'02 WRX Sedan Observations

Nice commentary. Interestingly enough, this last weekend I was at a BMW driving school at Virginia International Raceway. I went out as a passenger in my instructors '97 M3 during the instructor track session. We hunted down and easily passed another instructor in a WRX on a wet track! FWIW, you an buy a low mileage '97 M3 for less than 20k. Since they easily last 200,000 miles, they still may be a better deal than the WRX if you don't need the 4WD.

Surprising, but there's soooooo many variables.

Sounds like typical "BMW-speak".

Yeah, but then ya look like every other 2-bit button-down yuppie rushing to a very important meeting. ;-)

...Ron

hey paul,

this is an issue that has a factory technical service bulletin released on it. generally those with legit. shudder problems got a new clutch, throw out bearing, and possibly a new flywheel replaced under warranty.

if the m3 is beating the 'rex off the line, then you're not launching properly! you can get a sub 2 second 60' time in a rex--a time VERY hard to beat in a 2 wheel drive vehicle.

you don't have to abuse it, either... what i find works best while being mechanically sympathetic is to rev up to about 5k, and let out the clutch. at the same time, increase throttle to wide open.

the speed of the clutch release is very critical. too fast and the rpms will drop down too much, and the car will bog off the line. too slow and you may heat the clutch up to the point of slippage. not a huge deal, but it does smell for a bit. nail the timing of both pedals and you will launch at close to 1g of acceleration.

the scoob's ecu is a marvelous device. it will continually attempt to advance ignition timing right up to the point of detonation. if it senses det via the knock sensor in a certain rpm range, it will pull back timing in that range. if it continually senses knock it will globally lower ignition advance.

"flat spots" in the torque of the motor are caused by this retarded rpm based ignition timing. they occur as the ecu attempts to avert damage due to the knock.

the cause of the knock is probably due to a batch of bad gas (ie insufficient octane), or a hard run when the intercooler was heatsoaked.

what octane fuel do you use generally? the injector cleaner may also have contributed to the knock.

to start over, disconnect one of the battery terminals and short it to the other one. (note: you're NOT shorting the battery itself, but the car's electrical harness.) this will cause your trip meter to reset, and your radio station presets to be lost, but it will also put the ecu back into a fresh state. the iam, or ignition advance multiplier, is a global value between 1 and 16 which indicates how agressive the ecu will be at advancing timing. when a stock ecu is reset it will go to the median value, 8. if no knock is detected this number will slowly rise to 16 as you drive the car. (there is also a "trick" that one can use to rapidly increase this number to the max, 16. it requires a boost gauge. let me know if you're interested. essentially it just starts the car at a more aggressive setting, and then allows the ecu to retard timing from there, as opposed to slowly increasing it. the end result will be substantially the same.)

there is also a table of advance per rpm range. these values will be reset to their initial baseline values. after restting, take the car for a quick spin. you should immediately feel a smoother powerband in your problem area, 5-5.5k. the car may feel a bit more sluggish overall if you do not do the iam trick, but let it warm up, drive it hard, and it will start to come alive again. there is a period of time where the ecu learns very aggressively right after a reset.

note that this doesn't attack the root cause of the problem, which is knock. if, after restting, you drive for a while and get the same problem, you know that you haven't found the issue... again, the two big ones are insufficient octane and heatsoak.

yes, lowering the car more than about an inch and a half will require some more hardware to keep proper wheel alignment. in particular, the lower ride height will contribute to a larger negative camber.. ie the tops of the wheels will be closer together than the bottoms, like /---\. there are camber bolts in the stock front end, which can allow for some adjustment, but they may not be enough. at this point, an adjustable strut top plate would be necessary. generally a degree of so of extra front negative camber is a "good thing" since it offsets the tendency of the front end to "push" in corners, or understeer. iirc, factory settings are just about zero camber. depending on how much you lower the car, you may or may not need extra bits to prevent excessive negative camber. within a value of less than about -2 degrees, you'll notice a LOT more stick in hard corners, and you'll notice less tire wear on the outside shoulder. any more than -2 degrees and you're just wearing out your tires on the inside edge, and you will start to lose lateral traction. it goes without saying that any suspension mods, especially springs, should be followed by a period of "settling" and then a professional alignment.

also, lowering the car more than 1.5" or so will probably lead to faster than normal strut wear, since it will be operating in a different range of travel.

go to whiteline's site

'03 mbp sportwagon.

Of course. Granted, my instructor is a phenominal driver.

M3's and BMW drivetrains, in general are extremely durable. Given similar abuse, I can't imagine WRX holding up nearly as well.

Agreed. Although I would rather look like that than have to be seen in an STi.

Why ever not? All the evidence these days points to the German marques being the ones with the problems. OK, so BMW aren't as bad as Mercedes or Audi, but they are lagging well behind the best of the Japanese these days.

Main problems with the M3, of course, is that it is over-weight and over-equipped. Thankfully, BMW has recognised that and come up with the CSL, which is a desirable car. Ridiculous price, though, and you'd still have to be seen driving it ;-)>.

David Betts snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk

The overall relaibility of the BMW is not up to Japanese specs, but the toughness of the powertrain under perpetual abuse far exceeeds the typical Jap car.

Agreed, but the standard E46 M3 is still an awesome car at any price. Actually, all M3's (E30 and E36) are awesome cars that have to be driven to be appreciated. I kinda like the way the new CSL looks.

'04 WRX. Now have 1500miles. Since new, the car seems to pull left. I waited a couple of weeks because I wanted to make sure before I talked to my dealer. Air pressure in all tire is to spec. On just about all roads, the steering wheel is always tilted right just to drive the car straight... even on roads that seem to be slanted to the right!

Dealer says that an alignment is NOT covered and I will have to fork out the $ myself?

Is that the norm or do I have a legitimate beef that should be covered?

Carleton

Assuming you didn't drive it into the curb on the way out of the dealership, you have a legitimate beef.

You paid good money for dealers prep and you deserve to get a properly aligned car. Either the alignment wasn't done properly at the factory, or it was damaged in shipment or on a test drive. In any case, they should be willing to fix it.

Driving an unaligned car is a royal pain in the ass and it scrubs rubber off the tires. If the dealer still won't do his duty, politely inform him that you'll see him in small claims court for the cost of an alignment and a new set of tires.

--------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Peterman al at scn.rain.com Tigard, OR As I grow older, the days seem longer and the years seem shorter.

Well, thanks all for the input. My dealer does NOT have a good rep in service. Unfortunately, I shopped price and got the car at invoice with a little extra paid to have it flat bed shipped to my house. It only had 6 miles on the odo when i got it. I have been babying my car so I am absolutely certain it wasn't me.

In any case, I decided to hit the local TireKingdom today and got the alignment. $59 with another $20 off with their online coupon. I guess for the convenience of getting it done fast, without a lot of hassle, $39 isn't too bad a deal. Car no longer pulls left!

Carlet>Assuming you didn't drive it into the curb on the way out

That sucks - my dealership gives one free alignment for every car they sell - you can use it any time during the warranty period (doesn't matter how the alignment was messed up)

At least alignments are cheap - a 4-wheel is usually $50-60 or so.

Which means basically nothing - on a wet track, the tires and the driver have much, much more to do with handling than which wheels are powered. (I am going to go out on a limb and say that the typical driving instructor is going to be much more skilled than the average joe racking up some track time on their WRX...) What would happen if there were some gravel here and there, or potholes, or a dirty, rutted section of the track - or even a dirt/mud covered portion - sort of doubt the M3 would be hanging with the WRX...

The M3 without question kicks the Subie's butt when it comes to creature comforts - but pitting german reliability vs. japanese? The average WRX should do 200k without too much trouble, either. The average BMW? I doubt it.

My dealer checked the alignment before delivery of my new 2004 impreza outback sport.

First off look at your Warranty book, have the service Manager show you the warranties on the Subaru network, Service-vehicle-inquiry, have him enter the vin # and print the coverages for you Speak to your salesman and manager then the owner. Any questions re Subaru can be answered at the CS number of

An alignment is covered by Subaru for the first 3/36

Marc Soloway Sales and Leasing Natick Subaru Natick, MA

I'd bring it to the manager's attention. They still make some $3-4K on each sale even at invoice.