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10-18-2020, 07:46 PM | #1 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 518518
Join Date: Sep 2020
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle:2005 Impreza WRX STI Silver |
Newb - DIY Verus Mechanic for Mid-Life
Hope I'm posting this in the right place. My son and I just bought a silver 2005 STi. It's a single owner beauty. Totally stock with 90k miles. We're trying to do almost everything on Unabomber's mid-life preventative maintenance list and and the quote came back a little more than we were hoping to spend. A couple things were not on the list or were unique to the car's current condition. I'm looking for advice on what people think we might be able to do ourselves without too much difficulty. Only a few items to knock 10-15% off the quote. My son is 25 and we have almost no mechanical background but we are fine with spending a few hundred bucks on tools and rolling up our sleeves. We will most likely have the mechanic do everything that will help us avoid an unsuspected blown engine like banjo bolts and anything really difficult. We are thinking maybe we can do the turbo inlet and AOS ourselves but maybe there are better suggestions.
Also, our goal is to keep the car stock other than possibly a TGV delete and AOS. We're not sure the TGV delete is necessary. Compressions were in the high 130-140 psi per cylinder and leak down was 3%,3%,5% except for cylinder number 4 at 134psi/9%. There's also what looks to me like a lot of rust on suspension parts so we might have to do some of that on our own or find another shop as our mechanic is a Subaru under hood specialist. Hoping to own the car forever! Here's the list and again, we appreciate any advice we can get.
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10-18-2020, 07:57 PM | #2 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 516780
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: Georgetown Kentucky
Vehicle:2008 Subaru wrx sti WRB |
1000% yes on aos if you do tgv deletes you should probably tune the car either etune or dyno tune. Valve cover gaskets only if they are leaking.... And yes id definitely do the oil pickup tube.. U can do the O2 sensors but if they are functioning well now youre probably good just cleaning them. Th radiator isnt necessary just do a good coolant system flush
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10-19-2020, 07:35 AM | #3 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 395793
Join Date: Jul 2014
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
Location: SLC and Lake Placid
Vehicle:2005 92x Aero Beige |
There's not a lot I can say you should do yourself if these are all tasks you haven't done before. If you want to get the tools and take your time to do it right, then I'm sure you both are more than capable of learning. These cars are not hard to work on, but being new to working on cars in general means each thing you do will take you 3 times as long to do it your first time.
I would recommend replacing the radiator. The plastic end tanks do eventually break at the seal with the aluminum core. Can be done at the same time you're timing belt is replaced so it won't add extra labor into the job. AOS probably isn't necessary if you're keeping everything stock, but it's not a bad idea. Turbo inlet is a good idea as those tear with age. Silicone can be installed without removing the intake manifold. Hard inlet you would need to re over the manifold. TGV delete will help the turbo spool better, but it will need a tune after as you will be allowing more air in and you will throw a CEL. This is probably your biggest expense (and the timing belt) on your list as there is many hours of labor involved. The inlet should be done at the same time to reduce labor costs. I would take care of that rust ASAP. Especially any in the strut towers. The rear strut towers are prone to rusting completely through. You don't need to replace sensors unless you are getting a CEL for one (or more). |
10-19-2020, 08:12 AM | #4 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 518518
Join Date: Sep 2020
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle:2005 Impreza WRX STI Silver |
Thank you both for the advice. Snowbound, can you tell me what you mean by a hard inlet? Would that be an inlet with wire imbedded to eliminate collapsing? Also, I'm not sure where you are talking about rust being an issue in the strut towers but I can spend some time on this site looking into it. I appreciate the advice!
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10-19-2020, 08:47 AM | #5 | |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 310506
Join Date: Feb 2012
Chapter/Region:
South East
Location: Florida
Vehicle:2005 WRX STi CGM |
Quote:
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10-19-2020, 09:35 AM | #6 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 193940
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Philly
Vehicle:2004 WRX STI Black RalliSpec Shortblock |
#1. Hard inlet means a metal pipe and not a silicon one.
#2. I have never heard of a stock OEM inlet collapsing on itself. They are made out of hard plastic and not silicon #3. The only once that use to collapse were the cheap knock off silicon crap off ebay once. A good brand name silicon one would work too but I recommend hard inlet. Will have to take the intake manifold off to install the hard inlet. https://www.importimageracing.com/pr...SABEgLQYvD_BwE Replace radiator. MISIMOTO is a fine one and upgrader to silicon hoses they are better then OEM. Good brand name ones not ebay crap. Remove the filters in the banjo screens/ banjo bolt filters? 3 of them. YES, remove them ALL. Replace timing belt and water pump. YES I would recommend GATES kit. Replace turbo inlet with OEM diameter replacement. JUST upgrade to a good brand name hard inlet Replace BCS with stock OEM part. IF stock not needed, but they are cheap so why not. Go with COBB or something brand name Replace MAF. NO need unless there is a problem with the stock one. IF you still want to then go with OEM Replace O2 sensors. TWO if im not mistaking but you can delete one with a tune. Replace Valve Cover Gaskets. NOT the end of the world but if you are already there why not., Its not to hard. If you will replace the valve cover gasket, dont forget to replace your half moons. Mechanic is replacing spark plugs, oil, air filter, gear oil. THATS fine, you can do this yourself. Add IAG oil pickup tube. BIG yes, but I would go with Killer B. Needs EVAP cannister to fix fuel filling issue. YOU can try to delete the EVAP system if you like. Passenger side rear wheel bearing is at the beginning stages of going. Might wait or do myself? HOW do you know? what are the signs. Was considering a TGV delete. DON'T need it fot stock but nice to have when upgrading down the road. Check and replace any needed hoses. YES Replace bushings, check CV boots, ball joints, struts. THESE are easy to do yourself. I would recommend Turn In Concept company for your suspension needs. Also I would recommend changing brake fluid, upgrading to SS brake lines, steering rack bushings. Last edited by BlackFighter; 10-19-2020 at 03:16 PM. |
10-19-2020, 10:05 AM | #7 | ||
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 310506
Join Date: Feb 2012
Chapter/Region:
South East
Location: Florida
Vehicle:2005 WRX STi CGM |
Quote:
I wanted to press on this bit though, since it's been identified that the OEM oil pickup tube is notoriously known for cracking. I pulled mine out at 100k and the welds had indeed started breaking apart. Quote:
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10-19-2020, 11:37 AM | #8 | |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 193940
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Philly
Vehicle:2004 WRX STI Black RalliSpec Shortblock |
Quote:
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10-19-2020, 12:31 PM | #9 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 310506
Join Date: Feb 2012
Chapter/Region:
South East
Location: Florida
Vehicle:2005 WRX STi CGM |
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10-19-2020, 11:38 PM | #10 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 518518
Join Date: Sep 2020
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle:2005 Impreza WRX STI Silver |
I appreciate all of the great advice. Gotta start some time so we'll pick a few things to try and get help where we need it. Thanks everyone!
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10-19-2020, 11:50 PM | #11 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 34361
Join Date: Mar 2003
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: MI
Vehicle:04.7 STI WRB IG @got2boostit2 |
So this is Darryl and you can bounce things off me versus the interweb on some of these items. Remember this, some stock STI's have couple hundred thousand miles on them with basic maintenance. It can be done, but mechanical devices break at times as well.
Like I may have mentioned great group of guys/shops/suppliers in this area and very knowledgeable on Subaru. We will get the car in good shape, ok? |
10-20-2020, 08:27 AM | #12 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 518518
Join Date: Sep 2020
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle:2005 Impreza WRX STI Silver |
Thanks Darryl. I agree there's a great group of guys in this area. It was nice to see an active club last weekend and everyone seemed interested in helping each other. Dan's car is supposed to be done before the end of this week with the thing's we're having done by Matt but we're not getting our hopes up. Can't wait to bring the car to a meetup so we're hoping this weekend isn't the last one of the year.
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10-22-2020, 09:48 PM | #13 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 519102
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Jenks, OK
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My son and I are in a similar situation except I'm fairly mechanically inclined. He has an 05 Outback XT in which a timing idler seized up. So we had an engine that was fairly certain to be damaged. We went ahead and changed the timing belt to see if we got lucky. It actually wasn't that hard after studying several youtube videos. It turned out that we got the engine started but it sounded terrible with only 50% power. We couldn't do a compression test or leak down test because in an Outback, it a bear to get to the spark plugs.
So now we know we have probably at least damaged valves. He really wants to keep this car, so we took out the engine. Again, we've never done it but with enough videos we got it out. I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to get it back in. Then once the engine was out, we did a leak down test. Again we've never done one, but we could hear air coming out of the intake from cylinder 1. All the other cylinders were good. We had to take the intake off. I never found any good videos on this but it would have been nice to know to take the intake off from the TGVs. Finally got the heads off and will send to the shop next week. We only broke one thing. The passenger side cam sprocket. Not too bad. The only way we could do this is that we have an extra car he can use while we work on this one. Good luck to you. I think you can do more than you think. It's nice to do this with my son, since we don't have too much in common. |
10-23-2020, 03:44 PM | #14 | |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 34361
Join Date: Mar 2003
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: MI
Vehicle:04.7 STI WRB IG @got2boostit2 |
Quote:
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10-23-2020, 03:51 PM | #15 | |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 34361
Join Date: Mar 2003
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: MI
Vehicle:04.7 STI WRB IG @got2boostit2 |
Quote:
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10-24-2020, 07:50 PM | #16 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 518518
Join Date: Sep 2020
Chapter/Region:
MWSOC
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle:2005 Impreza WRX STI Silver |
Just went to see the STi at Flat Four and unfortunately it's not going to be done tomorrow. No hell run with the MiSubie crowd tomorrow. We'll have to catch everyone at the next one.
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