mtsmiths

Does anyone make an LED replacement for these damthings. That would solve it once and for all. So far all our dash ligts are functional, but the console shift indicators lights are all burnt out.

Sounds just like ours. Feels like it's shutting off, but always catches and keeps going. Gotta be hard on U-joints, In fact, I think I now notice pick-up and deceleration slack in ours!

Is it cutting clear out, than restarting itself on a regular cycle, like three to five seconds? Our 2000 Leg did that, it turned out to be the fuel ratio sensor, and a reprogram (wider range) for the ECU. Search the mtsmiths posts and you find a long and weary history, then final resolution.

Bought the Pretty One a Bulldog remote for Christrmas, and finished the present yesterday. Since we wanted the basics, and since our car is a Brighton, installation may differ. I Bought the simple one, (on sale at $49.95 all over the country, lately), two button, no relays, no T-harness. Read ALL the installation instructions and watch the DVD before starting. I then crossed off all the accessories my car doesn't have, to simplify the in-garage reading. Go to the web site and download the wire color chart for your year/model. You'll need a Phillips, a 10mm open end wrench (and socket if you want), needle-nose piers, Exacto knife, drill motor and 5/16 bit, and better vinyl tape than they give you in the install kit. The circuit probe that comes in the kit works great ... use it to prove your wires before you start cutting off insulation. Do NOT disconnect the battery, you'll need it! Carefully remove the dash skirt and lower steering column cover. It helps to see the stalk wires if you loosen the top column cover, but you don't really need to. Remove the ignition wire armour shroud and the steel 'saddle' under the steering column. All the wires are accessible and relativerly easy to get to, assuming you fit in the footwell, and can still move your arms and hands. For the parking light power I used the orange wire from the Virgin Switch, it's in the small plug inboard from the stalk switch( ... I HATE messing with multi-function stalks). You can fish the hood switch wire through the firewall plug just above the accellerator, stab a screwdriver through first and the connector-end wire will poke right thru. Just read straight thru and follow the directions step-by-step (I checked off each step and wire color as I went). At the end they say to tape off all the wires you didn't use, but I just pulled them out of the nine-pin connector to save valuable under-dash real estate. When you power it up, it will start clicking and the parking lights will flash. Hold the brake down and push either button to set the unit memory. The only 'problem' I had was the hood switch. UP it's grounded ... it turns out that all the way down it's grounded too! I couldn't figure out why I was always in SAFE mode, untill I got the switch cut off so that it was in the sweet spot. I mounted my switsh about 1.5" inboard from from the hood rest button right in front of the battery. My under dash was already crowded 'cause of the after-market cruise control, so I wiretied the control modue from the steering column above the brake, plenty of clearance and I was able to tuck all the connectors and fuse up into the wiring and get everything secured ... hopefully, no new rattles? Total time was four hours, one beer, one very minor fingertip blood sample,and not a single swear word. Having classical music on the garage radio during the install helps. One thing I would do different. They have you strip back insulation and hand splice the connections. For some reason they say to NOT use bite-thru connectors. I suspect it's because the average home installer runs too big a risk of not getting wire. I would buy wire splice clamps and use them throughout ... much quicker, cleaner, and you won't have big mouse-nests of vinyl tape all over the under dash. Clean, simple, and no-stress. But if I had auto door locks, factory or after-market alarm (requires additional relays) I would do a pass, and HAVE it installed by others. That's it, Remote Start for under $50.00 USD installed, works fine ... have fun, and Happy New Year to all.

I'd check for a loose or corroded ground connection. Trace the main ground (and any others you see) to the block. Carefully remove them and clean the block (or other connection surfaces) and the eye. Spread on a little bit of dialectic grease (or a shot of silicon spray) and reassemble nice and tight. I'm betting your problem will go away. If not, at least you've eliminated the most common fault for free, and you know you really have 'something' wrong. Good luck, and Happy New Year.

I would love to fly that little bipe. Here, however is my next airplane project (after I finish and sell my current experimental) The standard engine is a Rotax 912, but at $10K and barely 100 HP, I think an EA81T will do just fine thanks, and the Rotax has only a 1,000 hour TBO. http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/essays/SeaRey/BuildingSeaRey.html

LOL, "Happy birthday honey, I got your remote installed so you can warm up your car from the office" ... that definately won't work in my case ... her birthday is the week after Independence Day!

We're on O2 sensor number three ... and black vinyl tape number one.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49240 Apparently, it ran fine the whole trip to Port Ludlow and back. We picked the magic CEL light after about eight engine hours, but what's new abut that? Trip average was 26.5 mpg, which is historically a bit low, but it's running really smooth, even idle in gear at a light. In fact, the low point of the trip was the fact that the ferry authority charged us $10.60 extra 'cause we had a bike on the roof rack!

Well, I jumped in my '87 Gl with 200,000 plus miles on it and drove straight-thru Whitefish, MT > Baltimore, MD. Did an oil change and checked the tire pressure, loaded up, grabbed my commuter coffee cup, and made it in 54 hrs, including rest-stop naps, fuel and food stops. Used one quart of oil. A few months later I did the reverse, but spent one night in a motel that trip. Used another quart of oil.

Bought The Pretty One a Bulldog remote starter for her Leg. 2000 Brighton A/T, so it has no security system or auto door locks. Hopefully this will be reasonably 'simple', but ... Any heads-up warnings? Everything that turned up in Search seemed to deal with systems conflicts re: security, door locks, etc.

Left the car off for an oil change and tranny service. And Justin (our new, young and nice guy) service writer at the local stealership) had the tech throw the car back on the anylizer since they got squat last time. This time, lo' and behold, the damnthing threw a fit in the service bay while it was hooked up. The air/fuel ratio sensor reading spiked off he scale while it was missing. So, they replaced it and reset the range on the computer (I guess that is the latest 'fix') from SOA. I told them to use our car to pick The Pretty One up from work, rather than the shuttle, so if it faults again ... So, (hopefully) we should be ready for our Christmas long-haul to the sound.

What Goeff said. The 'odd sound' is most likly a CV joint on it's way south ... waaaaay south. Crawl around under there and look for a torn boot. You can also fix this yourself if you're a glutton for punishment. Otherwise look at around $157 - $170 (USD). WHen you look for an indie, make sure they understand Subaru's. We're SOL around for new Subarus, there's a couple of guys good on the olg gens, but without the proprietary computer stuff, it takes the dealer to get into anything major around here, at least. Dammit!

I hope it's nothing serious Frag. Let us know how it goes, eh? 12", no worries mate.

Me too, me too ... 2000 Leg. I got all the gaskets, plug seals and grommets so I could do mine when I redid the plugs & wires after work Monday night.. I ended up not doing it yet, 'cause we needed the car in the morning, and I didn't want to start something that would take all night. On the drivers side. Does the oil filler tower come off with the valve cover, it sure looks like it. Also, it looks like there's one bolt through the T-belt cover on the PAX side, but not on the drivers side. Am I seeing everything, yet?

Awww, we couldn't anyway cookie, Mine was a '95, The Pretty One's is a 2000. I got the '95 from a board member in Chicago a couple of years ago. It was (and still is) a great car. Sold it to a friend of my wife, and she LOVES it! As for the Hawaii beach car. I'll have to build and title it on the mainland and import it to Hawaii after completion and relicensing. They just won't let you build cars in The Socialist People's Republic of Hawaii,3rd-world-country-masquearading-as-a-state. They require a mechanical engineer stamp for any body or suspension modification, engine, tranny swap or rebody. FUGIDDABOUDIT!

Believe me, John Mudrat and I have discussed the option several times. Someday before we move back to Hawaii, I may do so, with a hatch or a Justy. Or bettr yet, something like a Wombat dropped on a Subaru pan/running gear (big rust problems where we will live on the Big Island). But NO NEW PROJECTS untill I get my airplane flying again. So, I sold my trusty Leg wagon, bought the toy jeep and banked a grand to boot. Sokay, two Legacy wagons in a two person family was boring, and it was hard to take the trash to the dump!

Noah, if mountains are a consideration, I would cut off your route in Colorado and head down to Denver, then south on the interstate and cross the Rockies thru Raton Pass. Then south of SantaFe, head to Albequerque, and down to !-10, at Deming, NM > Tucson > Yuma > S.D. Lovely time of year to cross the desert, and you'll have minimal grades to contend with. Raton is the lowest pass south of Marias Pass, MT, on Hwy 2, which is exactly one mile in elev.

Not temp sensetive at all, started on a trip in June, outside temp was in the eighties. Has misbehaved at all temps and all operating temps. Fuel filter and clean/tighten all grounds was the first thing I did. Regular air filtration system, new air filter, and no oil or crud in air box. Car is on it's third front O2 sensor, I've checked connections at the cat. Here's another clue, if you floor it, it will pull full power without missing. At it's worst session we got it about twenty miles (from Hwy 95 to east Spokane, on Trent) by shifting into second and driving about fifty (Brighton, no tach).

THANX cookie, I'll have a look at the sensors first, although NONE of these turned up on the dealer scan. If I borrowed your parts, I might have them a long time, sometimes this thing runs perfectly for two or three weeks at a time, then starts acting up again.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=585 The first three pics, sorry, never been able to make paste-in work. It'll be fun in the mountains in summer, but it's no snow commute car. If I lived in a big city I think I would own a Tracker tho', it'll really zip in and out of traffic, and you can park it anywhere ...

You 'n' me both Tex! I've poked all around under the hood, and nothing seems amiss, can't create the fault. Just plain ol worn out plugs, all pretty consistent, no carbon or oil foul, the rear plugs were a tad darker brown that the fronts (that doesn't surprise me on a boxer), but not black by any means. The cut-out and re-start are SO consistent when it's doing it that I think something is shutting it down. Like I said, if it were a pre-computer car, I would be certain it was a failing coil. But, then the 'Techron cure' throws me for a loop. I don't know if there's a sensor that could be temporarily being cleaned by the techron, then is fouling again. Yesterday as we drove out of our heated garage (with brand new plugs and wires) and it cut in and out for about 1/2 mile, then ran perfectly all the way to my wife's office, about fifteen miles. On the way home it ran fine the first two miles, then ran like crap for the next five. We stopped at a store and it sat out in 10 deg cold for 1/2 hour. The rest of the way home it ran fine. This morning it ran perfectly all the way ... this thing is making me crazy. AND, we are making a trip to Seattle for Christmas, sure can't take this car, and won't take the Tracker. I'd rent a new car, but in Montana all rentals charge mileage.

Automatic car wash with chassis wash. None of us wash our cars often enough in winter anyhow, especially you poor back-easters and mid-westerners that have salt on your roads. We only have sand out here; I'd rather replace windshields than rocker panels and fenders any day.

We drove our Tracker/Sidekick up Big Mountain Sunday. What a difference! Sure it'll go fine on ice and in snow, even deep snow, but squirrly, always gotta be driving w-a-y ahead of the car, and don't even THINK of a quick avoidance swerve, it feels like it would just as soon lay down on it's side as not. Nothing beats an AWD Subaru on winter roads n-o-t-h-i-n-g! I sure wish Subaru would build a Jeep/Tracker like open body vehicle. I guess one of these days I'm just gonna have to build my own.

Changed out the plugs and wires. The plugs certainly were shot, some of he worst I've ever seen. But, as I stated previously, it isn't acting like bad plugs and wires, I KNOW that symptom. And with all new, NO CHANGE! Hell, looking under the hood I don't even know what the damn coil looks like! I think I need a mid -fifties Chevy six, THAT I can diagnose and work on. I don't know what's wrong with this Legacy. And apparently, neither does anyone else ... including my local Subaru dealership, they just want to start throwing expensive parts at it.