S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Hi all. I bought my GT86 around 3 weeks ago, and I absolutely love it, however, last night I found myself filing up random interior trip gaps with foam to try and eliminate the multitude of rattles. This, along with a lot of threads I've seen about changing the gear knob for a better shift feeling, brought up a question I thought I'd do a search for (but failed to find too much information on, hence posting this). Are there any "quality of life" kind of upgrades you've done to your car, which have improved it in some significant way, other than the obvious performance mods? As a follow up, and to save me making another new topic, I wanted to add 2 other quick questions to the end of this: Question 1: For those of you who have changed your gear knob, could you point me in the direction of your recommendation? A lot of the US guys suggest "Flossy", but I'm not about to pay £100+ and wait multiple weeks for a gear knob. Question 2: I've never been a fan of "decatting" petrol cars, due to the problems that causes during MOT time. With the car's first MOT coming later this year, I don't particularly want to decat now, knowing I'll have to swap back in a few months time. However, I understand the GT86 has 2 cats. So if I were to get a second cat delete pipe, keeping the front cat in place, would I be ok for MOT? I'm sure these questions have been asked before, but hell if I can find them. Thanks in advance for your help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Gongrats on your purchase, as for the rattles, well, just drive it. It's a car, it will make noises You're likely to get an influx of abuse for mentioning rattles here from a few members. But ignore them Gearknob wise, I think most people are preferring just gearknobs without stitching on. Personally I don't mind the stock one, fensport sell a variety which vary in price. Other than that I don't know much about them Cat wise, you can remove the 2nd cat with no issues and still pass an MOT with flying colours. 2 S18 RSG and Mike reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AJ124 118 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Welcome along, I have changed my gearknob to a team voodoo one, there's a pic in my build thread. I changed it because the stitch line and shape annoyed me. The other improvement I have made is an arm rest, I made my own and trimmed it in black alcantara to retain use of a cup holder, but Toyota do a genuine one which covers the entire hole in the center console. Makes a huge difference to comfort for daily and distance drives. 2 S18 RSG and richardcarman reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deacon 1357 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 I changed mine to an Anarchy Motive one which is the heaviest gear knob currently available I believe and so helps with the shift feel. It's also longer than the stock one so brings the shifter closer to the wheel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Thanks for the replies everyone, and thanks for the welcomes. In regards to the rattles, I'm sure some people are fine with rattles, however this wasn't a general rattle (I can deal with them), it was clearly something loose/not clipped in properly. It's fixed now, and it seemed like one of the clips on the rear "parcel shelf" deal, with the rear brake light, had snapped. I kinda jammed some foam along the length of it, and there's basically no rattling from the rear at all now. And people can go ahead and abuse I have pretty thick skin haha. I see there is quite a variety in shift knobs. It seems like everyone changes them, and I can see why. Ideally, I was looking for something similar to AJ's (just plain, and round), but with a good bit of weight behind it. I can't help but feel that a nicely weighted shifter would do wonders for the precision of the gearbox. Also, thanks for clearing up the situation with the exhaust. I'm still in two minds whether to go for a second cat delete pipe now, and then a cat back in a month or two, or wait and do the decatting at the manifold when I start looking into getting a new one. Catted manifold choices are rather limited at the moment, certainly UEL ones, so it's a difficult decision to make, but in the same light, a decat pipe for the 2nd cat would potentially do wonders in terms of freeing up a bit of power and upping the noise a little. Any advise is appreciated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Congrats and welcome to the club. As people have already mentioned, arm rest is a must for me now, it just feels perfect position wise. I don't mind the gear knob so never looked and again, you shouldn't have any issues with a 2nd cat delete that a fair few people have already done. The only other quality of life item I'd have to get if I was to get another 86 would be a reversing camera. Rear visibility isn't bad when looking straight back but you can't see the lower stumps and walls, and it's difficult to gauge how far back because you can't see the edge of the rear at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Ahh yes the arm rest! Worth getting for sure I always forget about it not being standard. As for catless manifolds, it's ok because you can get away with a 200CEL Sports CAT in the front pipe and it will be passable by MOT standard still. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tareim 343 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Ahh yes the arm rest! Worth getting for sure I always forget about it not being standard. As for catless manifolds, it's ok because you can get away with a 200CEL Sports CAT in the front pipe and it will be passable by MOT standard still. Mark-in-Stoke has just been through an mot with catless manifold and sports cat and failed at 5x the limit, put the standard front pipe cat on and then passed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Congrats and welcome to the club. As people have already mentioned, arm rest is a must for me now, it just feels perfect position wise. I don't mind the gear knob so never looked and again, you shouldn't have any issues with a 2nd cat delete that a fair few people have already done. The only other quality of life item I'd have to get if I was to get another 86 would be a reversing camera. Rear visibility isn't bad when looking straight back but you can't see the lower stumps and walls, and it's difficult to gauge how far back because you can't see the edge of the rear at all. Reversing camera sure is something I've been looking into, however, I will probably get this when upgrading the head unit. My dad recently picked up an Android head unit, with reversing camera, for around £400 for his T5, it's a great bit of kit. The nav works well (which is great for me, as I use the car for work also), he has all the apps you would expect (Netflix, Spotify etc.) and it just uses the 3G/4G signal from his phone to get data. Seeing as the standard head unit is currently nothing more than a music machine, it's probably worth upgrading. Arm rest is also something I'm quite interested in, just exploring options. I've seen the "official" ones on eBay for around £100, which seems ok, just didn't know if there was a better option than that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted June 24, 2015 Mark-in-Stoke has just been through an mot with catless manifold and sports cat and failed at 5x the limit, put the standard front pipe cat on and then passed Keith's passed though, but I know Keith's cost him a good £600. Probably a case of you get what you pay for 1 Lauren reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Church 209 Report post Posted June 28, 2015 My comfort/"quality of life" upgrades list goes like: Armrest, Brodit active charging cellphone holder, backup camera, replacing tyre repair kit with skinny donut spare, Weathertech floormats, Wheelhaus' 3rd brake light. Considering: Alcantara instrument dash cluster hood (to not see stock's reflections on windscreen), mudflaps (it was fun driving on gravel roads, but hearing all those small rocks hitting wheel arches .. imho they won't hurt to save better paint on car sides), kit to auto-fold mirrors when locking car. Also thinking how to better hard mount fire extinquisher inside spare donut wheel for it to not rattle and to not use any trunk or cabin space. Not decided on shark-fin antenna, don't like stock, but don't want to get worse radio reception. Not sure yet which way to go with audio upgrades. Todo: better hiding/routing charging wire to phone holder and usb extension wire to ipod in glove department. Didn't like - perrin 'drift' button. Installed it, tried out few times, seen that almost never really used it instead getting sideways using other methods, but in much more cases disliked removed spring, hence put it back, but then should have skipped this purchase in first place. Stock cup holders suck, but seems that my coffee mug fits well in doors bottle holders. Gave up searching one i would like (liked Tom's in airvent, but it's for RHD only) Biggest source of rattles are latches of rear seats (imho ~ 2/3). So far used duct tape around U latching hooks, but it's too short lived. I need to find some plastics that will fit well there and will do better wear-wise, to not need to re-tape after once or twice lowering seats and latching them back. Performance upgrades: biggest gains are from aftermarket decatted header (manifold) + ecu tune. Header upgrade in many cases also helps fixing torque dip. Hence imho you'd be better off with upgrading header and stock frontpipe with second cat, then vice-versa. I am rather happy with rest of car performance and suspension bits in stock, but am thinking of doing some lightening. For example going to some LW 16" forged wheels, lighter BBK, maybe pulleys/LWFW/driveshaft. Or even if 17", still lighter then stock ones. +some good rubber on them once i burn through OEM Primacies. Michelin Super Pilot Sport-s seem well spoken of. 2 S18 RSG and Omer86 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted June 29, 2015 Best coffee mug is the Contigo, available from John Lewis for £30. Fits perfectly in the door bin. You don't need the alcantara dash binnacle covering if you wear polarised sunglasses as they cut out all reflections. 1 ALB453 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted June 29, 2015 Thanks for the reply Church, very helpful. I, too, found that the rear seat latches were the cause of my rattles (not sure if I mentioned that). All seems well now though. I popped into my local Toyota dealer to get some quotes on a few bits, it's crazy how they can justify the prices of some of their options. The armrest was £120 (which is ok), the standard cup holder (which mine doesn't have) is £19 (again, not bad), but the Sat Nav retrofit at £750 and DAB radio at £180, to me, are ridiculous. I've also booked the car in for a decat next Sunday. £110 fitted from the only place I will ever go for an exhaust sounds ok to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Church 209 Report post Posted June 29, 2015 Standard cup holder .. i found it unusable. Too far back in rearmost position to comfortably reach for mug when driving (i know it's bad and dangerous habbit , but it's even more dangerous in this car, as due location i have to divert eyes from road and lean far back/to side to reach it, unlike if it had been in front of gearstick, to easy reach without looking/leaning), and mug interfering with hand on gearshift/handbrake, if it's in frontmost position. And all that center console hole seems just gathering dust and looks silly if armrest is not installed above that. Not much lost, if you don't have standard one - just use door's one (NOT for flexible paper cups in misc drive in junkfood joints). For audio/navi .. i'm leaning to keep using navigation in cellphone mounted next to headunit and enhance audio via some amp (but leaving rest same), or change to different headunit that will tick most of checkboxes i want (better audio, more usb ports, mirrorlink support, preferably native android, torque app support for extra OBD gauges). For later case i'll wait out a bit longer, for android units to appear also from some of top audio vendors. Not sure if current chinese android headunits will have as good audio part as those have. P.S. Don't forget easy & cheap performance gain from drop-in aftermarket air filter (just +5whp .. but for $40 ), and be it decat or not, in both cases i'd do ecu dyno tune. P.P.S. What fix you used on your rear seat latches? IIRC some used velcros there, but it's also of quick wear item. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted June 29, 2015 The cup holder will be more useful for me as it's somewhere to put my air freshener, and I don't drink tea/coffee, so I'll just keep a bottle of water there, but you make some fair points. If I had one, I'd probably remove it. The Chinese Android head units are surprisingly good. My Dad bought one, albeit a rather expensive one at £350, for his VW T5. Audio quality is good, nav is great and the variety of apps are brilliant. I'll probably order an aftermarket filter tonight. What brand do most people go with? I was looking at Cosworth/K&N. I fixed the rear seat by stuffing some foam in the gap between the plastic and the metal under the boot lid. When I gave it a rattle I just pinpointed the rattles and packed them with foam until they stopped. Made a fairly big difference in fairness. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Omer86 40 Report post Posted June 30, 2015 K&N or HKS are popular filters, i have the K&N myself. Also armrest is very good value for money. 1 richardcarman reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Church 209 Report post Posted June 30, 2015 IIRC there was one test, where almost all aftermarket dropin filters shown similar results, all were more freely flowing then stock. TRD, K&N, Cossworth .. take whichever is simpler to buy and whichever company you trust in more. Cheapest performance upgrade of them all.P P.S. In most cases you shouldn't consider full intake replacements. They bring only slightly above what dropin filters do, yet cost ten times as much, and often gains are with misscaled MAF sensor for them in stock tune and as result with AFR all around the place, running too lean, and once you do proper ecu retuning, it's far from that big gain some vendors claim. 1 richardcarman reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted June 30, 2015 I have refused to spend money on expensive intakes on all cars I've ever owned, so I certainly wouldn't start here, however, thanks to your replies, I placed an order for the HKS filter last night. Along with the manifold back exhaust and remap next month, should see some nice increases. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Church 209 Report post Posted June 30, 2015 Regarding catback exhaust system, you have to understand that: 1) it will be rather expensive 2) it's mostly for sound, not performance. It can give some extra 7-10 ponies, especially with tune, but it comes at price of $1K and it's way less then 15-25 extra whp from header, that on average costs 1/2-2/3 of average catback. If purely max performance NA gains is your target, header itself is better point of investment for this car imho. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S18 RSG 429 Report post Posted July 1, 2015 I've been quoted £450 for a full manifold back exhaust, with a decat, and twin 4 inch tips. I don't buy into the premade systems, because for one they're mass produced, so you can't guarantee quality, and secondly, they slap a massive premium on them. I have always, and will always go to the same place for exhaust work, Prospeed in Cardiff. Charlie has done my last 4 cars, and his work is probably twice the quality of a prebuilt system at half the price. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paul 442 Report post Posted April 7, 2016 My brodit kit arrived today, having a bit of a prob installing it though. Did you guys have to removed the interior panels? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted April 7, 2016 1 hour ago, CanaryWundaboy said: My brodit kit arrived today, having a bit of a prob installing it though. Did you guys have to removed the interior panels? No, just stretch it over them, it won't snap Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paul 442 Report post Posted April 7, 2016 Hey Rob, do you have a photo of exactly where you have yours? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Test Drives Unlimited 278 Report post Posted April 8, 2016 Here you go a picture of mine installed Sent from my Archos 53 Platinum using Tapatalk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paul 442 Report post Posted April 8, 2016 Cheers Nigel, mine is now happily mounted. 1 rob275 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
