well after years of driving integras,( since i was 16, im 27 now) i decided to venture into AWD BOOST land. not only was i ready to expand the car side of my brain but fitting 2 baby carseats in the back of my integ was a joke. i have always loved subarus and new i would upgrade to one some day. i happened upon a very clean all stock 02 wrx sedan 5spd for 7k that i picked up so i have been reading and scrolling all the sweet threads..... soaking in upgrade and vehicle spec knowledge. have a good christmas everyone!

 

Welcome and congrats on your first subie

 

thanks! im currently making my mod list that i can start attacking after the new year. all these new brands and parts to learn and research... i love escaping reality.

 

ur first thing beofre buying actual bolt on mods is some sort of engine management, ie: cobb accessport.

 

thats ontop of the list thanks to all the good previous threads info from this site. although i saw someone point out that 02 -03 wrx doesnt need EM for exhaust boltons as much as the new wrx's do i know the importance of tuning issues. better be safe than sorry and i want to get the most out of my mods. the gains from the AP alone for $500 or $600 alone is nice. any shop recommendations for bay area? im in santa cruz but can travel to san jose and other surrounding areas. thanks

 

There was a thread on this before.

Novato - LIC Motorsports
Redwood City - Auto HQ
Hayward - GST Motorsports

Some others im sure people will post but those are 3 off the top of my head besides

speedelement - fremont

 

yes, the Ap is an awesome feature for the wrx/sti's. to a certain degree u are right about the exhaust and 02's and 03's. they still need it, but it is not as much of a problem as the newer ones due to smart ECU's in the newer vehicles.

be careful of ur transmission, the 5 spd's that come in WRX's are known as "Glass trannies" for a good reason, dont slam gears, droping the clutch is very bad too.. learning how to drive the awd 5spd is the most important thing to increase the trannies life span.

 

ya i have been looking up threads and have heard of those shops you listed. guess freemont is the closest thing to me i have found so far. im going to be able to take care of the majority of boltons and plugins myself but i know from experience that a good shop will be needed sooner or later cause sh**t happens. thanks

 

yes, a shop is nice to have especially when the ap no longer has OTS(off the shelf) maps for ur car and it needs to be protuned for every mod u do...

 

ya wrxisthebest, thats good advice. i remember when the 02 came out and many of my buddys and alot of people in general unloaded there gsr and type r integs to get the new wrx. after 3 or 4 months they were replacing trannys and figuring out how to not drive drive the cars. so anyway im aware of the tranny issue and am looking to upgrade the internals or do a swap if possible. the original owner said the dealer replaced some tranny bearings cause it was under warranty and he was having problems with it. im trying to get together a game plan here for the tranny so i can juice her up a little without roasting the tranny.

 

good point on the AP.

 

do PPG's


hella bullet proof

 

^^^ W3ED on the PPG's.

Welcome to the pure Bliss of AWD!! I too came from the honda scence when it just started. As much as I enjoyed burning up the quarter mile, not going in a straight line is way way more funner and more technical. Let the learning begin. Also NABISCO/Nasioc has alot of tech issues out of the 3 subie sites i visit.

walt

 

thanks walt...i just started checking out nasioc and it does have some good tech info on it. im enjoying the AWD alot and still getting used to the limits of the stock car, way different than what im used to.my main goal is to build a well wounded car that can hang with stock sti or evo, nothing crazy.

 

congrats bro! i was the same way i had 2 integras, 1 turbo. but nothing is as fun to drive as my suby. i did break my tranny after a few months of owning it. i tried to shift like i was driving a honda. big mistake! anyway enjoy your car.