Topic: 2004 STI mild build Thread (Read 1888 times)

klarowe · « **on:** July 10, 2011, 05:28:41 PM »

For those that don't know, I picked up Gus' old STI a couple weeks ago and absolutely love it. I don't really plan on doing much on it, but I figured I'd start up a build thread for the little things I may do over time.

7-10-11: Picked up a Greddy Full Auto turbo timer and got it put in. Decided to go with a more clean looking install than just throwing it in the glovebox/etc. So i trimmed out the small space next to the upper cup holder and "flushed" the unit into the dash. Didn't quite turn out as clean as I wanted (only had a dremel to make the cuts so the lines aren't crisp cuts). And just my luck, while doing the final little bit of trimming the dremel jumped and just barely nicked the panel face. Not overly noticeable, but still sucks.
Pics:

Next plan is for a python 2-way SST alarm/remote start and polk component speakers all the way around with a slight size upgrade over factory (going 6.5 in front and 5.25 in back vs the factory 5.25 front and 4" rear) hopefully ordering all that this week. Also picking up a cobb shift knob this week.

klarowe · « **Reply #1 on:** July 10, 2011, 08:16:11 PM »

Another quick mod:
Decided to rewire the fog lights to allow them to work with just the parking lights instead of having to have the headlights on. The number 1 goal (besides it actually working properly) was to have everything appear as factory as possible. That included the actual wiring.

Not much to see for this one, but I went to the back of the fusebox and found the parking light wire (orange wire in a white plug). I connected 2 wires to this orange wire. One of which went to the factory fog light switch to make sure the indicator light would still work properly. For this I cut the blue/white indicator wire on the back of the switch and connected it to one of the new wires. For the other wire I went to the factory fog light relay that is normally activated by a combination of a headlight signal wire along with a ground from the switch. I cut the blue/white wire on the back of the relay and connected that to the second wire off the orange parking light wire.

Now its all working nicely... with the exception of my pass. side headlight that decided to just up and stop working long after everything had already tested correctly. not sure what it is... I'm hoping I didn't f*** up the ballast while I was testing everything.

Some pics:
Tagging the parking light wire:

Routed within the factory harnesses wherever possible to appear as factory as possible:

Back of the relay pack:

Final product... nothing visible from the front:

TheBigChill · « **Reply #2 on:** July 10, 2011, 09:03:46 PM »

Fog light mod I like. Turbo timer was kind of a waste of $, but to each his own. Clean install though. Enjoy the car.

klarowe · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2011, 09:12:31 PM »

I know the turbo timer was a bit overkill but the FPGreen that is on it is oil cooled only. And even though I'll probably never run heavy then immediately park it, I wanted the timer just in case. I got it for a good price and the ease of mind was worth it to me.

TheBigChill · « **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2011, 09:31:17 PM »

Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Honestly if it's oil cooled only, that justifies the turbo timer. Good call.

klarowe · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2011, 09:36:35 PM »

Not sure if that's all the FP greens... but I know this one is.

RedRoof2 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 11, 2011, 12:13:08 PM »

Ugh. I'd thought the days of oil cooled turbochargers went the way of the dinosaurs. Not bad for the first couple mods. Smart, really. Hope you enjoy the rest of the experience.

hookedontronics · « **Reply #7 on:** July 11, 2011, 01:07:53 PM »

You should move this to the members ride gallery in the top of the "looking good" section

klarowe · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2011, 02:02:27 PM »

I was looking for a members ride / projects thread and couldn't find it. Apparently I just didn't look hard enough.

klarowe · « **Reply #9 on:** July 14, 2011, 12:08:02 PM »

Ordered some more goodies for the STI...
Polk 6.5" Components:

Polk 5.25" Components:

Python 991 SST 2 Way Alarm/Remote Starter:

DEI 522T Trunk release solenoid:

HKS Turbo timer harness (To allow easy install of alarm/remote starter/turbo timer with the option for seamless uninstall):

OBDLink Scantool to keep an eye on all parameters and with the OBDroid App I'll be able to look at everything right through my DroidX. Don't plan on changing anything, just would like to see the status on everything...and I'll be able to keep a real-time eye on fuel mileage as well as track my driving habits, etc.

Ordered everything today and thanks to Amazon Prime, both sets of speakers and the scantool will be here tomorrow. The rest should be here early next week along with the new set of springs. I figured I might as well get the speakers and stuff now so I can get it all put in while the poor girl is out of commission.

klarowe · « **Reply #10 on:** July 15, 2011, 10:05:08 PM »

Update 7/15/2011:
Installed my OBDLink, 6.5" component front speakers, 5.25" component rear speakers, Kicker 700.5 5 channel amp, kicker 12" L5 sub, and finished putting the radio back in. The sound is absolutely amazing right now. Very clean with the sub being used only as fill.

Alarm/Starter going in as soon as I receive my turbo timer harness. Then putting the new springs and HID ballast in as soon as they come in.

Pics:
Fuse hidden underneath Methanol (washer fluid) reservoir:

Quick amp rack. Its screwed into the 2 factory supports for the rear seat. Eventually I'll do something a little cleaner:

Amp mounted with power connected:

Grounded to base of the support bracket. Had to trade bolts with another bracket b/c it wasn't long enough. Paint is all ground off:

Front Doors setup. The tweeters are directly behind the factory tweeter grills:

Rear door setup with tweeters flush mounted into the door panel:

OBDLink box next to my hardwired radar detector mute button/box:

She is coming along nicely.

klarowe · « **Reply #11 on:** July 18, 2011, 08:34:40 PM »

Took a few hours Saturday night and Sunday and put my alarm/starter in along with a driver and pass. front window module and trunk release solenoid. Tucked all of the wires away so when looking at the underdash, you barely see anything at all. I'm pretty happy with how everything came out. The front windows automatically roll up when I arm it, and I can roll them up/down by the remote. I also threw my sub in the trunk temporarily until I can get a better box built.

Pics:

Almost all cleaned up. A couple last thing to tidy up:

Remote start kill switch behind the hood release:

Window module tucked into the door panel:

Wires run inside the factory boot... yea, it was a bitch:

Trunk release solenoid mounted:

Temporary sub setup until I can get a better box:

klarowe · « **Reply #12 on:** July 25, 2011, 08:43:20 PM »

Some mad tite JDM upgrades today...

Nokya Hyper Yellow (2500k) 55w foglights:

Innovative Wideband Gauge to go with my LC-1 wideband controller. Not sure if its working 100% b/c it was really jumping around even at idle and never seemed to change much from 8-10ish even with some throttle. I'll have to look into it further. This is also a temporary location. I haven't quite figured out exactly where I'm going to mount it. Thinking about doing the clock pod but not 100% sure yet:

JDM Auto intercooler switch connected to a pressure switch set at approx. 10lbs. Immediate spray switch still works, and with the Auto switch on, anytime I reach 10lbs boost it will automatically spray the intercooler:

Quick LED I threw into a pre-existing hole in the steering surround (assuming from the factory boost pod) just to let me know when the sprayer is activated.

klarowe · « **Reply #13 on:** July 28, 2011, 07:03:23 PM »

Another update 7/28/2011:
Another update 7/28/2011:
Put in a couple audible middle fingers today. They sound great and demand a lot more attention than the stock horns.... don't actually look too bad either. I also rewired the alarm so that the confirmation beeps will come through the siren, but anytime the actual alarm is triggered it will bypass the siren and activate the horns. I wasn't going to put the siren in, but the confirmation beeps were so friggin loud I didn't want to piss off the neighbors every morning... lol.

Horns mounted and wired:

Sealed dual relay pack tucked away behind the bumper. The relay is not just simply zip-tied to the frame. There is a strip of "cheese strap" behind it that it is attached to. The zip-tie is there only to keep it tight to the bracket and to make sure the wires don't ever get pulled.:

Siren mounted on the fender:

Fused 12v input for the horns:

Power wire neatly run along the hood release cable:

All finished and ready to scare the shit out of a few people:

skyphix · « **Reply #14 on:** July 28, 2011, 10:07:30 PM »

Looking awesome. Nice to see you taking such good care of this car - far too many tastefully modified cars fall into the wrong hands. How do you like those Nokya bulbs? What bulb do the JDM fogs take (H1? H3? 9005?) I've been looking for some yellow fog bulbs for my car and these always come up when I search.

klarowe · « **Reply #15 on:** July 29, 2011, 06:44:38 AM »

The Nokya were a bitch to find (atleast somewhere online and in stock) but so far I like them. Haven't really had a chance to really need them yet to see how well they actually "work" but they seem to be pretty bright. I wanted to go HID but with the fog light beam pattern I really didn't feel like blinding people all the time. The bulb was an H3 but thats for the JDM fogs... not sure what the stock fogs are.

hookedontronics · « **Reply #16 on:** July 29, 2011, 02:44:54 PM »

Looking good man

klarowe · « **Reply #17 on:** August 08, 2011, 04:51:10 PM »

I was trying to stay away from anymore electronic upgrades but the cheap looking garage door opener was bugging the hell out of me... so I went on ebay and picked up a cheap homelink setup. I mounted it directly in front of the domelight panel. I was really hoping to put it right in the panel but the main control box would not fit. Since the unit I bought was designed for a visor, after cutting the hole in the headliner I had to then carefully trim some of the headliner material to thin out the headliner in that area. This allowed the cover panel to be able to fully snap back into the control box.
Pics:

Power tagged into the domelight wires to be able to use the remote with the car off.

Finished Install.

What I would do differently next time/What I would recommend to anyone looking to do this as well:
Space out the homelink from the dome light panel further. I marked the edge of the domelight panel and then cut the hold close to it to keep everything tight but unfortunately I did not factor in the control box of the homelink and it ended up hitting part of the domelight panel. Luckily I was able to trim a bit of the underside of the domelight panel to get it to fit fairly well. As you can kind of see in the pics, it still causes the headliner to push up ever so slightly which causes a very minor gap between the headliner and the domelight panel.

klarowe · « **Reply #18 on:** August 17, 2011, 08:30:50 PM »

Another quick mod. Took me all of about 2 minutes and the only tool required was a panel popper.
"Custom" JDM style tail lights:

Couldn't get a pick of the brakes on. Nothing special, but its one more thing that sets it apart.

klarowe · « **Reply #19 on:** October 23, 2011, 12:20:20 PM »

Added more rice to the STI today:

It will actually be functional. I plan on putting a hitch on her soon for towing around the motorbike... and ever since having the backup camera on my old truck; hooking up a trailer is never as easy as it is when you can actually see where you are hooking it up. The camera makes life a hell of a lot easier.

spoolordie · « **Reply #20 on:** October 24, 2011, 08:24:22 AM »

get girls with skirts to sit on your back bumper

klarowe · « **Reply #21 on:** October 24, 2011, 10:15:12 AM »

Quote from: spoolordie on October 24, 2011, 08:24:22 AM

get girls with skirts to sit on your back bumper

This man might be on to something....

klarowe · « **Reply #22 on:** December 20, 2011, 04:57:54 PM »

Decided to take the Subaru usefulness a step further. Not having a truck has been a little bit of a pain since the only time I could use a trailer for any purpose (moving my bike, my sled, the mower, etc) was when I had access to the wifey's Jeep. So I decided to remedy that problem...

Its a limited tow capacity, but plenty for small projects. Now I just gotta try to find a small 4x8 or 5x10 trailer.

spoolordie · « **Reply #23 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:46:03 PM »

you on drugs STI with a hitch......more power to you lol Id sport one if you couldn't see it and if i had a stronger tranny. Having something to tow would help to.

SideshowBob · « **Reply #24 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:52:02 PM »

I towed with the 5spd for years. Knowing how to drive helps.

They actually make good tow cars, excellent power and brakes, not too short of a wheelbase, etc.

Author Topic: 2004 STI mild build Thread (Read 1888 times)