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Shep2112

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Everything posted by Shep2112

  1. that's a possibility I guess. would that cause the flickering lights though? that was a definite occurrence both times this happened. yep, its an automatic. the steering wheel was not locked at the time. I will try to get it barely into park and see if I get the flicker at that point. I read in other posts that the flicker was caused by AC in the dash lights.
  2. the enine ground had been loose about 2 years ago and it would turn but not actually start. would an alternator activate the starter cutout?
  3. Hi all, So I had a defective battery after 2 1/2 years and had it replaced in December. Car started just fine, so we hit the road from Florida to Massachusetts later that day. Continually started fine but a couple days in Mass around 30 to 35 degrees and the starts were getting slower. Cranked slower and took a couple extra seconds to get running. I decided to have it checked when we got back to Florida as it always started fine. On the ride back to Florida, we had rain almost the entire way. Every start was fine, perhaps better as the temperature outside went up a few degrees between rest/gas stops. At some point, we stopped to fill up, restarted fine. Drove 2 miles on the highway, stopped at a rest area for a pit stop, left it idling. A minivan next to me had their headlights and the lady driving was sleeping with a pillow against the glass. Obviously planning on staying for a bit of time. I couldn't hear if her engine was running or not being next to my car and the highway, so I got in my car and turned it off.. Her engine was off too.. Okay, so I asked my wife to knock on the lady's window and tell her the lights were on. Now here's the kicker, in the meantime, I went to restart and the dash lights came on, but no start, no click, no tick, nothing at all. ("It's just lights sir, they seem to have no function whatsoever"). I turned the key back and tried again, same thing. After a few tries, I noticed some of the lights flickering rapidly and still the same thing, no clicks, ticks, engine sounds, etc. I turned it off and immediately checked this forum on my ipaq pda phone.. I was panicking as it was about 5am, super downpour outside, car won't start and we're hundreds of miles from Florida.. On New Year's Day morning, so who knows if I'll even FIND an open mechanic later that morning? I found several posts on here about flickering dashes, bad $7 pieces in the starter, bad solenoids, bad starters, etc.. I tried switching my car's alarm to valet mode and starting again. No luck.. Checked the manual, nothing.. After more than an hour in the car in the rain and too much Powerade, I had to use the bathroom again. I went back in, came out, waited for the rain to let up a little, ran to the car, got in and was going to call the highway patrol number posted by the building but decided to give it one more shot.. Turned the key forward, the lights were solid and then the car started without hesitation or roughness.. (on second thought, THAT is the kicker, no? :-\ So everything was good. We drove for a few hours, stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, came back out, car started up just fine. Okay, maybe it was a fluke.. Drove til the tank was low again and stopped for gas.. Maybe we stopped in between too, I don't recall.. Anyway, stopped for gas, left the key turned forward (my alarm auto-arms itself if you pull the key and all the doors are closed). Parking lights were on, maybe headlights too (I was in the backseat sleeping, not sure where the switch was set). Filled up, ready to start up and the dash flickers again! Tried it a few times, turning the valet mode on and off on the alarm again, no luck. So we rolled the car away from the pumps and tried it again, same thing. Flickering lights, no engine sounds, no clicking/ticking. I checked the battery voltage with a meter and it read 10.20 volts.. Not exactly bursting at the seams with power, but usually enough to get the job done. I asked some guys for a jump start and they hooked up their mazda or whatever pickup and my dash lights still flickered when I tried to start it. Still no sounds at all. We kept our batteries attached like some weird mating ritual of two sea creatures far from their watery home (the rain had nearly stopped by this point) for about 10 minutes. Then they told me they were going to be late for something and had to go. My car still made no sounds whatsoever. They left and we sat in my car. Decided to give it 5 minutes and try it again..The dash lights were solid before starting and it turned over immediately, like it was just messing with me and once it decided it was no longer funny, it gave up the game and acted like nothing was wrong. We filled the tank the next time with the engine running and each subsequent stop we left it running.. I drove the car today and it was fine when I left the house.. When I left from the office about 3 hours later, it took 6-8 seconds to turn over, the engine turning slower and slower until it finally found a spark it liked and started up. I was amazed it actually was turning fast enough to kick over. I turned on the headlights and when I hit the brake to put it in reverse, the radio went dead and back on a couple times. I put it in park and ran it around 2,000 to 2,500 rpm's for a minute and then backed out. At some point the ABS light came on for a second or so when I pressed the brake again. The radio went out again at the end of the parking lot, so I shut it off.. While driving, the headlights were bright but seemed to dim briefly when the A/C compressor kicked in or I hit the brakes. Acceleration was fine.. I drove back to AdvanceDiscount Auto and said I have battery problems again, I think it's defective.. I pulled the battery and they tested it. Sure enough, it was defective.. I mentioned the starter cut-out and the sales guy said maybe the computer didn't like having the positive terminal pulled and needed to have some kind of reset procedure. But I explained this happened more than a week after the new battery was put in and hadn't happened when I had the last battery installation, nor did it happen when I pulled the battery to install amplifiers, new radios, etc. So with the (new) new battery, it started up just fine again. I've started it twice now with the new one and it seems great.. So is the problem with the subaru starter cutout? I called LoJack (who installed my alarm) and they said unless I have a chip on my key, the starter cutout was originally on the car and to talk to a Subaru dealer.. I can't predict when this will happen, if in fact it will again (so I don't know where to test), but some kind of time amount seems to correct the problem. It's not related to battery strength as it turns over just fine when it decides to finally give me control back once again. There seems to be no problem starting when it does start, so I don't think anything is worn down to the point of near-failure. All I know for sure is that it was raining for about 1,200 miles of our trip. I smelled a faint oil smell on some stops, which I think was oil sitting under the engine getting washed up onto something hot from all the rain coming off the road. It went away after a few seconds of being stopped and the dipstick looked good. The battery was low when I checked it. The battery was tested and found to be defective and was replaced. The only aftermarket things installed were my radar detector and Kenwood head unit. I unplugged the radar and turned off the radio and that didn't stop the flicker. But each time this happened, the lights flickered and then when it wanted to work, the lights were solid. The alternator was tested while bolted to the engine when I got the first battery replacement a few weeks back and tested fine. What happened and will it happen again and how can I fix it? I don't know if I can trust my car now and that's a sucky feeling Thanks in advance, anyone! -Eric
  4. Has this attachment been removed? I don't see any kind of link for it anywhere. Thanks! -Eric
  5. Sorry, couldn't resist. Any news on your Duty C switch? I was following all the posts on that and you said you had something, but then I didn't see instructions anywhere. Or did it fail and that's why you needed the back end redone?
  6. yup, its a great site for finding old info the multimedia searches are nice too. Did you find what you needed there? -Eric
  7. That sounds good. I would go with a 2.5" drive so it can be USB powered and smaller, because well, it's smaller. I was thinking if there was room, you could mount the drive somewhere like the glove compartment, center console, etc, where you can get to it easily. A wireless game controller would be sweet too, no more tangled 10 foot cables wrapped around the controller.. So which software are you using for this?
  8. Hmm, those power supplies look cool and should do the job, lots of options there. It would be sweet if you could combine the dvd drive AND cup holder. So you could hit the open/close button and drop a cup in there.. I think you would just need to widen the hole a bit. You of course need a black drive to do it up right, make it stealth, etc. $100 car.. Damn, I'd be afraid to put anything worth more than 5 bucks in there, just so i felt like the car was worth the majority of the money i'm riding around with.. but aside from that.. hmm.. you could do it totally ghetto stealth so no one wants to steal stuff from it.. get a full-size styrofoam takeout box and put the motherboard in there. memory stick in an empty pack of JuicyFruit, power supply in a pack of Camels, gps receiver inside an Altoids tin glued to the dash, the screen could display an empty hole with dangling wires when the car is turned off. Like those U-Haul trucks that have the inside painted on the roll-up door. i don't know of any free gps software. maybe something open source for linux perhaps? do you have software in mind? I saw the one on mp3car, looks pretty decent, though again, it costs more than your car.. I fully understand your reasoning and it's something to do, trial run, etc.. but some of the stuff involved here is probably going to take you a considerable amount of time.. Like running wires under the carpet (though you can pull the center console open in 2 mins and run wires from the radio area along the side of the shifter and down into the carpeting to get under the seat relatively easily.. At least on my Outback I can. There are some holes in the carpet, so I can get wires from the radio to beneath the seat without pulling the seat out, just requires some pulling on the carpet and reaching in there and trying to feel for the cable, etc. Okay, that didn't didn't get to my point. My point is, this stuff will take some time, so try to create a finished product while you're doing this, rather than having to go back and make repairs or upgrades to your work. I remember a long time back in one of the car stereo mags there was a guy who did his hole truck to look like it was filled with trash and I believe a spilled soda cup, etc.. And it was all permanently done, fake 'spilled soda', etc. Everything was glued in place and designed, even though it looked like just a mess.. That's not my point either, that's overkill (but so cool, no one would try to steal it, cause it doesn't look like anything's there!).. Just do it right the first time is my point.. At least the difficult tasks. You can put any radio at the end of the wire, but running the wire can be tough.. Same with putting an amp in the trunk, under the seat, etc. If/when you get to that stage, use a good wiring kit and throw a cheap amp on the end of it for starters. Then when you get a better amp, you only have to change the amp, and not redo any of the difficult stuff. I think a memory stick/flash drive thing might be the best bang for the buck with this setup. They're cheap and it's easy to transport quite a lot of files between the car and the house. If you have an electronic parts/liquidator type of store near you, you may find a nice metal enclosure for 10 bucks or something. This one is near me: http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/ They have some larger enclosures than the ones listed on the site. They have a lot more car audio stuff too. If you need high current stuff or just stuff in general. The prices are really great. You can call or email them if you need stuff not listed. I don't know of other stores like them. It's surplus, liquidated, traded in from dealers, etc. Maybe there's some ideas for you in this post?
  9. The Axim would be pretty sweet, and uses less power, makes no audible noise, and it's much more compact. The only down side is that it's not a phone like my iPAQ 6945 (with EDGE data support, WiFi, Bluetooth, camera, iRDa, bla bla bla).. The downside to my phone is the QVGA 240x240 screen and no video out. Getting back to the existing motherboard idea, there are some really nice slim tower cases out nowadays that may fit beneath a front seat. Certainly a better option than a sub box for size (unless you mean an under seat Subaru sub box?) Have you considered a 12VDC based power supply? To skip the inverter to AC, power supply to DC step? One other thing to keep in mind is running the system with the key off. It'll take a little time for the system to boot (no boot time with a PDA like the Axim), and if you're sitting in the car listening to music, and then turn the key to start the car, a computer would be shut off temporarily. A laptop wouldn't have a problem with that step. Or you could use a battery backup (UPS) on a desktop board. That would also smooth the power coming from the inverter, but then the inverter size/price would go up quite a bit if you need say a 300 watt model. It would need to attach directly to the battery too. If you tell us exactly what you have and where you want to mount it, we can probably help work with what you have. But I can see either space or money involved in making a desktop board work in a car. The board you have looks really nice. Too bad it's only USB 1.1, but that should be fine for audio and dvd playback. Here are some ideas: You could use 8 gig flash drives (not the thumb drive ones, they're a little larger, like the new iPOD Shuffle size), etc, for further capacity, no moving parts, not affected by hot/cold/vibration like hard drives, etc. You could use a 4 gig flashdrive (regular usb stick thing). Use a removable drive bay (5 1/4" bay with a 3.5" drive in it) for the hard drive, then you can pull it out and bring it in the house to refill it, etc. And mount it in an IDE or USB 2.0 enclosure in the house for speed. Or use a 2.5" external enclosure, which would be USB powered and smaller. Then pull it off and plug it in in the house. With a longer USB cable, you could stick the drive anywhere, with the cable out of sight.. In the center console for example. You could also mount a dvd-rom drive vertically in your center console (or perhaps your current cd player/radio there). For vertical mounting, the drive would need to have those little slide things in the tray to lock the disc in place. If you wanted to go entirely PC based, you could get a USB FM tuner for the computer. They somehow work without any antenna, so you may need to put that on a long usb extension cable and stick it in the window or something to get better reception. Just a little thing like the size of a thumbdrive/flashdrive/memory stick/whatever you want to call them. So you could stick it by the pillar on the front windshield and barely see it. In that case, I would use a separate power amplifier and not use a radio/head unit at all. You can also use software effects on the computer for EQ, compression, acoustic processing, etc.. Damn, this makes me want to install my Thinkpad with a non-working screen in my Outback! I own just about everything I need, except the touchscreen. Though my plan was to use my iPAQ and playback the audio/phone/talking GPS nav on it via Bluetooth into a replacement head unit (radio) that I still need to buy.. Hmmmmmm..
  10. I had one on a cat that was bent up and rattled even after wedging a flathead screwdriver in it to straighten it. A friend of mine took the bolts out, put some washers in-between the 2 shield pieces (on the bolts) and put the nuts back on. Rattle went away. Some other shields were easier to break off than to repair. On my previous car (92 Eclipse), the shield over the muffler broke off on one side one day and I had a HORRIBLE rattle in the back. Thought the car was going to fall apart. Brought it Midas to see what they could do. Guy put it on the lift, broke off the remaining part that was attached, lowered the lift and said, "All fixed, no charge".. From what I've heard, the Japanese manufacturers are more concerned with heat problems than other companies and they over-do it, so it's safe to remove them if they're a problem. Guess it depends on if you're driving through tall, dry grass and like to park often with the engine running in them though.. edit: how did this get out of order?!
  11. I think it might be better to go with a laptop with a broken screen (cheap on ebay), and an external touchscreen. A desktop system in a sub box is overkill. A laptop could go under a seat easily. If you want to use it for audio output, most likely you'll need a cleaner output than the built-in line output offers. I haven't tried it, but this looks like a decent device: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/ They don't give any signal to noise ratio info, but most computers have really dirty outputs because the digital to audio converters are in the same housing as all the other electronic stuff, so odds are this will sound much better. A notebook might be able to handle temperature changes and car movement better than a desktop too. Whatever you go with, make sure you shockmount it on some kind of foam/rubber/neoprene material. -Eric
  12. Nipper: Yeah I would usually go about 5,000 miles with the Mobil 1 and then change it. I remember reading a while back that synthetic was supposed to be good for 10,000 miles, but you had to change the filter at 3-5,000 still. But then Mobil 1 came out with a 10,000 mile oil earlier this year, so maybe it didn't REALLY go to 10,000 before? MJReilly: I believe so. Whereabouts in western mass are you from? I'm from Dalton, but I'm in Orlando currently. -Eric
  13. Yeah, I had good luck with just a high powered wand set for soap at a manual carwash several times. Have to find one of those around here. I'll give that a shot this week. So then the verdict is, don't switch back to synthetic I guess? Or was it why bother using it in the first place?
  14. My 99 OBW's hatchback has refused to open 2 different times in the past year. I've tried PB Blaster, WD-40 and some other lubricants on it, in the keyhole and into the release lever area. I don't know if I got it to open the first time this way, but I did this just now and it worked fine. It hasn't opened for the past 2 months! While I haven't located the exact problem (everything looks good and is screwed in firmly from the factory), this info may help you. Start out by sitting on the backseat after folding it down. If the toneau cover is in place, pull upward from the handle end. If you lift the roll-up end, the spring will pull it towards the back of the car, scratching your window tinting, plastic interior panels and just generally being a real nuisance. Once the cover is retracted, lift it out and put it to the side or across the leg area of the back seat. At the base of the hatchback are plastic caps locking the interior panel in place. Put a flat head screwdriver beneath the cap and gently pry it out. Set these off to the side. The interior panel is snapped into place along the top. Open the bulb replacement doors and pull the panel towards you. The entire panel will pop off, set it aside. The silver vertical rod connects from the handle outside to the latch. I pulled up on that rod and pushed outward on the hatchback and it magically popped open. I can't see anything wrong with it, or anything catching, but I lubricated all the moving parts this time around and I think it should be fine now. I hope this helps you if you have a problem getting your hatchback open. -Eric
  15. I know this is an old post, but I figured I'd offer some advice. Check out the Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org If you know the website that was on, you can perhaps find that post again. I'm not sure if ezboard is able to be spidered by archive.org but it's worth a shot. -Eric
  16. So you mean the dirt is sealing the small leaks and when the oil is changed, the dirt sealant is removed? I wouldn't think it would be leaking with less than 50k since the rebuild. As far as I know, they redid all the seals and gaskets because it was completely torn apart for inspection. Oh the horror of seeing my poor engine spread out over 3 workbenches and a cart and some other things.. Somehow they got it all back together though.
  17. It wasn't a large amount of oil, and every time I've had it changed, it's always been within the fill tolerances. Did he say gaskets and not seals? I can't remember now. But I do know it was on the right side, bottom, and near the front, looking up from underneath. I'll try to find a manual car wash that sprays hot water and put some degreaser on the engine and spray it off and then look after a while for leaks. So then syn oil would have smaller particles and come out easier than dino oil? Then why would switching back to dino oil and its larger particles be a 'reason' for the seals to leak? I understand what you're saying about the fact that it was going to leak eventually and all that. Just not sure how these things get started. It seems like if I went back to larger particles, the problem would correct itself, no?
  18. Hahaha, yeah and changing the plugs on a Lycoming engine is a hell of a lot easier than in a Subaru! Are there instructions anywhere online for changing the timing belt and the seals? Thanks!
  19. Thanks for the advice. I remember I got the timing belt done around 58k or so, because it was in the shop anyway. Is the timing belt every 60k? Is the timing belt and the seals something I could do myself with the right tools? My wife is an aviation maintence technician and has about $6k in tools and works on 4 cylinder horizontally opposed engines on a daily basis. Granted, they're aviation engines, 2 plugs per cylinder, but she has all the tools n stuff. It seems to me the timing belt was fairly deep inside, but if it'll save me some money and not be a really complicated job, that would be cool with me.
  20. Thanks for the replies. The synthetic I was using, I BELIEVE was Mobil 1. I know I was running that for a few years. I may have once used Pennzoil or Castrol, I don't remember now, but usually it was Mobil 1. The rebuild job was a major undertaking, I don't recall all the details (it was 3 or 4 years ago). There was a microscopic crack somewhere in the block (according to an inspector hired by Subaru and the dealership that did the job). They said it was most likely a manufacturing defect. They used some of my original parts, and some new stuff. It was more than the head gasket. I think they had to re-bore the cylinders and stuff, to get it all back within spec. The dealer originally said they were hoping to just get me a new engine to drop in, that it would be quicker, but that it was up to Subaru. Then Subaru told them no engines were available as quickly as doing a rebuild. (This was covered under the Gold warranty, around 74k miles). I was driving from Massachusetts to Florida when a thermostat stuck (just after having the car idling). I looked down and saw the temp gauge up, tried to blow the heat off with the HVAC controls but it didn't work, so I called AAA. Long story, ended up taking about a week to get the parts and do the job. Subaru covered $500 of personal expenses (hotels, meals, rental vehicle, etc).. It ended up being cheaper to drive from North Carolina to Florida and then driving back 4 days later, than staying there in a hotel. Subaru was really good to me, but I wish I had a new engine dropped in and was on my way. The dealer said that would be about a $4,000 job and didn't know if Subaru would be interested in that. I went to synthetic in the first place because I was led to believe it was better to go with that. I think the switch back to dino last week happened because I requested an oil change and some other work with my mechanic, and by the time I remembered to point out synthetic to them (I called a couple hours later), they were already done with the change and said it wouldn't cause any problems, synthetic was overrated, etc. I don't know which seals they are. When I saw the leaks a few weeks ago, the car was on the lift. It was in several spots, along the passenger side, underneath, in front. The mechanic gave me the impression it was anywhere that oil runs behind was leaking slightly. He said it shouldn't be much of a problem, but eventually the seals would break down too much, etc. Hopefully this is enough info for you guys.
  21. Hey all, just wondering, I had my engine rebuilt about 3 years ago (50k miles back) and everything was fine. I was running synthetic in it before and after the rebuild. I had the oil changed earlier this year and my trusted mechanic told me there was no problem switching from synthetic back to dino oil. Then about 8 or 9 months later, I was having some work done under the car, and another mechanic noticed the seals were leaking a bit.. I don't know how many, or which ones, but I looked and I could see that in a number of places, there was a bit of oil/seal squeezing out. He said something about the particle size between the oils being different, and switching to dino oil from synthetic would cause this problem. Is this true? I don't remember if the seals looked like this at my other mechanic earlier this year. I don't know if I should be concerned about this or not. Or if switching back to synthetic will have any effect. The original mechanic who made the recommendation to switch back to dino is part of a father/son racing team and they have always steared me right before, so I don't know what to think. Any thoughts? Thanks! -Eric
  22. I don't know the APC unit. But at places like CompUSA, you can get adapters that will convert the 12VDC to whatever your laptop needs, without going to AC and then back to DC.. (perhaps that one does this?) That might make a smoother sine wave, generates less heat, etc..
  23. Thanks for the info Strakes.. It seems like mine is still beyond acceptable limits.. The speedo goes to 120MPH on mine, but it's up to at least 7MPH off. I think the tires are supposed to be at 28 and 29 psi, but I keep them at 35 generally.. It's still way over the 'your speed is' things.. Perhaps the sensor is putting out too strong of a signal or the speedo servo is too sensitive? I dunno..
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