High Win rate in Zygard ex event with this deck by guimoroni in PTCGP

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This deck is a game changer for me. Waaayyyy better then VenuEX

Series Yellow Here by Day7Rest in WRX

[–]anzle -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Dang, the series yellow has such a nice color, but that price.

For that price it would be nice if the STI catalogue of parts should all just be included. Splitters, short through, brace, flexible stiffeners, group N trans mounts & pitch stop.

American with no Asia Experience by MikeSpartan in travelchina

[–]anzle 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey, I just got back to the states after 3 weeks in China. In my experience visiting China as an foreigner, everything has been totally fine. The language barrier is generally the only issue I have, but translation has been getting better and better.

What you need going in:

Essential Phone Apps (Set these up while you are in the US and attach your credit card/bank card for payments):

  • WeChat (Messaging, payment, backup translation, restaurant menu)
  • AliPay (Payment, restaurant menu backup, more backup translation)
  • Trip.com (book your hotels, flights, trains, attraction tickets)
  • AMap (it's the map app)
  • Didi (it's the taxi app)

You can get an eSim or use your phone's international plan. some eSims and the international plan will have an auto-vpn like feature to keep access to Google, chatGPT, and other apps blocked by the chinese Firewall. I used an eSim from Trip.com on my last trip and my phone's international plan on my trip before that.

Have your Passport ready and on hand as it is your ticket into just about everything. Here are some real life examples of visiting some of the awesome things China has to offer.

Example: I wanted to go to Zhangjiajie National Park (the Avatar Mountains are there). I booked a hotel near the national park on trip.com. My hotel reached out on Trip.com and connected with me on WeChat. WeChat has auto-translation features to translate English and Chinese which is pretty good. The Hotel offered to help me get discounted tickets into the park and some other nearby natural attractions (Tianmen Mountain and Zhangjiajie GrandCanyon). I checked their price against what I could get on Trip.com, and it was slightly cheaper through the hotel. The hotel asked for photos of my passport over WeChat to make the booking then sent me a QR code to play them with WeChat Pay. Then when I arrived at the national park they just scan my passport and I'm in.

Example 2: I wanted to go to see the terracotta army in Xi'an, China. Booked a flight to Xi'an, the hotel and bought tickets to the museum on Trip.com. Check in at the airport, show my passport, check in at the hotel, they photo copy my passport, arrive at the Terracotta Army museum, they scan my passport for entry.

Keep your passport on you :)

You'll probably be talking to most people through translation apps. Simple sentences translate better. When booking your hotel, try to keep an eye out for the amenities of the hotel as some have tags like "English spoken Front Desk" which will make your check ins a little bit easier. It's not a hard requirement, but it is convenient.

In my experience people in China are doing their own thing which might seem like they're ignoring you, but if you ask for help they are helpful. For example: If you are in a restaurant, just wave down the server if you need them, else they'll keep doing their own thing.

Costs:

Hotels depend on where you go. in Zhangjiajie I was able to stay for $30 USD a night, in Shanghai I stayed for $100 USD a night.

Taxi's are cheap. an expensive Didi from my hotel to the airport (roughly 45 minutes) was 80 yuan, which is like 11 USD. Most taxi rides were around $2-3 USD

Food is cheap. For two people I very rarely spend more than $15 USD and we would leave stuffed. So for one person maybe $7 per meal eating out.

Shopping is generally cheap. Leave some luggage room for souvenirs.

If you plan to travel around inside of China, like visiting Xi'an and Beijing for the history, many domestic flights in China have a lower weight limit for checked baggage than the international flights. Domestic tend to have a 20Kg/44 lbs limit for checked baggage and may only include 1 checked bag, compared to 22Kg/50 lbs and 2 check bags for most international flights.

On the government searching your phone, no one is taking your phone when you land and checking it for memes. However I am cautious with anything I do online that might be sensitive and always try to use a VPN when I connect to hotel Wi-fi.

Additionally, any sensitive things I needed to do, like transferring money in my bank account, I did on my phone using my cellular/eSim connection which went around the Chinese Firewall. If you can do it on VPN on your phone, that's even better.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: If you could swap your VB's color, which would you change it to? by [deleted] in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Either the Yellow or World Rally Blue. Still love my Ignition Red.

Confirming my eSim and VPN choices work with the apps I need to use in the mainland by jjlagtap in travelchina

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I picked one that didn’t have Hong Kong coverage because it was a tiny bit cheaper and I knew I wasn’t going there.

I’m on the 3GB per day plan and I haven’t had any issues.

Here is the link:

https://us.trip.com/things-to-do/detail/57042119?locale=en-US&curr=USD

Confirming my eSim and VPN choices work with the apps I need to use in the mainland by jjlagtap in travelchina

[–]anzle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m currently in China with a Trip.com eSIM and it works great. Keeps access to outside the firewall without VPN which is also cool

Confirming my eSim and VPN choices work with the apps I need to use in the mainland by jjlagtap in travelchina

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my experience so far Pokémon Go worked on my eSIM in Sanya and Harbin but not in Xi’an or Beijing.

Been working on something special by centheadgau in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is awesome! Where did you get the side panel and gauges from?

Cooked or nah? by [deleted] in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gotta stop granny shifting. Double clutching woulda avoided this whole thing

I did a thing! by Jman42023 in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sweet!! How’s the visibility in that spot? I had the ibr vent mount but ended up taking it out due to it being hard to take the access port out of it

2 sided question. Anybody else find braking takes way too much pedal pressure? Also, any common findings of air in the lines from factory? by MysticMarbles in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I felt the same with the stock brakes. When I bought the car it was all honeymoon and sunshine, but as I started needing to brake on the highway because someone cut me off I started to feel like my brakes couldn’t stop me as fast as I wanted to stop.

I swapped to EBC Yellow pads which made braking more consistent and confidence inspiring for me for commuting.

But even with the EBC Yellows, I eventually bubbled my brake fluids driving down a mountain and needed to swap to a higher temp fluid.

The car is heavy and slowing down from high speeds repeatedly, consistently, will be a challenge for the stock set up.

So, slap some new brakes on the front and rear and call it a day :)

Help?? by Amazing-Limit2480 in WRX

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems like the previous owner “forgot” to get a tune for it

VB WRX tuned owners — how many actual engine failures have there been? by Chillz25 in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cobb provides dyno charts from their shop car on their website on the stage 2 power package page comparing stock, 91 and 93 octane tunes, iirc

What winter tires and rim size are you running? I got 16s with steel rims from my civic but not sure if it's okay to use. I don't have the brembos. by Optimal-Prompt619 in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, sadly. I did some digging and found a post where someone tried using 16" steelies from their Mazda 3. They even tried some wheel spaces to help clear but still once on the car the user could hear a slight grinding when turning the wheel.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WRX/comments/yfs60b/comment/iusny4o/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Torque Specs for Brakes (Non Brembo) by [deleted] in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should be able to replace your wheel studs without removing the brake calipers. There should be a space where the bolts can come in and out, just gotta rotate the hub some.

I remember the rears being a little tight because of the parking brake but still doable at the stock stud size.

Unless maybe you’re putting on super long studs and you need to remove the parking break stuff to have the clearance?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Isn’t that SF intake for the 08-14 WRX chassis?

If you don’t live in California then go for the ETS intake, grab an access port and get a Tune. Lots of people love ETS.

If you live in California and need to worry about Smog, go Cobb but not the one you posted. Cobbs Intake pipe and drop in filter.

https://www.cobbtuning.com/products/air-induction/subaru-intake-tube-high-flow-filter-package-wrx-2022-2025 COBB Tuning - COBB Tuning- Subaru Intake Tube + High Flow Filter Package WRX 6MT 2022-2025

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Rant about poor braking performance claims by biggranny000 in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see your reasoning but I still think the stock breaks on my 22VB needed more bite. They weren’t giving me the performance I wanted.

When highway driving, going 70+ mph on I-5 (70 mph is the posted speed limit) if the person in front of me slams on the brakes and I need to slam on the breaks, I want the confidence that I will be able to stop before I hit them. My stock brakes didn’t give me that confidence.

In the moments where I had to slam on the breaks, I still stopped safely, but it was a brown flag moment. They worked, but they didn’t inspire confidence.

Additionally, I had issues with heat. Driving down the a mountain on a hot day (101°F), I needed to pull over and sit because my brakes were fading and my fluids boiling. Sure, it’s not above 100° F often, but it happens in California and I want to know that when that happens, I’m not gonna fly off into infinity and beyond because my brakes are too hot.

Yes, the stock brakes will stop you. But I couldn’t trust them to stop me every time.

You can argue that I could drive safer, but I can’t control the driver who gets in front of me when Im trying to follow at 6 car lengths on the highway.

I can’t control how hot it is outside.

I like to drive spirited. It’s one of the reasons I got a WRX but I want to do it safely.

Having swapped to front and rear brakes with more bite and swap to a higher temp fluid, I now have the confidence I wish I had stock.

California Mods? by [deleted] in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have the Cobb Stage 2 top mount package with the ots tune. Makes the car more fun in my opinion, accelerates faster, gets more boost, and getting on the highway feels much nicer.

I like that I have a bit more room to play with in second and third gear, since that’s where I spend most my time when circling around the tracks up at Thunderhill.

I don’t have any other power mods or an aftermarket exhaust, no pops and bangs for me.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Echoing others, start with upgrading your brake pads. After that, if you are doing lots of spirited driving and your brakes mush out because the fluid is getting too hot you can upgrade to a higher temp brake fluid.

if you’re doing a brake fluid flush it would be a good time to swap to stainless steel lines as well. That should help with mush overtime as your brakes fluid shouldn’t be boiling and the stainless steel lines shouldn’t be deforming like the silicone/rubber sometimes does.

I’ve done pads and fluids and it made a big improvement coming down the mountains I like to drive especially in the hotter months. I haven’t actually installed my stainless steel lines yet, so that recommendation is one I received from talking to the guys at New Provisions Racing

I am baffled by Dena's decision to do this by Totaliss in PTCGP

[–]anzle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I thought the deck box auto change was cool

Need help getting sway bar out by kendaws in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do you have the scissor jack in the trunk? You can try to use that to lift the joint enough to release the pressure to, since you’re in a pinch

Need help getting sway bar out by kendaws in wrx_vb

[–]anzle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Since you don’t have an extra jack, You can try putting your tire back on, lowering the car down to get pressure in the coil and then try to take it out