ukg2ccw

Hi all,

After some advise so hope I am posting in the right section.

I am thinking of buying a 2007 Hawk Eye STI Type UK with 43k on the clock.

I have only ever driven a Scooby once and that was about 3 years ago and was a P1.

I owned an Evo 8 for 2 years and currently have a Vauxhall VXR8 that I am thinking of selling.

The STI I am looking at is totally standard apart from an exhaust system and looks to be in mint condition, recent cambelt change and full service history with 5 service stamps and MOT till April 2012.

What I am wanting to know is the following:
1 - Is there anything I need to look out for?
2 - It has the 2.5 engine, what is the reliability on these?
3 - What sort of price should I by paying for one?
4 - What power do these run as standard?
5 - How easy to upgrade to around 350bhp and roughly how much?

Sorry for all the questions peeps, but really don't know much about these.

Cheers
Chris

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

I went from a 2004 Blobeye STi to a 2007 Hawkeye STi.

1. Usual things, service history, check the cambelt/or when it needs to be done.

2. I had the dreaded ring land failure not long after it was mapped. There are plenty of people running close to 350bhp with no problems, but I was one of the unfortunate ones, so I got the engine fully forged and fitted a MD321T turbo. Now I have 460bhp with 470lb/ft.

The pistons in the 2.5 are cast so are more prone to cracking. My head gasket failed which in turn caused the pistons to overheat and they cracked.

4. Standard power is 276bhp.

5. 350bhp comes courtesy of a remap with decat exhaust.

ukg2ccw

Thanks mate. So are the engines reliable then as you hear all of the old stories of chocolate pistons etc.

The one I am looking at has an exhaust, so just a re-map will see me at around 350bhp then? Will fuel pump or injectors need looking at as well?

Once at 350bhp, what will reliability be like?

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

Its hit and miss with the chocolate piston stories. I personally was unlucky but there is plenty of people out there running fine. The car was ok when I bought it, no signs of head gasket failure until the expansion bottle had a bit of gunk in it, then about 30 miles later terminal engine failure with piston 3 cracked between the 2nd and 3rd ring land causing large scores in my cylinder righting off the block.

At 43K I would say just upgrade the fuel pump to a Walboro item for piece of mind, its only another £80. Injectors are not necessary until your hunting for 390bhp+.

At 350bhp after the remap reliability isn't an issue really, but running the extra power on an engine that was designed for 300bhp........blah blah blah.

ukg2ccw

Cool, so normal story with performance cars then.

silverfox72

iTrader: (7)

Hawkeye STI are a real nice example.

I have had 3 scoobs and have had my Hawkeye WRX for nearly 4 years now.

Mine is running the walbro and a VF48 similar to the VF43 on the 07 STI. K&N panel filter. and a full decat. It's running around 360BHP and roughly the same lbs/ft on a nice safe map.

She has never missed a beat since I bought bar the squeaky near side rear shock but not a problem after a little lube.

Having had a couple of older 2ltr models I love the way the 2.5 drives. A really nice road car with a good power delivery with the extra torque.

As per the other comments it appears hit and miss with the chocolate problem. I know plenty that have and plenty that haven't.

You will find it much more rewarding than the EVO to drive - you are in control not a bank of computers.

Hope u enjoy :-)

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

Rear shocks knock, simple fix at around £100 at a specialist. The Hawk STI suspension is very jumpy over rough roads. Worth dumping it for an aftermarket setup

Flight

I went from a classic STi to a Hawkeye. Very happy with it. Had exhaust, filter and remap done. Pulls like a train from just less than 3,000 rpm.

I read up a lot on piston/engine failure on the 2.5s. My own personal conclusion was that
1) a 350bhp remap is fine. Risk is if you go higher.
2) a good remap is likely to remove any det caused by the map than add to it. Hence my choice of mappers took some careful investigation.
3) Life is to short. As above, seems to be some that are fine and some that are not.

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

YES, the other main item I forgot.

I am looking to soften up the setup with a set of 5/4 BC's to get rid of the jumpy-ness.

Flight

I thought the same about the suspension. Really thought it was crap after my classic. However, what I've found is that the harder you drive it in the bends the more settled it feels (obviously up to a limit). Took a little bit of courage to notice this as it's not a natural thing to do when it feels so jumpy when going slower.

silverfox72

iTrader: (7)

So right - completely different to a classic. I found my Hawk a little jumpy but drive mainly on B and C roads up north. Wanting to keep a little flex in everything on the road I went for a set of Tein springs and a decent geometry set up. Transformed the car for £300. Is like a go cart now lol....

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Having made that change myself, I can vouch for its effectiveness! :-)

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

I was looking for the thread where you mentioned your spring rates when I posted my reply!

5/4 is being ordered now.

serega

Mate, if you have your mind set on this car, do the right thing and check these things in order.

1) choose the time to view the car BEFORE the owner warms her up, ask the owner to check the oil level and look for any abnormalities in oil color and smell ( warning signs are chocolate milk color/ or and smell of petrol).
2) Ask the owner to start the car and listen for any abnormal and clunky sounds from the bottom of the engine ( but keep in mind that subaru engines can sound overly noisy compared to their non-boxer counterparts and a slight metallic tapping noise coming from the top of the engine is ok, but deep clunking should be worrying), if you are hearing weird noise that you dont like, keep listening for it as the car warms up, after the car has warmed up to about 60-70C, ask the owner to rev the engine to about 4k rpm with different bursts and listen for that noise again, if this clunky noise gets louder with the revs, then you can safely walk away.
P.S. if the owner has forged internals then you can pretty much skip the listening part, unless you know what you are listening for.
3) Check for oil pressure ( the higher the grade of oil the more the oil pressure should be, but should not be less than 1.5 bar or 22 psi with 5w40 oil it), never buy a used subaru without doing this check, if the owner doesnt have an oil gauge, take it to the nearest shop, it is a very easy and a pretty cheap check that can save you alot of trouble, low oil pressure is an indication of worn bearings and will soon manifest itself as the dreaded knocking noise i mentioned above.

If you still have doubts after doing the first three checks, these more expensive ( 50 quid for a compression test if i remember correctly ) and time consuming checks will reveal if there is anything wrong with the engine .

4) compression test ( numbers vary but the general idea is that there should not be any huge variations between compression in different cylinders, on standard internals you are looking at nothing lower than 10 bar or 145 psi ), if all cylinders show ~10.5 bar and one cylinder shows 9.5 bar then there is either a problem with piston ring, or the valve in this cylinder and it's safe to say the engine will need to be taken apart quite soon.
5) leakdown test, compliments the compression test if there are questionable results, if the compression looks even, but pretty low across the board, leakdown test can help to determine if the headgasket leak is causing low compression numbers.

This should ensure that you wont end up with a blown engine within the first minutes of ownership, the rest will depend on how well you maintain the car ( proper fuel, always check oil level)

ukg2ccw

Appericate all of the feed back guys. Still investigating and looking into things, but will be buying from a dealer with a years warranty.

Anyone wanna buy a VXR8??

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

When you all say 'jumpy' is it bouncy? On the motorway mine seems to bounce over flat roads!
If you are testing one it will probably 'clunk' if turning at low speeds, this could be the DCCD and setting it to 'green' should rectify it. I am told this is normal and explained in the book.
Out of interest, how much is it from a dealer? (I paid £13k 12 months ago for a 57 plate with 18,000 miles on the clock).