Hudson

I have been quiet but busy since my last post; Treated her to new wheels & tyres, the sti style wing, front winglet spats, new plates and a new buddy inside. Next plans are to tinker with the camber and ride height and a few small cosmetics (front splitter, fog light covers & front wing canards) then start moving onto performance parts.

Hella's fitted now

So I've had my 55 plate wrx blob eye since June but had a few teething problems to start with no thanks to the scummy garage I bought it from but managed to get it all sorted after the usual back and forth and a few waits... just awaiting the RAF pilots to bomb the garage now as a secondary objective on their next missions to isis. Think I made a thread about it when I first joined but left it to rest... Been enjoying the car since and getting a good feel for it as it was mostly stock. Only parts modified before I took ownership was stage 1 exeedy clutch & flywheel, coilovers, a few small bits I spotted like braided flexies & grooved discs with brembo pads and a full exhaust system which I have no idea what brand or who made it but it gives out a deeper tone to the usual louder exhausts I hear popping round the roads by the garage I work in... Quite like it as it's abit different but it's not got any bolted sections through it, all welded so if I desired to remove the mid cat in the future it would become a messy job - would probably end up forking out for a new full system. So after the original scoop flew off and arguing with the garage for some time I got a new sti scoop sprayed up and fitted in the end which I'm happy with and just this week started a few of the simple mods like fitted a gfb dump valve, front strut brace, stripped headlights for detango, satin black respray & refitted with silvertec indicator bulbs front & rear, 'i' grill badge, mud flaps, front bumper lip and was going to put some red hella horns in but the ones that were sent had discolouration so sent them back for replacements. Anyway I'll quit the babble here's a few pics to show my early progress - haven't decided how far I'm going to go with it yet performance wise but here it is so far. Next plans are to fit 1 pod or two on the pillar for boost and...? A nice head unit & the sti rear wing if I can find a good one matched up to my paint from a breaker. New dark gunmetal alloys to replace gold oem set? Or scabby set for the winter to save the gold set as they are basically scratch free... I will take some proper pictures when its sat at the Squires jap meet next week if I make it in time.

Unboxed my hella horns to fit them today on my afternoon off only to realise the red grill on one of them was discoloured so instead repacked and took a trip to the post office :( fuel light came on too so a trip out for fuel is in order later on when traffic is less chaotic! Got to clean up the mess the old tax disc holder left on the windscreen so that will keep me occupied for a whole 30 seconds... :D

Just burned my tax disc holder as it had the name of the awful garage I got my car from on it :D

Update: Rang the garage today after been told yesterday it should be ready to pick up this afternoon although the scoop issue isn't resolved yet but will get to that... only to be told an hour before I was due to catch my train that all the mechanical work I had asked for had been done BUT said they had missed one thing off the list by accident and while trying to do it a rusty bolt sheared off in the hub that was supposedly seized this afternoon resulting in them saying they would ring me tomorrow morning as they may be having to fit a new hub for me now after that unless they can successfully drill out the bolt and re-tap the threads which sounds like a 50/50 chance of the threads surviving and being a reliable solution so just hope I get the car back asap as I do miss it alot already!... Not giving up and was somewhat happy they took to my list of mechanical faults I gave them to do under the warranty that they obliged to do all of them but they have had the car 5 days now again which surely shouldn't take that long to order in the few parts needed and fit + fix the other issues. Just seems they don't get things done very quickly. Had the car nearly a month now and onlyhad chance to drive it for about 10 days of that month that's nearly gone with several of the drives ending in me feeling disappointed after finding faults. As for the scoop - spoken to two managers now in a cival manner telling them that it's not right that the scoop came off while driving after less than a week of owning the car only to be told it was above their pay grade to do anything about it apart from offer to paint one and fit it if I supplied one which I said I didn't think was right and wasn't enough as I paid my hard earned wages for that car for it seemingly to fall apart on me. So they said they would have '*****' call back to speak about it with me but still waiting for this call two days later so going to have to ring them and ask why I haven't been called and disappointed as I just feel as though they ignoring it or disregarding it. Maybe time to bring trading standards/customer rights into action and see if anything can be done...

Exactly, I'm going down to garage this afternoon to have a stern word with them as obviously not happy at all and the car isn't road worthy as you say especially with the wheel studs issue, can't believe they let it out the garage like that in the first place with the speeds capable could of easily had the wheel fly off and kill myself! I'm having an ultimatum if they don't sort everything out by friday then I think it's time to go down the return the car route :(

That's a good idea I'll send you a message nearer the time if I can make or if not I'll just paypal you for the heatshield - if I'm on a drive on a sunday up north will try arrange to pick it up or something possibly or will just include the postage costs in the pp

Great, I have to wait till I get this warranty stuff sorted if all goes well as don't want to mess with the car in anyway yet so that they can't turn around and tell me I've voided it but tampering with parts on the car, only got a week and abit of it left so making the most of it before I got to pay out of my own pocket for any future problems! Will post an update once I get started in a week or so :) Might try get to the NBO even if my car still requires abit of work will be worth it to see all the cars for inspiration and see yours in the flesh if you get yourself there!

I will see what I can do, just looking at that thread - the three bolts that mount the headlight, I see two are easy to get to but is the one on the side accessible without taking the front bumper out?

Sundays are my day off so also free most of them, either way thanks for the help I;ll have a read of that, not sure if I'm brave enough to do it all myself and have a good result!

I'm based in York that's about 70miles from Durham? I would drive up if could arrange something, the car needs abit of warranty tlc over the next 2 weeks first though. She's scoopless at the moment... :( Would have one of your heat shields too as mine looks abit tatty!

This has inspired me alot I just got an 05 black wrx too and hopefully if the warranty repairs I've found won't cause too much hassle then I can really get on with smartening the car up! Was the getting the tango parts out of the headlights straight forward or is it quite time consuming as I haven't looked into taking my headlights out yet? Also where did you get your heat shielding for the bonnet? Looks great!

I'm still fighting this but seems like a losing battle at the moment, going back to the garage again with it on monday, along with what I booked it in for under warranty later on today one of the rear flexis burst! Nice puddle of brake fluid all on the floor, good job was right next to a garage which they sealed off the pipe so I'm running on three brakes now... another thing to go down on the warranty list... just hope I eventually get over this hurdle and end up with an Impreza I can get out on the road without having to worry what will go wrong next! Found out 3 of the studs on nearside front wheel are all chewed up in bad condition too and can't torque the nuts up on them! out

I'm far from giving up I got the subaru bug well and truely, spoken with the garage today and they tell me they have fixed everything bar the scoop which they agreed to paint and fit if I supply them the scoop... not the full result I wanted but atleast it's better than nothing... now just to source a scoop whether it be after market or.... maybe you guys can point me towards some? I will be checking ebay and other sites to see what I can find...

It looked like an origional wrx/sti scoop to me but I did note when I looked round the mounting points after it came off that 2 or 3 of the screws/fixings looked like they were previously already damaged or missing which leads me to think it's been taken off in the past and not properly re-fitted and checked afterwards... just hope I'm not going to have to fork out another scoop as the car has cost me all my hard earned wages and when your paying for such a nice car like this it's not the first thing you expect to go wrong... It does sound like a freak rare case scenario. If I get it back from the garage and not been successful in getting them to cover the scoop costs then I assume it's not the best idea to drive it around without the scoop as it will have alot less airflow to the intercooler... For the few days I had it before this happened it was the best car and most fun I've driven! The other things I spotted after the sale when I got it on a ramp that the garage agreed to sort out was the offside gearbox seal had a slow leak, the CAT was blowing a little and before the sale I noted the nearside fog-light glass housing was cracked and the radio wasn't working which they also agreed to get sorted. None of this has really bothered me the scoop incident has! Here's a few pictures I got of it before the scoop said farewell...

Feel excited to get stuck into the subaru community with my first ever Impreza WRX 55 plate although it's already back at the garage where I bought it from after only 1week of owning it as found a few problems with it and somehow the scoop ripped itself off and flew off down the motorway while not exceeding the speed limit and not entirely sure where I stand with that in terms of the 1 month warranty I have... the garage told me they won't cover it because they think someone has tried to pull it off which I just don't believe. Either way not happy of course and thinking of taking out action with consumer rights & trading standards as it's a big disappointment for that to just happen in less than one week of having the car!