Lol Scott my 08 wrx was one of the first to have the firewall fixed... I started a thread on wrxforums that now has a shit ton of pages. Unfortunately I don't know much about fixing it or lubricating the shaft because Subaru did the repairs on mine... Is everything still quiet?

Yup. It's all good now.

fix was ezpz.

Good stuff. Apparently there is a class action lawsuit for this problem

yeah and another one for the cracking oil pick up tubes.

and both have been going for years. and no one has ever gotten anywhere with either.

I mean look how long it took GM to finally have to deal with the bad ignitions they've been putting in every car for the last ten years.

My car is just about to roll over to 70K and only one of those welds had broken.


It seriously felt weird driving the car today without a rattling dash and noisy ass clutch pedal.

The only thing I took apart to do the fix was the lower dash panel under the steering wheel. Then I dropped the fuse box out of the way. This allows arm access to the holes once you drill them out. Then it was as easy as putting the bolts through and using a wobble-bit and extensions to put a socket on them from the cabin side, and I used an impact on the other while my wife held.

I was dreading taking off the entire dash, but there was really no need for it whatsoever.

Here you can see just from looking from under the steering column to two holes you have to reach:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415111082

I do like that if I ever need to replace the clutch, it looks like a very easy job after getting up under the car looking for the clutch slave and then after removing the TMIC to gain access.

No kidding. SOA even knows its a problem and wont increase the cost of the engine by a couple dollars to fix the damn thing. I replaced mine when I did the clutch. The clutch was really easy on this car besides the stupid locating pins rusting in their bores and taking a shitload of effort to separate the tranny from the engine. And yes before you asked I pulled the engine and left the tranny in the car. Seems the easiest and I wanted to do the pickup tube anyways. I still beat the "book time" for a clutch job doing it this way even with the struggles and the lack of a lift.

I don't think they'll ever acknowledge those two issues tbh

Even if they didnt acknowledge it, Just silently changing the pickup tube design would be enough. I mean they dont typically crack until the car is out of warranty anyways so they dont really care either way.

Actually rumor on the street is that they DID update the tube, because my local subaru dealer hasn't had a single one come in past 08. This is verified by a friend, so not just random bs. But who really knows for sure, since the part# is still identical.

The KillerB thread on nabisco seems to suggest otherwise, but then they make money off their upgraded tubes, so again not 100% on what's what.

I still haven't done mine. lol

I haven't done mine either...might wait til I do the clutch too and pull the engine out.

Is there any warning to these breaking? Does the oil pressure light at least come on?

I added a few sections of cut pipe around the base of my pickup tube when I rebuilt my '05 Engine around 100k miles. There was no damage at that point.

Pickup tube is just an EJ25x thing, right? I've done a little reading, but not in depth.

if you have a pre-08 EJ25x the chances are REALLY high that yours is cracked, cracking, or will crack.

yes, oil light flickers sometimes on startup. but that's a really terrible way to "find out" because chances are real good that you've done damage by that time.

you dont need to pull the engine. its not that hard at all.

yes, the 205's seem to be fine

OFT tune on the stock BRZ helped out with the torque dip and smoothed out the power, car feels even better now.

Still can't decide if want to do a UEL header for the rumble.

UEL= sound of inefficiency.
Fail.
EL = better flow, better response, equal cyl pressure and heat discharge.
Win.

I saw someone driving a BRZ with the plate: Boost-RZ.

it was not classy, loud, and still seemed slow.

It's not like it's the difference between a china knock-off and an EFR.

From all the dyno's I've seen they all seem to be pretty close regardless of EL, UEL, and brand.

[Paranoia intensifies]

30k subaru's are not to be compared with 3k miatas.
My question is this: why would you pay money to run something crappy on your car? Just because the gains aren't that different cause the engine is n/a and doesn't make much power to begin with doesn't mean one isn't better than the other.

I mean it's your money though......so go ahead

I guess I'm over the whole "subaru rumble" after all these years, and would gladly run something that pairs the exhaust primaries correctly resulting in equal distribution and less heat.

That's sad. Suby rumble is awesome and I can't imagine not. flat 6 on the other hand...ugh.

You have a point on the performance though. That last way-unequal length BP manifold I ran, the one that made my miata sound kinda like a subaru, it was noticeably less good performance wise than the other more equal length manifolds at lower rpm.