Hey guys, I'm looking for suggestions on an exhaust system for my '02 WRX from the headers all the way back. Need to keep it street legal and I'm looking for the most power gain I can get, sound doesn't come into play. Another question, what's the typical cost to get all that installed? Looking for it to be professionally done. Thanks.

 

You neglected to fill out your Location field in your member Profile. What's your general location? Some states will not check for the presence of the factory catalytic converters, while others like California will scrutinize a car like it is the race winner and must go through tech for signs of cheating.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

I'm from New Jersey and they're quite strict with the cat laws.

 

well, an up pipe will help out performance and it practically invisible unless you know exactly where its located . . . other then that everything will be noticable [such as a downpipe]. i say just get a reflash if you want it to be street legal and not get hassled

 

What's a reflash, sorry I'm new to the whole car thing...I've never had any money to care about how they work before.

 

reflash = tune/engine management. the way cars come from the factory are fairly limited in terms of performance. a tune or some sort of engine management (cobb, vinshu, ect.) to your ecu would free up some hp under the hood. check out the engine management forum and the reviews up top for more info.

 

Thanks, but I don't want to void the warrenty on the engine, that's why I wanted to just focus on the exhaust.

 

That is what's so cool about the reflash. It is literally 'reflashing' your ecu, no piggy back unit or anything. The dealer (as far as I know) cannot detect if your car has been reflashed so it should not void your warranty, because it looks like the stock ecu.

 

Reflash is usually not detected by the dealership. Exhaust might void warranty if the dealership and SOA determine that it directly or indirectly caused failure of a component. It's likely that a catback exhaust will not cause a dealership any concern since the factory cats after the turbo are left intact and functioning. I think 3" works well but there are sometimes fitment issues at the rear differential.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

Hell if you sneeze the wrong way the stealership will void your warrenty. If you're worried about voiding the warrenty don't mod the car. Period. Even if you don't mod it, and something goes wrong you're going to have a hard time getting anything "free" from any dealership. Sounds like if you go with an exhaust I'd go as stealth as possible. A quiet exhaust is usually a cop friendly exhaust. I've had my set up (uppipe and turboback) in Northern California and have never been pulled over for noise.... then again the cops would have to pull over 50,000 rice rockets with fart cannons on the back before my number was up. I would recommend getting an STI uppipe in your case as it looks the most stock (since it is stock sti) and a reflash of some sort as has been suggested, see how much power your putting down, then decide on a stealthback. (If you want info on mine, pm me)

Ben