Hi Guys,

Any of you on pistonheads will have seen my WRX Questions thread. They've been very helpful but there are a couple of things that nobody there has answers to. Can anyone take a stab at these?

1) Can I adjust the lights?

The headlights are fine and the dip beams are very bright, but they point very sharply down in front of the car. Driving into oncomming traffic at night is actually dangerous. I can't see a thing behind the first set of their lights or until they've all passed. All I need to do is tilt them up a bit. Any ideas?

2) Steering wheel rubs and squeaks on the column surround.

Short of removing the column surround is there any way round this?


3) Kph->Mph conversion.

Mine ticks all the time and it drives me mad. Is there a silent alternative or is there a way to keep the speedo in kph but remove the top speed limiter?

4) Odd bearing noise/squealing belt noise. When I lift off after a second or so on the power there's a strange metallic noise like you'd get from a worn bearing. This only happens for a second or two and only when the engine is being driven in low gear at low revs <3,000 (e.g. in overrun when the car is coasting down a hill). Any ideas?

5) Rattle from engine at 3,100rpm. sounds like something resonating on the drivers side at the front but I can't find anything loose.


Thanks in advance,
Alan

 

hello, ive got a wrx 93 and you have most of the problems that i have also lol.

rattle from engine is actual the heat shield under the engine on the drivers side, 5th gear 2 to 3 thousand rpm sounds nasty yeah. take it off or see if any bolts are snapped. should be 3 connecting it on.

this could also be your bearing noise. if it is rattling then its gonna cause noise when ever theres any engine shake. also if you fitted a k&n style air filter then the MAP sensor will go bonkers when going up or down revs. this is a strange noise and took me a while to find out what it was. nothing you can do i think its just cause its getting cold clean air faster than expected.

kmp mph conversion, right mine is still stuck on 110mph but i know theres 2 ways to derestrict it. first is the conversion on the speedo cable where you attach a little device which basically slows the cable down so it runs in mph.

the other (which im going to do) is to have the car remapped and take off the speed limiter as it is a mechanical limited but connected to an electronic ecu. its the ecu which tells the car to stop reving and kick you back. im just finishing off my other mods first before taking it for final remap.

the lights, if you look on one side (think its passenger) there should be a roughly 9mm bolt coming out of the light unit and goes towards the engine about 5 inches long. i think is the tilt for the head lights. the other side im not sure about i will have a look on mine later.

yes the steering wheel rubs lol. when i first got mine it did my head in. i found that if i took it off then back on. half turn the screws so they are lined up. you then push it back and tighten the screws at the same time. this will make it rub alot less but still rubs on full lock on occassion. but nowhere near as bad. some body tried to nick my car a while ago though and i had to buy a whole new ignition barrel and colomn surround as they ripped it to pieces. after fitting new one it rubbed for first week and now its ok.

 

Thanks Woody. I'll have a look under the car today and try to track down that loose shield.

I've found the speedo converter. It's clipped into the line just inside the engine bay. It's actually rattling against the exhaust, so that could be one of my noises as well.

Thanks for the info.
Alan

 

yeah anything thats rattling could be your problems lol. heatshield is annoying though. i had mine welded back up as one of the bits that fits around the fixing bolts had snapped. the welding lasted a couple of months and then made aload more noise. ive now just sort of wedged it into the bolt and its ok so far. if it does my head in again then i will take it off. it kind of covers the car for stones and stuff spraying up and takes all the impact so dont really wanna take it off.

hope that has solved a few of your problems though.