Marv

Hang on. I was wrong. I definitely think you should sell the stock rims to me for $1. No, no, it's ok I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart. No need to thank me.

Personally, I think keep the stock rims. They're great quality and look fantastic. The Tempe rims are cheap copies and have a habit of bending and cracking easily. They can also weigh too much for my liking, and this decreases ride comfort, handling and braking distances.

Having owned a Subaru for the last 2.5 years I've got to say you are getting into an extreme lucky dip with them. Some of the have NO issues at all and are the perfect picture of reliability and low maintenance motoring. Many others, though, constantly cause headaches with oil leaks, poor quality rubber and plastics, an appetite for CV boots, tyres and suspension bushes, as well as many, many sensor faults.

Good to hear. I'll be limited with my mods because of a mortgage and I'd like to do some decent suspension mods. I'd prefer to sort the handling and braking first, before adding power. *EDIT* do people find a sign of an abused transmission is that it seems to shunt a lot of shifts (both up-shifts and down-shifts)? I drove a 4AT BA1 with 80k on it and it seemed to want to shunt/surge even on gentle up-changes. I wasn't sure if that was just because it needed new gearbox fluid, or if it was due to abuse or maybe even a flogged out diff bush... the salesman was telling me how they all do that 'cause they're a sports 'box... ah-huh. Yeah. Righto.

So, just to make 100% clear - will a BF1 or pre-06 BF2 handle 250kW ATW safely? The mods I'm looking to do are intake, air filter, free-flowing cat/remove centre muffler, and a tune. That's it. I remember reading ages ago that the rods and valve springs in early BAs didn't like anything more than about 240 at the wheels (dunno what boost that was, though)?

Are there aftermarket clutch-pack LSDs available for the BA-BF XR6T? I've got a 2way plated LSD in my car and love it. I'm just wondering if there is a good 1.5way out there or do people normally just skip straight to a locker?

I see a couple of modded XR6Ts in Myrtle Street, North Sydney (or Crows Nest). I've seen a black one, a red one and a blue one, all sporting stuff like aftermarket exhausts and front-mount intercoolers. Anyone on here? I work at #35 and sometimes my grey Gen1 Liberty is near the corner of West & Myrtle.

Ah ha. Niet. I had/have the grey boonga. It ended up with Mousie's 650cc injectors, PE1820 turbo and STi motor after I blew the other STi motor I spent all that time putting in. Mouse is selling his car and so is Tim with the white RS wagon. Tim and I are the ones hunting ZF-equipped BFs. I'll take a neat BF1 over a rough/high-km BF2 even though I want the tougher Typhoon-spec motor. The 3 of us should meet up 'cause I found a wholesaler in QLD who reckoned that 2 guys paying cash for a pair of XR6Ts was as close to heaven as he'd get and he mentioned some VERY good prices over the phone! Imagine the buying power of 3 + cash...

My reply was half aimed at Adrian6T who mentioned how his were rebuilt. This isn't unusual for Bilsteins and is one of the attractions to their dampers: the great after sales support available in Oz and ease of adjustment.

I was down at Grawills on Saturday with a mate who is also looking to buy a used XR6T soon. They had a white 03 4AT with 80k kilometres on it on the lot for $22k. Tim and I both decided the ZF auto 'box was what we were both looking for in our new cars, so we left as they didn't have anything else interesting for us. When I got home I noticed the exact same car I'd just been shown going at "a dramatically reduced $22k" was in a dealer ad in the Express Advocate for $19k. Riiiiiiight. It was like another dealer on the Coast charging $27k for a 160,000km-old '03 BA XR6T with 2 months rego left on it. Central Coast dealers do some interesting things with vehicle pricing. No wonder they're all complaining about a major down-turn in used vehicle buyers PS: Gregor = chris isn't it? From Scotshua with the turbo N16?

Bilsteins can be revalved to suit any height or load-rated spring. So, if you want to run really low springs that are excessively stiff, you can get the Bilsteins rebuilt to suit that. Heasmans in Sydenham on the Princes Highway in Sydney are the Bilstein importer and do most of this work, including quite a few factory-backed racing teams (and drool-worthy exotics). I believe Fulcrum Suspension in QLD are another mob who do it for northern Australians on behalf of Heasmans, while there is a mob in Perth who are licensed to do Bilstein rebuilds, too. I had customised Bilstein Sprint shocks in my E30 BMW and they were fantastic. Also had a few mates with Subarus that have factory fitted Bilsteins get theirs rebuilt from Heasmans and they all handled like a dream.