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What to look for in the car im buying tomorrow...

3K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  turmic 
#1 ·
tomorrow im planning on buying an 14 wrx with 86k on it. i got him down to 10k for it.

its got an STi turbo, tanabe turboback catless exhaust, and CAI and HKS SSQ BOV. ill probably remove the last 2.

he said he got it tuned at turbo trix racing in edison nj.

my question for you guys is what should i look for to be a common problem area??

From what i have read, he did not do the mods in the correct order.

My friend with a wrx told me he should have gotten a bigger intercooler, injectors, and a fuel pump.

which of these is most important, and what other things should i look to purchase immediately to extend the life of the car? thanks
 
#5 ·
yeah, sorry i meant 04, and i just spoke to hi he does have the 550cc sti pink injectors.

I will immediately buy a larger tmic or fmic, depending on how much i have to spend.

My question is, has running this turbo on a stock intercooler and fuel pump maybe caused any damage?

it already seemed as though it took very long to spool up, almost to 4k rpm...if i get a front mount it will probably make the lag even more right?

Can a tune fix this properly so it spools lower and has a little more low end power?

do you guys think this car is worth buying? if it hasnt caused any damage, its an 04 wrx with 300hp for $10.5k with only 86k miles on it. sounds like a good deal..but im new to this
 
#6 ·
yeah, sorry i meant 04, and i just spoke to hi he does have the 550cc sti pink injectors.
Pinks are 565cc but whatever. Did you ask him about the fuel pump? Rarely do people upgrade the injectors and leave the fuel pump the same.
My question is, has running this turbo on a stock intercooler and fuel pump maybe caused any damage?
not if it's tuned correctly, no. However it will just make stock turbo like numbers with more lag...

it already seemed as though it took very long to spool up, almost to 4k rpm...if i get a front mount it will probably make the lag even more right?
Like I said, tiny intercooler and not enough fuel. Yes, FMIC would make it worse.

Can a tune fix this properly so it spools lower and has a little more low end power?
Yes, especially with an STi TMIC or larger.

do you guys think this car is worth buying? if it hasnt caused any damage, its an 04 wrx with 300hp for $10.5k with only 86k miles on it. sounds like a good deal..but im new to this
no, I'd spend more money for a cleaner car. 86k miles of hard driving is way way worse than 126k of grandma highway miles. $10.5k for a car that needs $5k in repairs (trannys are expensive) is way way worse than a $12k car that's in great shape.
 
#7 ·
yeah but its really clean, not one drop of oil anywhere. clean under body, clean engine bay, clean interior. He said he ran out of money to buy the intercooler and fuel pump, and told me that from the very beginning. the trans shifted real smooth when i test drove it. i also called turbo trix and they said they did a open ecu tune. its definitely running faster than stock. id like to buy it and replace the fuel pump and intercooler but that means i have to spend 500$ on another tune right?
 
#8 ·
yes, yes you would. You'd also want to deal with the CAI and BOV and get it tuned for better parts.

There's no way he put all that stuff on the car and didn't abuse it. "Shifts really good" comment from somebody who has limited subaru experience (no offense) should not be enough analysis to override the clear evidence of a hard-driven car with questionable mods.

Look, I'm just as guilty. I traded in my 04WRX I bought new for an STi with a laundry list of problems that took me thousands to clean up. Even now I'm still dealing with the previous owner's issues. I'm just trying to save you headaches. Sometimes headaches are worse than $$. You can't put a price on peace of mind.
 
#9 ·
thanks, youre very right. i think im still going to go with it. he only owned the car for 10 months, hes in the marines and is getting deployed to iraq. supposedly. the turbo is a vf43, off an 07 sti with supposedly only 35k on it. 21. he in total put 10k miles on the car, and it was stock before him he says. wish me luck, ill be around these forums alot from now on. first step will be an intercooler, fuel pump, and getting rid of the CAI and BOV.
 
#11 ·
another little way to inspect and see if the car was driven real hard - look underneath at the cv boots. there should be 2 crimps on each one and they should be straight across from each other horizontally. if they arent it means the guy liked to launch his car a bit.. unless he replaced the cv boots previously of course...
 
#13 ·
Yeah, especially with WRX's it's crucial to try your best to get a stock one. When I bought my Jetta, the previous owner had already lowered it, and that was the only visible mods, but after I started tearing through it, I noticed that the previous owner might have had an intake, because all the intake baffles and silencers and stuff were all gone. And that they might have done something to the ECU, because the path to get to it didn't seem like it was untouched... And my brother just bought an Integra with RacingHart wheels a short shifter and clear corner lights. It was a 1 owner, female, so we think maybe she just wanted it to look slightly better, not too sure about the short shifter though. We'll see how this one turns out. Good Luck man!
 
#16 ·
1 thing of note, check everything out. A guy I worked with bought a newer A4 3.0 not to long ago and he just now realized the previous owner was probably beating on it because the rotors are already warped. Its probably a 05 A4 at the most, because there's a section of the rotor that is rusted, and the rest isn't because the pad is actually hitting the rest of the rotor.
 
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