Ryan's 05 STI

[RyanR]

Yep, I bought it back from the long time friend I sold it to. I'm the 2nd and now 4th owner of this car. The first owner was an older gentlemen who lived next door to me, and took meticulous mechanical care of his vehicles. I have always regretted selling it, and am really glad to have it back in the stable! My friend took great care of it while he had it, and I'm hoping to keep it permanently (a huge challenge for me -- a recovering carwhore).

Upgrades:

Feal gravel valved struts

Subtle 1" lift (going back on)

Subaru Extra-S gear oil

Cobb catback

Cobb airbox

RI lightbar + Hella fogs w/ HIDs

2 Perrin stiffies

RA flaps

Opensource tune to compensate for the cobb box

Would like to get a mobile hamateur radio setup once I get my license

Otherwise, it's stock!

I'm thinking through possibly going stage 2+ with it, but find the power it puts down now to be reliable and tons of fun.  We'll see where the future takes it!

As it sits in my garage tonight

:::

 

[Ryan]

Awesome Ryan! Kevin surely took care of her that's for sure. Glad it's still in good hands.

 

[xxnightraven73x]

def a nice clean car congrats ... 

 

[Marino]

Very nice STi!

did you have to relocate your license plate with the RI light bar? I know the plate relocation kits for 04/05's use the tow hook behind the fog cover

But anyways, very clean and looks well taken care of !

 

[RyanR]

Awesome Ryan! Kevin surely took care of her that's for sure. Glad it's still in good hands.

Glad to have it back!

def a nice clean car congrats ...

Thanks!

Very nice STi!

did you have to relocate your license plate with the RI light bar? I know the plate relocation kits for 04/05's use the tow hook behind the fog cover

But anyways, very clean and looks well taken care of !

The last owner added the light bar, and chose not to run a front plate. I'm going to make a bracket that works w/ the bar to hold the plate in the stock location. It's so hard to find one of these AND know its entire history. I probably wouldn't have picked up just any STI, since every one I looked at for the past few weeks had major issues, and the owner wanted top dollar.

Plans for this next week or so include:

-Swapping the summer tires to the stock STI wheels, and moving the winters to the Weds Sports (gunmetal)

-Ripping out all of the wiring the PO added for the supertones and fogs, and reinstalling in an OEM/watertight fashion.

-Install a stop on the trunk hinges, so the wing doesn't touch the bike rails when the trunk is opened

-Make the front license plate bracket

-Swap the tranny/diff fluids, since I did that back @ 48k, and it now has 77k

-Oil change

-Compression and leakdown tests to see where she's at in life

-Improving the tune I threw on it yesterday (maf scaling) to get it better in line for the cobb box, seems to be pretty close after a 30mi drive today.

 

[RyanR]

Did the compression and leakdown tests tonight, both uncorrected gauges:

Compression:

Cyl1: 145psi

Cyl2: 145psi

Cyl3: 144psi

Cyl4: 143psi

Leakdown:

Cyl1: 1%

Cyl2: 2%

Cyl3: 2%

Cyl4: 2%

Impressed at these numbers with 77k.

 

[Ryan]

Perfect. Those 04-05 STI blocks have always been solid.

 

[boxerboost]

If you take care of it, it should keep those for at least twice that!

When I sold my '05 STi with 120k on it, it leaked down perfect still.

 

[RyanR]

So yesterday I swapped out the in-tank fuel filter.  Idle was 1000% smoother after doing this.

Moneyshots:

Took the old one apart to see how bad the filter was.  You can see some nice crud build up, most of the vanes in the filter were clogged, with only 77k.  It has always had premium gas, but just because the station says it's premium doesn't make it clean ;-)



New one installed, and the old one next to it for fun...



AND, the first person to guess what is wrong with this picture wins a FREE (5spd) shift knob (one of Nate's black delrin ones) off of my old 09 WRX shipped to your door.  If you live in the immediate Bangor area, I can drop it off instead.



Tonight I replaced all of the wiring for the fogs, replaced the fog HID ballasts, and rewired the horns, all in a watertight OEM fashion. 

Pooch (Daisy):



Tomorrow it gets a #1 coil pack and #2 injector, and all new orings on the rest of the injectors.

 

[Ray]

Drilled rotors?

 

[xxnightraven73x]

caliper doesn't have brembo on it ?

 

[IBratmanI]

Sway bar endlink weird angle.

 

[RyanR]

Sway bar endlink weird angle.

Winner! The swaybar flipped. Pm me your address and you'll be the proud new owner of nate's knob ;-)

 

[flat4awd]

Yeah like he needs another shift knob.

 

[IBratmanI]

Yeah like he needs another shift knob.

Lol, I do actually! The Loyale needs one!

 

[RyanR]

Replaced the #1 coil pack and #2 injector today.  Car runs like NEW...  ~$450 later in parts though, after a very fair discount from Quirk's.  Which by the way, I have to say I've been 100% pleased with their parts department, as they haven't messed anything up, and are able to get anything I need next day.  I don't really have any experience with their service department though, except for them putting the LGT wheels on the wrong side of the car after balancing them when it was in for the brake line recall.

Ahem.. anyway...

The first learning view below is from before today's repairs, when the car was randomly running shiatty @ idle and running lean @ low load.  The injector was partially clogged, allowing for "good nuff" fueling most of the time at medium/high load, but was just spitting at idle.  At first I thought it might be a vacuum leak, but the symptoms were too intermittent, and occasionally the power would go flat in high loads.  Surprisingly, the injector ohm'd out perfectly fine, but was just full of junk.  Not a surprise since the filter basket had a hole in it.  I replaced the #1 coilpack because I noticed a few misfires on #3 early on, and moved that pack to #1, and the random misfires followed.  Also replaced all of the plugs since I was in there and gapped them to 0.027:



Learning view after the coil and injector were replaced (happy as a clam):



As you can see, fuel trims are now mint, full timing is back (IAM = 1), and no knock issues on the board.

I logged several WOT runs w/ Romraider, and she now runs in full stock beastmode, especially on the 93 up here.  Maybe stage 2 in a few weeks?  That depends on what bushings I find need to be replaced first.

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

Come take advantage of the SiF Trailing arm bushing program.

 

[RyanR]

Come take advantage of the SiF Trailing arm bushing program.

Hmm, I may.  I have kartboy front and rear endlinks on the way to fix my fancy new bent rear ones (courtesy of someone in the past that didn't pay attention when they jacked the car up).  When those show up I'll see what bushings need to be replaced all around, and I'll let you know.  If I end up doing any of the rear ones, I may as well do the trailing arms while I'm there.

 

[RyanR]

Oil change and Kartboy front links on today. Also greased the rear struts courtesy of the zerk fitting on the Feals. Kartboy rear links go on tomorrow, along with new rear sway bushings. Working on a stage 1+ tune as well. Doing the tbelt, tensioner, and rollers in the next week or so since she's 8 years old.