Jurzey's '00 STM RS Sedan - Subaru Impreza GC8 & RS Forum & Community: RS25.com

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 06:41 AM

Well I have been putting off writing this for a long time. So I guess I can start from the beginning before I lose track of all the things I have done and plan to do.

I started noticing Subarus when the WRX came out in 2002 and when the STi was released in the states I decided I was going to buy one after college. I went to a couple of dealers and figured I could afford the monthly payment. Then I got the insurance quote. Ha. I didn’t have the best driving record and the insurance payment totaled up higher than the price of the car. No STi for me. Fail.

While researching STi’s I came across a lot of information about the 98-01 Impreza and started to really fall in love with the body style. It just looked sexy. I had already come home from school at this point and after not buying the STi I bought a house instead. So I started my search for a CHEAP GC. It had to be a 4 Door and it had to be manual trans.

2 Years later after many test drives of other cars (sorry to anyone that thought I was joyriding) I found one… in NH. So I sent my uncle (who lives 30 min from the seller) over to check out the car. Got a call from him and he said it was really nice. What he didn’t tell me was that he is used to NH cars and expected the rust and bad brakes and piss poor clutch. So he failed to mention those things.

I worked out a deal with the guy selling it, rented a trailer, and drove up to test drive it... in February... in NH. The brakes and clutch were bad... there was considerably more rust then he said there was, the tank was on empty. As we got to a point where I figured it was time to turn around, he pointed to a side street and said "That will take us back"

The glory of all glory... a wide snow covered road in backwoods NH. No cars/people/animals around and plenty of view distance. I got on it in the first curve and drifted the car around the bend. The kid shit himself... I was hooked.

We got back to the house and I tried talking him down because of the extra issues with the car but he knew I already had the trailer and was not leaving empty handed. So I hand him the money and he just stares at me… “The title would help”… “Oh yeah”… he runs back in the house and started rifling through papers… no title, anywhere. So I ask him “Did you have a loan for the car?”… “Yes” Fucking HELL!

I told him I was taking the car and half the money and he would get the money when he sent me the title.

The whole drive home with the car on the trailer all I could do was stare out the back window of the truck. It was a glorious salt covered gray. When we got back to jersey we stopped at the local car wash and sprayed it off.

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 06:42 AM

Car Details:
2000 Subaru 2.5RS Sedan in Silverthorne Metallic Manual Trans

Dealer Options:
SPT/STi Shift Linkage
SPT/STi Cat back Exhaust
Gauge Pod
Strut Tower Bar
Premium Sound Package

Aftermarket:
Suspension – KYB AGX Struts, Swift Springs for GC, JDM 20mm RSB
Braking – 2006 WRX 4/2 Pots with all stock pads and rotors
Engine – K&N Drop in Replacement Filter
Interior – Alpine HU – MP3, XM Radio, WRX Pedals
Exterior – Clear Corners, Rockblocker Red Tails

Future: (WTB)
USDM STi Seats front and Rear
Alpine IVA-W200 + NVE-852A
Alpine Speakers all around
P1 Fogs
v.6 Grill
Turbo Motor and Drivetrain Swap
Front LSD

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 06:57 AM

Now I have it home. First thing I did was read EVERYTHING about the car and decide what to mod first second third fourth fifth… etc. and took pictures.

I didn’t receive the title until a month later and he knocked the price down to $5400 to make up for it. ($100 discount)
It was ready to move to its new home.

You will also notice in this picture that it took me all of a week to get clear corners on... thanks Josh.

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 07:10 AM

Fist thing I wanted was a shorter throw on my Shifter… I was confused because everyone complained about the sloppiness of the RS shifter and mine just did NOT feel sloppy. It felt great! But it was too damn high. I pulled off the cover exposing the shifter and noticed that it looked NOTHING like the ones people show in their kartboy comparison and do it yourself short shifter threads. Mine was skinny and gold not black.

So I picked up a new die with the same size threads and started running it down the shaft. I planned on just cutting off the extra inch on the top and the problem would be solved. Something wasn’t right though, cutting the threads down was WAY to easy. I could spin it with my fingers. Then I realized the threads were wider than the rest of the shifter. Crap. So I’m still on my stock shifter, not entirely a bad thing when you have the SPT/STi shifter option from the dealer, but still too tall.

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 07:34 AM

The clutch was bad, but good enough to get me around. It still had a few thousand miles before it let go and wouldn’t move the car. Then the first problem started. I overheated on the way to work. Then I overheated on the way home from work. Then I took my extra car to work for a few days until the weekend. Every time I took the car out of the driveway it overheated, but idling in the driveway was fine. The coolant would blow out the overflow and then the heat in the car would give out because nothing was circulating. I changed my thermostat and water pump but it still overheated. There was no oil in the coolant, there was no coolant in the oil, and the compression test came up fine. WTF! Then I took it to a buddy of mine who runs a garage. He put the emissions testing equipment in the overflow tank and we found out it was not boiling out from the heat. It was being blown out by the compressed gas in the cylinders. I had a major HG failure.

FAIL!

So no more than a month after owning the car I took it over to Scoobysnack’s garage and we pulled the motor out and ripped it down. I put all new seals and gaskets in, got a full valve job, head cleaning, reset the lifter clearances, and changed all the fluids. While we had it out we used the opportunity to change the clutch to a brand new OEM disk and pressure plate.

Got it back on the road and the problems were gone. I also got back a lot of power. Ooooooooooooooh, Poooooowwweeeeeeeeeer.

Josh, help me out with some pictures.

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 07:51 AM

Next came the suspension, it felt good when I first got the car. But the body roll was really getting on my nerves.

Josh picked up a JDM 20mm rear sway bar for $25 or something absurd and it was hanging around his garage while we waited for a good time to install it. It took a bit of fabrication to make the old sway bar brackets fit the new sway bar bushings... you can see the main part of the process in this picture.

In the summer of 2007 I started scouring the classifieds and ebay for a good deal on suspension bits. The first thing I found was Swift had just released spring sets for the GC. Because this car is my DD and my wife has to ride in it often I didn’t want to go crazy. Just something stiffer than stock, these springs were perfect. My brother picked them up for me for my birthday. When we put them on though I found out my rear struts were blown and I desperately needed struts to prevent destroying my new springs. Lucky for me there was an ebay auction for KYB AGX’s not generating much attention. I sniped the auction and picked up the struts for $210 WITH top hats and H&R springs.

We pulled off the old struts no more than 2 weeks after putting on the swifts… swapped the swifts onto the AGX’s and went out for a ride. OMFGCMP! I love it. The adjustable AGX’s made such a huge difference. Although… now that I have driven on the RCE Tarmac 2 coilovers in Carisma’s car…

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 08:24 AM

Next Came Brakes… actually they went on with the new suspension but they really do deserve their own Post.

My rotors were warped and my pads were getting thin and I like to over engineer cars rather then under engineer. I also didn’t want to go crazy trying to change things so that Brembos would fit properly. So I decided the best thing for me to do is pick up some ’06 4/2 Pot brakes. They pop right on in the front and the rears just require a backing plate change.

I found a guy selling an ’06 drive train on ebay. I checked his other auctions and he made no listing for the brakes. So I sent him a pm via ebay and asked if he still had the brakes on the car. Apparently he did and their normal pricing is half of retail. BINGO! I hit the jackpot. Sent him the pricing of the kit on subarugenuineparts.com and told him I would pay $600 for the complete set up. He wrote back saying that his son told him those brakes were worth twice what I offered him if he sold them on ebay. Bummer. So I found his auction and at the last minute sniped it for $410 which didn’t clear the reserve price. The next day he called me back and took me up on my $600 offer.

When I finally got them (hand delivered) he told me he didn’t want to mess with removing the backing plates so instead he just brought me the whole hub with bearings from a car with only 5k miles on it. Man does this get any better?

The four pots went on without a hitch and have been stopping my car with ease. No warped rotors anymore, the pads last forever. I love it. Next thing I need is an STi master cylinder and brake booster. Anyone got one lying around? I take donations.

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 08:36 AM

Pictures were taken… sometimes with friends.

Parts were accumulated (Josh’s stuff too)

and good times were had by all…

**Jurzeyfresh** · 02-17-2008, 08:37 AM

Until a deer had to hip check me…

The car is currently under the knife because of this.

**cmiovino** · 02-19-2008, 03:30 PM

Ouchies, get that fixed! And give me some parts.

All in all, looks good... stock-ish look.

02-17-2008, 06:41 AM	#1 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Jurzey's '00 STM RS Sedan Well I have been putting off writing this for a long time. So I guess I can start from the beginning before I lose track of all the things I have done and plan to do. I started noticing Subarus when the WRX came out in 2002 and when the STi was released in the states I decided I was going to buy one after college. I went to a couple of dealers and figured I could afford the monthly payment. Then I got the insurance quote. Ha. I didn’t have the best driving record and the insurance payment totaled up higher than the price of the car. No STi for me. Fail. While researching STi’s I came across a lot of information about the 98-01 Impreza and started to really fall in love with the body style. It just looked sexy. I had already come home from school at this point and after not buying the STi I bought a house instead. So I started my search for a CHEAP GC. It had to be a 4 Door and it had to be manual trans. 2 Years later after many test drives of other cars (sorry to anyone that thought I was joyriding) I found one… in NH. So I sent my uncle (who lives 30 min from the seller) over to check out the car. Got a call from him and he said it was really nice. What he didn’t tell me was that he is used to NH cars and expected the rust and bad brakes and piss poor clutch. So he failed to mention those things. I worked out a deal with the guy selling it, rented a trailer, and drove up to test drive it... in February... in NH. The brakes and clutch were bad... there was considerably more rust then he said there was, the tank was on empty. As we got to a point where I figured it was time to turn around, he pointed to a side street and said "That will take us back" The glory of all glory... a wide snow covered road in backwoods NH. No cars/people/animals around and plenty of view distance. I got on it in the first curve and drifted the car around the bend. The kid shit himself... I was hooked. We got back to the house and I tried talking him down because of the extra issues with the car but he knew I already had the trailer and was not leaving empty handed. So I hand him the money and he just stares at me… “The title would help”… “Oh yeah”… he runs back in the house and started rifling through papers… no title, anywhere. So I ask him “Did you have a loan for the car?”… “Yes” Fucking HELL! I told him I was taking the car and half the money and he would get the money when he sent me the title. The whole drive home with the car on the trailer all I could do was stare out the back window of the truck. It was a glorious salt covered gray. When we got back to jersey we stopped at the local car wash and sprayed it off. Attached Thumbnails __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 03-27-2008 at 05:24 PM..

02-17-2008, 06:42 AM	#2 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Car Details: 2000 Subaru 2.5RS Sedan in Silverthorne Metallic Manual Trans Dealer Options: SPT/STi Shift Linkage SPT/STi Cat back Exhaust Gauge Pod Strut Tower Bar Premium Sound Package Aftermarket: Suspension – KYB AGX Struts, Swift Springs for GC, JDM 20mm RSB Braking – 2006 WRX 4/2 Pots with all stock pads and rotors Engine – K&N Drop in Replacement Filter Interior – Alpine HU – MP3, XM Radio, WRX Pedals Exterior – Clear Corners, Rockblocker Red Tails Future: (WTB) USDM STi Seats front and Rear Alpine IVA-W200 + NVE-852A Alpine Speakers all around P1 Fogs v.6 Grill Turbo Motor and Drivetrain Swap Front LSD __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 02-17-2008 at 09:31 AM..

02-17-2008, 06:57 AM	#3 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Now I have it home. First thing I did was read EVERYTHING about the car and decide what to mod first second third fourth fifth… etc. and took pictures. I didn’t receive the title until a month later and he knocked the price down to $5400 to make up for it. ($100 discount) It was ready to move to its new home. You will also notice in this picture that it took me all of a week to get clear corners on... thanks Josh. __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 02-17-2008 at 08:40 AM..

02-17-2008, 07:10 AM	#4 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Fist thing I wanted was a shorter throw on my Shifter… I was confused because everyone complained about the sloppiness of the RS shifter and mine just did NOT feel sloppy. It felt great! But it was too damn high. I pulled off the cover exposing the shifter and noticed that it looked NOTHING like the ones people show in their kartboy comparison and do it yourself short shifter threads. Mine was skinny and gold not black. So I picked up a new die with the same size threads and started running it down the shaft. I planned on just cutting off the extra inch on the top and the problem would be solved. Something wasn’t right though, cutting the threads down was WAY to easy. I could spin it with my fingers. Then I realized the threads were wider than the rest of the shifter. Crap. So I’m still on my stock shifter, not entirely a bad thing when you have the SPT/STi shifter option from the dealer, but still too tall. __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

02-17-2008, 07:34 AM	#5 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	The clutch was bad, but good enough to get me around. It still had a few thousand miles before it let go and wouldn’t move the car. Then the first problem started. I overheated on the way to work. Then I overheated on the way home from work. Then I took my extra car to work for a few days until the weekend. Every time I took the car out of the driveway it overheated, but idling in the driveway was fine. The coolant would blow out the overflow and then the heat in the car would give out because nothing was circulating. I changed my thermostat and water pump but it still overheated. There was no oil in the coolant, there was no coolant in the oil, and the compression test came up fine. WTF! Then I took it to a buddy of mine who runs a garage. He put the emissions testing equipment in the overflow tank and we found out it was not boiling out from the heat. It was being blown out by the compressed gas in the cylinders. I had a major HG failure. FAIL! So no more than a month after owning the car I took it over to Scoobysnack’s garage and we pulled the motor out and ripped it down. I put all new seals and gaskets in, got a full valve job, head cleaning, reset the lifter clearances, and changed all the fluids. While we had it out we used the opportunity to change the clutch to a brand new OEM disk and pressure plate. Got it back on the road and the problems were gone. I also got back a lot of power. Ooooooooooooooh, Poooooowwweeeeeeeeeer. Josh, help me out with some pictures. __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 02-17-2008 at 08:31 AM..

02-17-2008, 07:51 AM	#6 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Next came the suspension, it felt good when I first got the car. But the body roll was really getting on my nerves. Josh picked up a JDM 20mm rear sway bar for $25 or something absurd and it was hanging around his garage while we waited for a good time to install it. It took a bit of fabrication to make the old sway bar brackets fit the new sway bar bushings... you can see the main part of the process in this picture. In the summer of 2007 I started scouring the classifieds and ebay for a good deal on suspension bits. The first thing I found was Swift had just released spring sets for the GC. Because this car is my DD and my wife has to ride in it often I didn’t want to go crazy. Just something stiffer than stock, these springs were perfect. My brother picked them up for me for my birthday. When we put them on though I found out my rear struts were blown and I desperately needed struts to prevent destroying my new springs. Lucky for me there was an ebay auction for KYB AGX’s not generating much attention. I sniped the auction and picked up the struts for $210 WITH top hats and H&R springs. We pulled off the old struts no more than 2 weeks after putting on the swifts… swapped the swifts onto the AGX’s and went out for a ride. OMFGCMP! I love it. The adjustable AGX’s made such a huge difference. Although… now that I have driven on the RCE Tarmac 2 coilovers in Carisma’s car… __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 02-17-2010 at 10:30 AM..

02-17-2008, 08:24 AM	#7 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Next Came Brakes… actually they went on with the new suspension but they really do deserve their own Post. My rotors were warped and my pads were getting thin and I like to over engineer cars rather then under engineer. I also didn’t want to go crazy trying to change things so that Brembos would fit properly. So I decided the best thing for me to do is pick up some ’06 4/2 Pot brakes. They pop right on in the front and the rears just require a backing plate change. I found a guy selling an ’06 drive train on ebay. I checked his other auctions and he made no listing for the brakes. So I sent him a pm via ebay and asked if he still had the brakes on the car. Apparently he did and their normal pricing is half of retail. BINGO! I hit the jackpot. Sent him the pricing of the kit on subarugenuineparts.com and told him I would pay $600 for the complete set up. He wrote back saying that his son told him those brakes were worth twice what I offered him if he sold them on ebay. Bummer. So I found his auction and at the last minute sniped it for $410 which didn’t clear the reserve price. The next day he called me back and took me up on my $600 offer. When I finally got them (hand delivered) he told me he didn’t want to mess with removing the backing plates so instead he just brought me the whole hub with bearings from a car with only 5k miles on it. Man does this get any better? The four pots went on without a hitch and have been stopping my car with ease. No warped rotors anymore, the pads last forever. I love it. Next thing I need is an STi master cylinder and brake booster. Anyone got one lying around? I take donations. Attached Thumbnails __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

02-17-2008, 08:36 AM	#8 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Pictures were taken… sometimes with friends. Parts were accumulated (Josh’s stuff too) and good times were had by all… Attached Thumbnails __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 02-17-2008 at 08:54 AM..

02-17-2008, 08:37 AM	#9 (permalink)
Jurzeyfresh Super Moderator Car: 2000 STM RS Sedan 5spd Fav Mod: '06 4/2 pots My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Newton, NJ Trader Rating: (6) Posts: 6,455	Until a deer had to hip check me… The car is currently under the knife because of this. Attached Thumbnails __________________ Light a man a fire and he is warm for a day, light a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Jurzeyfresh; 02-17-2008 at 08:56 AM..

02-19-2008, 03:30 PM	#10 (permalink)
cmiovino Noobawitz Car: '98 Impreza OBS Fav Mod: Trunk Monkey My: Subaru Parts My: Subaru Blog Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Trader Rating: (22) Posts: 5,477	Ouchies, get that fixed! And give me some parts. All in all, looks good... stock-ish look. __________________ Newbie?... Read my Budget Build FAQ!

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