I just cleaned out my garage. Much more room in there now. I can pull my car more than halfway in now! Almost all the way. Hooray. Still need to do some more cleaning but much better.

 

I started the car again and moved it back into the garage. I will check all the cables tomorrow probably. I have to go to work now(ughh!).

 

The car is up for sale right now. Hopefully I get the problem fixed by next week because I am going to check out a turbo legacy on wednesday and I need to sell that car to get the rest of my funds.

 

Thanks for all the help so far!

[...]Thanks for all the help so far!

You're welcome -- I hope any info I can offer will help.

 

I had been concentrating on rereading about the electrical system problems in your previous threads, and had ignored this one:

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=91349 .

However, it might be a clue. Is there any possibility that this car had been in a flood? If the reason the carpet and seats smelled bad was due to mold/mildew, etc., it probably was wet at some time. Flooded cars usually have a lot of electrical problems; while they can be fixed, it's often very time consuming (and can be expensive) to do that.

 

See: http://trucks.about.com/od/autobuying/tp/flooded_cars.htm

 

Free CARFAX flood check by VIN: http://www.carfax.com/cfm/general_check.cfm?partner=PRL_A

I'm not sure if it's been flooded. I know it's never had water or any other fluid in it since I've had it but it has a bad smell that I could never get out. The carpet under the floor mats looks much darker and smells bad. It's obvious that's where the smell is coming from. I think it may even be constantly damp a little. I haven't used the car in a long time so I'm not sure.

 

I was just out in the garage clearing more stuff out to make room and I decided to quick check the resistence from the starter body to the negative battery terminal and it appears as if I must have misread it the first time. I got a reading of .4ohms. Not 4 ohms. Then I touched the two terminals of the multimeter together and it said .3ohms. So that should mean it's really a .1ohm resistence. That's far less than what I originally report. Plus I got in the car and it started right up again. So far that's 5 times I've gotten in the car since last night and it's started up right away. Takes no more than a second or so of turning over to start.

 

The ground cable has no visible corrosion and appears to be about 4gauge stock wire. The battery terminals are tight althought I haven't had time to take them off and make sure they're clean, I'm almost positive they are though.

 

That's all I have to add for now. I'm done for the night. Going to bed in about an hour or less.

I thought the carfax thing was unlimited meaning forever. Apparently that's just for one year. Oh well. I already paid for it. I guess that's not a bad deal but still i don't really plan on using it anytime for anything but this.

 

I ran my vin and it says there was never any flood damge reported.

 

02/04/2006 Washington

Motor Vehicle Dept.

Tenino, WA

Title #0028424504 Title issued or updated

New owner reported

Exempt from odometer reporting

Vehicle color noted as Pink

 

Apparently somebody has a hard time seeing. That's the date I purchased the car and it was not pink. It's grey.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/818857309.html

 

For sale ad with picturs in case anyone wants to see the car I'm talking about. You can see in the back a big spot on the carpet behind the rear seats where some of that smell seems to be coming from.

The car has started right up every time I've gotten in it the last 2 days. I've started it probably at least 6 times. Maybe 8.

 

Should I bother putting the new contacts in when they get here or just give them to whoever buys the car and tell them it has good contacts in it but if they have any problems with it, here's a brand new set?

[...]I decided to quick check the resistence from the starter body to the negative battery terminal and it appears as if I must have misread it the first time. I got a reading of .4ohms. Not 4 ohms. Then I touched the two terminals of the multimeter together and it said .3ohms. So that should mean it's really a .1ohm resistence. [...]

Good, that small fraction of an ohm is the resistance I'd expect if the connections are decent.

 

The car has started right up every time I've gotten in it the last 2 days. I've started it probably at least 6 times. Maybe 8.

 

Should I bother putting the new contacts in when they get here or just give them to whoever buys the car and tell them it has good contacts in it but if they have any problems with it, here's a brand new set?

There's no way to be sure, but unless the problem returns, I'd leave the starter alone.

I'll just give whoever buys the car the new starter contacts and if they have problems with it they can replace them and see if that fixes it.