I may have found someone to swap lids with me, they are about 3 hours away. I have an sti, they have a winged wrx. I need to know about how this works with the springs and how easy or difficult the whole process is. I am trying to decide if I should meet him halfway (if this is a quick easy swap) or if I should get some gas money from him and meet him where him and the tools are at. Please share you thoughts if you have done this type of swap before. Thanks :biggrin:
It is easy, you just gotta swap the lock cylinders, springs, and decklids. The lock cylinders are held on by a U shaped clip that you slide out from around the cylinder, and theres a plastic clip you remove to get the lock rod off. Then its just the trunklid bolts and the springs. You should be able to do this in any parking lot with a ratchet, socket and a screwdriver/pliers.
^^^ Thanks, I will have to look at it in the morning to see if that all makes sense once I look at it. I had heard somewhere that the "springs" were actually torsion bars and required a special tool to be removed safely, that is what kinda worried me...
They are a sort of torsion bar, but you can take them off by hand. Its not like they are pushing 700lbs or anything.
Its not very hard, the lock was the worst part, not alot of room in there. Bring a couple of diffrent pliers and pokey things. Also a heavy blanket or something to lay the trunk on while getting the lock out. I did mine in the grass and ended up putting a scratch on it. We didnt swap springs. You will want his brake light also which will leave a hole in his deck carpet.
Here is a write-up on the torsion bars. It isn't really hard, they are just kind of a wierd angle to get at. A nice long screwdriver will give you more leverage, the STi ones are definitely more of a pain to deal with. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=672301
I did a swap with the interior deck panel on mine in less than 1.5 hrs. And that was with removing both rear seats and both interior deck panels. Bring a vice-grip for the trunk springs. Longer would be prefered. Is your's blue? I can make the trip shorter for ya.....
Interior deck panels? What, why? I wasn't aware of this part until just now, what is that all about? Is it neccessary? P.S.- I have the ever-popular Java Black Pearl
I kept my torsion bar in my STi so my trunk actually pops up nice and quick. Not sure on the deck panel as I never changed mine. Maybe it was for a change in color?
When I did it, the guy that wanted the swap wouldn't have a wing anymore, and by law you need a 3rd brake light. So I took his deck trim panel, which had no 3rd lamp hole in it, and swapped it with mine that had the 3rd brake lamp. You may not need to if your swapping with a WRX that already had the spoiler on it. That will count as your 3rd lamp.
yeah his spoiler should have a 3rd light in it, only if it doesn't do you need to have is 3rd light from his deck (or his whole deck)
Thanks I thank all of you who gave your input, it was a lot of help. Here are some pics of my car and the dirty, A/T, wrx that I traded trunks with. Pic 1: my car before Pics 2 & 3: both cars after swap Pics 4 & 5: my new look somewhat cleaned up P.S. - I have now been to Iowa
that looks nice, i can't believe you found someone that wanted to trade you should ask your insurance guy to lower your rate a bit since you can see better, he might actually do it would only work if you work with a real agent though did you get the 3rd light working?
I have a hard time just getting a straight answer out of my insurance dude, he is kind of a knobber. Brake light plugs right in, in theory. Unfortunately this one wasn't that easy, but it is just 2 wires so I made it work
^^^ I brought connectors with as a "just in case" measure for this potential problem. There was no way I was driving to Iowa without being prepared for whatever
