just curious, im looking at 02 year model, just wondering how hard are the cars to work on? do they have a ton of problems? what should i watch out for, i currently drive a 95 240sx se with a s14 sr20det in it. so complete new to these cars. help me out please thank you!
If you have some time the there is very good infomation at Nasioc.com. In the Newbie/FAQ section check out the unabombers manifesto - great info there. There is also more information stickied at the beginning of each specific seciton. As far as working on - a little different, but not so much a skilled mechanic would have a problem. All WRX's have weak manual transmissions that cannot take abuse. It seems that if you do not shock the transmisson (clutch dumps, slippery surface spin and then instant traction) you are less likely to have a problem. The failure is that the gear teeth break in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. For 2002, the early Vins have transmission code TY754VN2AA that have narrow gears that are weaker than most. This code can been seen in the engine bay in the upper right corner on a silver plate. The gears were changed to a wider gear in March of 2002. These have a tranny code of TY754VN2BA. FYI, my '02 has the AA tranny and have not had a problem yet (knock on wood).
I wouldn't say ALL WRX transmissions are weak. I know plenty of people's transmissions that are working fine and to spec still. It's all in the driver.
Agreed, but be carefeul buying a modded WRX. You could be in for a scare if the car was beat to hell. Ask for maintenance records if possible. Ask lots of questions! I am @ 104,000 miles....no tranny woes yet:sx:
ok thanks for the help so manly ask lots of questions. i guess i should test drive one to see if i even like the car lol. but general work on the car shouldn't be to hard right? what about changing the clutch that a pain in the but with the awd? sorry such a noob
To the OP. If you're into any kind of racing; street, track, road course, ect why not go for an 06 model? The 2.5 is a lot more fun than the 2.0. And from my understanding the 02's are the ones with the weakest trannys. If you do go with an 02, baby it til you learn how to properly drive an awd car. Screw Wrx transmissions, they're a pos. If you're into driving around like a 80 year old lady then you won't have to worry about breaking it or anything. If you do any kind of racing the transmission will not hold up. Launching your car puts stress in it, shifting without knowing how to properly shift an awd will put stress. Too many ways to break it, not worth it. Also, every Impreza owner does it atleast once. And if you don't know what you're doing, of course you'll fuck something up. I've personally seen stock Wrx's with no mods fuck there trannys up. They're a pos. And that's the bottom line.
You could argue that point all day long. 2.0 that holds 90% of its peak HP to redline or a 2.5 that loses 50whp from 6000 to 7000. The 2.5s are much more likely to break transmissions due to greater torque output. The motors in early model 02s tend to put down ~10whp more than later models (no clue really why considering all of the parts are the same). The trannies are not that weak and you can do things to keep them alive such as adding a lightweight flywheel paired with a stock clutch. The stock clutch will slip before the gears snap and the lightweight flywheel reduces a lot of shock load. Ideally have a friend who knows about WRXs go check the car out with you because its very hard to find one that is completely unmolested. Many are just returned to stock but you'll find little things that hint to big previous builds (ie look for the green brackets of death under the intake manifold to see if the injectors have ever been removed, check torque specs on the exhaust heat shields, turbo bolts etc). You might even want to go as far as borrow a laptop and OBDII cable to see how many reflashes the car has on it to see if its ever been flashed back to stock.