IZichard

I've never seen it around central before I'll ask my friend in Dunedin if they know the owner. Looks pretty tidy but needing replacement headgaskets, clutch and gearbox all before 200k makes me wonder how it has been driven. Edit: They both said they had only seen it parked, it looked real tidy but thought the doors had been repainted with a not quite perfect paint match. Take that for what it's worth, sorry not super helpful.

There is a link in this thread to one for a v7 sti, it may be similar but there is likely a lot of differences so take it with a grain of salt. Edit: I had a look through it, it appears there is a wiring diagram for the inhibitor switch operation in there so it should be able to help you solve your problem. As always try to verify that this information is identical with what is on your car before you start grounding random wires.

You most likely won't get a DTC for a misfire with your car. Would probably pay to check all the plugs since people neglect them on Subarus.

If the engine mounts are all ok... are you sure it isn't just missfiring?

Installed a Lamco gauge pod in my gc8, got the oil pressure and voltage all working but I still need to give the oil temp sensor some tlc before it can go in. Looks good and matches the cluster

Maybe it isn't relevant to your car. Sorry I do not know too much about the newer cars, I just saw the post and rev hang crossed my mind as I have read about it before. I thought it could potentially be of use to you.

I only said slightly higher. The longer interval service items on the golf tend to be a little more expensive. Also to replace wear items like suspension bushes tends to be more expensive for the parts and more time consuming to replace. Yeah for sure, it is a really nice refined car when it is early in its life. Once the age and kms start climbing the chance of expensive unique problems do too.

Yeah I quite like the dsg in the gti. There is a little bit of weirdness on the initial take off as the clutch slip point tends to respond slightly differently depending on you throttle pedal position, it takes a little while for me to get it to be smooth. It is well worth the minor drawback on take off for a much better driving experience over a crappy torque converter. @lunchie I really like the 04-07 manual wrx wagon but for what you said you want to use it for I would probably take the dsg gti. The gti gets excellent fuel economy for how fast it is, the dsg gearbox is actually fun to drive and it is a much nicer place to be on a long drive or daily commute than any Subaru I've ever been in. The only thing I don't like about the gti is that it is fwd and it isn't much good for driving around in winter where I live. The service costs of the gti will be slightly higher than the Subaru but if it is lower kms and has been looked after they are certainly not unreasonable. If you like to work on your own car go for the wrx wagon as everything is so much easier to do. One minor drawback is the gti takes a wee while to get to operating temperature so not the best if you do mostly short trips. I would comfortably own a Subaru with 200kms on it but I wouldn't say the same for a golf. Make sure you get a lower kms car with good service history if you go down the gti route. Source: One of my parents has a mk5 gti which I have serviced for ~40k kms and have driven a total of around 3-4k kms in, I have owned two turbo Subaru wagons and I regularly fix both Subarus and Golfs.

I'm definitely far from a perfect driver but I've done a fair bit of low traction grit/gravel/snow driving as I go up the skifields in Otago most weekends each winter. Not rally or anything serious. Good tyres with good tread depth 4+mm make a huge difference, people hate on all seasons but they are a step above summer tyres when the temperature drops significantly. Knowing the condition/type of tyre you have will give you a better idea of the traction that you may have available. Slower and smoother on the inputs are the most important ones. Keep a keen eye on time of day, air temperature, and shaded areas. There is often a massive difference between the traction in an area that gets sun and one that doesn't. Did it rain the night before then clear up overnight? This is a recipe for black ice around dawn/morning. Knowing the road really helps with this as you know the areas that don't see sun, if you don't know the road you have to be extra vigilant/cautious. Allow a much greater following distance to the car in front. Maintaining speed is pretty easy even with very low traction, but when you have to stop suddenly will realise how little traction there is available. If someone is following you too closely just let them past, the last thing you want is them running up the back of you when you come to a stop. Try to do all significant braking in straight lines, you can trail brake during corners if necessary to stop the car from 'running away' but no significant braking. You should always select the correct gear and scrub off all the speed you need to before entering a corner (especially if the corner tightens). It is important to keep all the wheels rotating to maintain traction and steering, don't depress the clutch for no reason or roll in neutral. If the car begins to lose traction do not stand on the brake as you will likely spin, it is usually best to just maintain balance of the car and try to control the direction of the slide with smooth steering inputs. This one is really hard to learn until you experience it, as the initial instinct is usually to brake. During hill climb try to maintain momentum (I don't mean go fast). If it is really low traction (snow/grit) and you lose your momentum (on a steep hairpin for example) it can be really hard to regain traction and move in the direction you want. It happened to me this previous weekend on the way up to the skifield driving on snow. I was in a train of vehicles behind a fwd that had fitted chains, I was following too close to compensate for the changes in the speed of the vehicle in front of me. The car in front of me went around a tight left hand turn that was quite steep on the inside and slowed down significantly. I wasn't ready for this and had to downshift from second to first on the steepest part of the corner, this caused me to lose most of my momentum and I was spinning all the wheels while moving more sideways than than upwards. Luckily Subarus are awd and I have decent tires so I was able to keep going but I should have had a longer following distance then I would have been able to keep my momentum. During hill descent use your gears to control the speed of the car. You really don't want to pick up much speed as it is really hard to scrub it off going downhill with limited traction. Most of the people I see that have gone off the road have let the car pick up to much speed then either don't make it around the corner or spin from braking too hard and losing control. Subarus make the hill climb part fairly easy if you have good tyres as they have an excellent amount of forward traction. Going downhill you are no more equipped than grandma's Corolla. If you are coming downhill carrying too much speed as you enter a corner there is very little that can be done to save you. Best to slow down beforehand Someone please correct me if they think I said something wrong. Hope that made sense and helped somewhat, sorry if it was too long winded and basic. I kind of got a little carried away.

Are you talking about "rev hang" ? To my understanding this was deliberately tuned in by Subaru on the newer models to help with emissions. With a cable throttle body when the throttle plate slams shut it causing the car to run slightly rich. So with some of the later electronic throttle body cars the throttle doesn't snap completely shut during a gear change. Quite a few of the Americans complain about it in their wrxs.

I have full intention of being there again. I just need to sort logistics closer to the time. I'd say I'll probably be in the wagon. Should be good to meet some more of the North Island folk.

Does this interest you? It is in Queenstown, not my listing but I've met this guy a couple times. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/240593756710343 A friend of mine has an sgt and he just used the red nightshade from repco on his tail lights. Only downside is the inner part still doesn't light up with the tail lights on. Still looks way better than before though.

I parked there because I thought it was funny that the whole car could pretty much fit in the bucket haha.

I found some inspiration for my wagon on facebook!

Yeah the genuine cam cover seals are far superior to the likes of permaseal. I don't think they are any thicker from what I remember but they just fit the cover/head better, they are a half moon shape with a flat side to seal nicely against the head. The permaseal ones I have seen are more round/oval and don't make a nice contact with the head, they are also way harder to install as they try to fall out of the groove and then they get pinched if you aren't careful. The seals in my picture were actually genuine seals but whoever installed them just did a poor job and used WAY too much sealant. After picking off all the sealant from the head and adding a small amount of new sealant at half moons like you said it sealed perfectly with the new seals.

Yeah I usually just put a couple small dots at the edges of the plastic half moons. This actually isn't the first set I've replaced on a Subaru that looked like this though haha. It is funny to me that during the process of doing this the culprits actually think that this is a good idea.

Spent ages picking RTV off the heads, why do people do this lol . The gaskets feel pretty new but they are leaking... I wonder why??? 🙄

Think of how many integras and similar are out there with skull gear knobs. 😛

Yeah I had a scan of the virm too and nothing I could see in there says anything like that. An inspector would have a real d*ck to fail you on something as stupid as that anyway. I'm with Joker just put one on and try, lots of people change out gearknobs and I've never heard of this before.

Sounds like you need to do some reading on organic chemistry and functional groups. If your interested... (this is from memory from a while ago so might be off on a couple bits) Methane is an alkane, the 'meth' means it has a single carbon element (eth=2, prop=3, but=4 and so on) the suffix of '-ane' is what tells you that all of the carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen. The '-ol' suffix is what tells you it is an alcohol, the carbon is still fully saturated but one of the hydrogen elements is replaced with the OH functional group. As @Andy_Mac said this isn't just a gas-liquid state change there is a chemical reaction involved. An alkane has very different properties to an alcohol.

Yeah that is why I suggested for this thread to stay away from politics haha. Oh well it was an entertaining read!

I have one on my gc8, it is paired with the stock catted downpipe on my car. I would say it sits right on the limit between normal loud and obnoxiously cop-magnet loud. Drone exists but it isn't too bad, the gc8 is a fairly noisey car at 100km so I don't really notice it over the other noises going on. I've done long trips 5+ hours in the car and it didn't drive me insane with the radio on. As for the actual sound, I would say it is an excellent note but just a touch loud for my tastes. It is manageable to daily but I definately feel like an d*ck if I'm driving through a neighbourhood at night. This is a video I took of a drive by ages ago (I was giving it a fair bit of jandal). I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions

Made me lol. I think it is pretty common globally for the tax component to be greater than the fuel component of the price. I don't think we are the only ones in that boat. Yeah I usually do the same, i'm not going to let the price stop me from doing what I want so i usually don't look. I pay monthly on a fuel card for a self service station so i don't even see the price I have paid until I get the bill at the end of the month anyway. I've only been paying attention to the main stations in town lately as I drive past them going to work each day and I have been finding it interesting watching it go up. Wasn't diesel under a dollar around middle of last year, or am I delusional?