I figured I’d start a member journal for my WRX, since I’ve been doing work on it here and there for these past 2 month. I bought it back in December 2010, after giving up on finding a nice GC8 that wasn’t over-priced or rusted to hell. My goal was to learn my ways around a Subaru and get a taste of it before jumping into a RSTI down the road. When I bought it: 2002 WRB WRX with STI interior bits. 87k miles Tein S-techs (gah) Tokico Blue Shocks for rear (good) Stock Shocks (blown) STI seats, carpets, and door cards. Also STI knob, boot, and boot trim. I was a complete Subaru noob, and didn’t know how crappy Tein S-techs were, or how many parts were missing from my car (more to come about this). My current plan is to keep it easy DD with bit of oomph, and stock like look with bits of OEM flare. First time the car saw snow! First mod was to take out the crappy Tein springs and replace struts and tophats. I end up getting a nice deal on Epic Engineering Springs and ordered new KYB OEM-replacement parts off Amazon. The suspension upgrade made the ride difference night and day. While the car was getting new legs, we find that my car was missing fender liners and engine undercovers… Along with ram air and snorkel…. This trend will continue… Second mod, was getting ATLxPAT’s old BBS rim and tires. The falken that came with the Legacy wheels was already well worn with only few months of rubber left, so I figured I can spring for the gold BBS locally. At this point, my buddy is far more excited and mod-happy with my car than I was, and egged me to get a new exhaust for the car. He had spammed me with FS links every day, and found a Cobb full TBE setup for good discount. We started taking things out… This is when we found out that my car was missing some interesting pieces… such as: Intercooler bracket Heatshield + bracket BCS cover These things would have been obvious when I looked at the car, but my inexperience combined with excitement of finally getting a Subie, I had not noticed these missing things. I fully expect to find more missing parts and spend “mod” money on putting the car back together with stock parts. To match the full Cobb TBE, I picked up a used V2 Accessport on NASIOC…. And that’s the list so far…. For me, the power it makes right now is far more than what I’m used to. Before the WRX, I had short 6 month stint with a 06 TSX. The WRX is much faster than the TSX. I will need to be a better driver before I can really use more what the car can do right now. Short Term Mods/Changes: Swap the STI interior for 04+ WRX interior Upgrade console to 05+ STI/06 WRX Put missing stock pieces Go wingless trunk, or at least a new respray A newer TMIC Catless Uppipe 4/2 pot brake setup If I don’t go for RSTI by next year, I would then do: STI Engine + 6 Speed swap More things to come!
And Chaplin Subaru screws me over by not sending me BCS cover... How they manage to miss the largest piece of the order and manage to get all the bolts and washer in, I have no clue. Oh well, at least it's a clip on thing. The important bits are here.
Yeah, I'm not too worried. It's one of those "optional" things XP Thanks for cleaning out those mats! It'll look even better when I finally swap out the boy-ricer blue out of the interior.
Interesting proposition Nicad, I wasn't planning on moving up to 6mt till next year, but if it's a killer deal, I might take you up on it.
So, apparently TMIC from 2.5L doesn't work with 2L at all (unlike what NASIOC says). Once I had the bracket on for TMIC, the hose between throttle body and the IC is too short, so I'm leaking boost under mild throttle. So, hunt for 2L TMIC starts now.
Bought brokenWRX's intercooler so I can finally have a properly fitting intercooler setup. The tally so far: ** Things I've replaced/fixed ** Missing: Intercooler bracket Heatshield + bracket BCS cover battery tie-down fender liner (left) engine undertray(cover) snorkel ram-air inlet factory emergency jack emergency trunk handle wiper fluid hose Wrong/Abused/Broken: fender liner (left) intercooler fog light electrical lines (right) roof liner (right) upgrades: Cobb AP Cobb TBE exhaust KYB GR-2s on Epic Engineering springs, new top mounts 2007 STI Radio (AUX woot) 2004 BBS in Gold It's finally driving reliably now, making good power under boost. Still, there's good bit more work to do such as: fix up the ruined paint and chips, swap out the boy-ricer interior, realign the trunk, sand the rust in pinch weld, reattach the side skirt, console swap. Why I didn't just go buy a newer WRX/STI or just get a brand new 2011.... I will never know...
Went to Highway 60 on Saturday. It was quite a blast to drive in the mountains. Also got the center console pieces from AllPro (still missing the manual HVAC bezel though), so I'll be doing the console swap sometime soon.
Over this past week, my buddy and I did a swap on my 02 WRX with interior parts from 05 STI (console), 05 WRX (Cards, Seats, and Carpets), and a 07 Radio with AUX. The information on IWSTI and NASIOC has been pretty useful. There were a few issues we ran into that should’ve well documented… though. First is, my WRX apparently came with a security/immobilizer unit underneath the console box I had no idea about this thing, and haven’t really run across it in any console swap threads. This box won’t fit inside the new console, since the new-style E-brake does not have space for it at all. We decided to tuck it above my SRS ECU box with some foam padding to keep it from clunking. Next issue is that, the new-style E-brake doesn’t line up well with the chassis, and many have suggested in the guides that you should “bend” the handle to proper angle. We thought there has to be a better solution… So we crafted a washer solution to it. Basically you buy some steel and rubber washer at your local hardware store and raise the assembly to a proper angle. The washer amount in the picture was overkill, we ended up using much less for good alignment. We figured out the “right” amount by trial and error. The rubber will help with any metal noise and they’re easier to compress. (Please note we used a different height than what is shown here, and we also shimmed the tripod's right front leg with 1 washer to the ebrake/chassis [top stud in the picture below] to ensure the tripod was as horizontal as possible for the console, while the ebrake was vertical "enough" to clear the console) We also rigged a nut/bolt to connect the lower bracket with the e-brake handle. While console swapping, we also changed the door cards (since I didn’t want to do the ghetto mirror switch placement). In case anyone’s wondering. In Subaru’s infinite wisdom, they change the switch plastic for the power door switch for no real reason… so you’ll need to fit the new switch cover with your old switch: White = OLD Brown = NEW OLD switch (white) in the casing for the new button Oh, and you have to cut the plastic tab at bottom of the housing, because the old switch doesn’t fit We also read some interesting zip-tie usage in holding down the center console plastic piece and the manual HVAC controls… all they were missing were these pieces. Also, we had fun issue trying to figure out the pin-outs for the AUX input on the 07 radio I got. So here’s the corrected wiring for reference to others. Blue was ground for the audio (connects to black) and red/white around this ground are the right/left connections, which are color matched. Then the thin green & black (with green heatshrink) wires are the "switch sense" to detect whether a audio jack is inserted (black to black and white to green, although the polarity probably doesn't matter here)).
Just an update: (cheating) Had Justin at Six Star fix up my botched suspension job. I had forgotten to install upper rubber seats for the front struts, and hence my springs were rotating and squealing (I thought my PS was going out). Also, discovered a leaking O-ring when I tried to refill the AC, had Justin take care of that. With some money exchanged for time at Six Star, I'm finally able to complete the interior swap. My buddy and his dad managed to get a 05+ harness through the driver side, and now I have full side mirror control now. Everything works and I'm very glad I did the upgrade. Now I don't have to feel embarrassed to haul some passengers. It will need a bit of steam cleaning though. Also managed to get my side skirt back on, after taking some rust off and putting some protective paint to cover the abused pinch welds. I'm almost done with all the things I wanted to do with the car so far. My buddy is trying to push me to get a brake upgrade (4 pot, Brembo, Wilwood). I'd also need to get my crappy roof and trunk paint fixed sometime soon.
We should start a club. I seem to recall someone posting a link a while ago to some inexpensive 4 pot kits. Not as big an upgrade as Brembos, but still nice. Anybody want to chime in with that link that I can't seem to find?
Hmm looks like I'm missing rubber/plastic moulding (or cover) for my side skirts. Can't really find it on parts catalog, so I'm assuming I can't order it by itself. I guess it's a trip to home-depot and Advanced Auto for ghetto solution.
Back from West Coast. Depending on if I get a job offer or not, I might do more things to the car or not. Maybe close the year with a full brake kit upgrade, fix the annoying EVAP, finally get the car painted/corrected, and a new up-pipe.
Long belated updates: - Moved to CA for a job. Had fun time tussling with smog rules out here. - More maintenance / exterior / performance stuff for the bugeye (new tires, new AC condensor, new brake pads, new sideskirts, wingless trunk, shifter linkage update with short & shifter bushings ) - Subarus are everywhere out here. Still, I think I have the cleanest bugeye I've seen yet. BUUTTTT the biggest change of all is this: Finally got the car I've been wanting for longest time. A swapped coupe with full STI drive train. Unfortunately, this one ALSO needs lots of cleaning up and tidying up. So I'll keep yall up to date on the happenings.
Welcome to WRXcoupeswap.com, nice addition to the club. I'll be bolting up heads on mine tomorrow after getting the correct head gaskets.
Looks great; too bad they never made a 2 door model of the GD and GR Models like these; once you no longer there has to be child seat accommodation, a 2 door coupe' is just fine
Chip that's a GC in the above pic, I think you meant GD, GR and whatever the latest Corolla variant is called.