This weekend I had SPT cat back installed on my '08 STi. It's a third Subaru, where I installed this cat back. Previous were GD chasis.

I have to admit on GR internal drone is a bit too much. So I've started exploring on what to do next to diminish that annoying drone which gives almost a headache. One thing on my mind currently is using Dynamat sound deadening to diminish that internal drone.

Started discussion on nasioc, we'll see where it goes.

It's high time to give some STi update. Since I sold my black STi, I've had very many cars. I've actually bought '08 STi pretty quickly, but I ended up not registering it and having it sitting in the garage most of the summer, mostly because I spent much time in Boston where it's dangerous to park nice cars. Now it is registered and ready to be used daily.

So most of the summer I drove my friend's Legacy, then drove IS300 for a while, then jumped into Expedition as a daily driver. Few times, my new STi was almost sold but today I am actually happy that I was not. I really grew to love it since I registered a bit over a month ago.

I bought STi on autotrader from a guy in his 40s in NY. The car had everything tastefully modified as far as exterior goes. No engine mods. Only suspension and rear sway bar. Well, nice Enkei wheels though oversized for my liking, they're 19". Also he engineered his own mudflaps that do not stick out in an ugly fashion. Front lip and what seemed to be custom made rear spoiler lip. Car looks fantastic, I don't know what I'd change as far as exterior. Maybe just rims, I'd go back to 18" black BBS. That would be perfect.

Today, I guess, is the first mod I did, apart from window tint — I installed front fog yellow overlays and rear reflectors tint overlays that I bought from jdmfanatic on ebay.

Recently, I started driving STi again, that's after it has been parked for half a year or so. Noticed slight vibration on front. Today, got it rebalanced at Town Fair Tire and looks like it fixed the problem. Town Fair guys showed me that inside of fronts are quite worn.

For archive/record reasons, some notes from original owner of the bigsparow.

Those shopping for a used car certainly heard of CARFAX. It is a great service, but it is expensive. At least to me, it is strange to see such plan that they offer. They give you only two options — 5 CARFAX Reports for $44.99 or 1 CARFAX Report for $34.99.

I suspect there might be a good reason behind such pricing, maybe not. But this is not a point here.

I discovered an innovative service that saves money to both, those who are are looking to save money as well as those who already wasted money on 5 reports! I used it myself and loved it. It is reportswap.com. As advertised I waited only a couple of hours and got my fax as .PDF file. I did have an issue of PDF quality being bad on one page. Replied back asked for resend and got it within an hour. Couldn't be happier! Hope this is useful to someone else as well.

Finally, after many weeks of dealing with various lowballers and non-serious people I sold STi on the 19th, it's gone to good hands. Interestingly, sale lead came from autotrader.com, so money spent on those ads weren't wasted.

Currently, I got a temporary ride, borrowed from my friend. It isn't bad. Don't know yet what awaits me for a new car. But definitely thinking 08+ STi for now.

Is iPhone 4 worth the hardships it brings with it to those who aren't willing to sign up for the contract? In other words, is it worth wasting time trying to unlock it? I didn't think so at first, that's why I got rid of it when I've had enough. Then, after a number of Android phones, I find myself back with iPhone. This time however hardships of having iPhone on foreign networks has become bigger.

I decided to go with the Gevey SIM unlocking solution. Nothing has worked as easy as it appears on numerous youtube tutorials, but somehow I managed it.

Well, a week or two later I had to reboot the phone and here I am again — need to activate it again. No matter what I did this time, I could not activate it. The only reason for that was because as soon as I hung up the phone, I got "NO SIM INSTALLED" error message, so I did not have a chance to go and toggle Airplane Mode. So off to google I went and stumbled upon one forum post. Digging deeper, I found what [Gevey SIM] fine print was missing: disable Data and 3G from Settings > General > Network . If you don't do this you will be forever stuck between the step of dialing 112 and toggling Airplane Mode.

I've been selling and buying few things on craigslist lately, and believe it or not, scammers are being overshadowed by other idiots these days. One particular kind of them is the one that is insisting they will pay cash immediately, and in full, with exception that they'll pay much less just because of mere fact that they do have money. As if I am normally expecting wire transfer installments. They are insisting "I got cash!", to which one wants to quickly reply "Well good for you buddy, you wouldn't be cruising craigslist trying to buy things had you not had cash, would you?".

I took a picture of an interesting email exchange with a weird low-baller. Enjoy!

I finally have a resolution for P0031 and maybe P2097. Went to Mastro Subaru in Tampa,FL and had them replace O2 front a/f sensor. They ended up being good people, didn't charge me for diagnostic, because I kind of knew already what was wrong. So they threw the car on the lift (for free) and checked O2 sensor. Turned out it [sensor] was indeed junk. So I gave them a go-ahead to replace. It came to $319, but I think it's worth it considering I am more than a thousand miles from home.

Today I stopped by AutoZone to ask them to reset my CHECK ENGINE light, which I thought was old engine error code that I brought to FL from NH. But no, it turned out to be a new one — P0031.

P0031 Oxygen (A/F) Sensor Heater Control Circuit Low (Bank 1 Sensor 1)

A P0031 DTC (diagnostic trouble code) refers to the O2 sensor (oxygen sensor) located on Bank 1 in front of the catalytic converter. There is also an oxygen sensor behind the converter which is Sensor #2. More information.

Looks like this code doesn't just get reset. When reset, it comes back on immediately. This must definitely be O2 censor malfunction.

Some time ago I have come across a success story of "Car locator" app for Android. I never bought it although sometimes I need it desperately as I am the kind of person who often times, if not always, forgets where he leaves his car. My personal rule of thumb about paid apps is that I buy absolutely necessary apps. While this one seems like necessary one, I never got it for some reason.

A week or so ago, on my way to Florida, I managed to score a Daytona 500 ticket as I was passing by Daytona area, so I went to watch the race. As I entered a parking lot I realised that no matter how hard I try to memorize, I will never find my car without some sort of assistance. That's how bad parking lot was organized. I believe it was parking lot 7 in Daytona Beach,FL. All the while, I couldn't afford to get lost, as I had to meet my girlfriend in West Palm Beach airport who was flying down from Boston later that evening.

With time of an essence, I had to rush to the raceway, while doing some improvisations to find the car easily after the race:

• I parked the car in my desired spot;
• made sure my current location on Android Google Map was current;
• clicked and held on my current location until it loaded a custom marker;
• then, I clicked on custom marker and chose "Share this place";
• next, I emailed myself my own location.

Then, later on when I needed the car, I opened my email and clicked on the google map url that I emailed myself. Car was exactly on the spot that map brought me to. I was on my way shortly and on time. This can probably be done on iPhone as well; I did this on Android phone.

Excerpt from my car manual, quite cool, short and nice description why some people return STi's back to the dealer after few weeks of driving:

"Because your WRX STi is a performance machine above all else, the driving performance of your WRX STi has been prioritized above driving comfort, which can sometimes result in higher NVH level (noise, vibration and harshness) under certain circumstances" (source: 06 Owner Reference Guide SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STi)"

In preparation to my imminent but temporary departure to Florida I swapped my winter tires for an amazing summer set.

New set is Falken Azenis RT-615 225/45R17, incidentally same I had on my wrxtear right before I traded it in. I was basically looking to get rid of winters and put either summers or all-season. Shame to destroy winter putting few thousand miles on good pavement. Now I just have to make sure I safely leave danger zone, that is northern country.

Thanks to my buddy Nate I've now refreshed my brake pads. I now have Raybestos brakes all around. Originally, I was going to get it done at local dealer, but this way I saved about $500.

So far I don't notice any difference, we'll see how it goes, I'll probably stick to these until a new car or if I put another 40,000+ miles on this one.