In November 2001 Croney told me he could give me a taller 5th gear on my STi ver 6 wagon and this was something that they (Scooby Sport) had done on a number of occasions in the past. This was at a time when I had little Subaru knowledge and the then Scoobysport under Pete Croney were thought to be the experts on all things Subaru. The car was taken to Basildon December 2001 and when collected January 2002, within half a mile I realized a shorter 5th gear had been fitted. Why had ScoobySport not test driven the vehicle?
When I collected the vehicle the second time in early February it had been agreed to fit 3.9 diffs. On collection there were problems with the vehicle including basic items such as grossly overfilled with oil. On the journey home (300mls) it was clear there were other isues and these were bourne out at a rolling road session two days later. The poor workmanship related items were rectified partially by myself and partially by Well Lane the following Monday. Croney was advised.
A few weeks later, totally unrelated, I had the misfortune to pick up No. 2 piston in the bore 11 mls after fitting an APS cold air kit. Until that time APS provided no warnings with their kits and it was not realised in the Subaru community that a rescaling of the MAF sensor or remap were required when a CAK was fitted. When the engine was removed, a totally unexpected occurrance, the flywheel had not been lightened to between 7.5 and 8kgs as Croney claimed, nor had the headers been ported satisfactorily. This explained why I could feel no benefit from either of these modifications supposedly carried out by experts when the gearing was altered.
Since February 2002 my car suffered handling and braking problems. Although I had gone to great lengths to cure these, my efforts were futile, until in August John Pye removed my gearbox because of a serious drivetrain vibration. He found substantial damage as a result of debris after the center viscous coupling had disintergrated. It was then discovered the car had a 3.9 front diff and 3.545 rear diff along with the standard Japanese 1.0:1 drop gear.