My new 2010 Subaru WRX

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i have TPMS in all 3 sets of wheels. the original set that came with the 2012 that are with my racing slicks, the set that came with the snow tires, and the set that came with the 2014 which are now in my konigs:)
 
couple updates.

1.) Clutch master cylinder blew again. leaking fluid out = no clutch worky. got towed home. replaced the master.

so I've also been having a very annoying cluch squeak during actuation. I suspected broken clutch pedal bracket welds, but after closer inspection and removal of the pedal assembly, I discovered that it was actually the pedal assembly causing the noise. see below:

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had pickles weld it up for me temporarily to see if it was the cause of the noise

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after re-installing, the noise was 99% gone, but it came back after about 2 weeks. So i'm going to replace the whole pedal assembly with a new one. Already have the part, just need to get some free time when it's not a billion degrees outside lol.

2.) I had the clutch replaced.
old clutch was Exedy Stage 1. pedal had become very stiff and heavy. likely the result of overheating, wear, or both. The stiff clutch pedal is also likely putting more strain on the master cylinder, and the pedal bracket, causing this snowball of issues. decided to just replace it to aleiviate the constant issues in the clutch system

IAG replaced the clutch with an ACT HDSS setup. chatters a bit when starting off in 1st gear after the car warms up. 2000mi on it (hwy) so far, hoping it mellows out soon. the chatter is very annoying and shakes the whole car. otherwise the clutch is fine, and the pedal is a lot softer than what it used to be.

3.) I also replaced the front brake pads. I've been running Stoptech Street Performance Pads for well over 100,000mi now (about 30k per set), and i really like them; cheap, great bite, good stopping power, but they dust like crazy. So I talked with one of the major Subaru brake distributors for a recommendation for something new. They recommended Hawk "HPS 5.0", these are NOT the regular HPS, which is widely regarded as shit for WRXs. They said bite would be about the same, wear would be about the same, dust will be a lot less, pedal feel will be more linear, but at the caveat that they are about 2x as expensive.

So I replaced them, bedded them in (10x 60-5 HARD stops), and they feel pretty good. I'll just have to keep an eye on the dusting and see how it fares compared to the STSP pads.

otherwise its pretty much business as usual.
need to replace a headlight bulb - meh.
still running Shell Rotella T6 5w40 oil, and still getting UOA reports fairly regularly. (RT6 seems to be doing better than M1 0w40 for aluminum wear)
 
aftermarket clutches suck :( mine is still garbage. worst thing i've ever done to a car.... and i had a 1 wiper mod lol
 
yeah my Exedy started chattering like this when the pedal started getting really stiff. but now this ACT one is doing almost the same thing after i put a couple hundred miles on it. it doesnt do it when the car is cold though, only after warming up.
 
oh, and i had to replace the front O2 sensor again -___- on par with replacing it every ~6months or so.

I'm able to use Denso's 12mo warranty on every other sensor though. so i only have to actually pay for it once a year it seems lol.
 
I want to see the pedal assembly now that it's squeaking again... I'm curious as to what broke this time.
 
ill let you have a look at it after i swap it out lol.

i'd imagine its probably that the welld broke loose. might be hard to see visually. the noise isnt nearly as bad after i swapped the clutch out though.
 
for some reason it seems that subarus have issues with clutch upgrades. A buddy of mine has an 04 sti and has gone through numerous clutches because they all seem to chatter and shake the car when taking off. not sure what he has now but he eventually found one that works.
 
squeaky pedal is common on the oldies. sux because it could be a number of things. simple lubing of the assembly to a spot weld broken on the firewall to what you experienced. once more power or pedal pressure is applied from stiff clutches it's becomes more common. Thankfully mine is doing ok with the Spec clutch. I need to clutch slave cylinder brace and braided line to help maintain the pressure but i've got bigger plans to finish up. :)

glad you're on it though!
 
This thread reminds me to never buy a Subaru. :p
 
yup. ive never done the spark plugs. fuck that. half of them arent a real problem to get to. but the other two are a pain. you need the perfect combo of sockets/extensions to get it in there.

i just pay the bucks to have the shop replace them when im in there for my 30K services.
 
Another Update.

1. Started getting a "low coolant temp" related CEL. popped up a couple times. best i could figure is that the thermostat was sticking open. I had IAG replace the thermostat while they did my 30k service recently, since they drained the coolant for that anyway. only added on about $40 to my bill, and i didn't have to deal with it lol.

2. Battery finally getting weak/dying. not bad for 6 years and 165,000miles. I knew it was coming as it had a lot of trouble last winter on the really cold days. well, I bit the bullet and bought a new battery after it left me stranded in the Best Buy parking lot and @awptickes had to come jump start me. if the car didnt start on the first try, it was out of juice and would just crank really slow until I jump started it. If i started the car too many times in a short period it would drain it fast too. I bought a small jump pack to hold me over until the battery was replaced.

I wanted something just as powerful or more powerful than the stock battery, and smaller/lighter. I considered the Odyssey PC680 that a lot of people run, but it just seemed too small to make it through a real winter. I also didn't want to mess around with relocating it So I went with the Odyssey PC925. 900+ CA and 330 CCA, sealed AGM battery so no worries about how it's mounted or any fume emissions/acid leaks.

So I had to make some custom stuff to mount this battery and I came up with an idea that i was happy with. My idea was to get some kind of plate that fit in the bottom of the stock battery tray. something rigid that i could mount my battery mount to, then hold the whole thing in place like the stock battery with the tie down. I threw around the idea of using wood for ease of getting and working with, but it's not as stiff as i'd like, and i worried about it rotting over time (even painted). So i settled on a piece of aluminum from McMaster in 12"x8"x3/8". I measured the bottom of the battery tray to be 9"x6.5".

So I used a bandsaw to cut the piece down:
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then i test fit the mount on it and marked where the mount holes were. Then drilled and tapped the mount plate. i decided to use studs so that i could keep the bottom flat and not worry about the plate not sitting flat in the stock tray. used 5/16-18 stainless steel studs. I didnt use metric because metric studs were like 10x more expensive in stainless ($8/stud) and i had a tap for 5/16-18 lol.
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then sanded/painted and used red loctite to keep the studs installed.
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mounted the battery to the plate using a washer, bronze split lock-washer, and a stainless nut.
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mounted the battery in the stock tray. fits perfectly. the only problem was that with the battery in this configuration, some of the wiring did not properly reach the terminals. The only wire I had to extend was the POS(+) cable to the starter. it was about an inch too short. Luckily the wire leading to the fuse box was plenty long enough to reach. So I used a piece of 4gauge welding wire and made a new starter cable with tightly crimped copper connectors + heatshrink with sealant adhesive inside. then made sure to properly position the new wire in the stock wire hold down on the stock tower. re-wrapped the whole thing in the stock loom, re-used the stock rubber boot at the starter, and re-wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape for a stock look.

For the Negative wire, I was able to re-use the stock wiring. I rerouted the wire to go in front of the battery instead of over the top and it was an appropriate length. I did flip the bolt going through the NEG(-) terminal so that it was easier to access, had to leave the POS(+) terminal bolt upside down though so the stock terminal cap would fit. Since the Neg wire was reaching around the corner of the battery now, I added some loom material around the edge to keep it from ever rubbing through. bolted it all down with the stock tie down and it's solid.

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Started it up and the car has never cranked so fast! this little battery has a lot of power. overall i think i'm maybe 5lbs lighter than the OEM battery. the mount setup weighs maybe 3lbs and the battery itself is about 26lbs.
 
wow, tons of work for a battery dude. lol looks good. you should make these and sell them for 85 a pop
 
you should make these and sell them for 85 a pop

Now that's an idea. Make the plate, starter cable extension, and tie-down (with trimmed j-hooks), then sell them for whatever the market will bear. Make three of them, take a picture, and post it on boobaruu-nation.net or whatever the site is.

It looks good.
 
I actually didn't need a sorter J-hook there are enough threads, but it might look a little cleaner if it was shorter. I'm gonna replace the stock tie down though to look a little better.

I'm not making any more of these. It's not hard to make, just not something I'm interested in.
 
I'm always impressed with the level of care you have for your wrx.
 
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