Have you had the other engine oils checked? I don't mean the standard engine oil but the oil inside the camshaft. I can't remember the name of it now thanks to living here. I had mine changed a few months back because my engine sounded a bit off, lower power and crap out of the exhaust. Oh, and it was leaking from the engine bay.
I'll certainly look into it. I always assumed the camshaft oil was the same as the rest of the oil? Pumped up via whatever means? I'm going to take it to my old job (Ford Dealership) since I still have decent connections over there. Hopefully they know far more than me and can actually pinpoint the issue without too much fuss. Still very concerned. I'll see what it does this oil change (I hear you can't hardly service your own car at all in JP?) and monitor the levels a little more closely than last round.
YOu can service your own car but it's easier to pay a little extra and get the store to do it. So lets say something very simple like an oil change. You buy the oil (Castrol magnetic something or other for me) at 3500 yen then pay an extra 300 yen for the shop to do all the dirty work. Well worth it if you don't want to get dirty. As for your oil checks I was thinking you should check the transmission oil as well. Yakumo
Everyone knows how much I slag the Japanese drivers and those in charge of roads in this country, well here I go again and for good reason. Just listen to this. Yesterday we had a little snow fall and I mean a little. Nothing too bad, maybe a few cm if that. Anyway, everyone knew this snow was coming but did the motorway authorities do anything about it? You bet your arse they did. They closed the bloody motorway! Can you believe it? Instead of salting the road like anyone with commonsense would do they close the motorway! Now you may be thinking, "Big deal." but it was a big deal and I'll tell you why. Everyday thousands upon thousands of cars pass from Kyushu to Honshu and with the motorway closed this leaves only local roads and a 2 lane tunnel. One lane going in to Honshu and one coming out. What do you think happened? Yep, the biggest fucking traffic jam I've ever been part of. Normally it takes me 45 minutes to get home. last night it took 5 fucking hours!! I shit you not. 5 Fucking hours for a 45 minute journey. Thank God I had a few DVDs in the car to watch while I wasn't going anywhere. I honestly hope whoever made the decision to close the motorway got their arse fired. I really do. Yakumo PS: New video coming on Saturday!
That's pretty much INSANE. (I think you did a video utilizing that tunnel... right?) I couldn't even imagine. We have minor jams here, but they're completely uncalled for. It's like everyone forgets how to drive, how to flow, and then it just gets backed up. It's not even that big of a city, and our highway has 3 lanes. Can you take public transportation to work, if you can anticipate a shitty ride home? ("It's going to snow... screw this, I'm taking the train".) I do await the video. I've been attempting to think of something new and exciting to film, but can't think of anything. Any ideas/requets for this flat boring state in center of this crumb country?
In he UK they have a similar problem with "average speed cameras" forcing you to slow down due to road works yet there's never anyone working on the road. The problem in the Uk though is that you can't even say fuck it and speed off because you'll be fined thanks to the cameras. At least in Japan the law states that there must be a notice well in advance of any cameras giving you time to slow down. Yakumo Yakumo
Oh man, I've just come back from the most amazing drive I've ever had! I went out to do another video which did have some decent footage but then I found rout 191. 12:30am, not a soul in site, not a traffic light for miles and no police! Twisting winding costal road (2 lanes) all to my self! I drove for around 15 minutes without meeting a single person doing on average 97kmph with a peak of 132kmph. Man, my shoulders really got a work out never mind the car. If any of you are ever down the bottom of Honshu and love a great drive check out the later half of rout 191 (going away from Shimonoseki City) in the early hours of the morning. It was fantastic!! Now to get the video encoding started before I go to bed. But for now a picture taken in the dark using the video camera's night mode (Hence the blurry image) of my car in the middle of the sea. Yep, well on a bridge anyway. Yakumo
New video now on line. Some great roads on this vid' plus I end up going down a road that becomes too marrow to fit down. Oh, yes at the very beginging is a sad attemps of a nice cornering shot from the outside. It was that dark though you can only see my headlights. http://www.segagagadomain.com/subaru-tsunoshima.htm yakumo
I love your car videos Yakumo, right now I'm watching the one you just took recently. It makes me want to get out and drive, and bring along a camera! Too bad I don't have one... I may get one just for the point of doing videos like that. I love driving at night, so I completely agree with you there, as well as I agree with driving a manual. I love this thread, very interesting and a lot of great stuff in it. I'm going to keep reading through it. Whats even more awesome, is your car Yakumo. Its nice to see another game collector that has the same interests as me with cars! I drive a 2002 Subaru WRX in World Rally Blue, and I love it to death. I wonder if anyone else on this forum is driving a WRX as well? I'll post some pictures of mine: I'm going to overload the thread with pictures so I'll stop. Heres another the last time it snowed though: What kind of mud flaps are on your STI Yakumo? I've been looking into getting some myself, and I really like the Rallyarmor UR Mudflaps. Here they are if you haven't heard of them: http://www.rallyarmor.com/store/impreza-blue-rally-mud-flaps-p-193.html Do you have any other mods done to your Subaru? Here is a list of mine: Engine / Drivetrain Subaru OEM SPT High Flow Air Intake with heatshield Subaru OEM SPT turbo heat shield STI Intercooler hose set TurboXS blow off valve TurboXS UTEC /w map selector APS 3" dual tip turbo back exhaust STI Short Shifter APS SR 375 Dual Entry Top Mount Intercooler Handling COBB Tuning Sway bar Exterior Tecnomagnesio 17" Indianapolis Interior Subaru OEM All Weather Floor Mats VDO Vision turbo gauge Audio / Video Pioneer DEH-1800 Excuse the weird copy and paste. I just copy and pasted that from a car website I am on instead of typing it out. You may have heard of it actually, http://www.mysubie.com I'm into autocrossing as it is, another one of my hobbies . So I'm constantly tinkering and adding new stuff. Anyways, I'll shut up now before this gets too long. Great STI you have, and good to see another Subaru fan. Now to browse through the rest of the thread.
Thanks. Just wish I had the money to blow on a bumper mounted HD camera for some real sense of speed. having the camera in the car really doesn't show just how nice the roads are or how fast I'm driving. Thanks. I bought my car just as the new shape came out making mine very cheap. It's the 2007 model with STi interior, gear box, suspension and some engine management and outer aero parts. I really wanted the STi WRX but they were a bit out of my price range. Still a STi tuned Impreza is still a very nice car. Currently at 312bhp. I want to build up the engine some more but cash is always a problem. I don't know about this forum but over at another gaming forum there's a collector in the UK who has a 2002 WRX like yours but in a different colour. Mine is probably the same colour as yours although they may have changed the name in Japan? Anyway, it looks the same, a very sharp sparkling blue. Your car looks sweet. In fact it was around the 2002 model when I became interested in the Impreza. Before that I always had my heart set on a Mitsubishi Evo but the ride in them is too hard for any lengthy driving. Great on the circuit mind you, better than an Impreza IMO. I love your twin tail pipes, they're not original Subaru parts, right? I'm going to do my exhaust next when I get some cash and was thinking about the twin tail pipe option since the gaping big wide tail pipes look ugly. They're pretty nice flaps you've linked to there. Here's a picture of mine. I have the full set but have only fitted the back ones since the front ones require a special tool to remove the plastic guard that covers the front wheel arches. I'm going to ask Subaru to do it next time I'm down there. Anyway, the flaps I have are the same as the ones in this link http://blog.hahn.bufferin.jp/?eid=901410 They're made from 3mm EVA material. Very strong stuff that can take some serious abuse. They're connected to the car via aluminum bracket plates. Not a lot I'm afraid. Most of the stuff such as the gears, engine management and so on was done before I bought the car. Stuff on my list includes new exhaust system (Next buy), remapping, new 17 gold alloys and a sexy top air-intake. Currently the air is sucked in through the big inlet behind the number plate. I have a Pioneer sound system too although it's under their Japanese only car brand name of Carrozzeria. I also have a DTS surround system in the car for use with the Navi/DVD player. Pioneer really do make some good audio / video gear. Yakumo
Yeah thats still a great vehicle. Its the same with me, I would have loved to have a 2004 WRX STI, but I just can't afford it, and my WRX is tuned enough to make me happy, and I like the hatchback better as its my daily driver as well, so its convenient. 312bhp is not bad at all, I'm at about 285 right now, stock they are 230. Once I go get it tuned on a dyno via my UTEC I will be around 300. I don't really want to go too much further than 300-350 range as like I said; its a daily driver, I don't need stuff breaking due to stress. Yeah in America we call in World Rally Blue. What is the name for it in Japan? I'm sure its the same color, Subaru blue is Subaru blue. I've always been a black car kinda guy, I had a Land Rover Discovery II, and a Mitsubishi 3000 GT in black. I wanted a black Subaru too, but when I found this one in blue, I fell in love with it. Its such a nice blue color, not a shade of blue you see very much. It grew on me, and now I prefer it. Though I still love a black Subaru. Yeah those aren't original, its a APS turbo back exhaust, I'll send you the link. It has a very nice sound too, its just that pleasant boxer engine deep growl, just louder. I'll have to make a video of the car and such and driving it around. I could at least use the video function on my digital camera I guess. http://www.airpowersystems.com/us_spec/subaru/exhausts/apswrx-hoe-r8/apswrx-hoe-r8.htm Yeah I like those. I'm trying to decide which ones I want. The RallyArmor company makes ones like yours as well, that are more hard. Mud flaps in general make a Subaru look pretty good, plus helps with debris kicking up so protects the paint Yeah I'd love to get some gold alloys, really completes the rally look. I'm looking for a '04-'07 STI hood scoop at the moment. The WRX hood scoop is smaller and doesn't open as much. No problem, but I have APS Dual Entry Intercooler ( http://www.airpowersystems.com/wrx/my01/tmic.htm ) and its a lot bigger than the stock one, so it would benefit from the STI hood scoop; it would look like this: Yeah I need to get mine mapped correctly like I mentioned before. Im running the TurboXS UTEC, but I'm just using the stock maps from the company, so its not exactly tuned for my exact car and mods. It still does well. I run it in Stage 2, which is at 16 PSI along with modified timing and fuel ratio and such. Stage 3 is my track map, it runs at 24 PSI, I have a stage selector switch mounted in the car. The UTEC is a neat little device, its a piggyback ECU. I can hookup my laptop to it and change all sorts of things with it and monitor the car. Heres a link to it as well if you have never heard of it: http://www.turboxs.com/more_info.php?ID=177 Very nice. I've never heard of their Carrozzeria brand name though, interesting. The system in my car is so-so. Its the Pioneer head unit, and then Rockford Fosgate speakers and amps for each in the door. My rear speakers are just stock though. It sounds good, nice and clear, but its nothing amazing. Your set up is a lot better. My GPS is just a Garmin window mount. I'm wanting to get a Pioneer head unit that has a pop out screen and integrated GPS and all. But at the moment I'm laying off the mods as I'm trying to focus on building up my Sega import collection again.
Same here. Many people ask why I went for the hatchback over the saloon version. And like you say, the hatchback is far better for an everyday car. The space in the back is plenty and best of all I can sleep in the back when ever I go out on an all night drinking session and have to wait until the next day to drive home. :thumbsup: 312bhp is more than enough I think. If I really wanted to race the car I'd up it a bit more but like you said, the more power the bigger the risk of something going wrong. Even at stock 230bhp there's still enough power for an everyday car with a bit of grunt. Just check out this YouTube video of some guy's Impreza doing over 500bhp on a rolling road.! This is truly overkill :nod: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5JBYr8GD1A&feature=player_embedded I'm not sure of the name used for my model although I do have the pain number written on the body stamp that I can check up. The new style Impreza STi blue is called WR Blue Mica. Sounds like you really know good cars! I've never owned a Discovery but had driven one back in the UK. Lovely ride for something designed to be an off roader. More impressive than the Toyota Land Cruiser I thought. Black is a nice colour for a car but the problem in Japan is that people are so dull. Until a few years ago most cars were either white, black or some shade of shitty grey. So owning something a different colour really stood out as something special. Recently normal cars are becoming more colourful so a black Impreza would probably look very cool these days. Saying that the official colour is blue and what a nice blue it is. Mazda in Japan have sort of ripped off the Subaru blue for their Alteza which also looks sexy. Too true, the boxer engine really does make a lovely growl, especially when changing gears. You can hear the growl on mine even over the background wind. I was looking to get something like this HKS set up. They're actually for the newer Impreza but I'm sure they'll still have something for my model. I would recommend going for ones like mine. They give the car that true rally look plus keep the car free from most stone chips thanks to the overlapping flaps. The ones I have are pretty stiff but they do bend. Just as well really because in Japan most parking places have stop blocks which the flaps always hit. I have to be careful not to reverse over my own mud flaps otherwise I'll rip off my own back bumper Bloody hell, that's a big intercooler! No wonder you want a larger scoop. I'm not a fan of the larger scoops my self. I always have this fear of something flying it to it as I'm speeding down the road. Here's a link to the homepage (Japanese only I'm afraid) http://pioneer.jp/carrozzeria/ My system isn't on there any more due to it being 2 years old but at least you'll get some sort of idea of the stuff they produce. Even the lower range speakers are pretty good. In my car I have a mid range set up with the normal set of 4 door mounted speaker with the front two being very generous in the low range bass area. Tweeters are situated in the front doors along the door handle making it look as if they're part of the door controls. The center speaker is behind the screen in the area that should contain the standard clock and temp readout. Then there's the big silver shinny amp in the boot along with a bass speaker which to be honest I only use for movies. Far too much bass for music on the move. Yakumo
Haha very true. I just got to use my hatchback for the first time today actually. I went a picked up a 36" Sony Trinitron/Wega CRT for my Sega consoles to play on, great CRT TV. Very very heavy and no way in hell I would have ever got it into a sedan WRX. I bought the hatch for reasons just like that. Wow that was a pretty crazy video. Yeah theres no way I would ever go that far unless it was just a completely devoted track car, or I was just made of money. Very nice though Oh I know, I loved my Discovery II to death. I really didn't want to part with it, but it was offroad modified and I was barely getting any MPG, which wasn't working for my hour commute each day to college. An amazing vehicle, I definitely plan to have one again. It use to always surprise me that even with mud tires and a 3" lift it still rode way better than any other off road vehicle I've been in. Not to mention just how solid those vehicles are, they go through and over anything you throw at it, it amazed me. I use to do a lot of offroad trail rides with a local Land Rover club and there would be times where I would think for sure I was going to get stuck trying to get through something, and everytime it would just go right through it. Of course the right suspension, differential locks, and tires factor into that; but even a plain stock one is an amazing vehicle. Heres a picture of mine: Haha yeah, it definitely can happen. I hit a bird once with my Land Rover, that was interesting. It bounced off the brush guard. So far I haven't ran into any birds with the Subaru, but thats just a chance I will have to take. It sure does happen though...
That's a beauty ! It is a shame that they are very heavy on the juice but then again if you're not worried about noise or on-road power you could always opt for the desiel :-0 Yuck! Now hat's what I'm afraid of :nod: I was bet today that I couldn't drift my car at 20KPH (12.4MPH) So off to the park next to my home we went. I did the drift, a wide drift I admit but a drift none the less. I'm now a nice 10'000 yen up. Don't you just love the so called "know it alls" of the world !(^o^)! It does look like a wide turn from the video but if you check out the position of the front wheels you'll see it's not a turn. Checkout the video here. http://www.segagagadomain.com/subaru-20kphdrift.htm The aftermath. Hope the owners of the park aren't too pissed :redface: Not too dirty either :thumbsup: Yakumo
Sneak attack! I half-expected you to pick the camera up giggling like a middle-school kid. *hahahadfakl;sjdfklja oh man!!!!*
Hah I wish, sadly America did not get the diesel options of the Discovery :\. Some people find the engines and swap them in though. I really wanted the diesel version. If I had the diesel version, I probably would still be driving it today. Though my dream Land Rover is a Defender 110 . I swear I'll own one of those one day. Lol! Pretty nice, who was it that challenged you? Haha, that parks grass looked pretty well taken care of, I bet that didn't go over well in the end That was also a pretty decent video for a 2007 cell phone. I need to take some videos of my car! I had one from when it snowed awhile ago somewhere. Wow 10,000 yen? :O Thats like $100 or so. Nice and easy bet lol. I wish someone would bet me something like that, I could use the money.
Hehehe, it was more like, time to get the fuck out of here before the grounds men come :cur_sonic: Oh yes, that is a very nice but very expensive car. I'd love one myself but the chances of owning something like that in Japan are 0. The import costs alone would do me in. A friend who owns a heavily customized 1997 Skyline. He's always bragging about how fast, controllable and loud his car is although I think it sounds like shit. No where near as nice as the growl a Subaru boxer engine produces My 2006 mobile has even better video with 3x optical zoom!! Pretty impressive stuff for a 2006 mobile and it had a GPS compass that i-phone only got last year Oh, and analogue TV and FM radio. Just a shame my stupid wife threw away the charger for it. I really need to find another. It would make a great camera for some really dirty shots in the wet or mud. No way am I using my HD camera for stuff like that. I'd like to see your snow video. Try and get it uploaded somewhere if you can. Most people I know are not well off but this guy always seems to be splurging cash. Then again maybe that's because he lives in a right dump. Yakumo
