Church

Hard to understand from just word groaning what exactly of noise it is. Maybe take some video to better show or try to be more descriptive/more detailed what/where produces that noise and of what type of noise? As it fades away after warming up, without knowing anything else, i'd suspect exhaust / thermal expansion / rubbing of exhaust somewhere. If 'groaning' is closer to some whistling .. by chance not more often in wet/rainy weather? Maybe belt is worn/slips & needs to be tensioned or replaced? Though "from just behind me" stands against this theory.

Lauren: i'll try to take on that "don't worry mam, i'm from internet" expert role :). In addition to that same Mu might be challenge to reach, as fronts always work much more then rears, so temps will differ alongside Mu, even if of same type pads. Though i also would advise for same pads front & rear. After all, brake manufacturers (including OE) design in specific brake front-rear bias by choice of pad shape area/pyston diameters, master cylinder area and so on, relying for one to have same pad type. So braking will be safer (less possible lock-up of one end before the other) and often shorter distances and also electronic nannies expect that bias. About the only case i'd consider staggered pad setup is if one has very non standard aero on just one end of car (eg. adding big wing in rear and nothing in front). Then i might consider different pads in rear to change bias.

I suggest to not lower then 1" and reduce urge to fsck up handling for sake of arguable slammed looks, even more so that you plan to use it on track. Or you may have need to buy much more parts to fix geometry and other issues that got out of whack due overlowering, eg. for roll center adjustment, diff riser to reduce load/wear on bearings and so on .. Flex Z is about the cheap as it gets and of good package (eg. it includes camberplates) but you want even cheaper? :/ Most of rest at that price range may have more quality issues. Maybe cheaper might be strut replacement to eg. koni yellow shocks, but you also wanted lowering/height adjustment.

Yeah. Wish for quick repair and back on road. Even if other party's insurance pays damages, that long time until it gets fixed up, especially if car stays at shop during that time, is killing. Always very painful to see such things happened with car that i like a lot

big brands HUs with Android Auto have pros eg. usually better audio quality, and cons - imho android auto screen mirroring is a bit laggy to use, also there might be compatibility issues with different vendors / different phones, also cost often is much more then for these chinese android units. Pity there still is no HU with best of both worlds. As i see no technical reason helding back, probably some legalese issues. As such, high chance to never see android unit from top car audio vendors

To me preferable camber was about extra 0.5dg front for wished bias, i kept it such with interim alignment of -2.3/-1.8 and still use (gone for more track oriented -3/-2.5). I know that EDFC is very powerful system rising suspension capabilities .. but i'd hate to spend too much time fine tuning/tinkering/dialing it. Lot of flexibility may mean also ability to dial wrong. As my insensitive butt dyno and inconsistent driving would prevent me from objectively gauging impact of changes, i probably would have gone with whatever settings/modes some more experienced/knowledgeable in suspension and this system suggest and just kept driving it instead rather adjusting myself to car.

I doubt caster being at fault. How caster may impact handling - with what force steering wheel tends to return to center, and some dynamical camber gain with turned wheels. In most cases weirdness in camber or toe (wrong settings or unevenness side to side) is what sets handling off (assuming no problems with tire pressure or that no weirdness with sway bar modding or (if adjustable) damping adjustments on coilovers). As for oversteer/understeer bias .. even if going for most common performance alignment numbers i seen chosen on these cars (negative camber by half degree more in front then in rear, zero camber front, slight toe-in rear) car still should be slightly understeer biased. Just less biased then with stock alignment. As for overall camber .. it should be chosen on amount of tracking one does, as to where most of tire wear happens. With just one or two trackdays per year it makes sense to compromise track max grip/wear evenness. With 10-15+ trackdays per year it may make sense to compromise a bit daily driving, as track is where 3/4ths of tires will be worn down

What was the fix? And regarding oversteer, my choice would be to lessen understeer not via reducing grip in rear, but adding grip in front.

Nice bits in kouki that may matter - better suspension, brembo's option for BRZ in performance package (hence why i'd prefer to get BRZ over GT86 for new model), improved track mode (ex. vsc sport), touch 2 headunit (with screen mirroring from phones bit), headunit controls on steering wheel. IIRC non-EUDM models also feature updated airfilter box, intake manifold, exhaust headers and ecu tune (for +5hp) and different ratio FD (on MT models). Rest of changes, like single piece dash, lcd screen on instrument panel, changed design of bumpers and head & tail lights .. to me seems of little importance.

I see it has one of my "must have" features like cd tray. It also has 4gb ram, unlike older 2gb units. Pity it lacks last bit i'd wish in such - hardware volume knob. As for China products in general .. they can make anything there according to what is ordered. Their current heavy & high tech industry is capable of. Both very high quality/up to strictest standards & requirements but also accordingly higher priced, and shitty but dirt cheap products, however customers wishes/whatever they order them. It's just that most of western world that move production there, still order those subpar quality but cheap as possible products, all so that cost can go down and profits margin go up. They can make better, but WE order/buy cheap alibaba/rep crap, whichever tops the list when one sorts by price.

Dicks86: at the end though all that we wrote - are just our choices that we did and by what reasoning we justified that to ourselves. It's your car, your money and it's only you who is deciding what you like/wish best .

We here @LV have air pumping & water at most of fuel stations. Isn't it same in UK? Simplest way to stop at any and check pressures. I have in car my own small air pressure gauge though for when on track, to know how much air to let out when tires are overheated/pressure rises up.

Lauren: are you sure on floppy sidewall attributed to tire size only? Not by chance to different tire model with softer sidewalls? Sidewall is just 5% higher, and if anything, 225 on 8" is slightly more stretched, then 215 on (stock) 7" wide wheels.

225/45R17 on x8" wheels with same type of tires will have rather similar handling. 225 is ok to use even on stock x7", bet there might be a bit more sidewall flex. On x8 it's fine. As for which profile height .. better go for 225/45. Simply because it's one of VERY common tire sizing, tires in which often cost 15-20% less then eg. 215/45R17. Difference of 17 vs 18 is not that big. Differences between tire models chosen will impact feel much more then this slight size change. But as you plan trackdays .. i suggest stay at 17" .. again, for cheaper tire price :). Tires & brake pads wear fast on track. So why pay more if one can rather spend that money for even more trackdays? If you'll ever start drifting, even more so.

Some say that 18" look better. Some - that 17" look good enough. It's very subjective thing. Some may even prefer meaty looks of 16" or 15" :). For practical/performance reasons for all around wheel or as summer wheel i'd stick to 17", which seems nice compromise between steering sharpness/handling/tire price/wheel weight/BBK clearance/comfort/wheel protection/good performance tire offering. As bonus - you already have one 17" set as stock "for free" 16" .. will clear less aftermarket brake options, less sharp steering, not all good performance tires available in size, but even cheaper tires/more comfort/better wheel protection .. in short this would be my choice for winter wheels, if one has separate wheel set for winter. 18" .. not different enough handling/performance/looks wise from 17" to change to them imho. Something might be slightly better, something slightly worse. Subjective thing. 19" and up, now drawbacks start to become big enough to make these undesirable unless one is into posing looks for which one is willing to sacrifice a lot of function.

Stutopia: again, if tire pressures are same (always worth to check first. Simple enough and MOST common reason. Was once for me too, when i unnoticed and got not completely flat but half pressure in one rear tire) and in your case i'd check tire wear evenness/alignment/state of bushings .. and maybe add to that list change of rear lsd diff oil, as you say it's only under throttle, not otherwise.

Hmm. Looks good streetable daily driving alignment rather even side to side for camber & especially toe & total thrust angle. So i'm striking out alignment :). "Before" alignment may have done slight weirdnesses with toe-out in front and differing rear camber & toe, but "after" looks good. BTW, how slight is "slight"? Just that many roads are often slightly curved to quicken guiding rain water off the road, which also may affect trajectory a bit. Does it steers to left almost everywhere? If slight is slight enough i'd also wouldn't care. It's rather hard to get everything 100.000% perfect and if car weers off course with no steering inputs only little bit on long distance i'd probably penny pinch and drive as is.

check if tires are mounted directionaly right (see on tire side rotation direction arrows). I had once tire shop mounting one tire wrong. Can you post alignment printout? How exactly that wheel is buckled, do you feel vibrations of it, was it rebalanced after? BTW, can you tell, when/how it's drifting left? Eg. hands of wheel when you are on gas, or off gas in gear, or coasting neutral/clutch off? Most probable in 85% of cases are tire pressures & alignment, but you said you already checked twice those :/. Less probable might be also single brake drag, uneven tire wear, some wheel bearing failure, rear lsd diff non normal functioning, some suspension part failure/damage, but most of these should show also other symptoms, eg. single brake overheat, bearing noise/play, abnormalities during alignment, abnormal plays of suspension arms during suspension diagnostics, wrong damping dialed in aftermarket adjustable coilovers or single damper failure, no?

Wild guesses. #1 Road salt? #2 overheated pad dust baking in/damaging paint? #3 some washing pace that unknown to you DID use some car chemicals to clean wheels?

I'd check: 1) tire pressures, 2) alignment.

You misposted twice. If there is no option to delete redundant thread, maybe ask admins to remove one. As for boot .. it may fit much more stuff, if you fold down back of rear seats. I wouldn't drive this way all the time though, due much more noise in cabin, if done so. I'm used to car stock power and don't need more. As for grippier tires .. imho worth first wear down stock primacies, to learn/familiarize with car at lower grip levels, and move up to grippier as next tire set. It's low stock, maybe better do like sane people and leave car not lowered even more then that? While with stock height i can 99% cases drive normally, i wouldn't want to turn that to 95%, with increasing cases where it won't go over something (eg. kerb, for parking in some such places, or scraping underside of bumper on ice/snow road with deep wheel trails). Yes, i'm in 3rd year of ownership, and still love this car and think that it is lot of car for money. Only comparable cars to it are too impractical (mx5), too old (S2K/nissans), or too expensive (if not the buying (if used), then upkeep/maintenance (caymans/lotuses/M biemers). Sliding .. rather try visiting track. Imho trackdays are much more fun, and also there will be less spendings on wearables (drifting eats tires a lot). I decided to leave drifting for winter, for ice tracks, where everything wears/gets used up less, tires, brakes, fuel ..

So it's just one of items of monosport class kit, not by choice or because it might be better then something else. My eyes were opened a lot by this Racecomp Engineering rep guy post in one of holy flamewar topics on which tire widths perform best. It was about tires .. but probably can be attributed to any other regulated car par, including aero bits. It's not that much which part is best and if we should not auto-assume that replicating something used on specific monoclass spec racing will automatically be best/fastest choice for us, who are not regulated/limited by those class rules.

To relearn fuel trims: Make several slow (as slow as you can without feeling unstable) climbs to 5500rpm. I usually do this in 3rd or 4th. Once your LTFT has stabilized, and if your IAM is still at 1, it should be done. Dead pedal fix: When car is off, turn ignition to accessory, slowly press accelerator to floor 5-6 times. Though i've seen also posts just to wait 30sec in accessory mode. And maybe repeat once more, (turn off, accessory, 30sec wait), and finished with starting engine and let 1min idle.

From his profile he had been here last time on Friday. Maybe worth checking that last visited time there from time to time, might show if he had chance to already see your PMs ..