Newbie DD Questions

[wrx4mom]

Hi every body, what a great forum
I just picked up my 2008 WXR last week, gun matal grey and of course I painted my nails to match. I knew I would own this car after we left the parking lot, I barley touched the gas and went "This is so fun to drive" ....yeah the saleman knew he sold it right then.
I come from years of driving a full size truck so please excuse any ignorance as I do not know these cars yet, but plan to have fun finding out more.
My car has a lot of road noise, is this normal? Is there anything I can do about it? Or is this just the price I pay for driving a kick a** vehicle?
Per the owners manual it's not recomended to put a child safety seat in the middle spot. Per the child safety seat instructions the safest place is in the middle. I have only one child, this option would not apply to multiple children. I do not understand why I cannot put her in the middle using one anchor from each of the side seats, I have tried this and the seat feels just as secure there as it does to one side.
Any help being pointed in the right direction is greatly appriciated, thank you in advance.

[wrxtreme06]

My car has a lot of road noise, is this normal?

welcome to driving a subaru i dont know about everyone elses but mine is DEFINITELY noisy. i've just learned to deal with it over time though.

as far as the baby seat- i'm not sure. there are a lot of parents on here so i'm sure they'll be able to chime in.

congrats on the new car & welcome!

[CJ05]

If you think the 08's have bad road noise, you should ride in the earlier WRX's and STi's. If you want to quiet things up a bit then you can use sound deadening material and line the inside of your doors and the floors with it. It'll quiet things down but add some weight. Personally i don't think the road noise in the 08's is all that bad.

Congrats on the buy!

[Entreri22]

Drove mine home over 1000 km's and road noise was minimal, but I got the dealer to undercoat the car.

Now just looking at getting a new exhaust to make a different kind of noise.

[Sasquatch]

Greetings and welcome to the Club!

There is not much in the way of sound deadening material the the WRX. One reason is Subaru has tried to keep the weight down as much as possible. A more practical (the real?) reason is it costs more money to add.

Add a louder exhaust to counter it. Worked for me ...

[wrx4mom]

Thanks for all the help, and for being so welcoming and nice
The truck I just sold had Flow Masters on it and created a ton of pipe noise in the cab, so I'll be skipping modified pipes for now. Sounds like I should just get a better stereo system to drown out the road noise
I will check some of the other threads for the car seat issue.
Road noise and baby seat issues included, even just stock this is a fun car!

[DUB]

LOL @ the fact that everyone so far has offered a comment about the road noise but no help on the child seat.
Sorry, OP, child seats are not a frequently discussed mod around here. If it were me, I would call the manufacturer of the seat and tell them that their instructions contradict Subaru's instructions and see what they say.

Oh, and welcome.

[LI_Will]

Put her on the side- the middle hump in the wrx back seat, although minimal doesn't allow the seat to sit flat. i have 2 kids and sitting on the right or left is perfectly safe

also as for road noise...not sure what kind of truck you were driving but there's no way the wrx is louder then a truck- unless you have an upgraded exhaust?

[Chibi WRX]

Hi Welcome to the club,
Also congrats on the WRX!
I see in you have a Rottweiler. I love them they are gentle giants. My first dog was a Rottie!

For the childseat,I agree the sit should not be in the middle. You should have it on one of the back sits. I don't have any kids but I have notice my backseats have a small image on them that has a childseat logo so I am pretty sure that's the safest place for them.

[wrx4mom]

You guys rock!
The truck was a 97 Chevy silverado and weird I know, but my Subie does have more road noise, even before I piped the truck.
My Rottie is a 3 year old female and the biggest sweetie/baby you'd ever love to meet. She'll give you the combination to the safe for a butt scratch.
I think I got the info I need on the noise and the car seat. My main concern with wanting her in the middle is living in Montana large trucks are the majority, lots of which have giant steel bumpers that are right about window level of this car. If she were in the middle she'd be farther away from a direct hit. Yes I am a worry wart.

Not to hijack my own thread, but mama needs some wheels.
I am noticing with this type of car the majority of what I find is more spokes and you can see a lot of the brake, hate that. Is there anything "fuller" out there? Looking for gun metal or polished aluminum.
Also I'll add more info to my profile to better introduce myself

[LI_Will]

something like this?

[wrxtreme06]

here are a few that are a little less spokey than most wheels for our cars.


17x7.5 Rota Grid - Gunmetal (5x100/E48/56.1) Wheeldude.com - Professional wheel dealer. #1 Rota Dealer.


17x8 Rota Slipstream - Flat Black(5x100/e48/56.1) Wheeldude.com - Professional wheel dealer. #1 Rota Dealer.


Enkei Performance EV5 Hyper Black w/Machined Lip

[wrx4mom]

What do you all know about ICW Racing? Iam in love with these but nearest dealer to me is 600 miles away so if I ever have an issue, it'll be a road triptype issue.
17 Inch Gunmetal Wheel ICW Osaka 4x100 4x4.5 Scion rims:eBay Motors (item 110416402340 end time Aug-20-09 14:01:07 PDT)

[wrxtreme06]

those wont fit because the bolt pattern is not correct & they're for a scion. you have to make sure whatever you're looking at is 5x100

[wrx4mom]

My fault, I neglected to mention that I have already contacted the seller he does have them in my size just not pictured.
What do you know about ICW Racing brand quality?