SPT Intake and Catback Questions

I've had my 06 WRX now for a few months and I'm already itching to upgrade it, so I've been spending most of my time at work browsing for parts...to make a long story short I found out about the whole voiding warranty thing and that bummed me out, but then I looked into these SPT parts, and found out that they do NOT void warranty, which the warranty would be very important to me.

I've found a lot of info and feedback (reviews, pics, vids) about the SPT intake, but next to nothing about the catback. Does anyone know much about the SPT catback, maybe have one on your car? Anyone know a link to some vids/sound clips?

It's about $500 so I don't want to drop that kind of cash on something that sucks, but at the same time I'm 2 seconds away from just adding it to my cart because my car is WAY too quiet

Thanks a lot for any info!

 

its made by bosal, its a great exhaust, if you come in to tonka suby or brooklyn park we'll get you a better deal then 500 dollars thats for sure , $396 with the discount before tax

 

Well, I do the same and in my spare time, I look at parts as well while I do nothing at work lol. Anyway, there is a law saying that aftermarket parts WILL NOT void your warranty. It's just that the dealer will not cover the part of the car if the aftermarket part is the culprit for the problem or contributes to the part that is failing.

Read more on the annotated law here:
http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/92/1/Will-Installing-It-Void-My-Warranty/Page1.html

With that said, the SPT catback isn't as loud as some other catbacks and in my opinion, is "milder" than most others. I've only heard it a few times and it's decent. I don't run the SPT catback myself since I'm going for a full Cobb TBE this spring Just curious, but do you have the WRX TR or the reg?

 

Wow thanks for the quick replies

AWDimprezaL: That sounds like a really good price, do you have the intake/heatshield as well?

Sky58: Thanks for the info, that's really good to know. Milder would be better for me at the moment, but from what I hear once you do the UP/DP and get rid of those cats it will turn that mild sound up a bit.

I ended up going with the regular WRX with the limited package.

Thanks again guys!

 

You won't need to do an UP since the UP on the '06 WRX is catless already. So, you'll just need a DP Yup, it'll be louder once you get rid of the cats.

 

Search youtube for WRX and SPT. You'll find a few vids. I have the SPT intake and heatshield on now and plan on installing the SPT catback tonight.

 

I'll have to take a look, I found one on there a couple weeks ago, but the sound quality was pretty bad (for the catback), but the intake ones sounded great. I'm interested to know what you think of the intake, and be sure to let me know how the catback sounds and how easy/tough the installation is, thanks!

 

we currently dont have the heat sheild in stock, and i sold our last intake yesterday, but we will be ordering them today

 

I have the spt intake and love it!!!! =)

 

I have a Prodrive axle back on my 06 WRX and I love the sound of it.

 

Here's two.




Install of the catback looks to be four bolts and four hangers. Shouldn't be hard.

 

I have the SPT CBE, intake, and heat shield. It is louder than stock no doubt but not as loud as many others. Unabomder's loudness measurements on NASIOC did not appear to be very accurate. His numbers would say the the SPT is as loud as the Helix. He had both at 98 dB. Tech support for SPT says 93 dB. I believe 93 dB is the right number. I purhased all these at BP and got the discount. I put the intake and heat shield on myself. Here is a link to instructions that come with the intake and heat shield.

http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13720

Since I do not have a way to lift or get under the car, I had BP do the CBE install. Besides at the time the temps were down to 10 to 12 degrees. Not only that, i dropped it off the night before and picked up after work for that instant gratification.

I have considered adding a Helix catted DP to have a full TBE. I assume that would be an additional improvement.

 

imo, over $500 for 2 parts that will at most yeild you 5-10 whp gain is not worth it. just buy an AP for that much or get a reflash that are floating around, then a downpipe. a downpipe will give you a more aggesive sound when at WOT but keep it quiet for driving around. for an intake noise just hack out your intake silencer.

fyi, i have a 375 bhp sti for under $375 in mods. (actually $75 but i reused my dp from my wrx) you could have close to 300 bhp with an 06 wrx with the same mods.

 

its called warranty my techs see spt they dont give a crap, they see cobb, injen, ect ect, void city

 

true. screw warranties!!!!! more POWA!!!! lol

if you are worrried about warranty work don't modify your car to begin with. if you modify your car and break something you should replace it with something that isn't gonna break again anyways. you gotta pay to play, which is what i think alot of people forget.

 

since I have the actual parts on my car.. i'll speak.

I have both, spt intake, and spt exhaust on the car.
you will feel a noticable power gain by simply adding on the exhaust.

it has a definate noticable tone.... best described as "bassier" then stock. and has a mean little grumble to it. BEST of all..... looks almost identically stock to the sti exhaust.

the one thing you will notice is it seems to have a little bit of a rasp to it... hard to describe unless you've heard it, but once you add your downpipe.... it goes away and goes into a nice mean growl.

My 06 sti Invidia V3 catless - Spt catback is quieter then my buddys 05 sti with some other brand catless and a half mellon shooter.

I notice NO smell,
it's not loud in the car.... seriously, I turn my radio up a few notches.... no sound. sti's are loud anyway tho...

so, go with it... I know I love the thing.... i'm even going to post up a fancy little video tonight so you can hear the sound. ((DP's depend on your subie techs.... my subie guys told me they don't give a ****... when or IF somethign breaks, swap it... bring it in.... because these things are built like no other.. NOTHING should be breaking unless it's subies fault to beguin with, or you have some giant mod that would funk everything up... and by then.. you done so much to the car that warentee is the LAST of your worries.))

 

Just got into work and read through all the posts since my last one (unfortunately I do not have the internet at my new apt yet...). Thanks for all the feedback!

From what it sounds like, they're good parts that people who have them seem to like, and they won't void my warranty which is huge. So long story short it looks like I'll have a nice xmas gift for myself this year

Thanks again and I'll be sure to post with pics as soon as I get everything installed!

 

OK so I took a long time to post an update, but I got both the SPT intake and exhaust on my car now.

I got the intake pretty much right away and installed it, but had to wait a little while for the exhaust since it wasn't in stock.

The intake was EASY to install - it was my first mod ever, and I installed it in less than an hour. If I had to do it again it would take like 10 to 15 minutes maybe even. I freaked out a bit because when I hooked the battery back up and tried to start it, it didn't start! But I let it sit for a few seconds and tried again and it fired right up (same thing happened when I installed the catback, is this normal?).

Anyways it sounds pretty cool. When I step on it I can hear the air rushing in, and when I let up on the gas it makes a nice "whooshing" noise - very nice! I'd be lying if I said I noticed any power gains from the intake alone though, which is pretty consistent from everything I've read about it. (one side note for anyone installing this - I first ran into a problem with the air filter, when I came home and checked on it, it had come loose - the solution I came up with is that I had tightened it too much. Sounds weird but it was so tight it would squeeze it off I'm guessing when I went over bumps or whatever, so I loosened it a bit, shoved it back on, and tightened it ever so slightly and it hasn't been an issue since).

The exhaust was pretty fun to install. A friend of mine had some ramps so we just backed it up on to there and got to work. It ended up taking about 2 hours though, and I'll tell you the only reason why - I didn't have any kind of lubricant for the hangers, that was it. Would have been way easier had I thought of that. Also, those "spring bolts" where it connects to the midpipe were kind of a pain too (don't tighten one side all the way or the other side is tough to get through and thread the bolt to).

The exhaust sounds awesome in my opinion. It's perfect for someone who wants a beefier sound, but not over the top loud. It's got a nice rumble and sounds aggressive enough for me. I did notice a slight power gain with the exhaust as well, but that might be in my head, who knows.

All in all I would recommend both of these for anyone who wants to mod their car but not void the warranty. Just a warning though - I had intended to stop after these mods, but now that I got a look at the down pipe...yikes, that thing's gotta go!

-Jeff

Also - thanks to AWDimprezaL for hookin me up with the parts, and everyone who provided feedback here - mnsubaru is a great resource!

--To make a long post even longer...what mod would you all recommend next? Like I mentioned I was thinking downpipe and/or up, but I was also looking into AP 2.0 - but from the dyno testing on their website (for a stock 06 WRX) that I saw a 0.4 increase in HP hardly seems worth $700 - what's up with that?!

 

You won't need an up-pipe since it's already catless. Just get a downpipe. I'm going the AP route since I'm too lazy to try to get it tuned by someone

 

That's good to know! I saw a step by step install of an up-pipe..looked pretty hardcore. Not that the downpipe looks easy though either...

 

http://www.enginuity.org/

Most likely will get a prodrive catback or cobb in the spring. That openecu stuff really knocked off the huge price tag from ecu management...

 

what no-one stole your stereo while you were there!!! my God this is a miracle... ha h ah aha

 

But I bet he came out and found a Pontiac wheel on his car.

 

KING OF THREADS~~!!!!

 

The stage 1 makes the car feel about twice as fast, the rubber bandy feeling throttle goes away, the power gets more linear and boost comes on easier and higher and stays on more as you go through the powerband.

I'd say that if you're not going past stage 1 and you don't care about warranty get an openecu reflash, it will run you about $150 for everything you need and local people can help you flash it. The reflash will be visible to the subaru diagnostics and they'll know you changed something whereas the AP doesn't show up (if you unmarry it before you take it in)

If you are planning on making more changes throughout time or like the cobb staged system then get an AP. I have an 06 with AP stage 2 (jsut a downpipe, catback and AP) and I absolutely love it. You would eed to get rid of your SPT intake for an AP though or get tuned for it, since the normal staged AP maps do not support CAIs.

 

The spt is NOT a cold air unit, its a short ram, and you wont need a tune for it
also i wouldnt run an off the shelf map on an 06 untill they get the insane timing issue sorted out.

 

But figure it out they will. And the openecu route is still the cheapest way to go for more power.

If Subanewb has a laptop, I would recommend it. He could flash his own maps or pay tuners for good maps and road tuning. If he doesn't have a laptop, he would always be dependent on other people for map flashing. Since he is worried about his warranty, the AP would allow him to quickly detune the car back to stock if it broke and was going to the dealership. That's *if* he doesn't have a laptop.

Just my .02

 

The timing issue is figured out, those guys at enginuity are awesome. If you have a laptop and tactrix cable, revert to stock map only takes about 30 seconds.

EDIT: I would however, warn you to read up on openecu stuff and ensure that it the route you want to go. It is cheaper and more flexible, but requires more time to learn/log/tweak then a simple AP purchase.

 

correct, BUT the cobb maps still have the issue, who knows if they have updated and figured it out

 

You said it. Openecu ftw.

 

Well, not totally. There is still that 11* lower timing limit, but that doesn't come into play until you REALLY turn up the boost.

However, the '06 WRX is certainly NOT the car to learn how to tune on. It's kind of a PITA to work on until you figure a few things out.

 

Of course, WOTV's has to chime in to show me what's up

 

Nate, we need to get together sometime and compare notes. I'd like to see your approach to what you've done so far. I have a very interesting new set ignition maps that I have yet to test.

 

Translation: I want to test them on your car FIRST. Hehehe.

 

Agreed. I've bastardized your timing maps pretty good . As much as I love snow, it ain't good for tuning...WOT + snow = not good.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I DO actually have a laptop, but everything I've seen about tuning has gone whoosh over my head, maybe some time in the future though - something to think about.

So it looks like everyone agrees that a new downpipe is a big plus, so somewhere down the road it looks like that's my next step. So even though the up pipe in the 06 is catless, is it still restrictive? Is it worth replacing? Also does anyone have a good link to a page explaining what all the different stages are? I have a basic understanding but it would be nice to have a chart or something to see. Thanks again.

 

not untill you approach ALOT of whp

 

The couple good tutorials that I read when i first got my car are :Stage 1, and Stage 2.

I would only pick a couple out of all those upgrades, however. If you're looking for bang for your buck for the '06: TBE + Tune = STi hp and torque.

 

Thanks, good site - yeah I don't think I can afford ALL those mods

I've seen different variations though so I get confused sometimes. Maybe it's one of those things that's not very concrete.

 

well, "stage 2" as defined by cobb, who sort of brought the terminology more into prominence recently is for a 06 WRX just a turboback and a reflash pretty much.

 

For Cobb, Stage I is a reflash to increase low rpm boost. Stage II is a turboback exhaust and reflash. Those are the commonly accepted definitions.

 

Good to know, so when you say reflash, does that mean the same thing as tuning or do you mean as simple as just disconnecting the battery. I guess I don't even know if disconnecting the battery resets the ECU...so yeah I guess now you're seeing how much a newb I really am!

 

disconecting the battery is a reset not a reflash... reflash is actually when you send info into the ecu and change settings... other then powering down and repowering to remove and soft codes or learning in the ecu.. basically.. I think.. ha hah

 

I've added the SPT exhaust and intake. I really like the new sounds my little car makes. The exhaust is deep and throaty, but not too loud or ricey. Still sounds like a car, not a weed wacker. And the intake allows for a nice turbo spool sound, and the BOV can be heard as well.

A few weeks after I added the exhaust, I had the guys over at MAPerformance install a Titek catless downpipe and uppipe. Great performance upgrade with the Cobb AP.