"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/19/2019 at 11:40 • Filed to: None
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"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/19/2019 at 11:40 • Filed to: None | 13
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The first photo I ever took of this car in November 2017
This week marks two full years of owning my 2006 Subaru Impreza STi. Still in love with the Aspen white paint, gold bbs wheels, and blue cloth interior. And of course still enjoying the quiet boxer rumble and kick you in the ass turbo lag that surges power all day long. But most of all, this car shines so well when some turns are involved, especially if they are nice high speed sweepers. This car has been dependable from day one, never having a show stopping issue in the ~40k miles that I have driven it thus far. My clutch is getting towards end of life and Im sure there are other ailments lurking but so far still so so good. I have spent far more on parts on the Miata since owning that in April of this year, so the Subaru is definitely reliable. Let’s now take a journey down memory lane of some photo highlights (large photodump warning) thus far.
Nov 2017 - Brought home the new sibling for my rusty miata to bunk with. During that first year, the Subaru saw a lot more use just due to the endless problems encountered with this Miata.
Dec 2017 - Canyon roads on the way to and from work were an absolute joy. While the Miata is also fun on these roads, the extreme hills on some of the roads were just not that fun to go slow up. The Subaru showed me a whole new world of POWER and how enjoyable that can be.
Feb 2018 - First encounter with snow! I had the car on 200TW summer tires at the time so this was a bit sketchy to drive around. Something something AWD is all you need in snow! Wasnt much on the road thankfully though since this was way up in the mountains near home and late winter.
Mar 2018 - First Oppo meet. I recall this day the 405 was completely empty and hitting triple digit speeds on the way there. It was then that I realized that its WAY too easy to go fast in that car in comparison to the Miata.
Apr 2018 - First time at Mammoth and really the first road trip over a couple of hours (5 hours each way). No snow on the roads so my summer tires were just fine on this trip. Fitting my skiis in the car with the rear seat removed was quite the hassle. Definitely started planning for the eventual roof rack and some proper tires for going to snowier places in the dead of winter.
Jul 2018 - Ceramic tints installed all around at 50% VLT which made a huge difference in interior temps from the brutal socal sun. My AC was also dying at the time but window tints helped the AC fight on a bit more. Plus I think it looks very good in the right lighting without being dark enough to attract the wrong sort of attention.
Aug 2018 - Epic adventure drive with Spambot in a rental. Great time driving through the desert and ending up in the SLO area. Quite the day and the first time I observed how bald looking my tires were after only ~10k miles. Fun time though really driving the hell out of the car. Fun fact, ‘18 Mustang GT really likes to overheat in hot weather like this!
Aug 2018 - Installed a new radio to add bluetooth, USB, and aux inputs to the car. FAR more useful than a 6CD changer. And better sound quality even with just the OEM speakers in the car.
Sep 2018 - Epic road trip to Utah for work. This was a VERY long drive with about 12 hours of driving in each direction, finally putting the nail in the coffin of these tires as well. They started complaining above 90mph towards the end of this trip (80mph speed limits made that a common speed here). This was the first time I got the car really dirty and enjoyed some dirt as well.
Sep 2018 - So many epic things I did on this trip, even though it got cut a week shorter than originally planned. Very much enjoyed my first time camping with this car and how practical it was for the whole trip. Plus still ripping through all of the mountain roads.
Sep 2018 - One more photo from that trip because Utah was amazing. It solidified that I HAD to come back to explore more with this car.
Oct 2018 - Before the first rain of the season rolled in, I had a set of Nokian WRG4 tires installed to give me some proper snow ability for an upcoming adventure I was planning.
Oct 2018 - Roof rack install started. Just the “antlers” installed while I waited for the rest of the parts to ship. This was how the car would always look without the racks on from here on out. I was in debate if I wanted this on my car forever but the practicality benefits far outweighed my concerns and I really wanted to do anything to avoid the stupid clamp on mounts.
Nov 2018 - Roof rack install was perfect, allowing me to easily bring both sets of skiis to mammoth and enjoy my first trip of the season. No real snow yet, only manmade so the roads were clear. Still a great trip though to kick off the season.
Dec 2018 - This time at Mammoth in DUMPED snow the whole trip. I was super glad to have proper tires since I saw plenty of people either struggling to install chains and/or getting stuck everywhere or in a ditch. My roof rack worked perfectly again and the car drove very nicely in the snow, only sliding around when I intentionally floored it into a rally slide around a turn lol.
Jan 2019 - The epic trip was finally upon me. Back to Utah again, this time seeing both Zion and Arches and eventually continuing on to Salt Lake for a week, Jackson Hole WY for a week, and Big Sky MT for another week. This was a long 4,000 mile trip with so so much snow. A perfect car for the wild adventure though.
Feb 2019 - The third week of the trip featured even more snow up in Montana where the snow driving got really real. Without proper tires, I would have probably ended up in a ditch at some point for sure! It was no joke ice everywhere, unplowed snow every day, and endless dumps of deep deep snow. This car champed through it all.
Apr 2019 - Spring has sprung! Superbloom in the desert due to the epic snow/rain this winter
May 2019 - More snow falling on the Subaru! Suprising to get a powder day in May but again was happy to have a car with proper tires to make it to Mammoth when plenty of others struggled, assuming snow was not going to be an issue this late in the season. Epic powder day, probably my favorite day of the season at mammoth.
July 2019 - Another oppo meet, this time up in Fresno for another great drive in the Subie
Aug 2019 - Very glad I had my AC serviced earlier in the summer since I took a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Car performed great in the heat and kept me nice and cool when driving. It was “only” about 100F which is quite cool for August in JT so it was bearable to hike early in the day.
Oct 2019 - New camera (finally) and another trip to Mammoth, this time for some backpacking. The car didnt get to star much on this trip but was dependable transportation 5 hours each way.
Nov 2019 - Present day, the car is still doing great. I need to give it a proper clay and wax again but its still looking great and photographing well. Nothing mechanically has given me issues and it continues to lose the same amount of oil since day one. I still can get 24-25mpg when trying and easily achieve 20-22 when just driving however I please. Still needs an exhaust and an intake but I have been convincing myself I am too poor to waste money on that right now.
Looking forward to more adventures! And of course I will continue sharing them as long as Oppo is still a thing. Also, the car has been fully paid off as of a couple weeks ago so its fully mine now too. With interest on the loan , I paid just over $14k in total which was totally worth it for this car. Considering the miles on it now, I wouldnt be able to get that much for the car but I dont think I have any intentions of selling this car anyways!
arl
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 11:54 |
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Handsome car- thanks for the pics!
E90M3
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 12:02 |
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How many miles are on the clutch?
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> E90M3
11/19/2019 at 12:14 |
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Original OEM clutch at 175k miles. So its a ticking time bomb that will need replacing soon. Thankfully I can just put the payments I was making on the car loan into a maintenance budget instead and easily cover stuff like that. The flywheel skips on occasion and one of the clutch bearings squeaks at startup sometimes. So those are signs of it going, but actual friction material feels pretty good so Ive been putting it off until it becomes an issue.
Future next gen S2000 owner
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 12:21 |
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I think you can get antibiotics for that....
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E90M3
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 12:22 |
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That’s pretty good, a lot longer than I would’ve expected. I’ve known two friends with Subarus, they both needed clutches before 100k.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> E90M3
11/19/2019 at 12:33 |
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It helps when the previous owner babied the hell out of the car and I dont drive the car like I do the Miata lol. It helps having another car where abusing it is just normal driving. So when I get in the subaru I can relax and shift at 4-5k instead of 6-7k and still be going way way faster. I have never done any clutch dumps to test out my 0-60 either which probably helps. My obsession with rev matched downshifting probably doesnt help clutch life but I havent killed it yet so it should be alright.
.. Will have to link to this comment when my clutch dies in the next two days or some shit haha
PowderHound
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 12:39 |
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It’s so clean! That’s definitely my favorite year for the STi. I wish I took better car of my Subaru but a couple years of neglect took its toll. This month actually marks 7 years with my wrx!
His Stigness
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 12:56 |
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Thankfully clutch replacements on that should be quite easy. I did a clutch on a Forester and I had so much room, and I did it in a few hours. So nice.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> PowderHound
11/19/2019 at 12:58 |
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7 years, that is a long time! You couldnt have neglected it too much to make it that far. Ive always had quite the soft spot for bugeyes, especially the wagons. I always thought I would end up with a blobeye 04-05 WRB wrx hatch but just happened to workout with a hawkeye STi. I would have definitely been disappointed with the lack of power in a vanilla WRX whereas the STi definitely has the goldilocks amount of power to me. Not too much to make it feel effortless or unusable on the street but just enough to never feel slow.
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PowderHound
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 14:21 |
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I should be more specific, I neglected the exterior. Clear coat is failing and rust in rear quarters. I’ve actually done a ton of bushings and suspension refreshing to make it feel a lot better. That with some engine/exhaust mods and a minor tune to put 245hp to the wheels makes it really fun.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> PowderHound
11/19/2019 at 14:37 |
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Ahh I see, I live in los angeles and park indoors so its zero effort to keep up the exterior and rust is a nonexistent thing.
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PowderHound
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/19/2019 at 16:05 |
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That’s certainly ideal. I was mostly parked outside and it was really hard to clean during the winter while 1) working 9-5 and being dark when I got off work. 2) snowboarding on weekends. 3) Not having a hose at multiple rentals I lived at.