Steve's Eta Tauri Site
Whilst compiling these pages and receiving your email I have collected together some facts which will be of use to any Impreza Turbo owner and it is on these pages that you will find them reported. Quite a few questions arise time and time again....
Q. How do the Japanese say "Subaru"?
A. Many thanks for two of our IWOC members Tosiyuki in Japan and Michel in France for coming up with this.
1) The ending u sounds very much like French ending e, i.e. rather mute. Just as you would say in English "France".
2) The first u is slightly mute too, that's like s'ba
3) Japanese R sounds like European L
4) Japanese vocals sounds like Spanish, Italian or German ones, (and French
except the E who sounds like german ö, and the U which sound like german ü).
So A is like a Cockney A, and not American ae
So finally in Japan SUBARU is pronounced : " S'BAL "
Q. How do you pronounce Impreza (in English)?
A. There is an invisible T in there and it is pronounced " Impret-za "
Q. What do the six stars in the Subaru badge signify?
A. Fuji Heavy Industries which is made up of six separate companies, one of which is Subaru. The badge represents an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus called the Pleiades, the Japanese translation for which is Subaru. The Pleiades is sometimes known as the Seven Sisters due to the number of stars which can on average be seen by the unaided naked eye, but it is actually made up of many hundreds of stars. Amongst astronomers it is used as a measure of seeing conditions and a test of eyesight on how many stars in the cluster can actually be seen unaided, and 11 is near the upper limit. Perhaps it is generally smoggy in Japan? ;-)
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Q. Why is this the Eta Tauri Site?
A. Eta Tauri (also known as Alcyone) is the brightest star in the Pleiades Star Cluster. The Impreza Turbo is arguably the brightest star in the current Subaru line up.
Q. Where does the nickname "Scooby" come from?
Q. Here in the UK, the car is affectionately known as Scooby after the cartoon character Scooby Doo, which rhymes with Subaru. The first film reference known is in the 1989 film Always in which Richard Dreyfuss is a Subaru car salesman and his friend John Goodman refers to him as selling Scooby Doos.
Meanwhile in Australia the common nickname is Rex, which rhymes with WRX.
Q. What does MY98 mean?
A. Impreza owners refer to their cars by the year of manufacture. This traditionally starts Autumn of the preceding year, so we saw the first 1998 in October 1997. Thus the MY98 indicates model year 1998, and for 1999 it is called MY99. In 1999 owners we wondering what our community would call the ney model as we had got ourselves into a yeary 2000 bug style problem. Would it be ....MY00, MY100, MY000? ;-) As it turned out we've stuck with MY00, 01, 02...etc
Q. How long does it take to get a new Impreza Turbo?
A. If you are in mainland Europe and want a left hand drive car it seems you can obtain a car in a number of weeks, anything from 1 to 4 being normal.
If you are in the UK then things are a little bit different. The Impreza has risen to almost cult status here due to probably one person, a certain Mr. McRae and his rallying exploits. Almost every month there is a glowing Impreza Turbo road test/review in some auto magazine.
Subaru are limited on the number of cars they are able to import due to EEC/UK restrictions, and not having a manufacturing base in Europe do not gain any advantages from such an arrangement. Nissan, Honda and Toyota have the advantage and can manufacture their common run of the mill cars in Europe whilst importing their higher cost/specification models from Japan. Meanwhile Subaru have to share out their entire allocation over their entire range of Imprezas, Legacys, and Forresters.
All of the above gives rise to extremely long waiting lists at all of the dealers. The average waiting time is probably currently 6 to 8 months although I have heard of people waiting 10 and in most parts of the country the whole 1998 allocation is sold! My dealer was advising me to think quick if I wanted a car for delivery next September 1999, when it was only August 98! If you want a car and find yourself in a long wait situation try contacting dealers MUCH further afield as a dealer in the Highlands of Scotland gets the same allocation as one in the Midlands! You could also try Northern Ireland. Note that some will now only sell a car to someone walking through their front door. If you are fussy on colour this can also have a big effect on delivery dates, with people moving above you on the dealers list as cars become available from the docks. The 4 doors are more popular than the 5 door and choosing the later can make a huge difference in the wait. Do not bother asking for a discount or good trade in price either!
This does mean that the second hand market for cars is extremely healthy (for sellers) with cars going for near new and in some cases more than new prices (for something like a McRae or Catalunya or the now deleted dark blue mica colour).
This brings us neatly to obtaining a car from other sources.....
Q. I can't wait, so where can I get a new car from?
A. Here in the UK there are a couple of options open. Source a right hand drive car from Europe, or alternatively import a Japanese specification WRX direct from Japan.
The European route is as difficult as importing any other car by this method, with dealers in those countries being reluctant to do so. Also be aware that the 3 year warranty (which is pretty unique in Europe) supplied on the UK car is supplied by International Motors not Subaru. Thus a car from Holland will have a 1 year warranty which will probably be valid for Holland and difficult to use here in the UK. One interesting fact about Holland is that it does not have a home manufacturing base for cars, and thus is not subject to the same restrictions. Another reason why Japanese specification WRX's usually arrive by that route.
For importing a Japanese specification car see the WRX Frenzy page.
Q. Hold on. I live in Australia and I have got a pre 2001 WRX, isn't this the same?
A. The Japanese specification WRX with 276bhp (280ps) are very different from the turbos sold in most other parts of the world. It is unfortunate that the Australian spec. turbo with 208bhp (211ps) up until present day is also called a WRX. As this was such as wonderful marketting exercise it was decided that with the introduction of the New Age Impreza in 2001 all Impreza Turbos around the wWorld would be called WRX.
Q. How do I import a pre New Age turbo into the USA?
A. Unfortunately the previous version of the turbo did not meet emmisions standards and failed the kerbing test. With the introduction of the WRX (MY2002 in the USA) the turbo is now available!
What? Problems? There are very few problems that afflict the Impreza, but there are some which appear with regularity on certain models and manufactured year/model. It is nice to know that with the following list you are for armed with the knowledge to tackle the service manager!
Q. Why does my 1997 spec. car lose power around 4-5000rpm, plus there I can hear a low resonance hum?
A. There seems to be a recognised problem with the 1997 specification cars blow off valve. This does not shut properly under boost and thus vibrates giving the sound similar to someone blowing across the top of an open bottle. I have also heard that it can also sound like a steam train whistle in extreme circumstances!
When this problem first occurred the faulty valve was replaced with an item identical to the one taken off. No surprises when it failed again! Subaru have now introduced a new improved blow off valve and I have not heard of the problem occurring lately. Meanwhile the 1998 model seems to have a totally revamped and larger blow off system, but I have had reports that the problem sometimes still occurs on the early cars.
Q. What is a blow off valve, dump valve and waste gate?
A. When you take your foot off the throttle to slow down or change gear a flap called the "butterfly" closes and stops the flow of air into the engine. The turbo though will still be spinning and thus tries to pump air in, but can not and rapidly slows down with the restricted air flow. When you reapply the throttle the butterfly is opened and the restriction is removed and the turbo can again increase in rpm to develop boost. This time difference is felt as turbo lag and in the situation above would be quite crude.
What a blow off valve does is detect a vacuum on the engine side of the butterfly (throttle off) and opens a valve to dump excess pressure back to the inlet filter. This reduces the restriction on the turbo allowing it to almost free spin and not slow down as quick. Then when you put your foot down, the butterfly opens and the blow off valve closes. The turbo still spinning quite fast takes much less time to spin up to full boost and thus creates less lag.
If the blow off valve should leak it will not allow full boost to be applied to the engine. This is probably the steam train whistle effect. The low resonance hum is probably the valve vibrating and not shutting off cleanly as there is enough vacuum on the engine side of the butterfly to start it to open at lower boost levels.
From the description above you can see that the blow off valve is also the same as the dump valve.
The waste gate is on the low pressure (or exhaust) side of the turbo. When the high pressure side sensors start saying that enough is enough, this valve opens to allow exhaust gas to by-pass the turbo and exit straight into the exhaust system.
Q. After about 20 miles, when it's warmed up, the engine momentarily loses all power (quite violently) if you give it a more than half throttle, between about 3000 and 5500rpm. Ok above 5500rpm, which is a good excuse for the police!
A. The 1997 specification raised the turbo boost pressure from 0.8 bar to 0.9 bar. When under maximum boost it is possible for the oil to surge into areas it could not previously. One of these is into the waste gate solenoid. This is an accurate sensor which detects over boost and puts the engine into shutdown mode if the pressure goes from 1.1 bar to 1.2 bar. When contaminated with oil it starts actuating much nearer the normal working pressures of the turbo. The sudden loss in power can be quite violent! The solution advised by Subaru France was not to fill the oil up to maximum but to leave it at half filled only.
If your dump valve does pack up, Prodrive recommend pulling the T shaped supply hose off and filling it with brake cleaner from an aerosol. Then go for a blast before the cleaner evaporates. Apparently the fault often occurs just after a service when the oil level may be slightly too high. The 1998 specification engine has a few modifications to over come the above problems but it has been know to fail.
A replacement part is now available from your Subaru dealer which involves adding a "bolt with a hole" into the sensor path. This reduces the air pressure that the waste gate solenoid sees and is fooled into believing the pressure is lower.
This fault has sometimes been recorded on the warranty job sheet and referred to by the dealer as over boosting which it is not. Yes the engine management is detecting an over boost but the engine is working correctly and the sensor is malfunctioning.
Q. I have a 1996 turbo WRX, and after 6500km the car develops a 'resonance' that comes from the front, possibly from the engine or from the turbo, everytime I ease off the gas pedal; i.e. when the engine is eased off, there is a brief, faint (only noticeable to the driver) split-second 'resonance' from somewhere in the engine compartment. Is this normal? Does anyone have an explanation for the phenomenon?
A. The resonance is almost certainly a cracked heat shield on the exhaust manifold. Its a warranty fix, but if it's the one where the left and right side pipes join, (the most common one to fail as this is a very hot area) then the dealer should pack the lower shield out by 3mm and it will then last forever. Heat shields were a very common fault on '96 cars, as they did not have the tray under the engine bay and cold road water hitting the very hot shields caused them to fracture. One owner got through 3 in 15,000 before trying the 3mm spacer trick.
If the car is an Impreza Turbo MY99/00 see the report below on the alarm bracket failure also.
Q. I am thinking about fitting a big bore exhaust......
A. A turbo charger works at its best efficiency with no back pressure at all to stop it spinning up. Some manufacturers warn of over spin but in all intensive purposes you would only ever achieve this scenario in running with no exhaust! A problem arises though with exhausts that are too big. Off boost, at low rpm, cruising etc the engine is basically a normally aspirated engine. Acceleration from low rpm will be severely affected as the engine running in NA mode can not achieve the power fast enough to spin up the turbo. By gradually increasing the back pressure by causing a restriction in the exhaust will improve things. Of course there will be the situation that you end up with too much and it then throttles the turbo! A compromise between the two is required.
I have had at least two separate reports of this occurring and also seen/felt it myself on my own P1.
Number 3 in the one nearest the turbo,
number 4 is nearest the washer reservoir,
number 2 is nearest the battery,
and number 1 is nearest the air filter.
Q. When the engine is cold I have excessive clutch judder.
A. The Impreza Turbo puts out 208bhp plus, into a permanent 4 wheel drive which gives enormous grip on nearly all surfaces. To break traction from a standing start is near impossible on normal dry tarmac surfaces, and so the clutch takes a massive amount of abuse. To withstand this the materials and construction unfortunately mean the clutch does not operate at its best when cold.
Sometimes it is suggested to fit a Group N clutch to try and cure the problem. If you think about the way a rally car is abused by its driver then this type of clutch will indeed be stronger. Then again will this type of clutch be ideal for trickling along in traffic, gentle pull aways etc? A rally driver is more likely to be dropping the clutch at full revs, and changing gear in a similar manner with little thought of subtlety. Thus switching to a group N clutch could increase the problem.
It has recently been known for clutch judder to be fixed under warranty and the latest fix is to fit a P1 specification clutch. This is ok for owners of cars which have not done many miles but try and convince your dealer that your car with 27,000 miles on the clock was a manufacturing default an is not just general wear and tear. :-(
Q. The clutch pedal does not return.
A. An owner has reported that after hard driving the clutch pedal would not return after heavy braking/changing clutch. He had to kick the clutch pedal up like changing gear on a motorbike. Initially the local dealer fitted an uprated spring on the clutch pedal (on instructions from Subaru UK) but when this failed to cure the problem they fitted the new part under warranty.
The problem was caused by a reduction in pressure in the Master Clutch Cylinder and is apparently a well known problem at Subaru. So well known that dealers have been told to replace the master clutch cylinder with an updated/uprated one.
Q. When the engine is hot, and I am stuck in traffic on a hot day I have excessive clutch slip.
A. The clutch fluid is over heating due to the excessive heat in the engine bay. Upgrading to a better clutch fluid if you do a lot of city type commuting is recommended.
Q. I get excessive clutch slip when I try to pull away with a fast getaway.
A. Due to the problem highlighted above the clutch will be the first thing to slip. The 4 wheel drive gives so much traction, that the tires will only lose grip on real poor surfaces, such as wet or greasy roads, ice or gravel. So if you are not careful in the way you feed in the clutch (NOT TOO MUCH POWER) then you can end up frying the plates! It is much better to generally feed the clutch in at around 3000rpm and accelerate hard from there than to suddenly drop it at 6000rpm!
Q. Why has the gear stick broken?
A. For the 98 spec car Subaru changed the gear shift securing mechanism. The bottom of the shifter sits inside a small plastic boot and the whole thing is held in place by a VERY small circlip. It's possible to pop the circlip with energetic 1st-2nd gear changes, this happens quite easily after installation of a short-shift probably due to the added leverage but I do think you could pop the clip with the standard shifter. So anyone fitting a short-shift to a 98 ask them to fit a stronger circlip or even something better.
Q. What's the conversion from.....
A. Here is a table of conversion factors which may come in useful when surfing the web....
| From | To | Multiply by |
| bar | psi | 14.5 |
| bhp | PS | 1.0144 |
| kW | bhp | 1.3405 |
| lb-ft | Nm | 1.35582 |
PS = Pferdestärke (or Pferdestaerke) which is literal German for
horsepower.
Bhp = brake horsepower derived from the the way in which hp is measured. There is a brake device which is set to a calibrated torque value and the engine being measured is run against this brake resistance. BHP is directly related to both torque and the rpm from the following calculation
bhp = (ft-lbs x rpm) / 5252
By this fact a dynamometer bhp vs rpm and torque vs rpm plot will always show that bhp=torque at 5252rpm.
Q. What does 2, 4, 6 pot refer to in regards to brakes?
A. The 2-pot/4-pot etc refers to the number of brake pistons in a caliper. The MY98 Uk spec has 2 "pots" per cylinder, on the inside of the disk, and the caliper "slides" to clamp the disk on both faces, hence 2-pot sliding calipers. 4-pots have, yup, 4 pistons, 2 on each side of a fixed caliper and in theory gives better braking. The MY99, STi and MY00 cars have these (on the front). Brembo and AP tend to use 4-pot calipers with bigger (both in diameter and thickness) disks in their kits and Tarox do a kit with 6-pot calipers - all pricey! - Thanks to Dave Marett for the answer.
Q. Can the headlight harness take higher wattage bulbs?
A. There has been a report of the wiring getting excessively hot and even the plastic reflector melting when 100W plus bulbs have been substituted on a 1996 specification car. It has been advised that you might need to increase cooling if you go this way by opening up the top vents. I know of a 1997 spec car with 100W bulbs in place with no known side effects but the wiring is a bit on the economic side. A member of IWOC undertook some experiments using light meter readings and found that the light output from 100W bulbs dramatically fell off over only several weeks and further investigation showed that the connector blocks on the back of the lights had started to fail.
In my own car I use the Xenon plus H4 bulbs in place of the standard H4 halogens and can say they are certainly brighter (manufacturers claim 30%) for the same power consumption.
Note : IWOC now has a supply of these Xenon bulbs available to any Subaru owner at much lower cost than from mainstream stockists via a member who has his own garage business. Drop me a line and I will put you in touch.
As well as the Xenon plus bulbs there is also now a further (but more expensive) improvement, and these are the "Super Whites" which in some countries are in fact illegal.
Q. I found this melted connector.....
A. At the bottom of the radiator, on non aircon cars, there is the power
supply plug for the aircon fan. A new car was found where this had partially
melted, by coming to rest on the exhaust manifold heat shield. I don't know if
these cables are live when aircon is not fitted, but CHECK YOURS NOW and tie it
down with a cable tie, even if it is ok.
Better still, get a dealer to do it for you as this area of the engine can be
very hot.
Q. I have a five door model and the radio resets when I use the rear wash wipe!
A. There has been a report of this happening and a mod available from Subaru involving putting a diode across the relay. It has also been reported that it did not work! I have also been in contact with two other 5 door owners who did not have the problem.
Another 5 door owner reported that the radio cut out but only on one speaker when the rear wash wipe was activated.
Q. Should I use Super Unleaded or just Unleaded?
A. A matter of debate this one.
In the UK, Premium (or standard) Unleaded is 95RON which is what is recommended
for the Impreza Turbo. Super was 98RON but is now 97RON although Shell now sell
Optimax with a rating of +98RON and Tescos (yes the Supermarket) are selling
99RON. In other countries the definition of Super varies wildly hence the confusion
over the message given on the inside of the filler flap of the UK model that
only Super is to be used.
An explanation from Pete Croney of Scoobysport "As the cylinder compresses the charge, the charge heats up (universal gas law). 95RON will self detonate at a lower temperature (or pressure) than 97RON. If the charge is reaching that temperature before the piston gets to TDC, then it will knock. This puts extreme loading onto the con-rod. If the ECU detects this knock, it will up the fuel going in, to try and cool things by A) the cooling effect of misting the fuel, B) the dulling effect that over fuelling has on the efficiency of the detonation. It will also retard the timing, in the hope of delaying the burn. If the ECU has reached the limits, ie so much fuel is going in that it is risking both no explosion and "bore wash" (petrol running down past the pistons and diluting the oil), then there is no more it can do to stop the pre-detonation."
Q. Will I get a performance advantage if I use Super Unleaded (ie UK 97RON)?
A. Again a matter of debate.
The knock sensor is there to detect whether things are running correct and running a different and higher octane fuel should mean that the point where the engine starts to knock will be different. Thus a higher level of boost should be attainable by running 97RON than 95RON and it has been reported that the upper limit is more like 1.2 bar rather than the normal 1 bar. Similarly putting in a lower grade of petrol will derate the boost attainable.
Unfortunately it seems that the engine control unit or ECU (in particular the knock sensor) on pre MY97 cars will down grade the point at which it operates, but as a matter of safety is reluctant to go back in the opposite direction! This is to ensure that additive octane boosters have little or no effect (excessive boost could be produced with resultant melting of pistons and spark plugs plus blown hoses) and so putting in 97RON has no immediate performance increase if you have run on 95RON or lower.
It is apparently possible to recalibrate the ECU with a tank full 97RON but most dealers (and Subaru themselves) either refuse to acknowledge it is possible or do not know how to. To get a dealer convinced is not an easy task!
Some IWOC members say that one way of achieving the reset is to disconnect the main battery for over half an hour. The volatile memory in the ECU is lost, and all previous data forgotten. It must now learn again the engine parameters, and the best way to do this (and this goes for a dealer reset ECU also) is to take the car on a fast run, up hill, with as much load as possible (e.g.. take a load of passengers and maybe even drag the brakes). This then resets the maximum achievable boost level.
Later versions of the ECU (MY97 onwards) apparently readjust upwards, but take a long time. This is because it takes an average of what has happened before with what is happening now and adjusts accordingly. Thus to reach the ultimate maximum boost takes an infinite amount of time! Resetting the ECU means the average is over the single run itself.
Note after an engine management reset it is possible to suddenly find that your now suffering from the wastegate solenoid problem described above, as the turbo pressure is operating nearer the optimum levels.
Personally when I was a high mileage driver with a standard (208bhp) Impreza turbo I could not afford the price difference in Premium and Super (approximately 15-20% in the UK) to warrant the gain. I can though confirm the car is certainly smoother and nicer to drive in the 1500-3000rpm range when using 97RON. Now I own a P1 I always use either Shell Optimax or Tescos 99RON.
Q. Is the standard immobiliser in the Impreza Thatcham category 2?
A. No, yes, no and yes! During the time the Impreza has been imported it has
been fitted with a couple of immobilisers. Prior to 1996 the cat 2 Cobra 0802T
immobilisers were fitted at the docks by the importers. Subaru also developed
their own immobiliser which then failed the Thatcham tests as it still allowed
the car to be momentarily started before cutting in. The MY97 and MY98 cars are
fitted with these Subaru immobilisers and thus the situation remained the same
with an independant system requiring fitting if cat 2 is to be gained.
The 1998 Terzo (see Special Editions) was fitted with
a Cobra Thatcham Category 1 alarm with remote central locking as part of the
special accesory pack included in with the car. Then with the introduction of
the MY99, a Sigma Thatcham Category 1 alarm is included with the car as
standard.
I would not recommend relying upon the standard immobiliser as the only form of protection.
Q. Which alarm do you recommend?
A. IWOC members seem to favour the Clifford Concept range, although others have Cobra, Meta (formerly Ross Electronics), and Toad. Basically it is down to personal choice of features, what is actually available in your country and how much you are willing to pay.
Q. My alarm fell off!
A. If you have a UK supplied MY99 or MY2000 (and maybe Terzo) check out the brackets inside the engine bay that hold the alarm body. It has been known in a number of instances for these to fail, and the alarm to just hang suspended by the connecting wires!
Q. Which Insurance Company do you recommend?
A. Again as with alarm systems, this will depend very much on many things
and this being the web, you may not be reading from the UK!
For those who are in the UK....Three companies usually come up in discussions
on the subject Privilege, Admiral and Norwich Union. Privilege list most
variants of the Impreza including the special editions, Prodrive and WRX. They
allow certain amount of modifications to the car for a slight premium and
excess increase. Admiral are not favorable of any upgrade to the car, including
the Subaru approved Prodrive accessories such as the handling or power pack,
but generally give good value otherwise. Norwich Union are interesting in that
they allow the car to be used on a track day, but increase the excess to £1000
for the time the car is on track.
Q. Is there an Impreza owners club?
A. There is the Subaru Impreza Drivers Club
in the UK, the WRX owners club and NSW
WRX owners club in Australia, Super
Subby Club in New Zealand, and the Dutch
555 Club.
There is also the Impreza World wide web Owners
Club which is run by myself, entirely email based and is based around these
IWOC web pages. For owners in the USA there is the 2.5RS
owners club
Q. My interior mirror vibrates so badly that I cannot see in it. Is there a remedy?
A. Not all Impreza mirrors vibrate (mine does not) but it seems it is very difficult to cure with owners having new mounting points, mirrors etc fitted with no improvement.
Help is at hand! Many thanks to Ian Gray for the solution.
1) Remove the plastic cover which sits ,over the roof to mirror mounting
screws , Small screw drive required for this to gently "flip" it off.
2) Remove all three of the mounting screws to release the mirror arm from the
roof.
3) Remove the central screw holding the plastic spacer onto the mirror arm
mount .
4) Super glue the spacer back onto the arm and quickly refit the central screw
, nice and tight but not enough to crack it .
5) Refit the mirror back onto the roof mount with the three screws , again
quite tight.
6) Leave this fully to dry , 24HRs is best .
7) Now fully test will a fast motorway drive and you will find the vibration
has disappeared and all police cars now become clear.!!!
Not one but two solutions (my we are spoilt ;-). Thanks to Roger Collier for this one...
As an experiment I took a small plastic rod, 3.5 cm long and wedged it
between the glass and the hole in the top of the mirror support, with a lump of
blu-tack at each end. Result - no more vibrations.
An elegant and permanent solution would be a stick with a sucker, such as a
child's toy dart or arrow cut to size.
Roger the bodger.
Q. Why does my car drift to the right (or left) under power?
A. I had this problem just after fitting my new 17" Speedlines with Pirelli P-Zero tyres. The problem turned out to be a batch problem with the tyres. Three of the tyres were manufactured in Italy and the fourth (which was located on the front left) was made in the UK. All measurable dimensions, tread patterns etc were the same, just the country of origin was different. Swapping all to the same cured the problem entirely.
Lotus have actually sent out a product advisory bulletin warning owners of Elises of mixing Pirellis with different countries of origin on the same car for these very same reasons.
Q. There is a rattle coming from the back...help!
A. My Catalunya has had a rattle coming from the rear for over 6 months and
the dealer has had three goes at trying to cure it. The first time round he
felt it was the cabling running to the remote boot and fuel filler release.
When the same reoccurred the rear parcel shelf came under scrutinee. It all
seems ok now after its third visit and the problem seems to have been the shelf
rubbing against the plastic covering on the C- pillar.
Update 1 month later...IT'S BACK! ahg.
Update 12 months later and 2 unsuccessful visits to the dealers it has finally
gone of its own accord ;-)
Update 2 months of bliss....suppose the change of weather did it as it has now
turned colder....yep its back.
With the car in for its 18 month service, and the rattle now degenerated to a
constant creaking and squeaking it was finally discovered. Part of the
bracketry which was supporting the parcel shelf and speakers was bent
incorrectly and was rubbing against it. It was bent into shape and it is very
quiet....HOORAY!
Q. Not exactly Impreza but have Subaru ever been involved in Formula 1?
A. Yes. The Subaru engine appeared in the Colloni chassis during the first half of the 1990 season. It was not very successful and did not manage to qualify for a race due to its unreliable nature, and was replaced in the Colloni chassis mid season. Further details here.
Q. My Impreza has suddenly stopped....what's wrong?
A. You've been enjoying yourself so much, you've run out of fuel!
(Many thanks to John S. for that one)
Q. Boost pressure seems to be down, maybe the charge is not being cooled properly...
A. Remove that dead squirrel immediately from the intercooler scoop!
FACT - During a group IWOC test of 7 Imprezas at a rolling road, on the
representive MY94 a dead squirrel was found on top of the intercooler!
Q. Isn't there another FAQ on the Internet and its a bit bigger than this one?
A. Yes, you are correct. The Ultimate Impreza FAQ is an amalgamation of details found within this site, and knowledge of members from the IWOC and SIDC.
More will be added to the FAQ as it becomes available. If you have any details then let me Steve Breen know.
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Page last updated 7th September 2002
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