edrach

Unless they've changed the rules (or I mis-understand them for your class), wheels are "free" but rally tires might bump you into Open. Which car are you planning to run?

I haven't seen the Brooklyn course, but you likely need to be more concerned about what tires are on your car as opposed to which rims. Pugs should be okay.

Based on what I think I saw yesterday I'm thinking bad MAF or an injector that won't open up. Again, how can I check that the TPS is correct?

I keep telling you to get gas at the Shell or 76 just down the road from my house; currently high test is $2.40/gal.

Any possibility that there was ever a fwd brat?

You can always come out and watch; even ride with some competitors; you can get close to the action by volunteering to shag cones and such.

If there's a separate water temp sensor for the computer, where is it? I was surprised to see the engine continue to run at idle when we unplugged the MAF; makes me think the MAF is bad.

Sales guys are usually dreaming and posted prices are often BS. Back when I was looking for an Impreza for my wife we went to look at a '93 in Portland on a dealer lot. It was advertised in autotrader for $5995 and I knew before we went looking at it that price was still too high for this year and model. When we arrived, the "sale" price posted in the window was $7995 (REDUCED from $8995!!). When I showed the salesguy the printed ad from autotrader, he didn't believe me and took it to his manager. While he was gone, we took a quick look at the car and it was not even worth the $5995 (shabby condition inside, a few minor dents in the body, and fairly high mileage). The salesman was insulted when we wouldn't even take it for a test drive because of the condition and exhorbitant price. He told us "these are in big demand and it'll sell in no time." Needless to say, we found a '97 Impz two weeks later with lower mileage and at $3995 price on another dealer lot. I suspect we bought our '97 well before that '93 ever sold.

I only looked at one sparkplug and original O2 sensor...they were both quite white (too lazy to check the other three plugs). I saw no trace of oil on the #1 'plug. Starkiller can tell you when the pinging occurs (I haven't driven his car) but I suspect it is all the time. I believe starkiller has driven the car with the O2 sensor disconnected and I think it still pings then. I didn't look for another temp sensor; the one I found was on the intake manifold just above the #1 cylinder. What is proper way to adjust TPS?

I vote for a Le Mans start!

Used the body of the O2 sensor; this sensor is only a single wire; gets it's ground from the body of the cat. Funky reading uninstalled is really a better reading. From what I read on another thread, O2 sensor should read between 500 and 700 mv.

You might have the same alternator problem: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=38211

If you go first we'll all get lost!

Well, get cracking so you can turn on the lights!

I haven't bought a new car since 1988, but at that time I walked out at least 10 times. By the time I got home, the phone rang and the salesman said he had a better offer. I went back and it still wasn't where I needed to be. Walked out again. Ignore all the financing bull, it's just there to confuse you. I had financing arranged through my credit union and knew what my price had to be. After about three weeks performing this back and forth dance, the dealer finally met my offer. Of course my timing was better, it was in November and the dealer had to make room for incoming next year's inventory and nobody else was offering any money on the truck I was interested in. Take your time and keep working it; as long as you show you aren't desperate you have the advantage. If your offered price is too unreasonable, he won't call you back and that tells you that you might be out of a reasonable range. When I picked up the truck at that time, the salesman introduced me to their accountant who showed me the printout on my truck and indicated I had purchased it at $50 under their cost. I think he was just joshing me to make me feel good. Whether or not that was true, I got the truck for the price I could afford and I was happy. Just remember that every month that car sits on their floor, it's another interest payment to their bank. Eventually, that comes into play and they come out ahead if they can get it off their books. If no one else buys it, you might get it at your price. Good luck.

Having been rear ended twice in my Legacy wagon in the last year, I could use one of those!

Starkiller was over here today and we tried to make some headway on his car's pinging problem. Car is an '89 SPFI wagon with manual tranny if that helps any. The obvious things such as timing and advance have been checked and are as they belong. He's running hi-test and it pings and gives a code 32 for the O2 sensor. I put my DVM on the output of the existing O2 sensor and I got a very low reading...around 10 mvdc. I unplugged that O2 sensor and plugged in another (used O2 sensor) without installing it in the cat and got a reading of 375 mv. I installed the second O2 sensor into the cat and got a reading of about 75 to 80 mv. I noticed that the original O2 sensor was quite white (too lean I thought) and pulled the number one sparkplug and it too indicated a very lean burn. After re-installing the #1 sparkplug, I unplugged the MAF and noticed no change in the reading of the O2 sensor or of the idle. Now I think I may have a bad MAF making the ECU think there's too little air and causing the lean condition, or whatever controls the mixture is ignoring the O2 sensor reading, and lastly maybe a restricted port in the throttle body. Qman suggested that maybe the temp sender is giving a false reading to the ECU of engine temp; temp guage was at a 1/4 for a partially warmed up engine and the sender measured 62 ohms. Any other thoughts or other suggestions out there?

Paul, I lived 35 years in north Jersey and I still take a double take on the Brooklyn RallyX in Washington. Old instincts die hard.

See you there.

So when is the House....err, garage warming party? Nice job!

I'm with Skip on that one; if you have the hitachi distributor, I'd replace the ignition amplifier module if you have no spark with the engine turning over. Best to get one from a wrecking yard since new ones run $100 to $200 depending on where you buy it. There's a similar item in the ND distributor, but I have no experience as to the reliability of those. On my Brat I have tested, used spares in my glovebox for the eventual failure. I don't know what's the problem with the Accel coils; I put a yellow Accel on my Brat three years ago and it's never given me any problems.

The two alternators just quick putting out any voltage. Battery looked entirely normal until I had a meter on it and was wiggling the one terminal and noticed the meter reading drop to zero. I had a devil of a time convincing the parts shop that the battery was bad (only two weeks old also) since it didn't always fail when I wanted it to.

Boy, that looks like fun; almost worth the trip!

It's not likely that the alternator failed while you were testing/checking. Take it back for a refund or exhange. The only thing I know that will wipe an alternator is an open circuit in the battery while the engine is running. I had an intermittant open in a new battery that took out two alternators on me before I found the cause.

I'd just settle for foolish! Go Austin. Somebody buy his brat already; it really is the best deal going. I don't quite understand why he hasn't put it on ebay....too much grief and hassle I suspect. He should try to bring it to MN; bringing it into the rustbelt should improve it's chances of selling tenfold.