2004 STi - new owner questions

I don't think one can legally do this in most states. There are too many people who might want to recalibrate a speedo to reduce the odometer reading. Take it to a shop if you need recalibration.

The stock tires are known to be extremely low wearing. If you're willing to sacrifice some grip, you can find suitable all-season performance tires. Perhaps Michelin Pilot Sport A/S or Pirelli PZero Nero M+S will last longer.

I haven't found any parts stores that sell the correct paint. Dupli-Color certainly doesn't have it.

Are those tires the 'stock' size? If not, they may cause the speedo error. Speedos quite commonly have severla percentage points of error I think.

Check

for the stock size and for some reviews of tires. Note, in larger metropolitan areas, your local chain tire store can often order any tire you see at that website and sometimes match or beat the price. If not, tirerack lists shops they will send your order to for mounting.

maybe your Soob dealer sells a touch up bottle for the paint. Sometimes a pinstripe or graphics can be applied to cover a 'key' mark or other blemish.

Wish i had a fun car like that!

carl

Mark Carroll wrote:

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Don't know how it works in the US (I'm in Oz), but aren't you still under warranty? If so, why not get the dealer to take a look at the speedo. AFAIK you're running stock tyres, so I'd expect it to be pretty close to spot on or only slightly optimistic. How far out is it?

To do maningful investigation of the NVH issues it would help to either find another stock STi with the same tyres and compare them back to back OR get someone who knows the cars backwards to evlauate yours as to whether it's typical or not. IME things like suspension bushings, tyres and things like aftermarket exhausts and suspension components are usually the biggest contributor unless there's an endemic problem anyway. Cheers

The headlight issue makes me wonder if the car was involved in an accident. There is no reason the beam patterns should be off unless the headlights were replaced and no attempt was made to realign them.

Mine does too. It reads about 8 KPH over (around 5 MPH). The dealer can recalibrate it if you like. I didn't bother since it keeps me out of trouble, and the snow tires are slightly larger diameter, so the speedometer reads correctly with them on.

There is a fair amount of tire noise on all STis with RE070s. Because the tire is so grippy, it make quite a racket. My snows are actually more quiet then my summers. There is also a fair amount of mechanical noise in the STi and very little sound-deadening material to absorb it. You get used to it, and for me, it adds charm to the car.

I have about 40,000 KM on mine (around 24,000 miles) and they are just now needing to be replaced. However, I do mostly highway driving. On secondaries, you will get a whole lot less. If you go for a longer lasting tire, you'll lose a whole lot of grip.

For winter I use Perelli P225 205/55R17 mounted on 7" rims (I don't use the

7.5" BBS in the winter) and I have had good luck with them. However, the car takes a bit of getting used to when I change tires since the softer sidewall makes the car handle completely differently.

That sometimes happens in shipping I am told. The dealer can take car of it. There are two adjusting screws for the lights but getting them aligned correctly is best left to the dealer.

The touch-up paint is available at Subaru and it was $9.25 CAD per tube. However, it takes about 4 weeks to get it in unless the dealer sells a lot of STis and stocks parts; which my dealer doesn't since only four were sold in my area.

Unless the previous owner adjusted them out of consideration for oncoming traffic..? :-) Stranger than fiction..

In article , snipped-for-privacy@example.com says...>

Is that the US DOT number? That doesn't translate to any particular mileage, but can be used "relatively" between tires from *same manufacturer*, to guesstimate which tire might last longer in use. There's latitude for the manufacturers in how they do the actual testing, so even trying to cross ratings between makers is somewhat iffy.

No, it is the wear rating and for those of us on metric it does roughly equate. The average street touring tire is around 480; about 48,000 KM or around 30,000 miles under harsh driving. 140 is approximately 14,000 KM (9000 miles) under harsh driving.

Ah,nice...we have federally mandated wear, temp and traction ratings, but they lose "comparative" value when crossing brands.

We do too. We use the same ratings as you do. However, it happens that by luck the numbers work out if you are on metric. It still depends on your driving. On my 140 tires, I now have 40,000 KM (about 26,000 miles). Then again, I do mostly highway driving and believe in friction; not losing friction. Like most things, the wear indications are worse case.

However, if you are driving on, say 280 (a pretty grippy tire) under the same driving conditions they will likely wear about the same irrespective of the brand.

In that case, unfortunately, crossing a BF Goodrich "140" treadwear rating to a Firestone "280", will not signify that the Firestone will last twice as long; nor will it signify that the Firestone will last any *specific* quantity of miles, kilometers, cubits or henways.

OK, I'll bite....

What is a henway?

Coupla two, three pounds, usually.

(Sorry, it's normally an orally delivered gag..just couldn't resist!)

I thought I'd catch you by spelling out "what is" rather than saying "what's" per the oral version of the joke. Oh well, it's still a good joke and probably some here have never heard it before.

Steve.

Thanks for the responses. This seems like a great, helpful group!

It turns out that a previous owner had a small collision with a fire hydrant, which explains the alignment and the headlamp issues. The Infiniti dealer I bought the STi from was kind enough to adjust the headlamps and do a four-wheel alignment for free, but next week I'll take the STi over to a Subaru dealer (first one I found I didn't like, so onto the next) to have them look it over with the history in mind and make sure everything's back to within specification.

I'll get the scratch refinished at a professional body shop. I found out which the Subaru dealer uses; I figured they'll have the right paint, etc. and know what to do. They make all the right noises about sanding and rust protection and clear-coat and suchlike.

The speedometer's out by between 5% and 10%. It doesn't sound like much, but it drives me crazy: our other car and my previous car are dead-on by comparison. The dealer doesn't yet know if they can adjust this, or if they'd have to replace the speedometer (presumably prohibitively expensive). My hope is they can adjust it so that it's within 5%, but if not then I guess I'll learn to live with it.

Thanks for the pointer to

It seems a good site: large selection, reasonable search. Are there any other good ones? It's got me thinking of maintaining two sets of tires: four for summer, four for winter, keeping the others in cool, dry, air-sealed storage. I usually just buy all-season tires, but maybe it's worth reconsidering that?

-- Mark

In article , Mark Carroll wrote: (snip)

(snip)

They say that they can't adjust the speedometer calibration. Ah well.

-- Mark

If it is any consolation, mine is out by about 6% but the odometer is bang on for some reason. Kepps you out of trouble though.

Thanks! I was wondering about the odometer. (-:

-- Mark