boon

I bought a WRX first and looked at spending some serious money on doing it up but then was like hang on, at the end of the day it's still only a done-up WRX and you would spend forever doing all the little things that the STi gets like bigger brakes, alloy control arms, blah blah blah. In the end I flicked the WRX and started again with an STi - then poured money into it anyway

For rock you really want a solid front stage, spend some money on some good 2-way components and a 4-channel amp which you can bridge to them and run some decent power, maybe 200wrms per side up front so you have lots of headroom. 6x9's are great if you don't have a sub but if you do have one all they tend to do is drag the soundstage to the rear... when you go to a concert, you don't face away from the band. Subs, flick them on Trademe and get a single good quality one in a good box. You'll be amazed what a difference it makes.

Frontal impact compliance?

I would say 7-10kg could be saved over a steel exhaust.

Titanium exhaust. Mine weighs like... nothing. It's a cat-back and I can easily lift it with 1 finger.

Pretty sure there's 2 on the rears. And if you've had the system significantly empty and didn't bleed them then it will be full of air. Re-bleed! With someone on the brake pedal.

Just gonna throw it out there, but it's not that big f*ck-off turbo sitting there boiling the brake cylinder? Or does it do it dead-cold? EDIT: And get yourself a brake-cylinder stopper ASAP. Cusco ones are cheap enough new from the Cusco importers in Auckland and they seriously improve the brake feel when you apply the jandle heavily.

How low is it? You can get some mega clunking from the rear diff mounts as well.

I have a master cylinder for a V7 STi sitting around if you need one. I had crazy bad intermittent pedal-to-floor action going on, turned out it was a shagged wheel bearing on the front left. Did you change some lines around? Just to make sure, check that you've still got the restrictor pill in the vacuum line that goes from the manifold to the metal lines across the firewall, and make sure it's the right way around. Although I'm not sure if this would cause other problems. Besides all that, re-bleed?

I think $400 is about that going rate although that depends what you're getting certed. For example minor body modifications (like extended guards) require certification but as they don't require things like putting the car on a hoist or road testing they should be cheap to get certed. Anything that requires more vigorous inspection and a road test (i.e. power increase, brake/steering/suspension changes) will cost more.

Only the Spec C came with VF34, and that was on the V7... V7 STi gets VF30 and WRX gets TD04L

It's a bitch of a job if it's an older car and it's never had any work done on that part of it. Chances are all the nuts and bolts on the downpipe and heat shields will be rusted up like nobody's business. Plus half the studs on the back of the turbo will probably be either rusted or bent.

Where is that? Porirua harbour? Sort out your spotlight covers already ~_~

Do you have a boost gauge? How much vacuum is it pulling?

The 'best' is probably something from Pioneer, like the AVIC line, but it'll cost you ~$4000

I would say it's going to cost a whole lot more when it shits itself and your engine sucks pieces of the impeller through the motor and scores the bore. And it will shit itself, if you're worried about more boost over 6500rpm I'm going to say you're either doing track work, so it will shit itself, or you're thrashing it, so it will shit itself.

Batteries are a massive rip-off usually. Believe it or not, Mitre 10 Mega does relatively cheap Bosch Golds which IMO are a pretty good battery. Or pay a little more and get an AGM that you don't have to replace for 10 years and is OK if you run it flat 10, 20 or 50 times...

Wait, it's not FULL Singapore spec (WRX with a couple of STI bolt-ons) is it? Cos I think I see Brembos... it is missing the IC water spray bottle though so it's definitely not quite right (unless they've converted to 12L Spec C tank in the boot?)

Prova tuned headers, 2002 headlights and grill. It barks and wuffles now and still has a little bit of rumble at idle. Cool

That's a write-off IMO. Looks like the sill is mushed in, as soon as the floor/chassis gets out of shape you don't want it any more anyway.

Equal grounds for headunit and amps is pretty debatable, as is the proximity of power/signal cables. I've done more installs than you can shake a stick at and I've never had induced noise from close cables. The only time I've seen anything close was when my friend had coiled RCAs sitting on top of his fuel pump. Seperate power feed is a good idea but rarely the cause of noise. It's almost always a ground thing - broken ground/shield in an RCA, burnt ground track on headunit or amp RCA, or bad fusible link in a Pioneer headunit.

Sent it for a WOF. Hoping it comes back OK haha. Tomorrow - install tuned headers + uppipe (argh!), facelift headlights, facelift grill.

Do you have a Pioneer headunit? Before you dive into changing other stuff...

Limp mode?

I have a fairly huge double garage in Karori that's only going to have 1 car in it. I'll talk to the flatties about it.