2006 Subie STI rebuild

As of 3/4/23:



8/6/21:
Picked up this 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi August 3rd. Plan is to make this my daily driver. So, I'm starting off with making it as reliable as possible, removing the yellow tint, new wheels and tires and new coil overs. Wheels, tires and coilovers are on order and a few weeks out.

The car has sat, unchanged, since 2016 when the PO passed away. I bought it off his widow as she decided it was time to let it go. Mods on the car are mostly from 2012 as far as I can tell, including the last time it was actually tuned.







Interior is in good shape, just needs a good cleaning, which I have already started doing. And my upholstery cleaner came in today as well.

I forgot to take my own pics of the seats, so these are from the CL ad.









2 of the gauges in the pod aren't working right. I took a look and am going to have to fix some wiring on them. Mileage is now at around 109,120 since I had to drive it from Phoenix to Tucson. Car ran great, didn't get hot, even in stop and go traffic for a few miles in Phoenix with the a/c blasting. Really, I was more worried about the tires making the trip than anything else.



As you can see, they are current old winter tires that have dry cracked from sitting for so long. But the held. As I said before, new wheels, tires and coilovers are on order. I'm not a fan of the cambered look and stretched tires. The ride is shit for one. I don't mind a stiff suspension but this is far too bouncy for me. And I want the flush look with proper camber for street driving with wider tires instead of wheels that are wider than the tires. Current setup are 18x10 with 225/40s stretched on. New setup will be 18x8.5 with 255/35 tires.

The car made the 116 mile trip home and used about 1/2 a tank LESS than my 4Runner. So that will be really nice.



First thing I did was reinstall the wing that came with the car. It's a WRX wing, so eventually I would like to find the correct STi wing, but this is better than no wing for now. At least it's WR Blue.







I also removed the fake tow point from the rear.

As for the motor, it's already got a FMIC of unknown brand, same with the IC pipes. There is a Grimm Speed e-boost controller hidden in there and I believe the turbo is still the stock one. Exhaust has a Grimm Speed high flow crossover pipe, up-pipe and a wrapped HKS downpipe. Last tuned in 2012 as far as I can tell.





Started removing the yellow tint last night and got 2 more windows done after work today. Fortunately, the rear window was not tinted. So, I'll remove the driver door tint tomorrow and will eventually get proper tint done all around. I also plan on having the trunk and hood wrapped in as close to WR Blue as we can find and the roof I was thinking of gloss black. We'll see.





Parts have been coming in as well. Killer B oil pan kit, driver valve cover gasket set, IAG AOS, turbo blanket (need to order exhaust gaskets first), spark plugs, phenolic spacers, PS pump hoses since the stock ones are rock hard. At least they aren't leaking yet. Also will be going thru all the vacuum lines and replacing them with silicone lines. I'll probably replace all the couplers and the intake stuff with new parts too. Not a fan of all the red.

That's it for now. Lots of work happening while I wait for wheels, tires and suspension. Not driving it with those old tires unless I have to.

 

Awesome stuff.

STI's are time bombs but it looks like you'll handle anything it throws at you.

 

Yeah, I know what I'm getting myself into with this. It'll be fun. Not gunna go for crazy power, it's pretty damn quick as it is right now. Just need to update what it has to help keep it reliable and running good.

 

God dammit, why wasn't I first

 

You've got too much shit going on right now as it is!

 

Buy a daily, swear not to mod it, mod it anyway, mod it too much, always broken, need something stock and reliable but still fun to daily, buy a daily, swear you won't mod it this time, mod it anyways...


No mod goes unpunished!

Nice Scubaru.

 

Fortunately, this one came pre-moded. I'm just updating those mods and adding some others for reliability.

Mostly....

 

So you're telling me it's already begun?



At least it's not a b.o.a.t. (bring out another thousand.)

 

No comment.

 

Saw this little beastie the other day

 

Pulled the rear seat for a good deep clean. Amazing how nasty those get after 15 years, especially the backrest. It was almost worse that the seat cushion.

This is just s small amount. I emptied the canister 4 times.



But the rear seat cleaned up really nice. Pulling the front seats tomorrow.

 

Now I want an STI!

 

Finished cleaning up the seats this morning. So much nasty shit came outta the front seats. The look way better now



The carpet on the other hand....





Going to pull the carpet out tomorrow probably and hose it down really good. Dropped the headliner so I could add some sound deadening to the roof. The roof was amazingly tinny sounding. Actually, I was really surprised to see how little soundproofing the car had. Subaru really built the STIs as bare bones as they could, probably realizing that a lot of them would be used as actual rally cars at some point.





I used Kill mat. It works but is pretty thin, so I had to layer it to really get it to deaden the roof. Only did half at a time since I had to work around the headliner.



Over the Killmat, I added Noico Red sound and heat insulation. Has made a very noticeable improvement in the sound of the roof now, no more tinny sound.



Also applied some Killmat to the package shelf in back to help dampen vibrations. Doesn't look like much but it did help deaden it.



Then it was the front of the roof.



And done.



That's it for today.

 

Nice!

 

Finished cleaning and installing all the trim for the headliner this morning. Then I stripped out the center console and pulled out the carpet, it was nasty and so was underneath. I've seen worse tho.





Sprayed it down with fabric cleaner, took a brush to it and then nosed down the carpet extensively in the driveway. Then I found a great use for my Sherpa rack and hung the carpet from that and hosed it down even more.



Left the carpet hanging like that for several hours to dry while I went back to cleaning and applying sound deadner to the floor.



Did the inner wheel wells and the rear seat floor. Then reinstalled the rear seat back.





Carpet was finally dry after hanging in the AZ sun for a few hours. Threw it on the roof until I finish the interior deadening. Looks miles better now.





Got the passenger side floor pan deadened and insulated. I'll work on the driver side after work this week and then reinstall the carpet, the remaining trim and then the seats. Then I can move on to the mechanical stuff.

 

Good shit

Must be nice being in 100° weather where you can leave the seats and carpet out for 5 minutes and they're completely dry

 

Great for that but it suck donkey nuts working in it. Even in the garage.

 

Not sure if it would be something you'd be interested in, but I am going to make a harness for the rear turn signals for mine ('07, so I believe its the same taillights). My plan is to replace the turn signal bulb with a switchback amber/white so it will function as a reverse light as well. Not the coolest mod ever I know, but I figure maybe if the wife has more light in reverse, she might stop backing into stuff... It is in the body shop now (see previous comment about backing into stuff), but when I get it back, I'll look into it. If it isn't terribly hard, I'd happily hook you up with one.

 

I appreciate the offer but I'm thinking of actually replacing the tail lights down the road a little with 04-05 tail lights. I think they look much better personally. All bulbs will be replaced with LEDs eventually as well.