Howdy folks! As some of you may know, I've purchased a 2006 Sti not too long ago and figured it's time to create a separate journal from my old one. I picked the 06-07 series mainly on the looks. It's my favorite line of Sti and being that it was my long time dream to own one, I finally bought one. The search for the right one was not an easy task. It began in Oct. of 2013 and ended in Nov. of 2014. My goal was to keep it under 80k miles, and for around 20k(20k because that was my cash price). I searched for my next car for roughly 12 months in a 300 mile radius, under 80k, for around 20kUSD. Throughout my search I kept finding 06 with 120k+ miles with asking prices that were actually going for 20k +/-, and rarely finding a 07. When I did find one with 80k< miles, the prices were always close to mid 20's. Knowing that I would have to pay taxes on roughly 20k anyways, my mark was 20k and not a penny more. Fast forward to November, I finally get on Nasioc and see a posting for a 06 with 78k miles for 22k, and it was local. It looked very clean on pictures so I jumped on it and offered 20k for it. Long story short here, the seller already had buyers lined up who fell through because they couldn't get financing and decided to take my offer instead. So my long search finally came to an end and I was a happy customer. 12/01/2014 The car came with the following mods, which are still on the car. -Cobb TBE -Perrin Cold Air Intake (I love this mod) -Racecomp Engineering springs (This will be replaced later) -Cobb AP tunned -Sti Limited front lip -Defi. Steering wheel mounted Boost Gauge(The backlight went out, on the fix list. 12/22/2014 Upper and lower radiator hose. Timing belt and water pump Drive Belts Camshaft seals Thermostat&thermostat gasket. Redline 75W90 Transmission Fluid Mobil 1 5w30 motor oil change. 03-10-2015 BC Racing BR Type Coilovers Installed. 04-04-2015 Front fenders rolled. 04-25-2015 QTP Cutout Installed 11-11-2015 New Clutch: ACT Heavy Duty P. Street). 05-28-2016 Volk ce28n 18x9.5 +28 bridgestone re760 sport 245/35/18 New Stoptech rotors and pads First day, 5/11/2016
Not really sure. Suspension will be my first focus along with nice set of wheels and tires. Once that's done ill shoot for 400hp rotated setup on pure good ol 93 oct. We shall see.
Beautiful car and great buy. I would say I would ditch the Mobil 1 water and put in some Rotella T6 5w-40 oil. Subaru's eat Mobil 1 way too fast and tend to throw it into the intake tract much too often.
I've always heard good things about Mobil 1, which is why I went with it. I'll do some more reading before the next oil change is due. Thanks, Also, What does everyone recommend for suspension? I'm trying to decide what to go with for street use.
I think for street use, people still recommend nice struts and rce springs, blacks for little drop, yellows for a bit more.
For street use a good set of struts and springs are much better than coilovers unless you are just looking for that slammed look. Mobil 1 is a good oil for NA cars. Turbo cars and esp turbo Subarus it's not good because of the shear factor it has....there are numerous oil analysis to confirm this. Dig around on bobistheoilguy.com and you will read how really bad it is and how it can promote spun bearings.
Like many others have said, the Mobil 1 stuff doesn't typically work out too well for these cars. The biggest thing you're going to want to think about is how you use the car and pick an oil that is good for that application. Meaning, if you plan on daily driving the car and very occasionally driving it hard or doing the once in a while mountain run, Rotella T6 5w40 will do the job. If you're goal is to drive the car harder more regularly (mountain runs often or track days often) then I would recommend using Motul 8100 5w40 E-CESS; for many reasons but mainly because it is a much more performance oriented oil and will offer a higher level of protection against the kind of abuse that high performance driving puts an engine through. Keep in mind, the above recommendations are for street cars that run pump gas or race gas; if you plan to run any ethanol based fuel (E85, C85, E98, etc) then we recommend using only Motul 300V in the appropriate viscosity which for most people in the Subaru world would be the 5w40. As for the suspension stuff, Jeff was right on the Money with the Racecomp Engineering products; they spend a lot of time and energy making sure they put out products that perform and perform well. You truly don't need much to make these cars handle better than they already do; a good set of F&R Sway bars and RCE Black or Yellow Springs would definitely do it without compromising the ride too much. The factory shocks are actually really good but if they have some miles on them, I would recommend the RCE/GTWorx Bilsteins as a great replacement.
Everyone's car runs differently. Recommending oil can be opinionated. When I bought my sti, tuners recommended rotella. Although I'm sure it's great stuff, I went with royal purple and couldn't be more satisfied. I know it's not the same, but it's like buying tires. You got the top brands, but is it necessary to run the top tier ones? Depends on the car and driver. There's nothing wrong with Mobil 1 in my opinion.
I don't know about that last statement. I've never heard a kind word spoken about US Spec mobile 1 in the EJ's.
^^ thx buddy. I'll write a review on you guys first chance I get. Looking to do more business in near future.
Thanks. I'm working with Alex on some interior pieces, but he seems to be way overwhelmed right now to even respond to any of my emails.... :wtc: Next up I'll most likely go with StopTech brake kit which includes brake lines, brake pads and rotors.
Sounds like you are ready for this and perhaps our Street Fighter package. We can swap the pads to the Stop techs or HPS for you if you prefer over the Project Mu NS400
So I finally installed the BC coilovers. So far so good. Right rear is rubbing just a bit. I plan to run 10mm spacers all around. How it currently sits: Ohh, almost forgot, I have to give credit where it's due;
The STI is looking good man! A large part of me wishes I had gotten a 05-06 STI instead of a newer wrx...
that looks sweet man! LMK when you decide to order spacers. i'm assuming youre gonna do spacers front and rear?
Thanks dude! Newer wrx are just as good if not better. I always find myself looking back at my car, sometimes even one too many times. I'm just not sure what it is about this model but it's my favorite car subaru has produced yet. I guess I bought the right car for my me. I may just place an offer for the ones selling on here. Lmk if u can beat it. by pm please.
niice, sometimes i wish i could run mine that low, except i have mt. everest for a driveway. granted i'm bias, but i've always felt the hawkeyes were just the right balance of clean lines and aggressiveness.
I installed the cutout this past saturday. It was horrifying seeing my Cobb dp cut in half. Overall I'm very satisfied and pretty much drive the car with open cutout all the time. I only close it when pulling into the neighborhood. It's an electrical cutout which I open and close manually with a switch. Now this might be crazy thinking, but the car seems much more responsive when open. Shifting also feels much better. I'll try to get some footage this weekend for everyone. Now it's time to purchase a Cobb ap3 and get pro tuned by Doug.
LOL I couldn't drive like that all the time....but your old car was all open pipe and I know you love it. Glad you are enjoying.
I'm sure it will get old pretty quick. Just like my straight pipe did. Which is the sole reason why I decided to go with a cutout and not a catless exhaust. It's a nice option; going from OMFG loud to is that thing even running with a flip of a switch.
Short clip of cutout wide open at idle. [youtube]-AIihx-NCTE[/youtube] compared to my 02 wrx with straight pipe. (cold start+garage=awesome sauce) [youtube]5Kr6e0RuqzE[/youtube]
oops, thanks! It's public now. I haven't used youtube upload in a while. Didn't noticed that it uploaded as private video.
Thanks! Next up is brake pads and rotors.. hit me up vendors.... looking for slotted/ceramic kit. (front&rear).
Not many updates with the car, but life has been super busy. We were blessed with our second kid, who was born this past Friday. Oddly, he and the wife share birthdays. As the wife was recovering in the hospital, I was scrambling to move our stuff to the new house. Running between northside and Lawrenceville was no fun. Anyways, being that this is my car journal, here is a pic I snapped yesterday right before I drove it to the new home. I had a full detail done a week ago.
Look sick man! If you haven't done brakes yet, hit up Dana (Sparta) with Touge fighter. He saved me several hundred dollars on 4 DBA slotted rotors and hawk high performance ceramics. Dude got the wholesale for real. Congrats on kid #2!!!!
I wil def. hit him up. Sparta feel free to pm me the pricing on above package. And thx! Im feeling very blessed right now.
Not much to show. Car just received a new clutch at AllPro. (ACT Heavy Duty P. Street). We also adjusted the ride height and corrected the preload. Not as low, but still low. The car drives much better now. Now debating which wheels/tires combo to choose.
Buddy of mine, Justin Wilson. He is testing waters with the detailing business. I offered to be the first customer. Worked out well. The car is dirty again.
I just saw your post about the brakes. Do you still need them? James has that set up. Since he's parting his car maybe he'll let them go? If not, I can give you the same deal.
Dumb question, is the fitment the same? Did you ever put the kit on, still brand new? I'm interested.
the fitment should be the same. the brembo calipers havent actually changed other than paint color to black.