Horrible stock paper MY99 speakers

Now first thing’s first. Because I bought 6.5″ splits, they didn’t end up being a case of pull out, drop in, drive away. I’ve read that 5.25″ splits go in easily into the stock locations and drop into the stock plastic spacer but it became clear pretty quickly that this wasn’t going to be the case with the 6.5″ splits. They’re just too wide and end up sitting about 15-20mm out of the spacers. Note: this is for a GC8 impreza wrx, MY99.

So I accessed my options, either way I needed to make a spacer but the question was whether to keep the stock plastic ones. In the end I decided to try to modify the stock spacers and glue a 12mm mdf spacer I made onto it. The other option was to make/buy a 16mm mdf spacer and attach it straight to the door and I learnt the hard way that this was the better option. I went with modifying the plastic spacers first because; 1: they are slightly angled to point the speakers up a little and avoid touching the door skins and; 2: I only had 12mm mdf on hand at the time :).

Failed attempt at bonding an MDF spacer to the 5.25" stock speaker holders.

It would’ve been nice if I could’ve just screwed the spacers I made onto the plastic spacers and then just screwed the speakers in but the diameter of the woofers was too much still and the screw holes didn’t line up. I decided to use araldite to stick the spacers together and then silicone to seal them better. I also set the jigsaw to cut on an angle so the spacers hugged the speakers better and provided a bit more strength. Even with the spacer I still needed the small MB Quart cup to lift the speaker a little bit further out.

So now the woofers had a nice place to call home even though it was still less than ideal. I then learnt why the method I choose first was destined to fail. Upon fitting the modified stock spacers back in the door, they stuck out a little too far to fit behind the door skins and when I tried to force the covers to clip back in place, the mdf spacer came off the plastic spacer. Unfortunately it’s too hard to get a decent bond between the mdf and plastic.

MDF spacers screwed directly to the door with silicone sealant behind.

So it was back to the drawing board, this time I took option B after reading up on how some other people did the install on a local online forum. I headed down to Repco’s and bought a pair of 6.5″, 16mm mdf spacers. I used some self-tapping screws to mount the spacers to the doors (recessed so as to not foul the speakers). Then I screwed the speakers into the spacers to complete that part of the install. One important thing to note is that you shouldn’t aim to get the speakers into the middle of the existing holes. Instead try to mount them a bit higher as you’ll need to clear the bottom of the door skins or else they won’t clip in properly.

Good tweeter location with double-sided tape or velcro tape.

Next up was the tweeters and the crossovers. Luckily the MY99 already has a space for the tweeter near the door handle (which is curiously empty!?) so that spot was sorted with a bit of stick on velcro. The crossover was a bit harder to deal with as it was pretty bulky. There didn’t seem to be much room inside the door and I didn’t really want to put it there anyway considering it could end up wet or dirty.

It turned out that there’s a generous bit of space just under the arm rest that the door skin allows some clearance. So I could either stick the crossover onto the door skin or bolt it to the door itself. Option B was better because it allowed the wiring to stay neat and compact.

After all that it’s time to put everything back and crank your system! Take note, it you do use any silicone, give it a day or two to dry and cure because it releases acetic acid during that period. Not good for your speakers or other bits. If you’ve got some more time you could use some fibreglass to really hold the spacer to the door making the mount much more firm and better suited to turning up your volume.

The finalised product without the door skins back on.

So another time I’ll return with some good deadening material to really improve the sound. See below the steps for removing the door trims.

Pull up on the power windows (there's a clip just below)

Some of the bigger screws holding the door handle and arm rest.

Another big screw holding the arm rest. Hidden behind a small bit of plastic that pops out with a flat-head screwdriver.

Near the door hinge this pulls out easily.

Door handle surround unclips around the handle and near the tweeter mount spot.

Mirror trim easily unclips and after this just pull the main door trim away from the door at the bottom and lift upwards.

The first thing to do is make sure that your engine is cool (or at least only slightly warm). You don’t want your degreasing products to disappear before they have a chance to do what they need too.

Next, you need to cover and protect your electrics! A good way to do this is to grab roll of aluminium foil and tear up small bits as needed to cover your couplers, distribution system, etc.

Now grab some good quality degreaser. The thing to avoid is caustic or solvent-based ones. Although these can both clean very well, they’re more hazardous to use for both yourself and the environment as well as not being totally safe for the car too. Caustic and aluminium parts rarely go well together while solvents and paintwork can be bad too. Modern detergent-based formulations are really effective nowadays and with a little time to act and the occasional bit of scrubbing you should be able to deal with all the built up oil, grease and grime.

So spray your engine area and go do something else for about 10 minutes. Maybe get scrubbing on some of the problem areas. Then come back with a low-pressure hose and rinse off the degreaser. Don’t go crazy on the rinsing and don’t use a high-pressure system, there’s no real need and you just risk forcing water into those electrical bits you spent all that time protecting.

Give it a quick wipe down and then remove your bits of foil. Now you can start your engine and give it about 5-10 minutes to dry up the last of the water. Don’t leave it on longer or else you’ll need to wait even longer to do the next step.

Now grab your vinyl/rubber/trim protectant of choice. I don’t usually recommend one thing over another but if you budget allows, grab some 303 aerospace protectant. It’s magic stuff although things like armour all also do a great job for a bit less. Spray it on your hoses, plastics, rubber, shielded wires, etc. and then wipe off any and all excess. If you’re not very pleased with the results by this stage, you must’ve missed something!

So yeah, you’re pretty much done now. Check out the pic below.

GC WRX engine bay after cleaning.

• MY92 – MY96 WRX, Turbo: TD05, Boost: 11psi(Please note that the WRX has been out in Japan since 1992, hence the MY92)
• MY97 – MY98 WRX, Turbo: TDO4-13G, Boost: 13.5psi
• MY99 – MY00 WRX, Turbo: TD04L, Boost: 14.5psi
• V5STi, Turbo: VF28, Boost: 17.5psi (JDM), 16psi (Aus de-tune)(Please note that the V5 STi was delivered with 17.5psi but too many people popped engines due to shit fuel so Subaru Aust de-tuned most models to 16psi)
• MY01 – MY02 WRX, Turbo: TD04L-13G, Boost: 13.5psi
• MY02 STi, Turbo: VF35, Boost: 16.4psi
• MY03 – MY05 WRX, Turbo: TD04L, Boost: 13.5psi
• MY03 – MY05 STi, Turbo: VF35, Boost: 16.4spi(I’m assuming 03-05 STi specs are the same, someone please correct me if these figures aren’t correct)
• MY03 – MY06 Forester XT, Turbo: TD04L, Boost: 11.6psi
• MY06 – MY07 WRX, Turbo: TD04L, Boost: 13.5psi
• MY06 – MY07 STi, Turbo: VF43, Boost: 14.93psi

Sourced from a perth-wrx forum post (if you’re not a member, sign up now, especially if you’re in WA!).

big ass turbo

Fig 1.1 - 2nd hand STi v5 struts

I figured I needed to get a little bit of ride height back for more clearance and also get a spring and shock absorber combination that could handle the bumps much better. I saw a set of STi version 5 struts and springs for sale on the local forum and snapped them up. The springs were standard STi so still too high for my liking. I decided on a set of new Eibach springs that were slightly lowered (about 30-35 mm from standard) and set about swapping them over before installing the struts.

What I noticed when I had a closer look at the struts was that the standard shock absorbers had been replaced with Koni yellow adjustable inserts. Score! These are much firmer than even the STi absorbers and also the are adjustable in terms of rebound from about 25-50% firmer than standard up to around roughly 200% firmer.

Anyway, getting on with swapping the springs. You’ll need a pair of spring compressors (which you can see in the later pics below) and if you’ve got access to a compressed air rattle gun, that comes in really handy. The top nut is usually the main issue if you don’t have a rattle gun as sometimes the piston likes to turn with the nut, making it hard to undo the bolt. It’s easier if you loosen the top bolt while the struts are still on the car, I didn’t have that luxury unfortunately as I bought the set already off that sti.

So go ahead and loosen that top bolt a little (not much though because you don’t want that top hat to get shot out doing damage to your car or you!). At this point, or even before you’ll want to mark on the top hat how it’s positioned. A couple of marks that line up with the bottom of the strut worked for me. Next you can go ahead and attach the spring compressors opposite each other to distribute the force evenly. You may need to put one part of the compressor in at a time (at least where the spring gets tight) and wind it up the spring a little. Now start compressing the spring a little at a time on each side. You don’t want a bulge on either side which tells you the force isn’t being distributed evenly.

Fig 1.2 - sti/koni strut disassembled

You shouldn’t need to compress the springs too much, just enough to undo the top bolt without any force pushing out still. Once this bolt is undone then you can pull all the parts out as shown in fig 1.2. This is a front strut. It’s a good time to give the strut a clean in those hard to reach areas if that’s your thing (might as well make it look new).

The old spring needs to be decompressed following the same process (slowly unwinding each side a little at a time). Then the new replacement spring needs to be compressed and installed. I’ve read about some people also modifying or replacing the bump stops for lowered struts (the yellow thing on the end of the piston) but I wasn’t too sure about this so I left it as is.

Reassemble the strut in the same manner and make sure the top hat is in the right position that you marked earlier. Put the spring into roughly the right grooves (it will settle in properly after some driving) and pull the piston out to full length so you can get the top bits on. I found that the piston keeps falling down if you stand the strut up so I assembled them laying flat. Get the top bolt on and tighten it up (not too much as it’s probably best to torque it to the right settings when on the car).

Now you can undo the spring compressors as you’ve been doing and once you’ve done the whole process another few times, you’re ready to put your struts back into the car. I’ll be writing another guide on removing/installing the struts themselves so check back later for that guide. Once the struts are all on the car, make sure you torque up all the bolts to the correct values (don’t forget that top bolt). If you’ve got anything to add, please leave a comment.

Completed strut with Eibach spring.