Welcome to the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club Thursday March 28, 2024
Home Forums Images WikiNASIOC Products Store Modifications Upgrade Garage
NASIOC
Go Back   NASIOC > NASIOC Reviews > Car Part Reviews

Welcome to NASIOC - The world's largest online community for Subaru enthusiasts!
Welcome to the NASIOC.com Subaru forum.

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, free of charge, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.







* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads. 
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-07-2020, 11:45 AM   #1
MortonCharbo
Scooby Newbie
Member Sales Rating: (3)
 
Member#: 487057
Join Date: Jun 2018
Chapter/Region: BAIC
Location: California
Vehicle:
2002 WRX Wagon
PSM

Default I put my shaft in a tranny and I liked it.

Product: PST carbon fiber one piece driveshaft
Vehicle: 2002 wrx with 5mt and r160, lwfw, lwcp, Exedy stage 1 heavy duty organic clutch, 16g-xt

tl;dr: go buy one now!

First off, let me say wow! Installation was a breeze. I've replaced my driveshaft twice over the last two years with used oem pieces of garbage. Yeah, sometimes I'm a slow learner. Both times provided improvement, but I never really felt satisfied afterwards. Before I go too far in to things, let me say I highly recommend this driveshaft.

First things first. This thing is gorgeous. It's an absolute work of art. Here are some pictures that attempt to show the beauty. Just keep in mind, I never claimed to be a professional photographer, and I was eager to install it.







Here's a side by side of the two.




The carbon fiber shaft is significantly lighter than the stocker. I could easily pick it up with one hand, while the stock one too a bit more effort to lift. The shaft has a yellow mark on it which I assume had something to do with the balancing procedure. My rear diff also has a yellow mark on the flange so I decided to get them as close to lined up as possible as a starting point. They didn't line up perfectly, but it's pretty close.



You can also barely see in that last picture where I cut a small notch out of the t-brace just above the shaft. The clearance was just a little too tight for my liking. I also had to leave the protector off that bolts to it. It wasn't even close to fitting back on there. Everything else was pretty straightforward. The included hardware worked perfectly.

Anyways, on to the actual review. The first thing I noticed was starting from a stop. The car used to buck a little bit and almost seemed to delay before actually taking off. There were a few distinct clunks. With the new shaft, no more! No clunks, and it takes off so smoothly. Shifting between 1 through 4 used to be somewhat rough and jerky. Say what you want about driver skill. I'll come back to that later. Now I can barely feel the shifts. At first I genuinely wondered if I had somehow just shifted in to neutral but the car kept accelerating.

Letting off the throttle, and getting back on it, is massively improved as well. There's barely any perceptible noise or movement from the drivetrain, other than the change in acceleration. There was however a very noticable, and to be expected, decrease in engine braking. I can live with that.

In stop and go traffic, this thing makes a huge difference. I imagine the two piece was flopping around quite a bit. Doing the pedal dance is so much less unpleasant now. There's virtually no jerkiness anymore.

On the topic of vibrations, yes there is a minimal amount that I observed. If I maintain 30-35mph, I get a slight wub wub. It's hardly noticable even if you're listening/feeling for it. I've taken it up to 135mph maintaining speed at 5mph increments and noticed no other vibration or noises. Disclaimer: not done on public streets.

Back to driver skill which I mentioned earlier. While it's possible this helps in areas I or anyone else may be lacking in, there's also areas where it may exaggerate things. I've found that downshifting requires a little more precision. The stock shaft probably absorbs the shock from improper rev matching a little better. This shaft has gotten me to concentrate on that and hone my skills a bit so that could be viewed as a benefit. Other than that, I've not noticed any negative side effects.

Well, I think I've typed enough on this. If you actually read all of this, I applaud you. If I convince one person to get a one piece driveshaft, it'll make it worth it. This is a highly overlooked mod. Sure it doesn't add 25hp, but it makes the car so much more fun and enjoyable to drive. I can't recommend it enough. That's what it's all about. Go buy one now, and install it asap!
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

Last edited by MortonCharbo; 03-07-2020 at 12:04 PM.
MortonCharbo is offline   Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.
Old 04-16-2020, 04:50 AM   #2
NicMonte
Scooby Newbie
Member Sales Rating: (1)
 
Member#: 479655
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Omaha, Ne
Vehicle:
2020 Impreza wrx
CWP

Default

I am seriously considering this on my 02 wagon... the 1k tag is what I’m going to have to contemplate when I do decide to upgrade.
NicMonte is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-26-2020, 03:57 AM   #3
MortonCharbo
Scooby Newbie
Member Sales Rating: (3)
 
Member#: 487057
Join Date: Jun 2018
Chapter/Region: BAIC
Location: California
Vehicle:
2002 WRX Wagon
PSM

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by NicMonte View Post
I am seriously considering this on my 02 wagon... the 1k tag is what I’m going to have to contemplate when I do decide to upgrade.
Let me just say, do it. The aluminum version might be just fine too at about a third the cost, but I dunno. I originally ordered the aluminum but was told there was a wait of several weeks. Patience, or lack thereof, got the better of me. I'm not the least bit disappointed, and have zero regrets.
MortonCharbo is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:40 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Copyright ©1999 - 2019, North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club, Inc.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission
Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.