I brought my car into the dealership today for the 02-03 wrx fuel line recall. Service rep told me that when they take off the turbo inlet hose under the manifold to access the troubled fuel lines they often find that the stock turbo inlet hose is old, dried up, cracked, has holes, and sometimes may not be able to be put back on. So he said that I should probably replace it. I was thinking about getting one of the samco turbo inlet hoses(apparently those are the best fitting ones and won't give me any fitment issues compared to perrin?).

The cost of the samco is $309...from oakos. and service rep said i'd be charged $172 for a brand new subaru turbo inlet hose and $0 for labor since they already have everything out due to the recall.

So I'm wondering in the event that I need to get my hose replaced, should I just have them replace it with a new stock one since no labor is charged or put the sucky old one back on and do the aftermarket tubro inlet route? I won't be driving my car much in the meantime anyways.

EDIT:: oakos is selling the samco piece for $309.

thoughts? opinions? thanks

 

I'd go with aftermarket - if you look at them, they are larger and smoother than the stock one. Smooth airflow can make a big difference. I was looking at the Perrin one also, and have seen the Samco also, but haven't had time to really make a decision on it yet either, but I will be switching out the stock one for sure. I already did the Perrin IC hoses and it noticably improved spool smoothness.

 

WoW, 393 dollars for the Samco? That's alot, the APS 3" hard pipe use to cost less and alot better!

 

the only reason i'm asking is because of all the stories posted on nasioc and similar forums about bad turbo inlet fitments, and potential rubbing on some banjo bolt on the ps lines that would cause one of the lines to leak/come off thus needing a new ps pump. things like that. oh and its a major pita according to everyone lol. so i was thinking, i'm not going big turbo or anything, maybe a brand new stock one would be better than the old stock on anyways-right?

 

I wish i could get the fuel line recall done... =( stupid 05

 

I haven't read any of those stories, but my buddy who has a shop said the same thing. He has had customers come back with that exact issue with the Perrin tube.

Samco is $339 at FastWRX, but I see you found it for less

 

The perrin inlet hose is $230, worked well for me

 

When I was doing research, I found that the AVO is one of the best silicone, but it's a bit harder to install since it's a single piece that has the pipe that connects directly to the airbox. I waited a few months deciding if I should purchase it, ended up finding an APS hard inlet, so I went that way instead.

Just what I found out while I was researching a replacement for my ripped inlet. Since my manifold was being taken off anyway, I got my TGVs deleted as well

 

If you replace the turbo inlet hose do you have to tune for that?

Also, if you replace it with an aftermarket one (like the Samco or APS) do those affect being able to pass SMOG or not?

 

Definitely replace it.

You can get the AP racing APS knockoff for $250ish. I would go with that or a Samco/Perrin. Perrin worked great for me. It was close to that bolt so I put a piece of rubber hose in there as a shield. Worked great for 70k until I sold it

 

Well I had the dealer just replace mine. I figured for a completely stock car it wasnt going to show gains worth the time and labor and cost of the inlet. I'm running with a stock td04. Maybe when I go e85 stage 2 and supporting mods I might change it as well but for the meantime having the dealer do free labor doesn't come by so often lol

 

I've had the APS inlet on my 02 with VF34 but it fit like crap on my car(there is a big thread on nasioc about APS inlet installation, some people have issues like me, some don't). Finally got fed up and bought a perrin one a couple of weeks ago. The perrin fits much much better(on my car) and installation took much less time.
The new Perrin inlet is wire reinforced whereas the old design was not(and there were a few reports of it collapsing under boost). Also heard of some fitment issues with the old design. New design seems to be ok.

 

The APS is a hard pipe, have to remove the manifold to do the hard pipes! My APS inlet worked great, they take alittle more time to get to fit correct!

 

Ya if everything else is stock staying stock is a good plan. Makes the dealership a lot easier to deal with too.

 

I doubt the dealer would complain about something like an aftermarket turbo inlet hose, unless it directly caused a problem like those that have had the PS/banjo issue.