Flip of the coin maybe.

Intake is a waste of money/time - dump it.

Keep the AP stage 1 and drive with it. Better MPG and safer for the car.

Buy a gutted uppipe for $70. Buy a gutted DP for $80. Go stage 2. Buy Master Cylinder brace to stiffen up pedal. Invest in sticker tires.

Lower this car is a joke as is most of the basic suspension work. To get better total grip out of this car you're going to spend enough that you'll question - RACE CAR?

Start saving for a new motor in the process. Mine is being rebuilt. They just aren't very tough.

1) Get good tires

2) Get Koni's and Epics

3) Get better brake pads/fluid

Do those three, then consider other mods. You'll have a better idea of what you want, and a better idea of how much everything will cost, when you start there.

 

Start saving for a new motor in the process. Mine is being rebuilt. They just aren't very tough.

Just because your motor and other (mostly new buyers that bought an abused car) have died due to poor maintenance and crappy tuning does not mean they are bad motors. Thousands of people run 150-200k plus miles on ej's. Please stop posting the motors are trash in every help thread.

Proper maintenance and a good tune go a long way. These motors are not grenades. My rotary rx8 motor, now that was a grenade.

I would suggest you drive the car for a longer then the 3 miles to work.

I have my own thoughts, it seems cars that are not driven for long runs, seem to have more problems.

Those cars with higher mileage and original engines, drive the car for longer time for they're DD's.

Just because your motor and other (mostly new buyers that bought an abused car) have died due to poor maintenance and crappy tuning does not mean they are bad motors. Thousands of people run 150-200k plus miles on ej's. Please stop posting the motors are trash in every help thread.

 

Proper maintenance and a good tune go a long way. These motors are not grenades. My rotary rx8 motor, now that was a grenade.

There is a general agreement that the design of these motors is lacking both in spec and in tune. We'll see a new motor replace the 2.5 turbo in America shortly that has a range of changes to improve the durability.

1000's of people do run to 150-200K, however not 100,000's. The failure rate documented online exceeds what is acceptable in today's modern motors. This motor shouldn't be so fragile and the tune shouldn't be so poor. Make excuses for Subaru all you want but that doesn't change the fact there is a rebuild post here almost weekly.

FYI there is no evidence to suggest my car was flogged prior to my ownership.

Also if you research further, folks have well documented similar problems in the STI motor. My general understanding is if it's going to go it goes, change in tune or driving style be damned. It says a lot about a car company who produces a performance sedan STI and voids your warranty if you 'drive it too hard'. Subaru America getting involved in motor failures to find evidence the motor was driven too hard and thus void a warranty claim.

Shall I mention the 5th gear WOT problem? HG problem? Fuel line problems? Brake line problem?The list goes on. It's not a well engineered car by ANY standards. It was first and foremost a tractor company and it shows.

Compare the failure rate as a percent of vehicles to Toyota or Honda if you disagree with my summary of the situation. Dig into the types of failures these two manufactures have and then look into how they handled it. Honda had a problem with their first 5 speed auto and offered very FLEXIBLE warranties to all cars with people getting help well after 100K. Subaru - nothing. Keep in mind my Honda affected I was the third owner on - they didn't care.

Specifically I had to fight Subaru America to get a 50% credit on a gas line problem that was known to affect states that got very cold. They opted not to cover my state for whatever reason and I called BS. In other states it was a free service. Well I valued the help, I'd never of had this problem with Toyota or Honda.

So I've had to opt to fix this motor and keep the car. Which I will drive into the ground. It will be my last Subaru. My opinion on the matter is fact based not opinion based. Thanks for playing

I am well aware of the documented carnage that is spewed all over this site as well as Nasioc.

Not gonna really argue here just think the 2.5l semi closed deck ej is a pretty solid design. The option to go with the cheaper cast pistons and rings are the true down fall of the ej25 motors that and poor avcs tuning.

Small displacement engines that make more than 100hp/L are rarely ones you can expect to be 100% reliable. Especially engines put in cars that people drive hard. Don't get me wrong, they do exist, but I bet some digging would unveil some skeletons in some closets.

Subaru COULD build and tune a perfectly reliable high output engine, but then you'd have to pay for it. An STI is already $37k, would you really class it against $47k alternates if it came bulletproof? I sure as heck wouldn't.

Subaru isn't perfect, and I would never put a Turbo Subaru at the top of any reliability list, but they certainly aren't terrible either.

A decent all-season is an oxymoron

If you're going for grip/handling, and you're considering suspension mods, all-season tires would be a poor choice. Save up a bit more and find a deal on a some used wheels, and then find proper summer tires for what a "decent" set of all seasons would cost. Then throw winter tires on your current wheels when the time comes. More grip in all seasons

A decent all-season is an oxymoron

I kinda figured that was so. Once I hit submit, I questioned my statement. Probably gonna search out some stealies for winter tires. Where I am in Connecticut we get a good snow maybe 3 or 4 times. Definitely doing some more research on the tires. Saving for them as I search.

Small displacement engines that make more than 100hp/L are rarely ones you can expect to be 100% reliable. Especially engines put in cars that people drive hard. Don't get me wrong, they do exist, but I bet some digging would unveil some skeletons in some closets.

 

Subaru COULD build and tune a perfectly reliable high output engine, but then you'd have to pay for it. An STI is already $37k, would you really class it against $47k alternates if it came bulletproof? I sure as heck wouldn't.

 

Subaru isn't perfect, and I would never put a Turbo Subaru at the top of any reliability list, but they certainly aren't terrible either.

I track a high HP/L car. 109K and it's been regularly flogged. Driven a lot harder then you can on the streets. Nothing but oil changes - it's not boosted but will take a lot of power on stock internals. It shows no signs of wear and drives/revs like the day it was new.

It produces about 220-240psi of compression and revs past 8K. Lots of load on fast moving parts.

It's got weak pistons and the early turbos are shit. Yes, it's extremely inefficient, but not really "terrible".

 

The massive failure rate is mostly due to the early turbo issues. Yes, Subaru dropped the ball and fcked up. This isn't new news.

 

No evidence doesn't mean it wasn't flogged. But the flogging isn't the issue, the maintenance is. With a leak prone engine, running low on oil is a common problem. This should be common knowledge at this point...

 

Similar problems in the STI motor were mostly due to flawed stock tuning. That's a model/year specific problem. The early LGT's had similar tuning problems. This is why people say a stage 1 tune is safer than the stock. There is usually considerably less knock on a stg 1 tune than on the stock one.

 

The 5th gear WOT problem? You mean the 5eat problem that happens when you WOT shift from 4th to 5th regularly? For some reason that is most common on stage 2 and up cars. Anyone who adds that much low end torque without paying attention to the transmission is an idiot for not expecting transmission issues. Can't blame Subaru for that.

 

Your opinion is based on internet "facts", which are extremely disproportionate to real "facts".

 

It has problems and Subaru has handled them poorly. But it's no different than how other manufacturers have handled similar situations. If you think Subaru is the devil and other auto makers are perfect, that's dumb. You bought a car that has known issues. Who's to blame?

Until recently I had a family member working for a Subaru dealership since the mid-90's. I've ran my findings by their service department before coming to any conclusions. They generally tell customers at the service department 'We've not seen that before' when in fact they've seen turbo failures. It's all brand management and to make it easier for the customer to swallow paying for a new turbo when Subaru should have replaced it for free. Or pick your regular problem, the turbo was just an example. Heck my local dealership doesn't even follow the Subaru North America service schedule - they just make shit up. So I'm not sure your facts are any better then mine, unless you're speaking directly from SNA themselves. Would love an official defect rate report along with the percentage of declined warranties during the warranty period.

This isn't new news, but it's clearly news to the OP. God man don't get your panties in a knot. Everyone is jumping on me for telling a new guy to put some money aside for a pending motor failure. Eff me, thats good advice. Go take a xanax.

Flawed stock tune. Do you hear yourself? You're telling me performance cars brought to market by Subaru have bad factory tunes? You're also telling me no fix has been released by Subaru. Owners have to go buy warranty voiding tunes to avoid having motor failure? This is complete BS and you know it.

Try holding WOT in 5th - reported cases of the gear failing - 5EAT and 5spd.

I don't think Subaru is the devil. I think for a company that claims a lot of efficient design features and engineering they are failing to live up to their claims. Subaru North America knows how I feel. I still own one of their cars because fixing it is the wise thing to do. It will be my last Subaru until they prove they've fixed their reliability problems.

I kinda figured that was so. Once I hit submit, I questioned my statement. Probably gonna search out some stealies for winter tires. Where I am in Connecticut we get a good snow maybe 3 or 4 times. Definitely doing some more research on the tires. Saving for them as I search.

Look into the Conti DWS tires. The compound is pretty good but the sidewalls are soft and there have been reports of failing. Buy from a place you can easily warranty them from.

They will be my next A/S tire on this car.