The very one thing that surprised you with your 08+ STI?

[Smooth_Puddin]

Originally Posted by HinshawWRX

While you're paying 30K+ for a performance oriented car, you have to realize the soul base of the vehicle is that of an economy car. Tie that with mass production by semi skilled labor, you're going to have squeaks, rattles, and all things in between from time to time.

So of the 5 STi's I have driven, they all had the consistent rattling noises coming from the cabin. What would you blame that on. I got lucky and went 5 for 5? My 03 WRX with 207k never rattled, my 9-2x is a bit too quiet.

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[Jyu87]

Originally Posted by Smooth_Puddin

Have you never driven one OP?

Only sat in then passenger in the STi but have driven a couple WRXs. I guess I never really payed attention to the rattles.

[Llama_]

Originally Posted by Jyu87

I have been very antsy to hear what the stereo sounds like so this kinda soothed that. I mainly listen to Sports Radio but I also do like to jam out here and there.

Describe "how loud the transmission is" to me. Anything particular?

like really loud.. esp 1st and 2nd it whines a lot and sounds very mechanical.

[crick0234]

the one thing that surprised me was if i got a flat on the rear wheel, according to the manual, i have to move the rear to the front, and then shove the spare donut on the rear. Cannot put donut on the front.

Otherwise, everything particular about it is awesome and a fun new discovery.

[Gallo2011]

Originally Posted by mrkyle3

Yeah no the head unit is ENTIRELY the problem. I replaced my head unit and with no other changes it sounded worlds better. Then I added an underseat sub and it's pretty great now

And replacing the head unit with a more powerful one caused all the buzzing in the doors to magically disappear? Come on now.

[flargggWRX]

You know what surprised me about my WRX? The way it puts smile on my face EVERY time I drive it.

[SubieSnacks02]

So the only suprises on the 08+ Sti's are only the radio? That actually makes me feel pretty good being that I'm gonna get another Subaru in a couple of months.. I can live with that lol

[Badler]

When the rattles start to annoy you, just turn the ****ty stereo up.

[MorganJ]

I was surprised how well the car responds to mods. Upgrade the springs and WOW! Upgrade the struts, more WOW! Put on Turbo back exhaust and get a pro tune, OMG WOW is this the same car?

I can look past the crappy stereo and the rattles have been very few in my car and have been easy to fix.

[Anubis80]

Originally Posted by Badler

When the rattles start to annoy you, just turn the ****ty stereo up.

That usually solves it, sadly. Easy fix though

[MtnXfreeride]

Originally Posted by Gallo2011

And replacing the head unit with a more powerful one caused all the buzzing in the doors to magically disappear? Come on now.

I have no buzzing or rattling from the speakers, switching out the head unit made all the harshness of the stock stereo go away and it sounds great now with addition to a under seat sub and a 12" sub in the trunk of my hatch. This does a great job of drowning out rattles elsewhere in the car.

[Llama_]

I don't know guys. I don't think the stero is too bad but then again i haven't put it up past 20. No rattling issues here. The ride and the wind noise is the only slightly annoying part but I look past it and enjoy it knowing that it's a performance car

drive on!

[2k12sti]

Heh, I thought I was the only one dealing with the strange buzzes and noises. I get some buzz coming from the back passenger side of the cabin. I blamed it on the wing. I'm satisfied with the stock stereo. It's no 150db system but it's loud enuf to make the people sitting in traffic next to you roll their windows up and with some eq tweaking you can get "decent" sound quality. But it lacks serious low end over half volume. The one thing that surprised me is how moody the car seems to be stock. Some days it seems to run like twice the car of other days. I always run 92 or 93 octane depending on what has station I hit that morning. But there is no rhyme or reason to its moods.

[Jyu87]

Originally Posted by 2k12sti

Heh, I thought I was the only one dealing with the strange buzzes and noises. I get some buzz coming from the back passenger side of the cabin. I blamed it on the wing. I'm satisfied with the stock stereo. It's no 150db system but it's loud enuf to make the people sitting in traffic next to you roll their windows up and with some eq tweaking you can get "decent" sound quality. But it lacks serious low end over half volume. The one thing that surprised me is how moody the car seems to be stock. Some days it seems to run like twice the car of other days. I always run 92 or 93 octane depending on what has station I hit that morning. But there is no rhyme or reason to its moods.

Okay so let's get pass the stereo. Do you guys take it to the dealer and complain about the rattle? Do they do anything? No one has really said if they did or not.

I can kinda understand the moodiness to engines. Depending in the day and the temperature, I expect fluctuation. Although, she's still a beast haha!

[2k12sti]

Originally Posted by Jyu87

Okay so let's get pass the stereo. Do you guys take it to the dealer and complain about the rattle? Do they do anything? No one has really said if they did or not.

I can kinda understand the moodiness to engines. Depending in the day and the temperature, I expect fluctuation. Although, she's still a beast haha!

To be honest, the buzzing really doesn't bother me bad enough to warrant a trip to the dealership.

On a side note, a really nice surprise to me at least was the heated wiper blades and mirrors. I just wasn't expecting them to be honest. It's a very nice creature comfort.

I do wish it had adjustable pedals though. I have the all weather floor mats and I find my shoes get almost wedged between the mats and the pedals at times. This could just be my large feet but I also find myself Reving the engine when I'm on the brake some times. Once again, could be my size 13 feet.

Also, has anyone else's intercooler been getting dinged? My cars got less than 9000 miles and its got at least 6-9 bent fins already.

[2k12sti]

And speaking of pedals, I really wish the aluminum pedals had some rubber grips on them. If its raining when you get in your car your pedals are like ice.

[HinshawWRX]

Originally Posted by 2k12sti

Also, has anyone else's intercooler been getting dinged? My cars got less than 9000 miles and its got at least 6-9 bent fins already.

What do you expect to happen when you have a big hood opening leading directly to an intercooler comprised of hundreds of tiny aluminum fins? It happens to everyone.

[SpicyPeaNut]

Originally Posted by 2k12sti

And speaking of pedals, I really wish the aluminum pedals had some rubber grips on them. If its raining when you get in your car your pedals are like ice.

You mean like the little rubber dots that are all over the pedals?

[blehhh]

Originally Posted by SpicyPeaNut

You mean like the little rubber dots that are all over the pedals?

To be fair, my shoes and those dots don't get along that well when wet. They're kind of too big and too spaced out.

[Representexas]

Coming from an older various models of WRXs/Stis I have to say the number one thing that surprised me in my 2013 is the Sport dial !

I thought at first , here is something useless i will never use.

This past week i find myself changing between "I", "S" and "S#" at least once everywhere i go. LMAO. Kinda a lil extra fun IMO.

[whitesoorex]

The noises! Everything in the interior rattles and clicks and clunks. Coming from a history of Audis, this drove me insane... I'm still trying to just ignore it but its tough.

Road noise is looouuud, run over a pebble and it sounds like your running over a thousand pebbles.

Stereo is terrible. Handling is terrible.

That all being said I still love the car and dont regret for a second buying it, was pleasantly surprised by the quickness. You will love it.

[Jyu87]

Question regarding the wiper heaters. Didn't the 08+ WRXs have heated coil areas where the wipers used to sit on the wind shield? I could of sworn I saw that when I was looking to buy a couple years ago. Did they go away from this and basically make the actual wiper heated?

[MaddMax]

Stereo
I'm pretty pleased with the stereo once I found the thread that shows you how turn off the OEM equalizer, loudness, and specific chassis setting (wagon or sedan). The stereo sounds much better once you turn all this stuff off and lower the mid range. It's not luxury quality sound, but still far better and entirely acceptable to me.

Rattles
I've got a hatchback and my car did have it's share of rattles, pops, creaks, especially from the panels of the hatch. I pulled all the plastic panels from the hatch area and was really suprised how really none of the wires were secured and allowed to rattle around, touching the panels and metal frame. The nearly all panels themselves didn't have any soft materials to keep them from rattling on metal frame work. With about an hour of time, I addressed all the hatch rattles with foam tapes, foam, felt, etc. It's like a vault in the back. The only other rattles I get now are from the front pillars and that's very minor. That will be easily addressed soon.

I had a creaking drivers seat which apparently is common and techs and SOA can't seem to figure out how to fix. I found the source of the creak, loosened a bolt, and applied some lubricating oil. Issue fixed and that was 4 months ago.

I had a popping/creaking dead pedal. Fixed that by popping out the plastic rivet and installing some foam tape between the back of the pedal/carpet and metal chassis.

Seats
I found the seats to be decent, but I wanted to sit deeper in them. I fixed that by adding some firm material between the seat cushion and metal tub of the lower seat. I then undid two seat springs from the upper back support of the seat. Now I sit deep in the seat and it secures me nicely. Visually, the seat looks the same as stock.

[MaddMax]

Originally Posted by HinshawWRX

What do you expect to happen when you have a big hood opening leading directly to an intercooler comprised of hundreds of tiny aluminum fins? It happens to everyone.

It's going to happen and nothing you can do about it. Your radiator looks the same way. Buy a radiator fin straighting tool and address fins as needed.

[blehhh]

After my subframe inserts, I was getting squeaking from the styrofoam piece under the deck of the hatch. I wrapped them all in old t-shirts and no more squeaky-squeaky.

I will definitely be tearing down the interior of the car soon though to do dynamat, foam, tapping, etc.