What to look for when buying an impreza wrx,?

[Guest]

hi everyone... just got a possible job for me and can afford an updgrade 3rd car.

What to look for buying an impreza wrx?

right now, im eye-ing on this 1996 ej20 gf8 hatch.

it has some visble scratches and the rest of panels are okay. (from picture)

now, it's 1 - 1.5 hr drive from where i live,,,

what sort of things i should look for buying a turbo car (wrx)?

and also, how to take care of it...

thanks!

[Guest boostcut]

how much is it?

[Guest]

$4,500 lowest. stock. (no muffler/bov etc.) 135 ks...

i reckon lady owner... (i havn't seen the car in real tho...)

[kingersman]

look for boyracer hints, that's what i would do!

[Guest]

yeah... lol!

things i like about it is it's all stock.. so yeah...

[kingersman]

check tires and also check oil!!! most people don't do oil changes often in turbo cars

then check to see how well brakes work when taking it for test....

so pretty much main things!

[marc]

yeah and my advise is listen for any faint knocking from the engine. Hold the revs at about 3k and rock on and off the gas lightly an lisen is its makes any stranges noises when your rocking the rev! dont want you to da a bearing on the way home now do we! another good hint is take a look at what oil filter is on it. That will give you some idea on how its looked afer and possibly what oils its bee run on. Subaru filter= good, repco= not so good and prol lasnt had decent quality oil in it. Thats my theory and its worked gud few times before!

Lookin after advice... Good engine oil + genuine subaru oil filter is a very good place to start !

[Firenza]

 marc said:

yeah and my advise is listen for any faint knocking from the engine. Hold the revs at about 3k and rock on and off the gas lightly an lisen is its makes any stranges noises when your rocking the rev! dont want you to da a bearing on the way home now do we! another good hint is take a look at what oil filter is on it. That will give you some idea on how its looked afer and possibly what oils its bee run on. Subaru filter= good, repco= not so good and prol lasnt had decent quality oil in it. Thats my theory and its worked gud few times before!

Lookin after advice... Good engine oil + genuine subaru oil filter is a very good place to start !

Are the Repco Filters bad then? I use the ryco ones, but always put the best quality oil in it every 5000kms!!

[Guest boostcut]

if your asking for a genuine oil filter on a 15 year old car

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[ben-jamminn]

A mechanic told me there is no difference between ryco and genuine..what do you reckon

[Guest boostcut]

there is, a price

[familyman]

 boostcut said:

there is, a price

well said.

I would also check condition of suspension. The old bounce test still works a treat. And a peak at the air filter too will tell of how much lovin has been given.

[Pappu1]

check the break rotor to see if has a huge lip on it as may indicate u will need to change it soon.

in my old v3 i bought, the break rotors were still factory and badly worn and at wof time i had to shell out to get new ones.

copuld be a good bargaining chip if worn

[marc]

ill stand by repco filters are shit. If you can afford to put decent oil in it why are you combinding that with a $10 filter????? Just about every suby thats failed a bigend ive seen has had cheep ass filters on them!!! Even ask Jason Lefting wwhat he thinks of them? He told me that quite ofen then add to bigend falures for a few reasons (cant remember off the top of my head but if you guys REALLY wana know ill go back and look in my emails). Yah your right maby asken 4 a gen filter in a old car is abit much but if its been looked after the chances a subaru dealership would of serviced it(lady owner!!!) and then genuine parts get used!~!

[marc]

Just cus I know sum super smart guy on here would want to try prove his point... Here are JASONS exact words......"Almost all failures I see are bearing related, higher horsepower ones generally do stem from a centre main picking up and feeding junk to #2 and #3 Big-ends, which then fail spectacularly. Older nana-mobiles die due to mal-nutrition - old or crap oil and filter. Nearly every GT wagon failure has a Repco filter on it that looks like it hasn't been off in 2 years, coincidence??!" The last bit is what your interested in! Hes the master with suby engines and has built lots of mad motors and goes deep in terms of thinking and machining and precision so u can say all you like but I have a point. Why skimp out on the filter if you put good oil in it?! Not hating on repco but look down the two side by side and there is quite alot of diference. Flow for one. I bet there is also diference in the coresness of filter media used aswell but havent proved this) repco has like 6 oil inlet holes on the top vs like almost double on a subaru filter. I HAVE MYSELF noticed a small rise in oil pressure by just changine to a subaru filter aswell when I first got my old car. Anyways not going to jack this gys thread.

[funkytown]

hey marc - before i add 2c i not saying i disagree with you or Jase but heres a diff perspective on his words.

 

Nearly every GT wagon failure has a Repco filter on it that looks like it hasn't been off in 2 years, coincidence

saying that its a repco filter and 2 years old shouldnt neccessarily correlate the repco filter with failure.. one might think it being 2yrs old might play a part in this - how many kms would one yard stick 2 years is worth?? maybe an average of 7500 - 10000kms.. (say).. thats around 15000-20000kms on a filter/oil....... Thus any filter @ 2 years could be seen to be at fault... just saying.

Whats the old/funny correlation quote.. point is correlation and causation shouldn't be done lighty

[marc]

Hey funky yeah def get what your sayn. In person we had a big chat about them when I was getting my block dowelled and yes the 2 year part plays an important role in what he was saying but so does cheep oil AND filter. No point goin on bout this all day but im just saying that from what I and certain other prople have seen Genuine filters seem to do a better job and do play a solid role in the engines life. Subaru made them the way they did for a reason. repco just applied one design/theory to ALL their filters (excpt for size and thread ofcource lol).

[G-unit]

whats a genuine filter worth??

[Guest boostcut]

last time i bought one it was 39 bux

[marc]

26 at wingers greenlane

[marc]

or $19.50 on trademe Listing #: 294534073. or Listing #: 294517069 if your feeling STI ritch lol