Build thread time!
#Ria’s 2017 Subaru WRX
minor wraith
This is my 2017 VA WRX, base model
Started out stock with 22k miles as "my" first car in December 2019
Knew I wanted to work on cars, definitely should not have tried here
minor wraith
I went in with 0 mechanical knowledge and very few tools
My first "modification" was getting foglights. I ordered a kit off of subiespeed or something from OLM and tried to get everything to work. It was difficult since I didn't have a jack beyond my spare tire jack and had no jack stands. Ended up using some rhino ramps. My dad insisted that he drive the car up the ramps and since they didn't stick to the garage, they ended up just sliding. He eventually drove off them. My bumper would also hit on the ramps so it just wasn't meant to be.
0/1 on modifications, had to take it to a shop to get the foglights in, where they told us that they needed another kit since the foglights didn't have a breaker (or whatever it's called) for when highbeams turned on - something in state law.
My second "modification" had me a little more prepared and was a fair bit easier. I bought an accessport to be able to tune my car, also getting the course on accesstuner about a year later. I managed to install that and the accompanying OTS tune without problem (probably should've tuned earlier and gotten off the OTS tune, with that said it ran smoother than my current tune so whatever. Everybody rags on them but they're not the absolute worst, just need tweaking for your environment and specific car).
1/2 on modifications.
My third modification was a little more serious. I decided that I wanted to do a j-pipe. I bought a Grimmspeed v1 catted j-pipe, thinking that it wouldn't be terribly hard to install. Oh how wrong I was. With a little more mechanical knowledge (did my first oil change in between, a small victory for me) I once again got under the car. This time I had a jack, jackstands, a breaker bar, and a torque wrench with my friend's ratchet and wrench set. After hours of being unable to figure out how to undo the top bracket bolts near the j-pipe and turbine outlet (forget exactly what they're called), I realized I had to drive home with an unbolted downpipe.
Bringing it back home, my dad managed to brute force the bolts that I couldn't get off. It looked like we were in the clear until I got to the fourth bolt on the turbine outlet flange. It stripped. We tried copious amounts of penetrating fluid and WD40 (so much it caused me to have an asthma attack that night, or so I suspect was the cause). After cutting in all the wrong ways, I resigned and brought it to a shop (after pulls. Probably one of my worst ideas tbh).
1/3 on modifications.
I scaled down a little bit and started tuning a tiny bit. I finally installed a perrin brass shift bushing that mildly improved shifter feel without much incident. It took me a few tries but I'd finally done it.
2/4 on modifications.
On the same night I did a 4 bar MAP sensor. Without knowing how to properly calibrate MAP scaling, it just caused my car to nearly die at idle. After driving home (should've just put stock one back in right there) I replaced it with stock.
2.5/5 on modifications. I did it, just couldn't tune properly.
I bought an EGR delete kit, AEM afr gauge, and Grimmspeed ebcs around the same time. The EGR delete kit and afr gauge are still sitting, the ebcs is what I decided to install. Without much incident, I'd finally done something slightly significant (though very easy) and felt pretty proud of myself - like things were going my way. With that said, I still had tuning. I played with WGDC values a bit and finally started making progress when I suddenly stopped for a bit and came back to the new COBB update, which would mess with my fueling iirc. I also couldn't do code deletes, so I didn't update. A discord found a solution, however I have yet to utilize it, so tuning for this is still underway, but since my car is functional and drives, I will call it a win.
3.5/6 on modification so far.
To do:
- Find / buy fourth bolt for metal shield
- Put back on plastic undertray
- Grease suspension bushings
- TOB
- AFR gauge
- EGR delete
- Tuning
- Clean
- Install new headlight, buy another bulb for the other
Oh forgot to mention my fun with fitment. Logan still occasionally teases me with how bad my first attempt at fitment was.
The first wheels and tires I bought for my car were Kansei Tandems with DWS06+ -- here were the measurements
18x9.5 +22
265/40R18
Something seem a bit off there? Yeah, they poked and rubbed. Sold those for a loss, bought Enkeis and honestly like them a fair bit more.
Enkei TS6 with DWS06+
18x8.5 +38
245/40R18
I also crashed at some point, but we're not gonna talk about it.
My plans are pretty simple right now:
- Don't touch anything unless it won't change anything (tuning being the exception)
- Buy a project car, learn how to work on cars that aren't my daily
- Eventually would like to build up the WRX a little bit, probably shooting for built motor making 350ish wheel, I've got some ideas about how to do it
night matrix
imagine not making your daily also your project car (my parents won't let me buy a project car and no way in hell am i affording insurance for a 2nd car)