The Subaru Impreza WRX STI is designed to be pushed to the limits. As the road-going version of the rally car, many a driver would try and take this car to the edge and back during track days (or during daily drives for some maniacs out there). And the car can handle it, especially with all the electronic doohickeys slapped on it.

Too bad, now it needs a bit of tweaking to address a combustion issue that comes up when the car’s engine is revved past the 6,700 RPM redline and this is likely to happen when constantly pressing the pedal to the metal. Abnormal combustion (over lean air-fuel mixture) would occur that may result in engine damage. The issue was discovered by Subaru during a quality review.

To fix it, Subaru has to tweak the engine control unit (ECU). The fix will improve the combustion management above red-line speed and will not affect the other system controls. Owners will receive a notice from Subaru and can have their cars serviced for free.

Now, I wonder how many time you’d be going over the red-line anyway. Isn’t there a reason for that red-line - meaning that you can blow your engine going over it. Or is this a case of “you can still push it past the warning light though we just don’t tell everyone”?

Source: Subaru of America