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Old 02-24-2002, 04:02 AM   #8
supermarkus
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 6971
Join Date: May 2001
Chapter/Region: NWIC
Location: Edmonds, Washington, USA
Vehicle:
2008 WRX STi
SSM

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Quote:
Originally posted by Silver_SportTrac
i searched this site and found that the WRX has only 2 cats, not 3. Turns out the third one is just a resonater...
Wrong, there are 3 cats on the car. Up-pipe, down pipe, and mid pip. Do more research, the answers are out there and other people have answered this question a million times better than I can hope to. Let me reiterate, altering a functioning cat is illegal under federal law, this includes removing cats and replacing them with high flow cats. Removing the cats reduces back pressure, some manufacturers claim upwards of 20 hp from going to a 3" turbo-back with no cats.
The only thing that will void your warranty is racing the car or taking out of the country. That's it. SOA can choose to not do work under warranty if they determine an aftermarket part caused damages somewhere, but they can't say things like your wheels caused your radio to die. They have to prove a direct correlation between the part and the problem. Good luck trying to get them to believe that though, lots of people argue this fact with their service managers, some are starting to lose that argument.
You guys have to remember that the aftermarket arena for WRXs is relatively small and untested here. People are working on creating safe, reliable aftermarket goods for the USDM WRX but even so, time will tell us what works and what is snake oil or harmful.
I say wait a while and learn how to drive your cars in the stock form, get really in tune with it, and then start experimenting with aftermarket parts. These cars behave differently than 2wd cars and lots of people jumping on the Subaru bandwagon have never driven a 4wd car in their lives. There is a slight learning curve to driving these cars, especially one with as much juice as a WRX. Take lots of time to learn your car. Plus, if you take your time, you'll get to learn what actually works for the car. Let other people do the R&D for you, otherwise there is no getting around the addage "You play, you pay".
The BPM GT should say somewhere on the site that it's for offroad use only since it deletes the downpipe cat, it brings a mid pipe high flow cat to the party though.
Also, the consensus is that the little tiny turbo in this car and a slush box don't go together so well. Unless you plan more major upgrades to the car (torque convertor for starters) 4EAT will not bring you stunning performance. Manual is the way to go for performance driving, 4EAT is great for commuter cars and hilly areas. Sad but true.
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