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Steemax's 2016 WRX Premium Journal!

143K views 686 replies 54 participants last post by  bue car 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone. First off I am new to Subaru's. I'm 25 and have only had two cars, both being VW's.
My first car was a 2008 Jetta SE, and my 2nd being a 2011 VW GTI that I modified extensively (my definition of extensive may differ from yours :tongue: )

Anyway the story goes: My GTI had been in service countless times. The most annoying being for the water pump which is on it's 4th pump at the moment. (keep in mind the car sits at 52k miles now so the pump has been going out about every 10k miles.) This is a common issue for the TSI motor and it is a design flaw. The housing is made of plastic and has many weak points where the plastic is really thin. Over time with constant heat and cool air the plastic forms a crack causing failure.

Anyway fast forward. About a month ago I was going to take a trip to Palm Springs from Los Angeles. Literally the day before my pump spews out its guts on my driveway. I was furious considering this could have happened in the middle of the desert in 110F heat.

So I emailed VWoA. Never heard back. So i tracked down the CEO's email and emailed him. Literally the next day 8am I get a phone call from his secretary offering me $400.00. Needless to say after about a few weeks of going back and forth I finally got them to buy the car back as a lemon.

TLDR:
1. Car has 52k miles and is on 4th water pump.
2. Contacted VWoA and argued for a few weeks.
3. Finally they bought the car back as a lemon.

GTI MODS: My GTI had a FrankenTurbo F23T turbo swap. Custom dyno tune done by AUtuning running 50/50 water meth injection post TB, full mounts etc... it had even been bagged at one point.

Here are some pictures:







Anyway, so at this moment my check from VWoA is en route to my dealer ship. Once it arrives I'll be dropping off the car and saying my final good byes.
Now for the fun part!!! My dealership found the exact car I'm looking for. It wasn't on the lot but it is en route. So I put down a deposit on the car and it should be arriving next Friday!

It is a Lapis Blue Pearl WRX Premium with Navi/Harmon Kardon.
It also has the following optional accessories:

041(041) STI SHORT THROW SHIFTER (WRX)
04B(04B) Cargo Net- Trunk Rear
BCA(BCA) All Weather Floor Mats
J8B(J8B) STI SHIFT KNOB 6MT BLACK DURACON
KCD(KCD) Auto Dimming Mirror W/ Compass & HL

UPDATE: 11/3/16
Actual Parts list:


Engine:
COBB AP V3
Schaeffer's 9000, 5w30
X-Force Catted J-Pipe
Invidia Q300 Cat-Back
Grimmspeed 3-Port EBCS
Mishimoto Cold Air Intake /w Box
Torque Solutions Pulley Cover
TurboXS Top Mount Intercooler
91 oct ProTune by Yimi Sport Tuning (303whp/325wtq)

Drivetrain:
Perrin Shift Stop
Kartboy Shift Bearing/Bushing
Subaru STI Group N Transmission Mount

Interior:
Escort Passport Max /w Blendmount and Mirror Tap
Viofo A119 Dash Cam (hardwired)
TWM Performance M1 Abrams Shift Knob | Stainless Steel
Subaru JDM Dual Console Armrest Extension
Subispeed JB Style Steering wheel

Exterior:
Bayson R Front Lip
License Plate Vision+ Full LED housing
Avid-1 AV-20 18x9.5 et38 Wheels
OLM RĂśF Spoiler Version 1 Color Matched
OLM Headlight Low Beam 35W all in one HID kit 6000K
OLM LED Headlight Boomerang Bulbs
SubiSpeed USDM TR Style Tail Lights
SubiSpeed S4 Style LED Fog Light Bezels (Ordered)
LED Import USA 6000k LED Fog Lights
Hella Horns with Grimmspeed Bracket & Harness

Suspension/Chassis:
Cusco Front Strut Tower Brace
Cusco Rear Strut Tower Brace
Cusco Brake Cylinder Brace
SPC Adjustable Lower Control Arms
Tein Flex Z Coil-Overs
Kartboy Front & Rear End-links
Eibach Front & Rear Sway-Bars
 
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4
#7 ·
Thank you! I do have more confidence in the WRX.
The GTI always felt like a ticking time bomb. I wish I could have said it was because of my mods but those issues are equally present in the stock cars as well.

The new ones have gone through multiple turbo revisions already since they were blowing left and right.
 
#10 ·
Thanks man! :thumbup:

Welcome and congrats on the purchase! Funny story (particularly for you): Last week my wife and I took our Kia Sportage into the dealership for a recall notice. The local dealership primarily services VWs, but they also service Hyundai and Kia. We brought the Kia to the service entrance (all VW mind you) and the door opened to this GORGEOUS service garage. My wife turns to me and says "wow, this is really very nice! I've never seen a service center so complete and well planned!" I say to her: "well of course! This is a VW service center, so they've had a LOT of practice!" Cheers.



You should absolutely consider the order since many of these parts are predicated on the previous installation of other parts on this list.
Haha they are all like that! My local dealership said they repair more water pumps on the MK6 GTI's then they do oil changes. Quite ridiculous and I got fed up with it.

On another note, I think I see what you're saying about the order of the parts. Some of them require tuning again after installation so they should be bunched up together. I'll try to revise them because I'm having doubts on some of the parts anyway.
 
#9 ·
Welcome and congrats on the purchase! Funny story (particularly for you): Last week my wife and I took our Kia Sportage into the dealership for a recall notice. The local dealership primarily services VWs, but they also service Hyundai and Kia. We brought the Kia to the service entrance (all VW mind you) and the door opened to this GORGEOUS service garage. My wife turns to me and says "wow, this is really very nice! I've never seen a service center so complete and well planned!" I say to her: "well of course! This is a VW service center, so they've had a LOT of practice!" Cheers.

Future Plans for the WRX:
(In no particular order)

1. Invidia Catted Turbo Back exhaust.
2. Cobb AP v3
3. Bren Stage 2 E-tune.
4. Rally Armor Mud flaps.
5. AVO Intercooler.
6. Racecomp Yellow Springs.
7. Whiteline RSB.
8. Cusco Rear Cross strut.
9. Cusco Front strut brace.
10. Wheels 18x9.5 et 45 with 265x40x18 tires. **** unsure of what wheels and tires as of now ****

That is all for now until I pickup my WRX!!!
You should absolutely consider the order since many of these parts are predicated on the previous installation of other parts on this list.
 
#13 ·
Thanks man! Feels good to be here!

I'm waiting on my lapis blue wrx still! I've only seen one in socal this whole time so soon we'll all know each other
Actually now that you mention it, the only WRX's in the wild have either been WRB or DGM
 
#16 ·
Thought I'd start off with some small mods while I break in the car and seeing as how I despise the premium trim dull head lights that practically don't do anything, I went with some lighting modifications. Just placed the order from Subispeed:

License Plate Vision+ Full LED housing
OLM Headlight Low Beam 35W all in one HID kit 6000K
OLM LED Headlight Boomerang Bulbs
OLM HP Gen 2 Passive Cooling LED Fog light bulbs 6000K

I was going to do the DRL's but after reading some reviews they seem to be way to bright in it's reflective housing and I don't want to be THAT guy blinding everyone.

Install pics to come!
 
#24 ·
Not WRX related but said my final goodbyes to the GTI. My drop off date came. Parked the car went inside and found the finance manager. He had me sign a couple spots and handed me the check and said I'm good to go. Didn't even look at the car or verify if I even dropped it off. Found that odd lol. For all he knew I left a mangled car in his parking spot and left with a check and a signed copy of a release of liability.

Anyway, I'm told these lemon buy back's go straight to the auction.




Sent from my BendGate Plus.
 
#25 ·
I love that blendmount! I just looked up their site, I can't believe I haven't found this before. How do you like it under the mirror? I haven't placed mine there in years. I generally keep mine pinned to the dash. I'm still reluctant though as I have an older Escort, the 8500 series to be exact.
 
#26 ·
I love it! I had it on my GTI for many years as well so I didn't hesitate to purchase one for the WRX. This time around I don't have the separate Escort controls since I used the mirror tap and don't have the inline controller but I got used to pressing the mute button on the detector itself now. (GPS auto-mute also helps a ton here).

Otherwise it is a quality product and looks very seamless when installed. It really blends in with the entire mirror assembly.
 
#29 ·
So my bumper plugs and lighting came in today



Really loving this all in one HID kit. No need to make a mess with extra wires and ballasts





For some reason the HID's came out light blue. They actually match with all the other LED's spot on in person.


Sent from my BendGate Plus.
 
#30 ·
So my bumper plugs and lighting came in today


Really loving this all in one HID kit. No need to make a mess with extra wires and ballasts

For some reason the HID's came out light blue. They actually match with all the other LED's spot on in person.


Sent from my BendGate Plus.
I like it, how much better is it at night?
 
#32 · (Edited)
Well I just placed my order for my Cobb AP v3. Couldn't hold off much longer.

I'm not sure if anyone is following the thread by MAPerformance on NASIOC about their new flash and go software.

They are including a free OTS tune made by them with every AP purchase. So it comes out to $640 shipped with software. It seems promising and I'll definitely do some logs and post them up here once I have everything in hand and pass the 1k mile mark on the Rex.

According to their dyno (done on a dynojet) numbers the results are as follows:
Stock Max Power: 222.00, Max Torque: 265.38
Cobb Stage 1 Max Power: 247.55 Max Torque: 264.83
MAP OTS Tune Max Power: 281.44 Max Torque: 318.13

According to those that have it thus far, the logs are looking very promising.
 
#33 ·
thats very interesting, wonder how far on the aggressive scale it is, will be really curious to see how your logs are. Just got my AP v3 today, still on the fence with installing it so soon (warranty)
 
#34 ·
So my Cobb AP came in the other day. First I installed the OTS Cobb stage 1 tune. I really did not see any power increase, just better drive ability.

Now MAPerfromance did not have a 91 tune ready yet so they sent me their 92 oct tune file until the 91 is available since I do have an Arco near me with 92. Despite this i still flashed the car with just Arco 91 in it and am pleasantly surprised.

First off it has much more power present then the Cobb OTS tune.

Second it was around 94F out when i did some logs. Did some 3rd gear pulls and my DAM stayed at 1, feedback knock stayed 0, fine knock also stayed 0 and boost peak recorded by the stock gauge was 21.3

I'll keep logging throughout the week but so far this has been great.




Sent from my BendGate Plus.
 
#35 ·
Glad to hear it! I have been following their progress since they first got their WRX. I'm personally just waiting for them to get the TGV tune created then I'll be ordering one as well. I would get this in the mean time but I already have the TGV deletes sitting in my office lol.
 
#37 ·
I may actually jump on that once they release it! I just havent done much research as to what the gains are with a TGV delete. Is it a difference you'd feel on the butt dyno?

That's good to hear! I ordered the 93 map yesterday, so I'm like a kid at Christmas watching my inbox, form the several people that have it on Nasoic all have been good but 1 guy is seeing alot of knock, MAPerformance has been awesome helping him get it corrected. For what you get and the $ it's a no brainer! Will look forward to hearing your feedback more!
I did see that guy getting a lot of knock and I'm not exactly sure the reason. Perhaps he just has bad gas in his area? You should be getting it soon! I PM'd Ian on Nasoic and he got back to me in 24hrs with the file map.

ALSO!

My shift knob just came in. Big thanks to the guys @twmperformance
(they are pretty involved in the GTI world, that's how I knew of them).

This thing is crazy! Feels like a 5lb dumbbell. There was no way you can shift with the stock knob without gripping it with a full palm or at least 3 fingers as it was just full plastic. I can now nudge the shifter with one finger and it just slides into each gear. Not to mention it sits a good inch lower than the OEM.

I was skeptical about the cost but it all makes sense now and it's worth every penny. Money well spent!

Time for pics!

 
#36 ·
That's good to hear! I ordered the 93 map yesterday, so I'm like a kid at Christmas watching my inbox, form the several people that have it on Nasoic all have been good but 1 guy is seeing alot of knock, MAPerformance has been awesome helping him get it corrected. For what you get and the $ it's a no brainer! Will look forward to hearing your feedback more!
 
#38 ·
Couple things are in store for the next couple weeks. I really didn't expect to jump to stage 2 so quick but I stumbled upon the below exhaust setup.

Placed order for X-force catted Turbo Back exhaust. This should be interesting as I couldn't find a single thread on it. It seems to be a brand new offering and the price was scary cheap. Thought I'd be the guinea pig here. (It's on RallySportDirect)

Also ordered some vacuum line for the pill delete.
Once I have everything in possession, I'll be ordering an E-Tune from Bren.
 
#40 ·
Nice! I'm going the intake route as well when I go Stage 2 next month. I'm actually considering that X force TBE as well.... can't argue with that price so let me know how it goes! I was looking into the Mishimoto intake but I think I'm going to splurge on the ETS intake instead. I haven't had the best of luck with Mishimoto in the past.

:thumbup:
 
#41 ·
For the price of that exhaust, it can't hurt to try it. If you hate it, you can easily recoup some of your money selling it to someone else.

Gotta second sturdinox on the quality of MishiMoto. I'm a big fan of ETS, can't beat hand made, in the US, Vs. Mass Produced Mishimoto..... I actually just ordered the ETS Catback.
 
#48 ·
Mishimoto intake came in today. Install was a tad more difficult then on the GTI. Given I did the whole install from the top lol.

Installed the intake and loaded the Cobb stage 1 + Mishimoto intake map temporarily until the exhaust is installed. The intake has a nice stealth look which is what I was going for.








Sent from my BendGate Plus.


Sent from my BendGate Plus.
 
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