walshmaine

Just had the rocker covers done a couple of weeks back. Still smoking. It's white from the exhaust. Only noticeable in stop/start traffic. Not using any water or oil. Fuel economy isn't the best (I figured STI's have terrible fuel economy anyway). Wideband is my next thing then likely another tuner. Only got a dyno print out the first time I took it there, not for the 3 times after, but was told is was re-dyno'd, so taking their word for it. I haven't had a compression test (since first tune), but will look at getting another one thanks

I have kinda heard of that Tauranga tuner before, but never looked into them, but good call thanks. I think a wideband is a good idea and is next on cards

The tune stuff I can understand as I figured it'll take a couple of goes to get it right. Four goes in, I guess thats how it is. As for the car smoking, I don't know if it is related to the tune, that was my concern. They didn't seem to think anything of it (didn't notice, or car ran fine within tuning?), but it still does it. I usually deal with a different shop for mechanical stuff (I prefer to stick to 1 shop), and its been in there but nothing major found, so still a mystery to me. I am interested to try a different tuner to see if its running too rich or something, not for more "power" or something like that. I'm not trying to "have a go" at PBMS, just sharing my experience. The car runs nicely aside from what I mentioned. I don't think they would have done anything intentionally, its just the lack of interest and explanation I suppose. As for my attitude? Isn't any or none intended. As I sad, I have always found Julius and other PBMS staff to be friendly. Just my experience.

I went to TP initially with my v9 STI. Got talking to a young guy who didn't seem to know too much about Subaru's, so guessing their subie tunner wasn't in, no big deal. Conversation went south when he started hassling the look of my car, pretty unprofessional. Went to PBMS for ECU re-map. The team were very helpful...initially, but. Car has been back 4 times (I think, lost count) for retuning, which I can sorted understand but the more times I went back the less they cared to address my problems. For example, after 2nd tune the car was pretty in drivable (1st tune car was over boosting). Was told there was a fault in their tunning software, I wasn't told of this until I called them. 3rd time back I mentioned car is smoking in stand-still AK traffic, upon pick up of car, nothing had been done or looked at in regards to this, didn't seem interested. Last tune, on pick up car wasn't even running properly, was told ECU had to re-learn fuel map (or something like that) so after waiting around for them, car was working eventually. Still no interest in smoking car and couldn't tell me what power output, best answer I got was 220kw, 210kw, 200kw, so who knows what power I'm now making. Can only assume no interest in my car, just get rid of me was the feeling I got. I hate to poo poo on people as The @PBMS team are very friendly (the guy at TP was just a dick, no reflection of the company), but this has been my experience, started out good but went down hill real quick and no fault of my own or my car. I am interested in other people's recommendations for tunning as I'm not having a particularly good run.

no worries, I appreciate your efforts. Beyond me looking under the car and comparing it stuff on line, it really does look like I could just bolt something on, but I think I'll pop into a couple of shops this weekend and get a second opinion.

sorry, I'm in Auckland, Avondale

thanks for the info I've been doing some more ringing around and google'ing. I don't think Redline Performance is going to be able to help me (due to young guy I was talking to there). He told me to check eBay. I read some where on these forums about Al's mufflers, they seem to do custom work but I'm not sure about that yet. A cousin mentioned Scarles Performance, though I don't see any mention of brands there. Anyone dealt with them? Also, I though about going into Pitstop, but (once again) spoke to some young guy who didn't fill me with confidence (sounded a bit retarded/not interested), but has anyone dealt with them too? Are brands important? I realize if its cheap, then you get what you pay for, but would something around $700-$800 be considered cheap? I don't particularly want to spend 2K or more on it as the missis would kill me

Thanks for the reply Yea, I thought it was strange that I couldn't fit an aftermarket exhaust? My subie mechanic didn't seem think there'd be an issue, but when shopping around other places... things got confusing. My reason for the upgrade is that I'm hoping for a performance increase from her. I've read around on these forums regarding the equal/unequal headers and the "rumble", but I'm not too fussed. To be honest, I've never heard an RS30 (or any 6 cylinder subie) with an exhaust system, so I'm quite curious. Does anyone have any recommendations in brands? I've read of Greedy, Borla, Rage & HKS, but for my car, I'd probably be only able to fine something second hand…any thoughts

hi all I've been trying to shop around for an exhaust system for my RS30 (2002 model), but I'm getting mixed messages. Some placed I've talked to say you can't put an exhaust system on them, some say you can? Anyone have an idea whether I can or can't As for what I'm trying to do, I was looking at a 3" exhaust system, basically to join onto where the extractors merge into one under the car (sorry if terms are wrong) any help is much appreciated