Church

Yeah, tries to use frozen to glass wipers, or use them to clean frozen-on small ice pieces/brushing over those are easiest ways to damage their rubber. If one wants long life, better pull them off screen in winter, when parked at snowy weather and push back/use them only once window is manually cleaned from ice and defrosted .. or change wipers at least yearly (i usually do that in spring).

I simply wouldn't expect/require from track pads quiet work. It's not their main function/reason they are bought for, so even if they squeel .. Simply choose your main priorities, noise or performance, and get pads according to them. If you want both, simply do pad swaps between daily driving & track days.

As i doubt someone ever putting baby seat in drivers seat & driving - hence no reason to have warning indicator for always-on driver's airbag too

In most cases, not all. Aceheader provides very good midrange (& torque dip elimination) despite being EL. And remap, or ECU tune benefits all headers, no matter the type. Even more so, one can slightly rise performance even with everything intake/exhaust being stock.

But if you add to price of springs price of shocks? And i wouldn't ever claim that ANY coilover is better then springs .. heard of suspension made worse by installing cheap budget coilovers, with mismatched dampening rates, with 'customisation' hardly working (and often at unconsistent rates). Hence imho best bet - stay stock, go springs + better shocks or third step (skipping cheapest ones) for coilovers from £1500 and up, with exception of maybe these Teins.

Lauren: roads driven daily may differ a lot. One thing are fun inducing twisties in alps .. another countries with most roads in awful state, many potholes and so on (for example - most post Soviet Union ones). Aaand there can also be sometimes non ignorable opinion of significant other, that can whine about ride being unacceptably harsh that makes her drop hers spine in pants . And she might have different views on how justifiable extra spendings on car in family budget are. Men have to find right compromise between all those underwater cliffs , if car is only one.

Actually springs and good shocks (for example many prize RCE yellows + koni shocks) can be as good or better choice then many cheap budget low quality coilovers (which in turn sometimes are even worse then stock ones). Just that tein flex Z seem to also be exception among budget coilovers, price/quality wise. Yes, by taking rebuildability out, but it's by far not price level of some ohlins RT/KW V3/JRZ/RCE Tarmac */Billsteins. As for - 'ride became firmer/harsher, lost daily driving comfort' - i've seen several times stated view of competent in suspension people, that much stiffer spring rates do not automatically mean loss of driving comfort, if they are accompanied by better quality dampeners matching well those higher spring rates. As example - even with something as stiff as 11K/12K spring rates of Tein SRC. But those are very same people that said that budget coilovers are no good, and usually prefer something from budget of £1500-7000 for coilovers alone . I can easily imagine that something of £500-£1000 can result in better handling in turns only at price of DD comfort loss. As for 'need' .. yes, i second that even on completely stock suspension, toyobaru twins are surprisingly good, compared to other cars i've driven. Not that it cannot be improved upon, but nevertheless. And even for lap times and going faster in general, best improvement will be "upgrading driver" by more tracktime/experience, HPDE lessons and alike instead of putting that money to car upgrades. Be it performance, be it suspension upgrades. Without driver skills one will not be able to use all extra power, and same about improved suspension. Better driver on stock car in most cases will get better results then newbie on tuned or more expensive/higher end one.

rob275: Imho those are different things - 'shipment lost' or 'shipment never happened' despite monthly promises of 'ASAP'. And by tone of PMs (that i also can provide for any admin on request) along lines 'will check/sort out/send' and not once mentioned 'i sent it in ##/##/201#) i'm thinking of later instead of former+some shipping mishaps. I can understand cases where with someone not professionally into that and with unexpectedly high count orders forgetting may happen, once, or twice. But not 6 promised times in a row? Especially when 'just 4 or 5' orders with issues left, where shipping didn't happen due various IRL issues/reasons. Several months should certainly be enough to sort out that little number of orders left, even if it requires to order parts for kits all anew, assemble (IIRC 40min per kit?) and send, so of course it rises suspicions and credibility of each following sending promise dims, just like patience. On a side note, anyone knows if fensport's kits are out of stock for a long? IIRC they were in stock in winter, but then i still had hopes to receive Jay's. Whatever will happen at end with this fiasco, but i want to finally get in some way camera for my GT.

If UEL is not requirement, imho worth taking look is Aceheader's 4-2-1. Pros: supposedly currently best, cons: one if not most expensive. Though of course if one detracts cost of it's integrated overpipe, or that this manifold alone provides most performance gains nearing FA20 NA limits, then it's price is rather competitive if one leaves rest of exhaust & intake stock (as almost not adding any gains above it's due gains bad stacking/diminishing returns). Needs accompanying ecu tune of course, to fully use it's capabilities. Indeed, suggested Tein Z look of very promising price/performancy wise, if one looks at MSRP like that of many much worse very budget-ish coilovers and reads prising reviews. In addition to different ratio final drive imho one can also look for lighter wheels. Though slightly, but they also can enhance acceleration/suspension work. Of course, if tuning would have been free and would take no time, best but improbable choice would be to tune after each component install. But as this is real world, i'd do just one dyno run with everything stock, and one dyno custom tune with all the aftermarket parts installed. Saved money can be dedicated to other things/upgrades .. or even on track days & HPDE instructor training to upgrade main component, between wheel and seat I'm not too sure why so many are aiming for lowering at all. To me it doesn't enhance looks that much, but will rob a lot from it's daily driveability on often far from perfect condition roads/obstacles/curbs/roadholes/speedbumps/steep driveways to clear. Better suspension - yes, lowering - no. Even if one doesn't do any suspension upgrades, imho it's worth do alignment, even on stock, as it has chance of being out of whack even on stock car as shipped. Gains are slight (imho chance of it alignment being completely off & noticeably affecting handling on stock is very small), but so is price.

I tried to plug it with 100% stock exhaust/intake. Reverted. Decided that i'll miss that extra sound oumph on even slight throttle presses even at low rpms. It's more then possible, that with exhaust upgrades i'll remove it, but with everything stock, car with plugged soundtube subjectively felt more dull/less spicy (&fun) , even if it comes with price of extra road noise. Still, due ease of "mod" (and reverting it) and all needed "parts" being there at no cost everyone can find whichever state is preferable by everyone's own personal preferences, hence all kudos to whomever found out few years ago first that glove box lighter plug fits soundtube with no need to order anything extra.

Even more so, that by rumours MPSS 215/45R17 is seen sold now in few EU countries too, not just US as before.

Pitman: i could technically do that. But in that case it will be me feeling bad/wrong to have caused you, someone uninvolved into this mess, to pay your money in his place, solve his problems that are not yours, even while judging by records in profile he visits this forum very often and knows situation by PMs very well?

Damn, seems that i lost that money to Jay forever and will have to pay for camera elsewhere all anew. That's hell of expensive PMs at forum to purchase. Or should i still try to ask about my options in my bank? :/ Well, at least i hope it will serve as warning to others to not trust swindlers and post dispute/claim prior 45 days timeout to ensure at least getting money back instead of it going to swindler's gain. Being patient/lenient/understanding clearly was wrong choice. Plain forum member doesn't have reputation he must uphold by keeping his end of deal, unlike commercial vendors/firms.

Maybe sent (no notice for me on that). 20 days since last yet another PM about that he will send ASAP should be sufficient to ship to another country in Europe, yet just like after previous 'ASAP' PMs monthly for half a year i received nothing. Of course, from January is not as bad as since August 2014 for YAMS .. but having all the other parts that i planned to install at same time still in boxes for long time, having no assurance that this time it WILL be sent, especially when reading about similar issues for others, having no responses for refund requests in PMs .. enough.

Has anyone ever tried to claim refund in paypal? Any advises on process or all needed info should be there in site? I'm giving up waiting, and hoping at least getting money back to get fensport's kit instead of monthly PMs with promises. £115 is more to me then i'm willing to give up/ignore.

Installing different final gear ratio imho is nice mod to gain performance for those staying NA.

Same on mine. And even on simple 1st gear engage on stationary car with fully disengaged clutch. I believe it's diff loading. Never had car before with LSD, so it made me nervous a bit at first, but now i'm used to it, simply ignoring it. It even subjectively makes feel like something sporty/more mechanically direct, without all hushing down for comfortness and quietness sake, even if this sound is way different from something some sport sequential straight cut gears gearbox makes.

IIRC for one of aftermarket intake tubes there were dyno runs performed of miscellaneous combinations. It was ok and advisable to remove sound tube, but with resonator removal there was slight performance loss. Slight, but nevertheless. A bit too lazy to dig among bookmarks, to search were exactly i've seen that data ..

Car at stock seems at margin of what is acceptable for daily driven car on roads here. As i refuse to lower it in any way more then that, see no reason to spend money and add weight for cosmetic purposes that may lessen ground clearance and more often can be scratched with something.

If one plans in future catless header too, i'd get resonating bits in catback too, to lessen drone/rasp.

Hmm, yes, i knew that this size mostly is sold in US. But now i'm going to try looking up some spanish online tyre shops too for these As for 'too grippy' .. yes, car might be less tail-happy, less easy to loose (intentionally ) grip, but imho when one has burned through first set of stock primacies, then one is usually more familiar with specifics of this car handling, to be able to compensate more grip while still being able to induce oversteer if wished. I don't think that going even wider would be good though, at least while staying NA.

If brakes are at optimum bias, stopping distance will be same with ANY kit. Even on some AP Racing 12 pot custom made one. Stopping distance, or in other words 'stop me quicker' will change only from tyres with more grip. There are tests done that can be found if you'll search. Different brakes, same braking distance. Different tyres - different distance. Of course i count out cases where brakes are bad fit for car, and due eg. one axle wheels fully locking while another is underbraked, then distance can change from brakes too. Worsened that is. Imho aftermarket BBKs are usually installed 65% to gain more heat capacity. Not stop quicker, just be able to not fade even after heavy track use of more then 10min session, for which stock brakes should be enough. 15% for BBK choice is lighter unsprung rotational weight. 5% for cheaper consumables. 15% left - for "bling" . None from these top four reasons include "they will stop quicker", as they won't. Except if one believes myth of that by empirically expecting due placebo subjective feeling that they should.

They not just 'look' wider, MPSS thread patch IS much wider then that of Primacies'. +Different rubber compound, and you get much grippier tyres even on seemingly same 'stock' mounting size. Just that they will wear out a bit sooner then stock ones i guess. Pitty though i don't see this size of MPSS selling here in Latvia, as it and it's grip level seems optimum for this car if staying NA. I sometimes wonder, how Michelin choses which sizes it will sell at which markets.

I would advise against fitting aftermarket brakes just by arguments 'of big brand' and 'it fits/can be bolted on'. Simply because it will change brake bias which will result in less reliable (in one of most important components in car) and sometimes even worse performing then stock brakes. It CAN work for most doing only daily driving, but problems surface easy if car is tracked and everything including brakes is fully used and margin of safety is less. Each car has different optimal brake bias depending on weight distribution and weight transfer during braking to keep car stable and for shortest stopping distances. In addition to that some systems are tuned with expectations of it being within some range (eg. ABS, EDS and so on). Taking brakes from different cars (with different optimum bias) or taking from different sets of part bins (unless it's designed for such combo, eg. APR Essex BBKs that designed to work with stock rear brakes) and looking on just for same PCD/if it will fit in wheel/if it can be bolted on may screw up brakes just for sake of having nice painted caliper with big brand name on it. For example - if you move bias to front, if fronts gets locked up even before ABS engage, if you move to back - fronts that are expected to do most of work, will be underused, resulting in longer stopping distance (and on hard braking again one axle can be locked befroe ABS proper engage on both axle brakes). In some bias change you can 'enjoy' on hard braking twitchy unstable car that may swing one rear end around in unexpected moment or make car understeer. Would one want to hit concrete wall on track corner or loose control when doing emergency braking to avoid hitting some obstacle on road just to have that 'brand' on caliper for less $$$? Proper matching would ask to know what braking quoefficient brakes on each end have, and what have ones one tries to fit on. But it may depend on too many variables that often are not known (eg. what friction selected disks have, what is area of pads, what area of brake pistons, to pit it relative against other axle brake pistons and pad areas (preferably for brakes of same set/brand to not miss some other possible variables not known)), thus best to use kits designed for this car to keep bias at what it should be. And use same compound pads on both axles. Knowing just PCD/mounting bolt holes/wheel fitment is NOT enough for safe and reliable brakes.

No special tools to remove sensor, maybe. But i recall mentioned hint to first rethread (of course with same thread as sensor's) in new header before bolting in it O2 sensors. Also there might be some fitment issues with some aftermarket parts or their combinations, hence even if i'd tighten on fully header and maybe overpipe too, i would leave frontpipe and catback not fully tightened, sort all possible fitting (also checking if exhaust parts don't hit/touch somewhere frame or transmission parts having enough clearance where needed) and leak issues, and only then tighten it all down.