me know about it! :)

Savage, Gambit, You know, I never actually thought about contacting OPIE over this, I think OPIE and I just think oil really, doh! haha! Cheers chaps, I'll ask the man and see what he recommends, club discount is never a bad thing ;)

Hi all, It's a topic which is done to death everywhere and with conflicting advice, but being honest I trust people on this board the most so your thoughts would be greatly received! So in anticipation of a boiling hot Summer (ha) I was going to do a coolant change on my MY00 Impreza UK Turbo. The coolant doesn't look bad in all honesty but I don't trust the previous keeper and coolant is relatively inexpensive to buy. I've seen people suggest using IAT types (the typically blue/green/yellow bog stock stuff you change every two to three years) and OAT (the typically orange/pink extended life stuff, don't worry I know they're just dyes). I assumed there's no issue using IAT but for the laziness factor and in anticipation of keeping the car a lot longer I thought I'd go for maybe OAT but I've heard OAT can cause issues with certain engines, knackering soldered joints, prematurely aging some types of rubber seals etc. Any thoughts on that? I was going to use Comma XStream as it's purportedly good quality stuff and comes ready mixed 50:50. Or would you all stick with the IAT stuff? obviously a good flush is needed as mixing the two isn't recommended. So far as I know there's no performance advantage with long life coolant, it's just the extended service period which is a bonus. Seeing as I intended on using the car for the odd track day this year I also wondered about the use of something like 'Water Wetter', is this something people would steer clear of? Cheers all!

Hi fella, thanks for the reply and apologies for taking my sweet time getting back to you! Actually I'll have a poke around and see if the switch just needs adjusting or if a wire's damaged, after the previous owner's 'attempts' at doing things to it I want to make sure! Thanks for the offer of the reverse light, if it does indeed turn out mine has karked it (likely) then I'll happily take it off you if you name your price! :) Thanks again!

I'm not even sure if this is really the place for this topic, apologies if it's not the right area to post this in! Hi all, after working intermittently for some time the reverse light switch in the gearbox has finally died, not good. I've been trying to track one down from local factors to no avail. Looking on ebay, there's loads to fit the 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 non turbo models but when I do a parts compatibility check the switches for these cars are listed as unsuitable for my car :( (my car being a year 2000 UK Turbo model.) Does anyone know if the switches from the lesser models do indeed fit and work or are they different? Finally, if anyone's got one that they don't need please let me know and I'll happily buy it from you! Cheers all!

Possibly had a new set of replacement shocks at some point? I do recall most OE spec Monroe shocks were mid blue!

Whats this pill you refer to never checked the boost on mine but would be awesome if a few standard psi were to be had from her I only stumbled on it by chance myself to be honest! From what I understand, the earlier 3 port solenoid cars (pre '97 I think?) had a boost restrictor, but the less restriction on a 3 port car means more boost, so either larger 'pills' were fitted (a little piece of brass rod with a prescribed size of hole drilled through it) or the 'pill' was completely removed. For the later cars fitted with the 2 port solenoid system ('97 onwards, though from what I've read the odd exception does exist) the reverse is true, the smaller the hole and therefore greater restriction in the 'pill' the more boost will be achieved, though this does need to be monitored on an accurate boost gauge. The 'pill' is located inside the pipe marked as '2' in red: For clarity's sake I've also included another view of the turbo and vacuum pipes I can't take credit for the photos, I just ripped them from a google search! This is all assuming the car is standard and not fitted with aftermarket bits and bobs! If your car doesn't have the right size or a pill at all I've got a fair few left over welding tips I bought so let me know!

I've seen new sensors on ebay for £50 so not quite so bad! That said, try a full system ECU reset, I'm not sure if this will also clear ABS fault lights but I think from memory it resets everything. That said, if there's a genuine fault the light will just come back on. Check the wiring to the wheel sensors and fuses for the ABS system. Also check the wiring plugs at the sensors to make sure they're making good contact and that there's no water or corrosion present, I find cans of cheap brake/carb cleaner are excellent for cleaning contacts! Also check the sensors themselves, if there's any muck, dirt, grease or metal shavings on them it can affect the way they work. They're held in by one bolt I think so just whip them out and clean them if necessary. If that doesn't help also check the condition of the toothed reluctor rings to make sure they're not cracked or damaged or dirty (though they're pretty well protected from the elements in these cars unlike some others). Again, a solvent type brake/carb cleaner is excellent and ideal! Has the car been through any deep water or in really muddy conditions before the ABS light came on? Is the ABS system definitely disabled? you can check by finding some gravel somewhere and just diving on the brakes at a low speed, if you lock up then it's definitely down! The ECU reset procedure is here : http://www.scoobypedia.co.uk/index.php/Knowledge/ECUReset I'm not at all sure if this will reset the ABS light though. Don't be alarmed when you do this, the car will start clicking its relays, priming the fuel pump off and on continually and running the radiator fans at different speeds, it's all part of the procedure so don't worry! There's a good source of info and reset procedures here aswell: http://www.saxonfields.freeserve.co.uk/Scooby%20Page/ECU%20Diag%20Page.htm#_Reading_ECU_Codes

Hey bud, Not sure on those to be honest, I did find this though: http://www.type-ra.com/subaru-forum/threads/subaru-fault-codes.4535/ and http://www.troublecodes.net/subaru/ Not sure if that's any help though! They're a knowledgeable lot on here though and hopefully someone can go into it a little more detailed than I can :) What's actually wrong with the car?

Very cool tech indeed! Thanks by the way man, really happy it's all sorted now, along with the power folding mirrors now fitted along with the found lost boost I'm really happy with it! :)

So, project 'rolling money pit' is coming on now (I kid, asides the sump everything else has been my choice!). I've noticed since I had the car that it always felt quite quick but you had to wind it up to get any decent go out of it, not like my old Impreza was. I also noted that while it could shift along ok it's never really felt any faster than my old Golf VR6 or my E39 535i. Boost gauge fitted, 0.5bar, disappointment! :( I've read that from factory they should boost at around 0.9bar, so I delved into various forums and replaced the heat hardened vac line to the T piece (between the boost solenoid and the actuator) and then took the short pipe off the turbo body to look for the 'restrictor pill', which I've read for the euro spec (ie UK Turbo) should be 1.2mm internal diameter. I looked inside and saw something, so flipped it out with a screwdriver, it looked like the bottom of a sawn off banjo bolt and was approximately 3.5mm in diameter, boost issue probably found! I fitted a 1mm welding tip in addition to said new vac line and took the car out, noticeably quicker, more urgent, and with a noticeable increase in low down torque. I'm boosting to just a little over 0.7bar now which is an improvement but still lower. Also, does the restrictor pill go by the T piece or at the other end? I assume it could make a difference! my is by the T piece currently. I need to check the actuator is working correctly and not sticking or opening prematurely because of a weak spring next. One thing I noticed mine doesn't do is that tiny little fast 'chiff' noise the dump valve makes when making quick foot down short shifts, my standard old Impreza did, and as I mentioned mine started randomly doing it then stopped again. It also sometimes feels when I'm slowly accelerating at part throttle it's quickly surging and backing off but the boost gauge doesn't fluctuate whilst this happens, it's only very, very slight but I can just about feel it. There's also a slight uneveness at idle but again it's only very slight. I've cleaned out the solenoids out with carb cleaner and also just did the ECU reset procedure http://www.subaru-impreza.org/forum/electrical-including-ice/11204-ecu-reset-how-many-different-methods-there.html - bottom of page. Here's a pic of the 1mm welding tip and the whatever the hell it is that Subaru definitely didn't fit: From what I understand the earlier 3 port solenoid set up benefits from enlarging or even removing the restrictor, the later type (MY97 and on I think but don't quote me) benefits from decreasing the restrictor size, wires crossed maybe? I took the car out just now before posting, holy hell, boosting at close to 0.8bar now (according to my ageing Speedparts gauge) and it's transformed! will report back on the slight surge thing and see if it goes away over due course.

Sorry for the slow reply! Thanks for the replies chaps, all very appreciated! I ended up plumping for using clear high temp RTV with a cork gasket, so far so oil tight! :) Getting the sump back in was a total pain though, you foul the left hand manifold shrouding with the dipstick tube stub and the other side fouls the oil filter pipework, took lots of jiggering and swearing! I also whipped the oil pick up strainer assembly to clean some bits of what looked like sealant out of the mesh. I used new 'O' rings on the pick up strainer pipe fastening and also on the dipstick tube, cost around £4 inc VAT from Subaru and Holdcrofts Subaru local to me got the bits next day for me, awesome stuff! I observed no swarfy looking debris in the strainer or in the sump which I took to be a good sign! It was also quite clean inside which means it's had regular oil changes. As a final note, I'm impressed by the standard sump baffling system and also the plate which keeps excess oil away from the crank, these cars are a lot more specialised under the skin than most people realise.

Hi all, So, my Impreza's always weeped a little oil since I bought it, and it's constantly annoyed me, too. After inspecting the sump some time back I noted that the front was looking like rusty orange puff pastry, lots of oil weeping out of the 'puff pastry too, but none above. Fairly atypical Japanese car problem, porous sump due to severe corrosion, balls! I cleaned it up and as a temporary stop gap I slathered the offending area with Chemical Metal (don't look at me like that), it worked an absolute treat, no more oil loss! well asides the small amount that hits and burns off the headers, rocker gaskets to do at some point, then. Then after accidentally going through a particularly jarring pothole the car started weeping, then virtually wetting its self, deep joy. Soooo, the car is off the road, I'm in my comfy armchair of a Focus estate (great cars, actually!), brand new sump is ordered and on route for Friday. Now, here comes the bit which pertains to the thread title, I've read so much conflicting advice within the confines of internet land that it's not funny any more. So far as I know, they left the factory with just RTV liquid gasket and no actual solid gasket in place. I purchased some ultra high temp clear RTV, some say RTV is fine, some say threebond, some say various other Loctite products, and some advocate the use of an actual gasket in conjunction with RTV, some say use RTV/threebond on its own yada-yada, you get the idea. I have found that there are a few suppliers on ebay who can supply a sump gasket. In the past when refitting/replacing things like sump gaskets I've just used RTV in conjunction with a separate gasket and this has never provided anything but oil-tight sumps and various other water and oil bearing engine parts. Is there any specific reason why RTV and a sump gasket would be a bad idea? Cheers all!

Blackbosh, With the mechanism uncovered (centre console removed) and with no matting attached the transmission noise was quite pronounced but not too intrusive. But with the silver backed fibre matting I used strategically (it's only around 3mm thick! lots of alternatives would be used to, harmonic damping's the name of the game!) there is virtually no gear noise in the cabin now, at worst there's a very slight whisper or gearbox noise in the lever's forward positions but you really have to ***** your head and listen carefully to notice it at all! I actually lent my camera to a friend but as soon as I have it back I'll try to take a video so as to show how quiet it is :)

Thanks chaps! was a pleasure to! If anyone wants a crack at this and wants a little direction that's fine by me :) I also used some carefully placed pieces of that that silver insulation stuff inside the shifter area and also zip tied some onto the gear selector shaft upper and lower bits, virtually no gearbox noise in the cabin, happy as larry! Discs and pads also fitted, noisy at times, quite a lot of dust too, but to say they stop well is a mild understatement! Nightmare on the mirror front, full story to follow on another thread!

Welcome from the UK! Glad you got her running well again, but sorry to hear about the windshield! At least you're ok though and hopefully your insurance will cover replacing it without affecting your premium! Conversely, we've had very little cold weather here in the UK, just A LOT of rain and severe winds. And to think the predominant reason for buying another Impreza was to be able to get off the estate where I live, that and withdrawal symptoms from not owning one for so long

Not all that likely to be the clutch so I'm going with Matt on this one, likely leaking rocker cover gaskets! the oil drops straight onto the headers and burns off and smells awful! doesn't smell anything like when an engine burns oil internally either (blue smokers!). My last Impreza had this and so does my current one. Have a look under the car and look above the headers, ten to one the lower sections of the rocker covers will be damp or even wet with oil, this is usually the problem! My clutch also judders at times, seems to be a Subaru thing, my last one also did it and if you google 'Impreza clutch judder' you'll be overwhelmed ;)

Hi all, Well I managed to get one of the little jobs done which I wanted to sort since I got the car late last year. The gear linkage was truly dreadful on my car, almost yards of slop in neutral and every gear. The usual suspect was just that, the UJ which connects the gear selector shaft to the shifter mechanism. After being quoted £94 +VAT from Subaru for a standard UJ and considerably more for an aftermarket poly/nylon bushed UJ I remembered what was done for my old Rover 620ti some years ago when it was also afflicted with a floppy shifter, use a steering column UJ! The ti's mod was very successful, a guy used to knock them out on the MG-Rover site for a phenomenally low fee and utilised a non PAS column UJ from a Maestro/Montego welded on top of the cut down mechanism from the ti to achieve the correct height due to the positioning of the selector shaft in relation to the original UJ. No such issues on an Impreza though, and such a meandering preamble leads me onto today's labours. After a regimented, list driven tour of a local scrapyard (F McGuinness and sons) I came away with lots of bits and bobs for the princely sum of £8, including a column UJ from a '96 Scenic and a column UJ from a '97 Peugeot Boxer van (same van made under licence by Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat etc, but totally the same vehicle.) Make sure you take the bolts which fastened these to the vehicles as you'll need them! This is the type of shared platform van you're looking for should you want to try using a steering column UJ idea: So, the two UJs: Longer of the two is the Boxer van UJ, and the attached end of the UJ is perfect out of the box for the mechanism lever arm. I'll be using the Boxer item for my UJ mod as it's longer. Nothing to stop someone using the Scenic item but welding and fabrication will be required of the shifter mechanism as it's far shorter. I bought a fresher lower mileage mechanism from an Impreza Sport Wagon (has the forked end rather than the welded on 'cotton reel' as per my car's original linkage, I thought they'd all be the same on the classics, who knew! New Mech: New mech cut to receive Boxer UJ: You may have noticed a small spur of metal sticking out of one end of the Boxer item (opposite end to the end attached to the shifter mechanism) take a grinder to it, you won't need it! on the inner edges where the selector rod will fit you will also need to slightly relieve the gap to allow the rod to fit in (file, rotary file, dremel, angle grinder, choose your weapon.) Just remove a small amount of material at a time and check it, you want a nice tight snug fit. Alternatively, if you have a vice (I don't, sob) you could open up the gap a little until it fits the selector rod snugly. Next, get hold of the car's discarded original UJ and remove the portion which has the centring spring locator on it and if you like, whack some paint on it (only applicable to cars which use the spring, I don't think the New age does so disregard this step): And you may aswell give the UJ a spray prior to fitting: When you cut the original mech you'll find it's a tube and not a bar, and it'd probably be ok to leave open but that bothers me, so either plug with some silicone sealant, or do what I did and utilise one of the small plastic sealing caps from your recently replaced fuel filter!: This was actually a perfect fit, I just sealed it using a little adhesive. You can also see the end of the UJ is now attached to the shifter mech and tightened, optimal position is with the other open end of the UJ parallel to the ground. Now the fun bit, fitting. refit the mech to the car (I found removing and refitting was easiest via the aperture in the transmission tunnel, I didn't attempt from below as it looks like it'd be hard work), and returning the selector rod to neutral position fit the other end of the UJ over it, ideally when you look up you want the hole in the selector to be the same depth as the pinch bolt hole in the UJ. Using a rotary file/router/dremel, enlarge the retaining pin hole in the spring retaining section you removed from the old UJ until the shouldered bolt from the Boxer will pass through it, the bolt also has a section just below the head which acts as a captive fastener. Make sure the cranked section of the spring retainer is facing OUTWARDS to allow full movement of the spring retainer section when fettling later on. Now it's a fair bit of trial and error, but the Boxer UJ is perfect length wise and allows the shifter to sit on the gate pretty much where it did from the factory. You will need to rotate the UJ on the shaft by pushing and pulling the gearstick side to side and back and forth until centralised, then rotate the spring retaining plate with the spring in place as far towards the back of the car as you can without the spring binding against the UK. Hook the tie bar retaining plate into the spring and fit it to the captive bolt on the bracket as per the factory install. even though this plate can only go one way it does allow for a small amount of movement which can be used to LIGHTLY tension the central position return spring. You will need to &#33;Removed&#33; around for probably at least a good 20 minutes like I did, making sure the spring retaining plate isn't fouling the tie bar and also that the spring isn't over or under tensioned, both will be detrimental to the shift. If you've got it largely right like me, welcome to a rifle-bolt perfect shifter pattern! Pictures of the finished install: This is very much a beta install and is still a work in progress. The only slight issue is a small amount of notchiness coming from 5th to 4th, though selection back and forth between all other ratios is spot on. I assume it's a little more fettling required, I gave up as I was literally soaked to the skin on account of our lovely British weather and had been soaked for about 2 hours! There is a little gearbox noise transmitted through the UJ now (all metal on metal needle roller bearings internally, remember) but this was test driving with the whole centre console and boot assembly removed. Just simply holding the gearstick was enough to damp some of the noise out. With that in mind, some form of rubber damping rings attached tightly to the lower section of the gear lever would surely help damp noises down, and also some thin rubber insulation material I have may help if tightly zip-tied on to the shifter shaft. The ti also had this 'issue' but it's to be expected and it didn't bother me greatly. Also, the design of the UJ at the selector end: I chose to use the near full radius at the other end on account of satisfactorily clamping a hollow tube, but the open end on the gear selector bothers me. One of two avenues to pursue is to either drill through the top of the UJ and run a bolt through the original roll pin hole, or a little more difficult but more pleasing option would be to machine a chunk of nylon/steel/alloy to fit in the large lower gap, this insert would accommodate the pinch bolt and also provide a lower semi-circle shaped area to accommodate the lower section of the selector rod. Like I said though, the bolt through the UJ is a lot easier, and you could even slot the hole to allow a degree of rotational adjustment. As a side note, a revised version of this modification should suit a wide range of Subaru models. There's likely tons of stuff I've missed out so comments and queries welcome! I also had the idea of using a Renault Clio steering UJ centre knuckle to replace the worn centre bushing, I thought my car would have the fork type assembly at both the selector end and the the mechanism end as per the new age cars, they don't! I do have a brand new Clio Sport alloy knuckle if anyone wants to try it out on their new age, and also some nylon spacers to go with it. I also still have the spare Scenic knuckle I didn't use, they're available to the first inboxer as long as they just cover postage! This is the alloy knuckle from the Clio, looks like it'd replace the centre section of the new age UJ nicely: Features high density rubber bushings with a steel insert at both ends. While all the centre console stuff was out I gave it a wash with some Autoglym car shampoo, all the nasty detritus which settles between console sections (13+ years worth!) is now gone and the plastics look great! The shifter boot was the later cheaper faux leather type affair and it was knackered and looked like it was going bald in places (just like me) so I binned that off in favour of an earlier type rubber shifter boot, much nicer as far as I'm concerned (even if my mate said it looks like something out of a Toyota Carina II taxi, cheeky sod). Not a straight fit but took me like 5 minutes to convincingly adapt it to the face lift centre console, pictures also to follow! Tomorrow's work is fit the power folding mirrors as all the (totally **** easy!) wiring is done, and also fit the 40G Blueprint front discs and Pagid pads!

Ooh eck Jay! I may have a crack at fitting it myself then in that case! yeah they seem to get pretty good reviews and love the fact they're factory specced by Subaru :) Cheers Gambit, I'll have a look, I'm going to try tracing the wiring back from the LED on the dash too as that should hopefully get me to the original ECU, I hope! I assume it's pretty well hidden to stop undesirables finding it, but man it makes stuff like this hard!!

Gambit, Jay, No worries fellas! man flu's all cleared up now so I have no excuse but to get out there! The thing is I didn't even get given an alarm fob with the car so can't try to arm it :( I have found a bracket with a siren sized gap between the right suspension turret and the airbox where something was bolted previously via two captive M8 bolts but is now missing (factory bracket as it holds another component.) I think this is where the siren lived but I can't see any wiring loom present. The little pad thing in my car is fitted behind the glove box and only visible when it's open, I think that's just the source programming pad though, the ECU its self is about the size of a biggish packet of !Removed!! I'll have another delve about tomorrow day :) I was kind of hoping I could utilise the wiring from the M30 but possibly not! if I can get a decent quote to get it fitted I'll go that way instead, then at least I can get the certificate filled out and validated :)