2004 STI Pre-purchase questions

[Shmike]

My buddies checking out an 04 sti with some big time mileage this sunday and unfortunately i'll be working and wont be able to join him. Its got about 180xxx km on it, roughly 115k miles. If he buys it, its going to be his first subaru and isnt very familiar with them. Aside from the vf39's cracking and signs of previous modification what should he be looking for as trouble points? I know the car does have an aftermarket exhaust on it and he's got aftermarket rotors on the car, aside from that i dont know much about the vehicle.

 

Thanks, Mike

[Shmike]

Anybody?

[Ozzy]

Check out forums.nasioc.com/ . I'm sure you'll get great answers there much quicker for an STI..

[ibr_adam09]

or iwsti.com . I think its a more mature site than nasioc

[ebo03]

I second that on IWSTI. I've been on there for about 4.5 years now. Great site, although over the past couple years it appears a tad bit of NASIOC attitude is carrying over to it.

 

Is he buying it from a private party or dealer?

 

If it's a private party sale then he should be able to get a list of modifications. The dealer may be clueless. I wouldn't buy a used one, particularly with that many miles, without at least a compression test done. A leak down test would also be helpful but isn't as crucial as compression. This should give him good information on the health of the motor.

[ebo03]

Also rear strut clunk may be apparent with that many miles.