jonathan909

I've never used one; not hard to understand how and why it works, but I don't think it's appropriate here. When you look into them, you find assumptions like "pickup truck" and "trailer weight 5000 lb and over", so that suggests that they're pretty severe overkill for this application. I just got back from the scales, and the weight came in at exactly 700kg (1540 lb), which isn't a surprise given the published weights don't include the added front wheel/stand, boat mounts, gear stowed in the sailboat, or (probably) the gas in the jet ski. So the question now is what the actual tongue weight is and whether it can be dialed in to ~150 lb, which is pretty modest. And since it's a 20+ year old car it seems to me that the springs are softer than they should be, so does it make sense to add all that heavy-duty hardware to correct what's really a pretty small deficiency?

Thanks. I'm going to cast about for the Baja Turbo springs, but at first glance that doesn't look like an easy acquisition - Bajas are pretty rare (at least around here, and none listed in either of the local P'n'P's inventory), making a turbo tougher yet. Rock doesn't list springs for them, and I shudder to think what a dealer will ask. I'll check with the usual local aftermarket parts shops today and maybe see if the full-service wreckers have anything. Previously unfamiliar with King - that experiment looks like it'll cost as much as the car did, esp. factoring in shipping from Oz... Any hints where I might have better luck looking?

Just got back from a few days in Montana with all the crew and kit. The new KYBs (inside old springs) in the rear have certainly helped, but more is needed. When fully loaded and with trailer, the rear of the car is depressed by as much as 3", based on quick measurements taken along the running-board trim. The trailer w/ boats is, based on the published weights, roughly 1200 lbs., so the tongue weight should be about 120 lbs. I'm going to measure this (as well as try to confirm the trailer's gross weight), and suspect it's on the high side. Since I can't really do anything about the load distribution (the Sea-Doo and sailboat fit where they fit), the tweak that's available to me is moving the (single) axle forward - I think I have about 6"of latitude there. But if I want to stiffen and/or raise the rear end so it's as close to level as possible under load, what are my options? I'm trying to be purely practical here and not look like some jacked-up dope. I seem to recall discussions of Forester components being used in cases like this. Or do I just have to shop for stiffer springs? Any direction greatly appreciated.

Yeah, all adhesives are different and you have to experiment a lot. I used to love Freon TF for just about everything, but those days are long gone. So the "inconspicuous area" rule rules. Acetone, any citrus-based cleaner, isopropanol, and my new favourite, 95% ethanol - Everclear. Now that the border's open again, I've been getting the 1.75 litre bottles duty-free for $20 - way cheaper than isopropyl, and you can drink it!

Sheeeeeeeee-it.

There are other hacks I've read about for this pesky 0420 thing - one is to use drilled-out spark plug antifoul spacers to back the sensor out of the exhaust stream a little. Is there anything to that approach?

So this hack was just about slowing down (damping) the response from the sensor.

Look to the exact schematic for your model and year. My guess would be that the wires go straight from the ECU to the sensor (i.e. no fuse between), so you're probably down to a wiring fault.

My understanding is that you're safe in swapping the ECUs, as they're the same in both AT and MT cases, and there's an input (via the connector/harness, of course) that informs it which type of transmission is in place. The (automatic) transmission is managed by a separate controller, the TCU, which communicates with the ECU. I assume you've restored your O2 sensor "mod" to its original state.

Yeah, that's a new thing I'm seeing too. I don't like it either - it takes up too much screen real estate. If I want those stats I know where to find them. Who's messing with the configuration and why?

It's not magic. Deforming a big chunk of metal takes a combination of time, force, and heat. You didn't hit it, didn't overheat it, and there wasn't much time. And yeah, I know "they" say that, but (and I'm the first to admit how limited my experience is) I usually go with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If you can't prove that it's out of flat, why start milling? Subaru's book of words tells you what the flatness requirement is. So I get out my machinist's rule and feeler gauges, and if it meets spec it doesn't go out for a shave and a haircut.

I can't begin to imagine why.

Any wrecker should stand behind its parts, period, and moreso if they're a full-service yard, because they're making quite a bit more money on them than would a self-serve. And forget "implied" warranty - they should explicitly state it. Around here, the two Pick'n'Pull yards get most of our business, and by default they give a 30-day warranty (for credit if the parts are unsuitable or fail, which essentially means "no reason necessary"). Of course, of late they've been trying to upsell an "extended" warranty for a few extra bucks, but what do I look like - a rube? (I haven't been dealing with the other self-serve yard here (Bucks) this year, because they're a division of Evraz, which is owned by a Russian oligarch, and "Ukraine". Also, their inventory just isn't well-organized like Pick'n'Pull's. And I only go to the full-service wreckers when I absolutely have to, as was the case last year with getting a new gas tank for my '01 H6 Outback, since the self-serve yards appear to have a running competition to see who can punch the most holes in a tank to drain it when the car first comes in.)

Honestly, I've never bothered to check. They don't seem to fail that often, so I just figure that the odds are that it is. I'm sure there are some Subaru markings, perhaps the Fuji Heavy Industries "swoop" logo or something.

Wow. Just... wow. I'm dying to see how long the next one lasts. First data point 300, second 78. Is it a straight line? Is it an asymptotic curve? We need a third data point to fit it!

Lots of Pick'n'Pulls in CA (i.e. 19). Any near you? https://www.picknpull.com/locations

The topic naturally moved from location to basic testing, so we haven't suffered much drift. You're contradicting yourself. You say that you "understand plenty about electricity", but if you don't get Ohm's law (which is all we're talking about here), then you haven't the most basic grasp of the subject. This is not about "little nuances" or my unreasonably lofty expectations. It's the first thing a ten-year-old interested in playing around with batteries and lights learns, so it certainly falls within what one can reasonably be expected to know in order to competently troubleshoot problems of this nature.

This is an important point, because it extends well beyond this case and the (admittedly relatively modest) 80 bucks we're talking about. If you don't know enough about electricity to understand how to put a load resistor in a circuit - and when, and why, and what its rating should be - then you're not going to understand what the Loadpro is doing. And if you don't understand why it's telling you what it is, then you're simply relying on magic to solve your problems for you. And at that point, you're not only demonstrating questionable competence in what you're doing, but showing that you're vulnerable to any slick sales pitch offering to sell you solutions to problems that you just don't understand. This is not a recipe for a well-informed populace. Again, I want to stress that I don't have a problem with this product. $80 isn't an outrageous price to pay for a well-designed, useful tool, though my guess is that you'd get much greater value out of the "Fundamental Electrical Troubleshooting" book that they sell, packaged with the probe, for an additional $35. Hell, I might even find it handy myself... but that's because I understand it and why it's useful, and would not just be buying it out of fear that without it I'm not smart enough to conjure the magic that it contains. I've seen much worse cases. In the electronics biz, there's a very successful line of products named "Tracker" from a company called "Huntron". It's a little benchtop box with a little video screen, a couple of pushbuttons, and a pair of probes that promises to find the faults in your circuits. When they appeared on the market about 45 years ago they offered magic to people who didn't (and don't) understand electronics (well enough). At the time an engineer friend dubbed them a symptom of "the new charlatanism"; I agreed then and still do. But the company has persisted and the product line grown, from the original Tracker at around $1000 to models much more expensive, e.g. $10K-$15K. What is it? A ridiculously oversimplified version of the oscilloscope that any competent technician has on his/her bench - and treats like an extension of their body - with a low-voltage ("filament") transformer added. If you search "diy huntron tracker" (or similar) you'll find out how trivial it is - a five-buck addition to your existing 'scope, assuming you don't already have the transformer in your junk box. Are there cases in which it can be useful? Yeah, a few - many years ago a friend gave me one, because I'm an incurable pack rat I didn't just throw it out, and there have been a couple of unusual cases over the years in which it's helped a bit, if only because I would have had to walk further to get to the shelf where I keep transformers (Hint: Ever use a unijunction transistor? Probably not). But I've had epic arguments with guys who dropped that $10K+ and had convinced themselves that they were now the Exhalted Possessors of the Magic when it was clear that they didn't have a goddamn clue in a carload what they were doing. So I've got no beef with the Loadpro. If someone gave me one I'd probably even use it. But please don't buy one if you don't understand exactly what it's doing, because it really doesn't contain any magic.

Yeah, but it's a lot more expensive than having a few old power resistors lying around - and a clue what the hell you're doing.

Not necessarily. The point is that you have to draw enough current to reveal the kind of faults that this gimmick is designed to spot, and a simple light may not do so.

I know you're a fan of these things, and I'm not saying that it's a bad tool. I'm saying that $80+ is a lot of money to pay for a resistor.

I can't find any confirmation of this. I haven't read through the Clean Air Act (and I'm not even sure that the whole thing is available online), but best I can figure, it depends on the purpose for which it's being sold. If it's being sold for re-use, it has to first be tested to make sure that its performance complies with the standard, and since (presumably) nobody is going to go to that trouble, it's effectively a prohibition. But if I want to buy one to put on the mantelpiece next to my Hummel hedgehog figurines, ain't no law against that. Any other strictures are basically pawn-shop laws intended to discourage traffic in stolen cats by requiring proper and thorough maintenance of records - but that's probably more local law (e.g. state) than federal. catcvrts-1.pdf

Interesting. Wonder if we have similar laws (regulations) here. But what on earth is the rationale behind such a law?

They're usually the view into the "business end" of the connector shell, that is, of the pins themselves and not the wires where they enter the connector body. If you look closely, you may also find the pin letters/numbers molded into the shell.

Oh - this was before they switched to the plastic quick-connect couplings for the fuel lines. That simplifies things. The connector: The place you get pin numbering is in the electrical schematics. At the bottom of each page they give you a picture of the connectors referenced on that page and what the pin numbers are. Also, if you figure you have the right pins, put a meter on them, power it up, and you should see your +12V. And yeah, there are some dopey colour codes. CH for brown? Did some smartypants think that CHocolate was a good mnemonic?