Hi everyone.

I'm a returning member as I once had an account in the early 000's but haven't been able to recall my user details. Anyway, until recently I'd moved away from Subarus but now I'm back with a 2008, lightly modded STi hatch.

I've just run it in after an engine rebuild and yesterday I had a set of Proxes fitted and the wheels aligned.

Now, when I left work tonight I drove out of the site and stopped at a T junction, waiting to turn right onto the main road. Braking for the junction was the first time I'd applied the brakes from start up.

As I pulled away, gently as the car was cold and I'm still in 'running-in' mode, there was an almighty crack/bang from the drivetrain. It was sharp enough to make slam the clutch in and roll to a stop. Realising I'd then stopped in the middle of the road, I gingerly released the clutch and pulled across into my lane.

I gently drove towards home, feeling for any weirdness, listening for odd noises and generally crapping myself but I made the short trip with no further incident.

I had a look around but couldn't find anything obvious so decided to take the car for a spin, trying all sorts of driving conditions to try and replicate the occurrence but nothing, everything was as normal. It pulls well, hard and true. There's no obvious pulling to one side or strange noises although a sequence of hard accelerations and engine braking in 2nd gear did raise a touch of clutch smell when I stopped. It soon cleared though.

I've no idea if the manual box would allow 3, or even RWD alone, if something had given up in the box but my gut says I'd know if something that wrong was going on.

It was actually reminiscent of when the rear brake pads 'rust' on the disc after a wet journey and the crack noise you get when they release but I'm sure it came from the front, although it was the first time I'd applied the brakes (as I mentioned before).

Any ideas or similar experiences would be great.

Sorry for the wall of text.