Thread: My 1993 Impreza AKA the daily - UEL header, STi catback, and white WRX wheels!

I've been looking for a daily driver/beater car ever since I got the STi even though my original intent was to drive the STi daily. With all the work I've put into it and how nice it's turned out it kills me to think of driving it through the winter again or the possibility of something happening to it. After the door dent incident I knew I couldn't keep taking the car to school either because people can't respect other people's nice things so I really started searching for a car i didn't have to care about. i was looking at spending ~$2000 which while it isn't a huge amount of money it would definitely set me back in my goals a bit. My friends girlfriend told me that her friends boyfriend was selling a 1993 Subaru Impreza for $300 and I figured it would be complete trash but decided to go check it out that night anyhow. While I was at work someone had offered them $400 to keep the car until next week but I figured it still wouldn't hurt to check the car out. When I got there I was surprised at how decent it was and after driving it I knew it would be stupid to pass the car up so I offered them the $300 I had gotten earlier that day with intentions of buying the car for scrap if nothing else and the $67 I had in my wallet and drove the car home.

It's a 1993 Impreza L 1.8L FWD automatic with 160K miles on it. Not pumped about the auto or FWD part but for what I paid I can't complain. It's got some rust but not nearly as bad as I figured it would. It needed a MAF sensor which I picked up from pull-a-part for $25 and grabbed 2 more to sell. It also needs and exhaust but I'll cover that later. Since then I've put over 300 mostly problem free miles on it. All 4 power windows work, the power locks work, the power mirrors work, in fact the only thing that doesn't work is the R12-charged A/C compressor. I already took the belt off of it anyhow, I'm going to maximize the fuel economy I can get in this little car. With the new MAF it still hiccups on part-throttle deceleration but it also still has a TPS code up so I'll have to check into that. My goal with this car is to make it as close to being free as possible as far as the purchase price goes. I'm going to try to get at least $367 for the CF hood I bought for the STi that I ended up not liking which would help offset the cost of the car as well.

Car cost analysis (constantly updating):
$367 - cost of car
$25.91 - cost of new MAF sensor
----------
392.91 invested into car to make it daily drivable

Here's how it looked when I got it:






I plastidipped the front grille already because I'm original like that:


Since one of the cats was cut out and laying in the back seat when I got the car the exhaust needs some work. Fortunately I kept my stock STi exhast and with some slight modification to the exhaust on the car (stock manifolds are equal length, I'm swapping them for UEL headers) it's going to bolt right up.



It also needs ball joints on both sides up front and I have 2 brand new OEM ones in my garage from the STi's suspension build so those won't cost me anything more either.



I already love this car. I'm going to clean it up some and practice doing some body work on it as well, so I'll post pictures of that when I get around to it. It's a great little car and it's already saving the STi from being beaten up by the awesome roads and weather conditions we have here in Ohio.

good move. it should be a nice daily.

Not too bad for a 300.00 car. Low miles for having the cancer like that. Like you said though it's not terrible. It gives it character. I wish i could find a good deal like that. I hear of people finding 100-500 dollar cars all the time.

BADASS, a friend of mine has two of those, ones a coupe. He's doing the coupe all up and the sedan is his daily driver. I'm not sure what he's doing for a motor set up but i think I remember him saying something about an SR20 set up in it with a tiny turbo He also just got wide fenders which looks pretty sweet. He picked the car up for $350 with no motor and minor rust. Fixed the rust and did the wide fenders and doing a nice offset wheel to make it flush. This car should be pretty sweet when finished.


Here's a few pics of his car to give you a few ideas of what I'm talking about.

I vote ej18T!

So asidewall blew out on me today, luckily I was already slowing down and the car was pretty stable/controllable. The tires on it are dry rotting badly so I'm looking for a set of stock WRX wheels with tires to swap out for the steelies. The car is going to need brakes soon and WRX front brakes cost the same as the L's front brakes but are much bigger and bolt right up. I would need to have bigger wheels to clear them though so stock WRX wheels cover both aspects there.


So while working on the car today I was getting ready to start checking voltage at the wires on the TPS sensor since there was still a code for it and the car still hiccuped sometimes on the highway. I took the car down to the carwash I used to work at earlier this morning and we cleaned the underbody really well as well under the hood. I noticed a paint pen mark on the TPS that was covered in mud before (car was really muddy under the hood) so I loosened the bolts on the TPS, lined up the screw with the paint mark, retightened everything and started the car up. Check engine light was gone, took it out for a drive, no more hiccups, and it's running better than ever. +1 for free fixes!

I spent the evening pulling all the seats out, scrubbing them down to get rid of the stains, cleaning the doorcards, and vacuuming the carpet since all the seats were out. I found 26 cents in the process so the car just got that much cheaper haha.

I'm thinking of doing some basic maintenance next, the oil was recently changed along with with coolant being flushed but the diff fluid and ATF/filter seem like they could stand to be changed. I'm also thinking I'll change the timing belt since I have no idea when that was done last (60K mile service intervals on this motor). The valve cover gaskets need to be replaced and I changed the plugs but not the wires so I might do those too.

Boostin your friend's car is sweet. I cant even look at those pictures though I don't want to get any ideas haha.

Originally Posted by kyle99gtp

Boostin your friend's car is sweet. I cant even look at those pictures though I don't want to get any ideas haha.

LOL I can't wait to see it finished. It's going to be pretty badass. No one does them around here. Only newer wagons and sedans like yours.

Originally Posted by wa04compg

I vote ej18T!

If I start doing things like that then that kinda kills the whole DD and not project car aspect

Some day I'll have a 2.5RS and maybe even build a RSTi.

Originally Posted by kyle99gtp

If I start doing things like that then that kinda kills the whole DD and not project car aspect

Some day I'll have a 2.5RS and maybe even build a RSTi.

I have seen a couple RSTI's up close and personal and let me tell you they are sexy and fast as hell...if your ej18 gets tired you could do a nice ej25 swap to keep it a DD but make it a little more exciting if anything a nice set of wheels and some STI suspension would make it real nice

You should flat black it

Originally Posted by wa04compg

I have seen a couple RSTI's up close and personal and let me tell you they are sexy and fast as hell...if your ej18 gets tired you could do a nice ej25 swap to keep it a DD but make it a little more exciting if anything a nice set of wheels and some STI suspension would make it real nice

I don't know how accurate this is but I've heard that the EJ22/25 is more fuel efficient than the EJ18 because you don't have to run it out to get the car going/keep it going. I drove the STi yesterday for the first time in a week and this car feels even more anemic now haha. I still have my stock STi anti-lift kit, struts, swaybars and a few other things from my suspension build but as far as I know that stuff won't fit. Maybe I'm wrong though?

If you are any good at modifying some things you could use the struts springs etc and possibly the endlinks...that impreza prob doesn't even have a rear sway

I had 05 STI struts and springs on my 99 Legacy

Well the other day the car got more expensive:


I had a tire blow out because they were all dry rotting terribly. I started pricing out 13" tires and for anything decent I was looking at at least $315 for a set of 4 installed. I hopped on Craigslist and as always found a pretty good deal on some wheels with tires already on them. I picked up some 16" Motegi MR7's with Kumho Ecsta AST tires with at least 75% tread life left for $300. The tires are 205/50/16's which are very close to the stock tire size of 165/80/13 that's listed on the original window sticker (Which I found in the glove box!):




The car sits pretty high now and it has a bit of the Honda-ricer look now but it's a beater and I'll get over it. Not having tires blow out on me is more important that the way it looks.

I also picked up a passenger side headlight assembly at PullAPart so now both assemblies are newer and neither lens is cracked.

I'm ordering Borla knockoff headers this weekend so that I can get my STi catback bolted on and not have the exhaust dumping under my seat anymore. After that it gets new wires, trans filter, fuel filter, timing belt, water pump (just because I'm changing the belt), I'm changing the ball joints (already have new OEMs left over from the STi's suspension build and they fit both cars) and then "upgrading" to stock 02 WRX front brakes (Dual piston, 11 9/16" rotors) because the car needs brakes anyhow. After that I should be good to go.

double post dafuq?

The chrome trim around the windows is getting plasdipped black as well. I can't stand it.

Yeah that chrome doesn't look right with that blue, it would look nice if the car was a different color.

Annnnnnnd no more chrome:


I plastidipped the foglight openings in the bumper black. Looks better than the green I think:


I also gave it a quick detailing. It doesn't look great but considering that this thing has probably never seen a coat of wax in its life it turned out alright. I'll post some pictures later. In the first picture (the one showing the plastidipped chrome) you can tell it's been polished.

I'm coming real close to cutting the springs on this thing. I hate how high it sits and since it's FWD there aren't any options for me to lower it, at least not any that don't cost twice what I paid for the car.