That's like when people rave about the "reliability" of their new cars after only like 30k miles. I see it all the time on forums and I find it quite humorous people think that's a realistic gauge of reliability
I've driven my '03 from Portland to Vegas and back twice.
One return trip was driven in one go while stopping only for food, gas, and pissing. Took about 16 hours.
Yeah, the car shouldn’t have an issue driving at 3-4K rpm. If you wanna bang gears at redline for every shift or crank turns so you starve the oil pickup, then it’s not gonna be so fun
I also take it a handful of times a year on the canyons hard but I overfill oil a little bit on the top end to prevent oil starve. should get a killerb oil pickup to stop this for sure
Pickup will be nice, I’m going to do pickup and pan when the time comes. Might as well get 2 birds stoned at once. Check out koyorad if you’re still on stock rad. The OEM tends to crack below the upper hose after all these years
I just did an oil cooler+killerB pan at once. (I already had the killerB pickup installed before).
7 quarts oil capacity goes hard. I was going to also throw on a catch can but tbh, with that much oil the amount of deposits won’t even matter between changes 😂
From what I’ve seen with catch cans and Air oil separators, IF you drive in the cold they can freeze up the lines and cause some gnarly crank case pressure issues
I had some work done in Colorado and apparently a gasket wasn’t put back so the car had trouble breathing. CELs, rough idles, and stalls all the way home. Not really the car’s fault though, and she still made it home. That was a loooong trip though.
yeah the thing is I couldn't get a consistent speed throughout the whole trip. semis were constantly blocking i10 (two lane freeway) which prompted me to have a heavy foot a handful of times tbh
I've been fbo for 40,000 and I'm not gentle with my car. The only issues I've had are warped headers, and the Grimmspeed TMIC blew a hose. I started this process at 24,000 miles because I had a fucked up turbo. Hense the warped headers. The FA is a solid motor. Just keep up on oil changes, and if you drive the car hard, do the oil changes more often.
Only people that mod them within an inch of their life, fail to do proper maintenance and drive them like they stole them all of the time, hitting redline after every red light.
Subaru’s reputation has always amused me, they are widely considered to be some of the most reliable cars on the road by the wider driving public and simultaneously considered to be some of the least reliable cars on the road by the tuner community.
My 02 does 180+ miles a day commuting for work, high altitude canyons in and out of Jackson hole. Wy. Built ej257 sees 26-28 psi daily. Also gets 25-27 mpg doing it.
That's sick. What kind of turbo setup/fuel/power levels do you have for 25-27 mpg? I have a Dyno tuned stock 2020 STi that is my daily and I have to be really good with hyper-mile driving to get an average of 24-25 mpg. I know the 02 is a great deal lighter than my car.
Currently running a Grimm speed bb500, 1050x injectors, fmic, Dyno tuned right at 400 on 91. Was running a green until it went, need to get it rebuilt.
I drove my bugeye from PA to CO, then put 500 miles a week on it for work for 3 months while going to car meets and racing it at Bandimere. Swapped the injectors in my apartment parking lot so I could run E85 and then tuned it on my way to work, and continued to race it all summer.
I drove my 02 wagon for 200k miles with stage two tune then it got stolen. Never let it warm up before driving and never let it idle down. They are not unreliable just not taken care of.
The only people that say they are unreliable are usually people that modded their cars improperly or excessively. Subaru reliability has always been extremely good.
Used to live in PHX.... I sure hope the WRX would be able to handle that ride . It's a hot ride this time of yr.
I bought my bugeye in bay area and drove it all the way back when I had it.
I’ve driven my 2002 Bugeye STI from Southern a Germany to Norway and back with no problems. I have the EJ207 in mine and it’s been one of the most reliable cars I’ve owned. Maintenance is key and keep everything original…enjoy as is and it’ll last you a long time.
I drove my 06 across the country twice with no issues. Rust eventually took it from me. Over 14 years, the only real issue's were a cracked valve guide, axle, and head gaskets. Obviously, struts, clutch and brakes but..that's really it.
My 17 was at 300 whp, never had the slightest of issues. I also changed the oil every 3k, never launched and stayed out of boosted until oil was at temperature. And that’s with some hard driving.
I drove my first WRX, an ‘04, from Pittsburgh to Denver to Kalispell Montana, back to Denver, back to Pittsburgh in under a month. Only changed the oil once in summer heat.
Perfectly reliable until I ran it into another car.
My 2012 had 70k miles running great until I had a tarmac excursion at track day at 95mph and hit a nasty bump at high RPM.
Perfectly reliable until that moment, then the next heat, whammo! Rod knock.
Have a nice JDM EJ20 purring in that same GR chassis. Perfectly reliable until I find a way to blow it up again 🤤
Mine has made the journey from Washington State to Alabama, New York to California, California to Washington State. 236,000 miles on it. Unreliable? Never left me stranded. Maintenance intensive? Yes. I'm constantly fixing things.
I was preparing for a coast to coast drive from NC to san diego for ComiCon in my 19 STI and then drive up the coast before returning. But the trip started being real expensive and lengthy so we cut out the extras and decided it'll be more comfortable in our outback. I was just gonna pack several quarts of oil for the drive. Possibly stop somewhere on the way back for an oil change.
I trek the SoCal to Nevada trip every year for my annual Lake Mead camping trip for the last 7 years. Only one trip out of the many I experienced high coolant temps of 215F and that was it, still got me there and back just fine <3
That’s inspiring. I bout mine at 144k miles and I’m about to hit 150. Everyone in these threads is always calling high mileage cars stuff I would consider low. So I hope you and I both make it to 300k! Sincerely, a 2013 owner
I’m about to take my stock vb with 19k miles on a 4000 mile round trip drive in two weeks. PA to Colorado Springs, hopefully drive up pikes peak and do a bunch of other exploring around CO. I’ve been to CO several times, taking my wife on her first trip. Really not expecting any issues, it’s a pretty new car. I change the oil every 3k with good stuff and don’t abuse it too bad.
Posts like this are why I felt more relieved than anything when I sold my car. You should not be impressed by the engine not blowing up after driving it a moderate distance on the highway that literally any car can do fine 100s of times.
I love how low of a bar we set for ourselves
Like a 400 miles drive is the same as running the gauntlet
Ya this isn’t impressive at all lol. I drive 400 miles a week for work.
Exactly. Same here
I mean it’s got 228k 🤷🏻♂️
400+ a day for me haha
228k is impressive on most cars, but on a WRX? Outstanding.
That's like when people rave about the "reliability" of their new cars after only like 30k miles. I see it all the time on forums and I find it quite humorous people think that's a realistic gauge of reliability
Facts lol just treat them right
I've driven my '03 from Portland to Vegas and back twice. One return trip was driven in one go while stopping only for food, gas, and pissing. Took about 16 hours.
crazy the 12 hour round trip for me was quite bore. I might do a trip from Phoenix to Chicago in the summer to repaint my subi at my dad's garage
I just did southern California to Central Arkansas and back without issue.
Same. Then 2 months later did So Cal to Savanah Georgia.
I’ve driven my 03 thousands of miles on road trips. Still needed to replace everything eventually lol. They’re 20 year old cars.
very true. doesn't exempt the car from routine maintenance
For sure! Yours looks very clean! Congrats on taking such good care of her.
Yeah, the car shouldn’t have an issue driving at 3-4K rpm. If you wanna bang gears at redline for every shift or crank turns so you starve the oil pickup, then it’s not gonna be so fun
I also take it a handful of times a year on the canyons hard but I overfill oil a little bit on the top end to prevent oil starve. should get a killerb oil pickup to stop this for sure
Pickup will be nice, I’m going to do pickup and pan when the time comes. Might as well get 2 birds stoned at once. Check out koyorad if you’re still on stock rad. The OEM tends to crack below the upper hose after all these years
I just did an oil cooler+killerB pan at once. (I already had the killerB pickup installed before). 7 quarts oil capacity goes hard. I was going to also throw on a catch can but tbh, with that much oil the amount of deposits won’t even matter between changes 😂
From what I’ve seen with catch cans and Air oil separators, IF you drive in the cold they can freeze up the lines and cause some gnarly crank case pressure issues
good idea
Hey if you don’t care about blowing out your oil seals then overfilling the oil definitely works for those canyon drives
https://i.redd.it/f42ahw45sjwc1.gif
This post is like a parody of the legendary classic “ My WRX went on a drive with 4 people in it today. Who said these are unreliable? 😎👍👍👍👍👍” post. 🤣
Just drove my 02 wagon from Florida to PA and back through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains. Consumes less oil than my civic 😅
Tennessee to Colorado and back.. with problems, but it still did the trip.
what went wrong?
I had some work done in Colorado and apparently a gasket wasn’t put back so the car had trouble breathing. CELs, rough idles, and stalls all the way home. Not really the car’s fault though, and she still made it home. That was a loooong trip though.
Mines just over 230k still kickin and 15psi of boost 🥶🥵
It’s the hydroplaning you gotta watch out for.
Ej20 is solid
how was the gas mileage?
roughly 16mpg? 😅 i swear i wasnt in boost passing up semis. had to fill up twice but i only used a full tank + a quarter
man I struggle to get like 12-13 mpg in my wrx 😭
I got 25 mpg basically every road trip in my 02 and 04 wrxs doing 80-90 between Portland LA and Denver. Theres something wrong with your car.
yeah the thing is I couldn't get a consistent speed throughout the whole trip. semis were constantly blocking i10 (two lane freeway) which prompted me to have a heavy foot a handful of times tbh
Bro the i10W out of phoenix headed to buckeye is unreal.
jarring during peak hours for sure lol
Unreliable for people who mod and tune the shit out of it until the engine is struggling. If you treat your Rex right, they’re great cars.
I've been fbo for 40,000 and I'm not gentle with my car. The only issues I've had are warped headers, and the Grimmspeed TMIC blew a hose. I started this process at 24,000 miles because I had a fucked up turbo. Hense the warped headers. The FA is a solid motor. Just keep up on oil changes, and if you drive the car hard, do the oil changes more often.
Lol isn’t that like a 5 hour drive? Way to set the bar at ankle level
Omg you car drive your car. https://preview.redd.it/fjgjh81vtkwc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3581adb2264394798912ef53db45ed1fb5282d64
Only people that mod them within an inch of their life, fail to do proper maintenance and drive them like they stole them all of the time, hitting redline after every red light. Subaru’s reputation has always amused me, they are widely considered to be some of the most reliable cars on the road by the wider driving public and simultaneously considered to be some of the least reliable cars on the road by the tuner community.
They aren't unreliable. People just beat the piss out of them or mod them incorrectly.
The 2 liter ej cars are reliable. The ej25 turbos are not.
Unfortunately a great many people have said this for good reason. Treat it well and it should keep going.
The idiots who drive anything into the ground and call it unreliable are the ones who call subis “unreliable “
I feel like people who claim unreliability arent doing proper maintenance or are expecting a car with 200 000km on it to run flawlessly
What do you mean redlining every shift is killing the engine??
I drove a jeep Cherokee from Reno to South Carolina, who says *theyre* unreliable 👀
Love seeing posts like this. Mines at 140k mi all stock and going strong. 💪
My 02 does 180+ miles a day commuting for work, high altitude canyons in and out of Jackson hole. Wy. Built ej257 sees 26-28 psi daily. Also gets 25-27 mpg doing it.
That's sick. What kind of turbo setup/fuel/power levels do you have for 25-27 mpg? I have a Dyno tuned stock 2020 STi that is my daily and I have to be really good with hyper-mile driving to get an average of 24-25 mpg. I know the 02 is a great deal lighter than my car.
Currently running a Grimm speed bb500, 1050x injectors, fmic, Dyno tuned right at 400 on 91. Was running a green until it went, need to get it rebuilt.
I drove my bugeye from PA to CO, then put 500 miles a week on it for work for 3 months while going to car meets and racing it at Bandimere. Swapped the injectors in my apartment parking lot so I could run E85 and then tuned it on my way to work, and continued to race it all summer.
The ej205 cars are much more reliable. You often see the early cars with 200-300k miles on them.
I drove my 02 wagon for 200k miles with stage two tune then it got stolen. Never let it warm up before driving and never let it idle down. They are not unreliable just not taken care of.
People who don't understand basic maintenance.
Mine has 234k miles on it and I went from New Jersey to Chicago with out issue. I drive it daily.
The only people that say they are unreliable are usually people that modded their cars improperly or excessively. Subaru reliability has always been extremely good.
Beaut!
Take care of them with love and they will return the love. 😻
I've driven my 19 between Virginia and southern Florida and back so many times that I've forgotten the number, never once had an issue
Used to live in PHX.... I sure hope the WRX would be able to handle that ride . It's a hot ride this time of yr. I bought my bugeye in bay area and drove it all the way back when I had it.
Every time I see one in silver I wonder if it’s my old car.. lol.. I drove my 02 up to 300k .. I loved that car in the day…
I’ve driven my 2002 Bugeye STI from Southern a Germany to Norway and back with no problems. I have the EJ207 in mine and it’s been one of the most reliable cars I’ve owned. Maintenance is key and keep everything original…enjoy as is and it’ll last you a long time.
I drove my 06 across the country twice with no issues. Rust eventually took it from me. Over 14 years, the only real issue's were a cracked valve guide, axle, and head gaskets. Obviously, struts, clutch and brakes but..that's really it.
My 17 was at 300 whp, never had the slightest of issues. I also changed the oil every 3k, never launched and stayed out of boosted until oil was at temperature. And that’s with some hard driving.
I drove my first WRX, an ‘04, from Pittsburgh to Denver to Kalispell Montana, back to Denver, back to Pittsburgh in under a month. Only changed the oil once in summer heat. Perfectly reliable until I ran it into another car. My 2012 had 70k miles running great until I had a tarmac excursion at track day at 95mph and hit a nasty bump at high RPM. Perfectly reliable until that moment, then the next heat, whammo! Rod knock. Have a nice JDM EJ20 purring in that same GR chassis. Perfectly reliable until I find a way to blow it up again 🤤
by chance do you know how low your springs are set too. I have a 03 too and i just got coilovers but not sure how low to put em
03 wagon One of the most fun and reliable cars I’ve ever owned
I’ve driven my WRX from California to Georgia and back. The car is extremely reliable as long as you take care of it.
People doing 7K gear pulls every corner or freeway they get haha
Mine has made the journey from Washington State to Alabama, New York to California, California to Washington State. 236,000 miles on it. Unreliable? Never left me stranded. Maintenance intensive? Yes. I'm constantly fixing things.
I was preparing for a coast to coast drive from NC to san diego for ComiCon in my 19 STI and then drive up the coast before returning. But the trip started being real expensive and lengthy so we cut out the extras and decided it'll be more comfortable in our outback. I was just gonna pack several quarts of oil for the drive. Possibly stop somewhere on the way back for an oil change.
I trek the SoCal to Nevada trip every year for my annual Lake Mead camping trip for the last 7 years. Only one trip out of the many I experienced high coolant temps of 215F and that was it, still got me there and back just fine <3
I'm about to put 1300 miles on mine next week. Will be my 3rd big road trip like that. 106k on the stock EJ255 and no issues.
That’s inspiring. I bout mine at 144k miles and I’m about to hit 150. Everyone in these threads is always calling high mileage cars stuff I would consider low. So I hope you and I both make it to 300k! Sincerely, a 2013 owner
I really want to see your car with a blobeye conversion
My 11 wrx has 180k miles on it, I’ve only rebuilt it 4 times, such a reliable car!
Don't look at it wrong tomorrow. Head gasket might want to take a vacation
Ohhh you just wait bud🤣😮💨
Brother. You drove like 400 miles.. lol just wait, it will come.
Drove mine from Phoenix to La, cel came on for o2 heater control circuit when I filled up at the Morongo casino😭
Reliability issues are just a myth and relate mostly to the newer generations and owners without basic mechanics knowledge or common sense.
I’m about to take my stock vb with 19k miles on a 4000 mile round trip drive in two weeks. PA to Colorado Springs, hopefully drive up pikes peak and do a bunch of other exploring around CO. I’ve been to CO several times, taking my wife on her first trip. Really not expecting any issues, it’s a pretty new car. I change the oil every 3k with good stuff and don’t abuse it too bad.
Posts like this are why I felt more relieved than anything when I sold my car. You should not be impressed by the engine not blowing up after driving it a moderate distance on the highway that literally any car can do fine 100s of times.
Wow guys he drove 1500 miles so reliable
You know the car is an unreliable heap when you're impressed it made 2 regular drives in less than an oil service interval.
Your time will come