I'm looking into doing one or two minor upgrades to my WRX, but I'm very ignorant went it comes to cars (I didn't know what a "cat back" exhaust system was until today, for instance), so I'd like some opinions.

I'd like to get a bit of a boost in low-end torque and to overall acceleration, but I'm not looking for anything earth-shattering. My WRX is my daily commute car, so reliability is much more critical than super-high performance.

It didn't take me long to find my way to the Cobb Tuning site and their AccessECU reflash service:

http://cobbtuning.com/wrx/powerpackage1.html

If I understand this right, for about $1000 plus shipping, I can get a reflashed ECU and their cat back exhaust and get what I'm looking for.

It seems too good to be true. On this page:
http://cobbtuning.com/wrx/accessecu.html

...they're saying that I could get around 280 hp / 285 ft-lbs torque with the 91 octane mapping? That would be fantastic. That's actually a bigger boost than I was even looking for, but for $1000, why not, right? Any drawbacks? I mean, I'm not going to start getting 2 miles per gallon or something, am I?

The other question I had: While I'm positive that the ECU removal/install is a no-brainer based on the instructions at the Cobb site, can a car idiot like me install a cat back exhaust? They list it as "novice" level, so I'm guessing "yes."

 

Oops, I think I misread one of the pages. They listed the ECU flash with a "turbo back" exhaust at 280HP / 285 ft-lbs.

The basic one at 255HP / 265 ft-lbs would be closer to what I'd be getting I guess. I'm kind of confused how the "cat back" exhaust would affect HP and/or torque though.

In any case, it still sounds like both upgrades would be very much worth it.

 

Cool - I'll at least do the ECU thing. I guess I'll just call Cobb to figure out what kind of improvement I should expect with the exhaust thing. Sounds like it would be a fairly minor performance boost, but for $600 + I can install it myself, that's not a tough sell.

 

Will they give you a map for turboback with uppipe?

 

Well I got my ECU reflashed by Cobb last week. The turnaround time was great - only had to get a ride to work for two days. I sent it in Monday night (overnight shipping) and I had it back my Wednesday morning, though it arrived shortly after I left for work.

So far, so good. Don't have anything groundbreaking to report, but it's a noticeable difference. It's hard to explain, but it just kind of feels right. When I get past 4000 rpms, the difference becomes even more noticable. I like it!

Now one thing I didn't see mentioned on their web site was that you're supposed to replace your turbo vacuum line with a different one for the Stage 1 reflash to be able to hit the target boost levels. They do include the part, but I screwed that up. I took the old one out, and proceeded to trim the new one to the length of the old one. Oops, trimmed it from the wrong end! The little metal restrictor that's inside is too close to one end now...

Anybody know how significant replacing that line is? Just curious.

I'll guess I'll have to call Cobb on Monday to get another little line. I assume it's like a $1 part.

So a little tip: pay attention to where the restrictor is before you trim the vacuum line.