The problem with using a donor car that’s popular to modify is that the modifications are sometimes questionable. This is the case with our 818’s turbo inlet hose. The OE Subaru hose is a little restrictive, but it also doesn’t really enjoy hundreds of thousands of miles near that hot turbo. Our WRX wagon is testament to that.
The previous owner of our 818’s donor car—a 2004 WRX—had replaced the turbo inlet with a cheap unit. Not “cheap” as in “good value,” but “cheap” as in “poor quality.” We can deform the hose by pushing on it with a finger. That’s not encouraging.
So, for this project, we’re installing new hoses as a bit of preventive maintenance. We got a set of red intercooler hoses from Mishimoto. Their turbo inlet hoses are on back-order, so we’ll have to wait a bit before we upgrade that.
The intercooler hoses, however, are impressive in quality and fitment. They slip right on, no trimming required, and come with some incredibly beefy T-bolt clamps. Nice.
And another thing: At our initial test day, we noticed that our intercooler was missing a hold-down bracket. It must’ve gotten lost during the build. Without that part, our intercooler popped loose during hard cornering. The guys at Mishimoto happend to have an extra sitting around, and they put it in the box with the hoses.
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