SPhilli911's Fiesta ST

  • Thread starter SPhilli911
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United States
Connecticut
SPhilli
SPhilli911
I probably should have started this journal when I bought the car back in March...

Anyways, a little back story. I totaled my Audi (some jackass hit me) and I was without a car for a year because I was to busy with school and work to bother... and my parents let me borrow an extra car.

So around January last year I began to search for a car. I narrowed it down to either a 2006/7 STI used or a WRX new. It's been a dream to own an STI since they came to the US. After about 2 months I found a 2004 with low miles and nearly stock, so I bought it on the spot. It's the body style I wanted the most, but I didn't bother to search for one, since I expected them to be high miles by now.

I'm glad I found this one. Here she is the day I bought her. The car was nearly stock besides the wheels, a 3" downpipe and a blow off valve.
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Almost immediately after bringing the car home, I did a lot of maintenance stuff... removing the blow off valve was top of the list!

New wheels, OZ Alleggerita HLTs in gold. Replaced the oil pickup tube, did oil change, coolant flush, spark plugs replaced.
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Also replaced ball joints, and all the rotors and pads all around.
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Went with DBA slotted rotors, StopTech pads.
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That brings me up to date, more or less. Last month I put a front lip on the front. The front looks high off the ground, and the lip brings it down a bit visually.
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I also have a pile of things to do.

-Cobb tuning cat back exhaust (goes perfectly with the downpipe I have already) to make it sound like a proper Subaru. 4 new hangers, all the gaskets.
-Intake (not pictured) with airbox (that black thing is the lid)
-Turbo heat shield
-Replacement fog light decals (I repainted them recently)
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I'll keep this updated as I go from now. I've got some things planned for this car :)
 
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Lip looks great, too. Actually if I'm honest, while both sets of wheels looks great, I think I prefer the first set. Anyway, I think it looks spot on, maybe a small drop with some good coils, but not so much that it ruins the purpose of the car, would be a good handling upgrade and make the car look like a weapon
 
Thanks! If I'm honest, I'm not to happy with my decision to put the goldies on either. In fact, I've had another set before those.

I put this picture up on another forum and the general consensus was that the second set was best (Weds Sports).
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I like the classic rally colors, but I want a set of black or gunmetal wheels. BUT the OZs weren't cheep and it doesn't make sense to get rid of them just yet.

As for coilovers... I've been on the fence about lowering the car for a long time. I live in an area where snow is an issue, and the roads are far from perfect. Not to mention the speedbumps I deal with at work. The car is my daily driver as well. It's not out of the question to lower the car I just don't know when I will.
 
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Awesome, I always liked this one more than the hawk-eyed one
I agree that the second set it the best, though my second choice would be the gold ones.
They all look good though, so you can't go wrong with any of them.
 
I actually prefer the OZ's. That said I'm getting Weds for my GC8 so brand loyalty will lead me to those being my second choice :3 but the Rota Torque/Work CR Kai is a bit overplayed on Rexys in my humble opinion.
 
I am considering professionally painting the OZs gunmetal. I like the look of them, and I don't want to deal with selling them and buying all new ones.

I found this pic of what they'd look like.
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I am considering professionally painting the OZs gunmetal. I like the look of them, and I don't want to deal with selling them and buying all new ones.

I found this pic of what they'd look like.
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For me, this was the best year Impreza. They have gone through several radical changes, but this one was the first to make my jaw drop. Excellent pictures.

And that water fountain looks like a tornado.
 
Beautiful car!! I remember your thread where you couldn't decide on which style, glad you made the right choice :D
 
Every time I see this car I get so jealous! If I were to buy one of those (which is highly likely in the future), that is EXACTLY what it would look like.

And in that fall picture, everything looks perfect. I actually really like the gold wheels, they contrast against the blue of the car perfectly. So....much....perfection!

Cannot even find words to express how much I love this car.
 
Thanks, Legendary! I'm glad you are as excited about these cars as I am! I promise I won't ruin the car with bodykits and tacky accessories. lol

Well today is about as good as it's going to get weather wise here in Connecticut, so I'm going to make an attempt to install the exhaust. At the very least I can get an oil change done.
 
These are ace cars. My mate had one (Cobb turbo and exhaust) and the thing was properly quick.

Just keep it on the road 👍
 
Very nice Subaru! I seem to have a thing for blue ovals... Ford and Subaru are probably my all time favourite car brands. :lol:

As for getting the OZs professionaly painted, why not save even more cash and paint them yourself? That's what we did with ours, we just did them with an aerosol. They don't look that bad, either.



The wheels were originally silver.
 
As for getting the OZs professionaly painted, why not save even more cash and paint them yourself? That's what we did with ours, we just did them with an aerosol. They don't look that bad, either.
I've considered it. I did paint my old Audi's wheels and I wasn't too pleased with the result though. I don't want to ruin the wheels doing it myself, but it certainly isn't out of the question. I need to do more research.

This morning I did an oil change and replaced the drain plug with one of these...

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A Fumoto quick drain plug. Problem is, a few hours after a drive I noticed a small, milky white puddle under my car. Milky white is usually coolant mixed with oil... not good. I know where the coolant came from (I spilled a little replacing a radiator tube), but the oil was new. I put a piece of cardboard down and waited a few minutes until a few drips came down right from the oil drain plug. The thing is on as tight as possible! I need to take it off and replace the gasket it came with (the blue thing in the picture is a foam gasket) with an OEM crush washer to hopefully stop the leak.
 
I'm having second thoughts myself if there is a leak already! I'll give it a few days... if the leak continues I'll go back to the standard plug.

It was only $25, and the convenience of having the quick drain is great. I don't even have to jack the car up to get to the plug... though I can't fit a drain pan under without jacking it up. lol
 
It's not only the leaking, it's the fact that it does sit lower and I fear of objects striking it and causing it to fail. For the amount of times you actually need to get to it (what, twice, 3 times a year? I don't know how much you use your car) I think a normal plug is quite convenient :) Plus a lot of them are magnetized so that any small filings are attracted to the plug and stay there to be extracted at the next service instead of floating around the sump and in to the engine.
 
On this car it doesn't sit low (the exhaust and diff sit much lower and I would never worry about hitting those). If something were to make it up and hit it, then I'd have bigger issues that's for sure.

Like I said I'll give it a try. It certainly doesn't have to be permanent.
 
Finally, finally got around to installing the cat back exhaust I had. I got a full Cobb Tuning turbo back system on the car now. It sounds incredible!

A buddy helped me do it. That's his WRX in the back.
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Out with the old rusty exhaust...
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In with the shiny new one!
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:)
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This is an amazing looking car. It's almost exactly my dream car. (Hence my user name) The wheels are awesome. Nice job on keeping her looking tidy.
 
Thanks a lot for the kind words! I promise I won't ruin this car. :)

I made a snowy wallpaper for myself. It's still snowing, so count on more pics in the next few days.
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Jealous of the snow lol, it's so photogenic and makes the colour of the car pop. I wanna do a shot with my car in the snow
 
Very nice photo! Just the right amount of snow lightly dressed on it. 👍
 

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