So I've had my my04 wrx wagon for a little over a year now (32,000 mi - yes, I commute a bunch) and I would like to make my car a little more responsive. I know that an uppipe and turbo back exhaust would give me the results I want, but...I just witnessed my friend throw a rod on his 02 wrx which had CAI, UP, DP, and CBE since 9 months (about 15,000mi?) after he bought it. The rod failure happened at 58,000 miles, and the lucky bastard got a brand new engine courtesy of SOA.

I can say that he drove the car hard: didn't allow it to warm up before taking it to redline, gravel burnouts, regularly ran 100mph+ in 4th, etc. --> Sorry to sell you out if you're reading this, tiger. I don't do any of these things, but of course I bought this car for a reason and I like to have fun once in a while.

I've found some conservative wrx'ers on i-club like myself who love their car and want it to last forever, but I want a general census of everyone on here: Can I expect a decrease in the life of my engine if I change the exhaust, and therefore the backpressure on the engine?

Any opinions and especially real-life experience would be appreciated.

 

replacing the catted uppipe with a catless could potentially allow your turbo to last longer....

I cannot see a tbe decreasing the life of the car....although your buddy, obviously abused his car...w/o the TBE or any other mod, he still would have throw a rod, period....abuse is abuse...

 

^ what he said

you are perfectly safe with up pipe and turbo back