How are older WRXen holding up, especially at higher miles?

Yes, I know I was/am E36 M3 shopping, but with the recent winter storms it's become more obvious that the 996 isn't exactly the ideal winter car (needs a bit more ground clearance, eats tires), especially with the issues with getting snow tires...

Of course the easy way out would be to sell the 996 and the MR2, buy an Evo IX and be done with it. Well, my wife drove the 996 and now it's kinda off the list of 'sellable' cars.

Anyway, even though I don't like Subarus that much, it looks like a 2002-2006 WRX wagon may actually work as a really E36 M3ty winter day driver and also cover the track driving aspect, plus I can get a set of track tires in the back which means I might actually be able to go to track days outside the April-October window.

Most of the ones in my price range (less than $7k) have a lot of miles on them (or are automatic, which immediately disqualify them) so I'm wondering how well they hold up to that? I'm talking 180-250k miles here.

Oddly enough stock ones tend to be slightly cheaper than the usual modified hand grenades, which is a good thing in my book because there are almost as many badly modified ones out there as there are badly modified DSMs.

I'd avoid a pre-08 Impreza for winter use. They rust badly in areas that aren't easily patched, and then it goes downhill from there. Specifically, there is a "shelf" in the rear strut tower that collects crud and rusts through. The only way to really access it would first involve unzipping the outer fender. Dirt and water are then free to blow in to the chassis's insides and the rot sets in quickly. The link-suspension Subarus are completely different and seem to hold up great.

Yikes. Is there any way to check this when putting the car on ramps? IE, is it visible?

There aren't that many rusty cars out here (lack of salt) but I really dislike rust...

08-on WRX would be "I'd just buy an Evo then" levels of expense, which I'm not really able to swing cash-only right now.

Just reach up where your knuckles are brushing the spring and feel the inside of the fender.

Although if they do not salt, you won't have a problem.

I DD a 2002 with 288k miles and it's been good. It does seem like there are a LOT of hand grenades out there though. Rust is the biggest killer so you're off to a good start if that's not an issue.

My project car has 237k kms (147 k miles) and the shell is damn clean. It has clearly been rust proofed, when you get under it. If they are cared for they can do well. This car has spent it's entire life in salt country - purchased in Ottawa, ON, moved to Temiscaming QC, and now I have it in North Bay, ON. The put salt and sand on the roads up here by the E36 M3 ton!

If you want I can take a picture of the area that is being discussed. I am in the process of removing the rear subframe and can probably get a camera up there.

It spit the timing belt for the PO and that is why it is mine. Just finishing up swapping an engine into it. Had a problem with a fuel line that is requiring me to drop the tank.

Sold my 02 wagon at 195k and it was running fine, although it was beginning some rust issues. A guy I knew from autocross sold his at 296k on original engine and original transmission still. Not much of a subaru fan but I can't criticize the reliability...

It's the area to the left of the spring, so you can reach up there and feel for any issues.

BTW many of the motor problems occur when young guys get them, start slapping exhausts and intakes on them and don't tune them. From my understanding the 2.0L has less issues than the 2.5L (especially compared to the STi).

Op is from Reno. He'll go to Cali for the car. Rust isn't a concern.

I bought one with 226k miles on it, had even 150 compression on every cylinder. It was (and still is) adult owned, well maintained and very nearly stock (short shifter kit from the dealer at time of purchase).

Find one like that and buy the hell out of it, you won't be disappointed.

Without rust, you're looking at the normal 9 to 14 year old turbo car problems. Cracking vacuum lines, worn out rubber and gaskets, excessive abuse and poor understanding of the requirements of modifications by previous owners.

There are different longevity issues depending on which engine you have, but an owner that takes adequate care of their car will sidestep most of them. I've seen some very high mileage street-driven EJ205s.

Since the pistons are hypereutectic and not forged as they would be in a similar-type car from the early 90s, any detonation is an engine killer and must be avoided.

02-05 WRX with the EJ205/2.0: oil starvation in cornering, especially when the level is low. Gearboxes are held in lower regard. Replacing the pan with a 2.5L pan and an appropriate oil pickup is a good choice. A good replacement for a blown engine from here is an EJ207, the JDM STI 2.0 which also adds variable valve timing without much additional wiring complexity.

06-07 WRX and 04-07 STI With the EJ255 (WRX)/EJ257 (STI)/2.5: oil pickup tube is reputed to be weak but the oil pan's stock baffle is good stuff. 5-speed gearbox is stronger with better synchronizers, 6-speed gearbox is an anvil. Smog pump becomes a CEL and expensive repair concern in these years near the 70k-mi mark; in 06 you can just delete it and the codes, in 07 you need to hack up the pump to pull out its atmospheric pressure sensor.

07: Random reports of weak stock tune to make emissions at the cost of increased risk of detonation.

08+ cars: fuel pressure regulator issues on some years, banjo bolt issues similar to the 05-06 Legacy GT turbo. Depending on year, ringlands are reputed to be weak. Same factory tune issues as the 07.

Timing belts are a pretty significant thing to check out; a lot of cars I've looked at have had the belt changed, but not the idlers, tensioners or water pump. Generally idlers last "a belt and a half," so not changing the idlers basically means it's time for a new timing belt anyway.

Mod-wise be suspicious of things like aftermarket-looking fuel injectors, missing heat shielding, the presence of an Accessport, the boost control solenoid being replaced by something else, or the word "Plastidip" used in the ad.

In reply to ssswitch:

So, DD#1 wants to replace her bugeye Impreza with a WRX, and while I've tried to convince her to get a used 2015 with the FA engine, she has her heart set on a 5-door. That means a 2010-2014. What's the best year / package to look for there?

I'm not terribly familiar with the post-08 cars since I've never owned one, sorry. I know that the later models (I think post-12) sprouted the STI's widebody appearance. The later you go, the better the car will be (08s were really soft).

The FPR issues on the post-08 I mentioned appear to only be on the STI, but Cobb among others have parts to fix them.

No matter what you do, I would get a decent tuner to put a good tune on the car even if you don't upgrade anything else; that'll help get rid of the lean stumbling and (paradoxically) ensure a longer life for the engine, especially if it gets seriously beaten on. You'll also want to make sure the banjo bolt filters are cleaned or (ideally) deleted to avoid starving the turbo of oil.

Subaru's inexplicable obsession with liquid-filled motor mounts as of late probably means that you're going to encounter at least one car with dramatic idle vibrations after the mounts have burst. You could bargain the price down at this point and then slap in Group N or regular rubber mounts.

The 08+ WRX gets rid of the rear viscous LSD in favour of an open diff and a traction control system that intervenes like a drunk aunt at Christmas.

Adult-owned, not modded heavily, are probably the watchwords for finding one. Beyond that, specific packages are going to be buyers' choice. I wouldn't get too hung up on them other than just finding a decent car, which is hard enough.

ssswitch wrote: Mod-wise be suspicious of things like aftermarket-looking fuel injectors, missing heat shielding, the presence of an Accessport, the boost control solenoid being replaced by something else, or the word "Plastidip" used in the ad.

You must've been peeking over my shoulder as I was reading the ads, most of them seem to fall under the heading of "all of the above", plus no record of a timing belt change but plenty of ads stating they had recently fitted a new engine to the car. At the moment it looks like it's going to be hard to find an adult-owned, unmodified (or modified correctly) car.

There are a fair number of them for sale locally, I don't even have to wander over to Cali to look at them. Problem is that most of them seem to be sold by perpetually broke high school and college students, and are in a corresponding state of maintenance.

It is very difficult to find the fabled "adult owned" car on craigslist, unfortunately. My local economy is undergoing a pretty brutal recession as a result of the drop in oil price, so there are a lot of early-20s rig workers who are trying to get rid of their third-engine, $30k built-block hypercars. I wish I could search CL by "doesn't have stickers."

Local clubs are probably going to be your best bet: find a member who has been posting worthwhile content for a very long time and is selling their car. Usually it also comes with a build thread, where you can fact-check assumptions about the car you may have made, and determine the true nature of the owner.

It's very easy to get into a state where you obsess about how hard it is to find the car and then end up taking a bad one; although Subarus are uncommon relative to, say, Corollas or Windstars, they did make a lot of them and you will eventually find a good one.

Consider expanding into the Legacy GT, Outback XT and Forester XT, which have their own drawbacks but tend to attract older customers especially those who want to turn them into Q-ships. The Forester XT also has a 4.44 rear drive, which combined with a boost pill swap and decent dyno tune produces a hilarious amount of acceleration for something that looks like a pregnant toaster on wheels. Legacy GT turbo wagons are unfortunately extremely uncommon.

If you really wanted to be stupid about it and hate the car out of the gate, it's pretty easy to pick up a nice shell with a blown engine or broken transmission. Smart shopping would make the numbers work out if you can deal with the fact that you basically just dropped an integer multiple of a Challenge budget on a broken car. At least then you would be starting with a known-good powertrain. I would never do this because I am a horrible person whose projects expand to fill the available budget, break through a door and then escape, menacing the populace. They will write "while I'm in there" on my tombstone.

This is generally why I only look at "sensible, daily driver" cars at reputable dealerships. They're generally not some kid's failed project car, but the mythical adult owned well-maintained stock as a rock vehicle that got traded in for something newer and shinier.

Imagine my shock when I saw an Evo X MR at a local dealership for under $19k. But then I saw the harness bar in the interior pics and decided, hell no, that is a bad idea waiting to happen.

...well, how expensive is it to replace the clutch packs in the transmission again?

In my mind, this is a good reason to buy from an individual, rather than a dealer. And preferably someone who's owned the car for a while, not just a year. Meeting the person generally gives a better sense of how it's been cared for and driven, IMO.

In reply to Knurled:

Both of the local Subaru dealers here buy modded cars at a huge discount, do the bare minimum to restore them to stock (in one case not even reflashing the ECU back to stock when removing an upgraded exhaust and turbo), and then sell them as stock adult-owned cars while selling the parts that were taken off on the local classifieds.

You'd be better off buying from the original kid because at least he'd be honest about it.

But yeah, I imagine other cities have less scummy dealers.

Have you cross-shopped the Saabaru / 9-2X aero?

Mine's an 05, 71k, factory stock, no rust, 2nd owner. Needs TB soon, and the paint isn't perfect on plastic parts. South FL. I'd be tempted to sell at $7k. Maybe its a regional thing.

I'm actually considering Saabarus, there was a really clean one for sale recently with 245k on it, but I wasn't in the market (yet).

Pity you're on the wrong coast...

NGTD wrote: BTW many of the motor problems occur when young guys get them, start slapping exhausts and intakes on them and don't tune them. From my understanding the 2.0L has less issues than the 2.5L (especially compared to the STi).

^^^^This.

I have a 284,000 mile '02 Impreza wagon and the chassis and driveline have held up reasonably well. I keep considering a high mile WRX as a few have come up in my price range recently but something about a quarter of a million miles on a turbo engine keeps making me doubt how responsible that is.

How well do Legacy GTs or Forrester XTs go around corners without too many modifications? Basically, I don't mind sticking good coilovers on there, but swapping a WRX/STI drivetrain and suspension into a Forrester isn't on the cards.

@RedGT, you pretty much voiced my concerns.

The more I shop for used WRXs, the more I want to convince DD#1 to buy a Focus ST instead.