Hi everyone,

My name is Ryan and I live in the Atlanta area. I just sold my 04 STI and I'm now looking to buy an FD. I also have an MR2 turbo that is fully built with 450whp so I'm decently adept at mechanical work. Well this FD I looked at is pretty rough, so I had a few questions you guys might be able to answer about it. When the car is first started and is idling at 1500rpm(cold idle I know) the turbo and downpipe were glowing BRIGHT orange. after driving for about 15 min and pulling over it totally went away(cooled down). Is that normal? Also the battery was totally dead, and it needs a new positive terminal. But the airbag light is flashing, like 2 flashes, pause a second, 2 flashes. Is this possibly from the battery going dead or does it need expensive work to fix it? Thanks for the help in advance. I've been trying to read up on FD's but there is much that is unique about these cars.

 

No, glowing exhaust is not normal...even if it goes away. The cold idle should drop with a blip of the throttle. If it doesn't something has been changed and isn't right. Does it drop after warm-up?
Just to confirm...is it the airbag light that flashs or is it the Check Engine Light? If it is the airbag light I would think that has more to do with the crash sensors. My battery has gone dead before, but I've never gotten an airbag light.

 

It's definitely the airbag light. The cold idle does drop from 3k to 1500 with a blip of the throttle, but it doesn't seem to want to drop from there. I drove it for about 15 min and it didn't drop below 1500. Does that indicate a vacuum leak? The car drove great otherwise, it had great drive-ability and torque. I was surprised on the torque part cause it's a rotary

 

Not a guru, but I'd look really close for evidence of a front end collision or some modification that may have messed with a sensor and caused the airbag light issue.
As for the exhaust the first thing that comes to mind is a collapsed or partially collapsed cat...or some type of obstruction. If it's got a programmable ECU maybe the idle is really lean?
The high idle could be a vac leak, but just as probable it's the result of someone jacking with the idle settings or an issue with the Idle Speed Control.
What is the seller's explanation for these issues? Especially the glowing exhaust?

 

Car fax came up totally clean showing no accidents. It looks all original too, so maybe a wire came loose. It seems like the car just needs going through, which I can do. I think I'm going to buy it and sort through it.

 

Carfax is not proof. Look it over. If someone didn't turn it into insurance and had some shade-tree collision outfit try to fix it on the side and on a budget, it wouldn't show up. And that may be the reason the SRS light is on.