"Fiennes" - the little Subaru that could

[Rosco862003]

I've been on the site now for quite some time, and figured I would pick now to give you the reader a little insight on my 2006 Impreza 2.5i. Alot of my friend, most of whom are into going fast, were curious why I just didn't get a WRX, or better yet an STI. My previous car was a 1993 Miata that I loved dearly, but with over 400,000 miles on the body and engine, it was showing it's age and became a money pit towards the end. When I was looking for a new car, I wanted something with decent mileage (>25mpg), a manual transmission, and something that wouldn't make my nose bleed everytime I had to pay for insurance, oh and AWD. This basically slimmed my choices down to most NA Subarus and the Suzuki SX4. I liked that the SX4 had selectable AWD and a 6 speed manual in the 2010 + models. However, Suzuki's withdrawal from the US made me reluctant to pursue this model and so I started looking at Subarus. I eventually found a low mileage, Aspen white, Impreza with a 5 speed about 2.5 hours away in Asheville. I took a half day at work, filled up a buddies gas tank and rode with him to check the car out. Everything seemed to check out minus a little oil spotting on the plastic undertray which I was told was a little extra oil from the fresh oil change and cam seal it had just gotten. I paid the man his money and drove the 2.5 hours back to Charlotte with a smile on my face, and the faint hint of burning oil filling my nostrils. After having my cam, crank and oil pan seals replaced (previous owner paid the tab) the car still leaked oil all over the headers, which made quite the smoke show at stop lights. After hunting the issue down (oil pressure switch) I researched the install and found that a lot of people botch the job by over tightening the iron sensor and cracking the aluminum head. I figured that I didn't want to run the risk of doing just that and took it to a shop that would fix the problem if they messed it up. I took it to Motion lab, a local Subaru tuner here in Charlotte and had them replace it, only to be told that my head was already cracked from where someone tried to replace it earlier. The fix? $2000 worth of parts and labor that would include a new head, timing belt and all the seals that I just had replaced. This was all done in April, or about the same time that Uncle Sam had his hand out asking for money. Needless to say i wasn't very happy with how things played out. I thought about selling the car, and just getting something cheap that didn't require payments, but at the end of the day I spent a considerable amount of time deciding on this little Subaru of mine and I wasn't going to give up on it. So I paid the money and 3 weeks later had a car that wouldn't smoke like a chimney at stop lights. About 4 months ago I went to the Asheville area to do some camping and noticed that my engine was missing, minor at first then got worse later. The car was throwing a misfire code on cylinder 4 which apparently is the problem cylinder on STI's and WRX's. This was not good news and after about a week of combing the interwebs for answers, the conclusion I came to was that it could be anything... I decided to start off small and change the plugs, which luckily enough for me cured Fiennes! However, when changing the plugs I noticed that the wires on the passenger bank were soaked with oil, YAY! After talking to a mechanic buddy, he assured me that it was simply spark plug seals, and to come over with some beer, spark plg and valve cover seals and that we would remedy the problem. Sure enough my car no longer marks it's territory anymore.

I'm sure a few of you are curious as to why I named the car Fiennes,so will say that I was inspired by the man's tenacity and will to keep pushing boundaries, even though he's the least likely candidate to do so. He's old, he's missing a finger has been told to take it easy on his heart, and ran marathons in lieu of this advice. Much like Ranulph Fiennes my car isn't a likely candidate to take me to some of the places it has, it doesn't have locked diffs, it doesn't have an array of lighting that can be seen from the space station, it has around 5" of clearance and has had a cylinder head replaced with under 80k on the clock. However, it has always taken me to where I needed to go, has never left me stranded anywhere and just keeps asking for more all the while returning impressive mileage.

What's been done so far:
-WRX front rotors w/ Stoptech pads
-H6 rear rotor upgrade w/ Stoptech pads
-Outback 18 mm rear swaybar
-Curt Trailer 2000 lb hitch
-New Cylinder head with gaskets and Timing belt around 15k miles ago.
-Painted headlights black
-Painted Rims gunmetal
-Rear Subframe lockdown kit
-STI catback (no power gains, just wanted a cleaner looking rear)...come to think of it they make TP for that, no matter.

Best mod so far:
-A full gas tank to actually get me places.

Plans:
-Skidplates (engine, and rear diff) I've never hit anything, but I imagine I don't want to be in a situation thinking, "Hmm, that skidplate would've been really nice."
-215/60 R16 Yoko Geolanders, the smallest all terrain that fits my car on stock wheels, with no other modifications.
-2004 STI springs and corresponding KYB GR-2 struts, with possible 1" spacer kit. Already have the STI springs so I may as well use them.
-Bushings, and more bushings. I love the feel of a tight and well sorted vehicle.
-Sprintbooster: this is said to help eliminate the laggy throttle feeling that plagues earlier drive by wire throttle systems.
-I would love to have more rear lighting and will find a way to mount some clean LED's in the rear to aid backing up when I've exceeded my cars capabilities.

I'm sure that list will grow as I travel farther away and explore more of what the car can and can't do. But I think it does so well because I respect the car's abilities and don't push it hard often..often is the key word, and when I do push it keeps on going. If any Subaru owners out there have some helpful advice on what areas these cars can be improved I'd love to hear from ya! BTW, I'm not sure how many people are in the Southeast but I'll be volunteering at the Sandblast Rally Feb.28-March 2nd in Cheraw, SC, and plan on camping out there. It'd be nice to see some members out there and although this forum is about long distance travel and self sufficiency, I'm sure not too many of you would throw up a complaint to seeing some cars screaming sideways at 60 mph down a gravel road. I'll post some pictures of said event once it comes around to it, but until then here are some pictures of my car.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Fiennes! What a great name for a plucky little vehicle that can overcome all kinds of hardships!

 

[Thirty-Nine]

Nice! I bought my previous Suzuki SX4s for the same reason you bought your Impreza: Size, economy, AWD, and a manual. I got rid of my 2010 SX4 for the same reason you didn't get one in the first place—they left the country.

I had a '12 Forester, but ended up trading it in on a '13 WRX.

Looking forward to more updates!

Andy

 

[Laxaholic]

So close to my car...2006 Aspen White 2.5i 5mt. Great cars, keep it up

 

[WMDunkin]

You will love the subaru in bad weather. I also have basically what you are planning for my 2010 wrx. Skids, lift and geolanders, handles mud, snow, rain, and everything else amazing for the limitations it has by design. Keep up the good work!

 

[Rosco862003]

Handles bad weather like a champ..

It's amazing how many people i helped push today, only to see them get stick just 20' up the road. Im constantly blown away by how composed this car is in all types of conditions. That bottom picture was taken right outside the center of the city and it was a parking lot. The only reason the other side was clear was because of how many cars were stuck in the middle of the highway. The link below is a video of the highway i took a picture of. As you can tell one individual was not happy about waiting around.
http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/f-150...of-snowpocalpsed-charlott-1521635496/@pgeorge

 

[Rosco862003]

Update:

So New Years 2013 I found myself in Baltimore, MD for both New Years and to watch the Bengals play the Ravens. The Bengals happened to beat them which I'm sure angered a few loyal Ravens fans, one of whom took their anger out on my passenger side mirror. I never found the opportunity to replace it seeing as how replacing my leaking head was a more important issue at the time. Fast forward to March 2014, where I find myself in the position to not only get a replacement mirror BUT a matching white pair from an STI for $50. The ones that come on the regular 2.5i are black and get the job done. Although having a side mirror won't net you any expedition points, I can say that after a year of not being able to look out of my side mirror, it is an absolute blessing to finally look over and see what's behind me. Something that comes in handy for obvious reasons. I also took the time to re-install my rear wing, which in my opinion helps set it apart from a Pinto just that much more...always a good thing in my book.

Adds about 250 lbs of down force at 55mph..it's pretty sweet

Yes, they are mirrors, but after driving for over a year without one, I'll never again take those things for granted!

I have several major gripes about this car. One of which is the on-off throttle jerkiness this car has in lower gears. Apparently it's an issue inherent with Subaru's and after reading through various forum posts about it I decided to take a stab at "fixing" my pitch stop mount. This in essence works to prevent longitudinal movement within the drivetrain and mounts close to where the bellhousing is and goes to the firewall. I don't like spending money on shiny new parts that are expensive for the sole purpose of being expensive. I decided to pull a page from the "ricer's" handbook and substitute a $150 mount for a $28 tube of 3M window weld that I can use on other items. The OEM pitch stop mount was engineered to cut down on movement, all the while delivering low NVH. To achieve this goal the left several gaps in the bushing that mounts closest to the firewall, which is where I added the window weld. I let it cure for 36 hours and installed it in my car just this afternoon. After driving around the block, I've noticed a DRASTIC decrease in jerkiness, almost to the point of being eliminated. I'm also able to find gears quite a bit easier, and it doesn't feel as though I'm shifting through a pool of loose change. My car isn't any quicker, and I didn't expect it to be. I set out on eliminating some of the slop found in the drivetrain and met this goal. I plan to also fill in the voids on the OEM transmission mount, in hopes for more noticeable improvements.

This shot was taken from the top without anything removed. On the NA Imprezas the only thing that needs removal is the little airbox, which takes all of 5 minutes to remove.

This is with the airbox removed and, you'll notice the 2 mounting points, 1 against the firewall and one on the transmission. Both of these require the removal of 2 14mm bolts.

For whatever reason I'm unable to upload the comparison photo of the stock mount vs my ghetto window weld mount, I'll keep trying. What I can say is that stock there is a comical amount of movement within the bushing, whereas the filled in mount allows virtually no movement by my hand anymore. I'm sure the engine can put just a bit more torque on the mount that I can, but the difference between the 2 is definitely noticeable. When on trails I've noticed that if I try creeping along, it's usually not a smooth affair, and I'm met with a lot of jerkiness in the drivetrain and I find myself using more throttle or jumping on the clutch. I'm hoping this helps eliminate that issue and that I'm able to transition between using gas and simply coasting. As mentioned earlier I'm very very happy with the difference in how the car feels more connected. I plan on providing updates as time rolls on.

I understand that these aren't "expedition" type upgrades per say, but I'm trying to chronicle everything done to the car in an effort to help anyone else out there who shares similar issues that they haven't yet voiced. I love this car and although it will never run the Rubicon, or run into the 10's down a track, I plan on having a livable DD that can take me further off the beaten path than say a Camry, yet bring a smile to my face in the twisties like a JKUR simply can't. So far This is one of my favorite mods and if anyone was curious in eliminating some of the "disconnected" feel of the Subaru drivetrain, I would say this is a step in the right direction.

 

[Rosco862003]

Finally got the comparison picture to upload. Although it's not the prettiest thing, it works. You can see the voids on the stock piece vs the mount I filled in. To anyone doing this, the surface dries quickly but you'll want to wait atleast 24 hours to install since the inside will take longer to cure. The piece on the right was taken from a 99 Impreza and appears to be built a little more stout to anyone wondering about the difference.

 

[WMDunkin]

looks good, I have a little driveline slop, but nothing that is going to make me take apart the car to "fix". glad everything is coming together.

 

[Anti Bling]

I love that DIY! I bet you could do the same thing to certain motor mounts and not have to replace them with expensive aftermarket units. I have just the motor mounts to try it out on. thanks.

BTW LOVE your car. keep posting updates.

 

[Rosco862003]

Thanks Dunkin, I'm really happy with the progress so far. While under my car looking around, I noticed two dents in my gas tank around 5" wide. Not that it's caused any problems now, but it got me to thinking about gas tank skids. There are plenty of them for Jeeps, Yotas, etc, but I can't seem to find any mass produced for Subaru's. So it looks like another DIY project coming to a forum near you. I plan on getting two HPDE cutting boards, seeing as how my gas tank crosses over the driveshaft and is exposed on either side, and finding a way to mount them to provide a bit more coverage for my tank. The STI comes with skids, but they appear to be made of very flimsy metal, but I'm thinking that I could use those for the mounting points they provide and simply add the cutting board to reinforce the tinny metal. I've attached a picture of the underbody of a rally Impreza and highlighted the gas tank area that I'll be beefing up.

The skid plates covering this model appear to be made of a thicker gauge metal than what the STI's come with.

This was yanked from the interwebs and I take credit for neither of these photos, but this illustrates the use of hard plastic as a skid plate. I figure if it's used on a rock buggy, it will be more than enough to hold up to the abuse I'll put it through.

I'm not sure if any of you Subaru owners have come across the need for gas tank skids, but if you have I'd love to hear alternate ideas, or perhaps a link to a manufacturer who sells them.

 

[WMDunkin]

I would ask primitive racing and see if he is able to make you some. His skidplates are awesome, also some rally shops may have some already made. If you haven't been to check out dirtyimpreza.com tons of rally and off road suby guys there. I am not going to have to look at mine but I am not sure how much tank shows in the GH models.

 

[Rosco862003]

I love that DIY! I bet you could do the same thing to certain motor mounts and not have to replace them with expensive aftermarket units. I have just the motor mounts to try it out on. thanks.

BTW LOVE your car. keep posting updates.

Thank you I'm happy with how the car is turning out as well. I'm pretty sure all the EJ series motor mounts are the same throughout the Impreza models and I plan to head back to Pullapart to do the same thing to the engine mounts that I'll be pulling off of the same car I yanked the pitch stop mount from. There are no 5 speed models in the yard but I'm in no serious rush and can wait to do those in an effort to save some money. I ordered Stainless Steel brake lines and a Master Cylinder brace to help rid the car of the marshmallow like brake feel the stock system has. Once they come in I'l post pictures of the install and a review of both items by themselves and together. My fingers are crossed that they live up to how they're advertised.

In reference to the Dirty Impreza forum, I have checked them out and have gotten some good ideas from them. Thanks for the heads up WMDunkin.

 

[Rosco862003]

So my stainless lines and master cylinder brace came in the mail Friday, and were unfortunately dropped off at the apartment office on a day I was expected to stay late. After calling the office and pleading with them to drop my parts off at my door to no avail, I simply had to cut out of work a little early and make it there. After braking 34 traffic laws, running 2 lights and most likely getting air under my tires, I made it to the office 8 minutes before they closed and cut a 15 minute drive into 7. Once home I opened the box I found my both the front and rear braided lines, along with my master cylinder brace from Grimmspeed. One thing to note to anyone with a GD/GG chassis 2.5i. I had to order the Front lines from the 08+ WRX, which have been confirmed by Rally Sport direct to fit and the 02-07 WRX rears. Neither of these kits specify the 2.5i specifically and the rears have not been confirmed so I guess I'm sort of the guinea pig on this one (fingers crossed that they work). Both were packaged well, but neither have installation instructions but Grimmspeed has a PDF file on their website that details the process. To be honest I found it to be worthless as I found myself spending more time trying to make sense of the directions than simply getting my hands dirty and figuring it out myself..which is what I did.

I only had time to throw the master cylinder brace on since it was getting dark rather quickly, so this will be a review of the master cylinder by itself with the old lines still installed. I won't go into a step by step write-up of how to install it, since there are already millions of threads on Subaru specific sites. I got to a friends where I began to tear into the package, and unbolt the items needed to gain access to the mounting holes. I'm not sure what is involved with a WRX, but I'm assuming you'd have to move the intercooler, which I hear is not an easy task, so the install will vary, however i found it to be rather straightforward on my car (once I put my phone down and stopped looking at the muffled directions). The holes closest to the firewall proved to be difficult to tighten in part due to clearance, and the fact that you have to line up the holes on another bracket up on top of the brace. I'm not sure what components I shuffled around to give you reference but it will immediately be noticeable to anyone doing this install. You'l notice in the picture that the bracket holding the little black circular piece to the strut tower is angled at the edges to allow the other bracket (dangling below it) to slide into it.

The Brace is flat and makes mounting these components in the way they were intended pretty difficult so I just zip-tied the bottom bracket to both the brace and top bracket to keep things in place. It was dark and we were hungry by the end of installation so at some point this week I will try and get under the hood to remedy the problem and see what went wrong. Other than that the bracket fits great. There is also a 2 threaded rods of differing lengths, once of which will not be used, that will attach to the red mount which allows you to snug of the bracket to the brace. I ended up using the shorter once, and I imagine they include both of them as some models will vary and utilize the other rod.


How does it drive? No different really, I noticed things were a bit firmer if I really jumped on the brakes which is where I imagine the most amount of the firewall flex comes into play, but there is nothing about it that say, "That's it I'm quitting my job and becoming a spokesman for this product!" I'm under the impression that at no point during the previous owner's courtship with Fiennes did they ever bleed the brakes. Quite a few reviews state that this is a must have product and that it has made the biggest difference on their cars. I'm led to believe that this was installed at the same time that at the very minimum brakes were bled. Although I will say that there is a fair amount of movement in the master cylinder once the brake pedal is depressed I'm not sure it makes as big a difference alone as people think it does, or at least it didn't in my experience. I use my car a bit different than Auto-X guys do or people running their cars in the mountains and as mentioned it does firm up when you really jump on them, so they may get on the brakes harder than I do. I can't be exactly sure but I wanted to cover all bases with braking as I am tossing up the idea of a small trailer build and would love to have my brakes be the best they can be. I was out of town this weekend and couldn't do my brake lines, but will be very interested in the difference fresh fluid and braided steel lines make. This is what I suspect will rid my car of the craptastic marshmallow like brake feel.

This is a before/after representation of the movement that goes on with the master cylinder, and how the brace eliminates said movement. Before I put the brace on I had a friend get in my car and depress the pedal, and did notice a moderate amount of movement.

You'll notice my professional grade zip-tie job on the bracket that I mentioned earlier. I realize my zip tie skills exceed industry standards and can provide quotes for any work you need done. Be understanding in the fact that now that this photo is out I may be flooded with inquiries and may not get back to you in a timely manner and the wait may be upwards of 6 months, but I promise it's worth the wait.

All joking aside, I'm at work and trying to rush through the writ up so I may have left a few things out but if you have any questions just ask, and just as soon as I throw on the brake lines I'll give a review on those as well. After brakes I'm thinking suspension and am trying to decide between 04 STI springs w/ KYB AGX struts + 1" spacer or 96-99 Outback spring and strut combo to clear some 215/60 Geolanders. Any suggestions? I should also mention that this car might see a trailer in it's future so having stiffer spring rates is something I'm interested in.

 

[Rosco862003]

I finally had time to put my stainless steel brake lines on and will say that once you have all the correct tools (10 mm flare wrench) that the install was pretty smooth. I installed 3 of the 4 lines and when I got to my last line, I noticed that there was fluid leaking where the new stainless line ties in to the stock hard line. Needless to say I was quite furious as I had been looking to this install for a while now and on a Sunday I had no hope that Rally Sport Direct would be open, but I was wrong. I ended up calling and talked to an actual person, not just some machine. He sympathized with my issue and told me that although he couldn't tell me then what course of action would be taken in resolving the issue, he assured me that he would get the wheels turning so that by Monday I would hear something back ASAP. Sure enough Monday I received a call that my new lines were on their way, and that all I had to do was put the old ones in a UPS box, and ship them back on their coin. I can't say enough good things about these guys.

So while I only have 3/4 stainless lines installed with one of the old rubber lines still in place, my brake system feels better but nowhere near what I want it to be. I'm not certain if I'm just expecting too much from the OEM system but it is nowhere near what it needs to be. I bled the system until clear fluid appeared with no bubbles and made sure that there were no leaks before getting it on the road. Unfortunately my pedal still isn't as firm as I want it to be and there just isn't any real bite until I'm hard on the brakes by which point the as end of the car has unloaded and the nose of the care is acting as a shovel. I'm hoping to install the line re-bleed the system and see an improvement. If not I'm not really sure where to go from here.

What I've done to the brakes:
-WRX front rotors from Advance Auto
-H6 Legacy rotors from Auto Zone
-Stoptech Street Performance pads Front & Rear
-Grimmspeed Master Cylinder Brace
-Stoptech Stainless Steel Brake lines (1 Rear line yet to be installed)
-Fresh Valvoline Synthetic DOT 4 brake fluid

My brakes have always sucked, and there has never been a point at which I would say they were ever "good." So there really is no benchmark other than my girlfriends 2014 Kia Forte which stops on a dime. There is a vast night and day difference between the two, and i don't think I'm being unrealistic by asking for my brakes to compare to a compact Kia..or am I?? Anyways my next thought is to rebuild the calipers and Master Cylinder if the new line doesn't help. I'd love to hear from any forum members who have run into a similar problem of upgrading your brakes, only for them to still suck in comparison to the money shelled out? I really don't feel like throwing money at the car anymore..