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I just checked, my inverter is 150W. Not sure what my laptop draws- its' an older Dell Inspiron P4, the ac adapter for it says 12v / 4.5A, which does not seem like a whole lot. I can tune the laptop down also. Right now it's in performance mode. I think there's a setting for "battery" or energy saver or something like that.

I know this has been mentioned before but I'm going on a camping trip next weekend and I'd like to take my laptop along for the kids to watch movies on. I've got a pretty low wattage inverter I was going to use. Will the in-dash cigarette lighter be okay? I'm worried the dash will catch fire out in the middle of nowhere with a wife and carload of kids. Also, I've heard of people suggesting to use the "one in the back". Where is this second lighter? I don't think my car has it (2000 OBW).

Mmmm... You've forced me to take drastic measures. I may have to stay late at work and snipe it with the company's T3 connection- while I'm at it I may have to log in with the QuadCore behemoth in the Engineering lab! Mmuuuu-aaahhaahhaa Bid High Nipper... Bid HIGH!

Ohhh good luck with that! I've got a pretty fast internet connection and I've become the master of auction "sniping"! Game ON!!!

I'm trying to replace my wiper stalk (the lever coming out of the steering column) with one that has variable intermittent wiper dial. I've tried searching on ebay for one but I get zero results and tried many key words like: "subaru wiper stalk" "wiper stock" "wiper control" "Subaru wiper" etc. Maybe there's another name for this part that I'm not aware of- either way please help. BTW I found a whole steering column assembly for an Impreza which has both the wiper and light switch but that's a little overkill

No, no, we ARE talking about the dash lights- the backlight, illumination light, whatever you want to call it. I as saying earlier that the "switch is on" lights seem to work in all three switches. I'll do a voltage check later to see if there's any juice (reroofing my house this weekend)

I checked all the fuses in the fuse block, none are blown, unless there's a hidden fuse someplace else . The orange "switch is on" light still lights up on all three switches.

Where'd you get the bulbs from? I need the ones with the little plastic phillips-notched end cap.

No, I didn't take it out of the socket. That was too much trouble at the time- instead I swapped the bulbs with one from the other switch.

...yeah, if they can be found!My only stop so far has been Radio Shack and they didn't have a match, so like I said I put the bulbs back in and now none of them work.

Originally the dash light on the Foglight button didnt' work (other two did), so I popped out the portion of the dash to get to the button. Pulled the button out and removed the bulb to compare at Radio Shack. They didn't have a bulb that would work so instead I took the bulb from the Defrost button and swapped it with the Foglight bulb (don't ever use that button- plus it's more hidden by the steering wheel than the others are). Now NONE of the buttons illuminate when the dash lights are on!!! What the hell happened!!! I went from having two to none.

So by "early" and "late" stlyles, what year range are we talking about. Chances are if it's as easy as replacing just the turn stock I'll try and find one on ebay or something. Want it as simple as possible though.

Thanks for understanding what I REALLY meant. On my way home I thought, "Wait a minute, I didnt' clairfy the intermittent part." My wipers DO have an intermittent setting, it's just the variable rotary knob on the turn stock that I don't have. How lame that they apparently didn't make that standard in all Soobs. I've got the full winter package, pwr windows, the works, but no intermittent control turn stock!?!

My 2K OBW does not have an intermittent wiper turn stock. Has anyone successfully retrofited the non-int wiper system to int? I realize that there's an intermittent relay (or control "box") somewhere- probably under the dash. But as far as details I know nothing. BTW- search results mostly come up with threads in the Old Gen board.

Just an update: Following Porcupine's direction I reached up through the fuse/coin box cover. Only while trying to remove the individual button I discovered the tab that holds the wood grain panel to the dash. There's two tabs set vertically on the outside edge of the panel. If you pop those loose it's enough to pry the panel out just slightly. Theres another tab towards the lower middle panel that takes a bit more effort because it's an actual insertion-clip type tab, with enough tension on the panel that middle tab will pop loose. Then there's a couple more tabs along the steering column that pop off real easy once the rest are free. Now you can really get in there, pull the plug harness and pull the buttons free. The bulbs are super easy to take out, their mounted on the side of the button with a Phillips head twist-lock type fixture. My problem was I did all this in the parking lot where the Radio Shack was, got the bulb out and they didn't have a match. The closest thing they had was a bulb that "looked" similar in shape and size but has some plastic shell around the bottom where the leads go through (sorta like a replacement christmas tree bulb), plus the leads are thicker. Sometime maybe later this week I'll try and shave off the plastic stuff around the bulb, pull the old subaru bulb out of the twist-lock thingy and see if I can make it work. For now I swapped the bulb with the one for the wiper defrost- not only have I never used it yet, but it's sorta hidden from sight because of the steering wheel anyway.

My 2000 OBW has a burnt bulb on the fog light button and I'd like to fix it. I cant seem to remove the trim that surrounds the three buttons on that side of the dash though. I didn't try prying too hard because I didn't want to snap anything- figured I'd ask around first.

Okay, so that answers my main question of how. Pulling the panel sounds like the hardest part. I'll do that when the weather gets better- pffft, and this is supposed to be summer time. I guess they don't call it the Pacific Northwet for nothing!

2000 OBW On the far LH side of the dash there's 3 push buttons; one is cruise, one is for the fog lights, and I can't remember what the other one is at the moment (maybe defrost?). all the buttons illuminate when the dash lights are turned on except the fog light button. Of course when I push the buttons another light illuminates inticating that the switch is active. My question is, is there supposed to be an illuminated dash bulb for the fog light button? and if so how do I get to it? BTW, the indicator light is working on the fog light switch, just not the dash light and it never has as long as I've owned the car.

I have a similar noise in my 00 OBW- 5spd manual so I can repeat the issue at will. It happens while decellerating from 3rd gear and the engine passes through the 2.5-2k rpm range. I think it's mostly rpm dependant because it will occasionally do in 2nd gear (same rpm range) but the sound is not as prominent. It only does it while the engine is decellerating. You're right on with the sound, it's a whinning sound, sorta reminds me of a mini Jake-Brake. I also thought it may be a heat shroud, not loose necessarily but as the engine passes through that rpm range it hits the resonant frequency of the shroud causing it to vibrate within that range. I chalked it up as a subaru thing because before I bought this car (private party) I test drove a 2000 OBW LTD ed. 5-spd and it did the same thing. Not sure what it is. Someone mentioned the intake at one point but I cant remember what thread that was in.

it's the original clutch, so 74k miles. I've done the start in 3rd gear trick, stalls out nicely. cv boots look okay. besides, it would smell all the time not just when i back up up a hill from a stand still wouldnt' it?

Well, a couple things about that theory. First, I don't think my car is equipped with the hill-holder. When I'm stopped on a normal hill (waiting for a green light for instance) I have to use the clutch/Ebrake-and-release method to keep from rolling backwards. Second, according to the article in the link, and I may be totally wrong here, the way the mechanism works is with a ball in the systems Pressure Hold Valve which activates when the car is pointing UP hill (ball rolls to rear of valve). In my scenario, I'm always pointing DOWN hill and reversing UP hill (opposite of the way the hill holder seems to work).

This is weird and i've never experienced this in any other manual transmission vehicle before. 2000 OBW, 76k miles, manual trans: Whenever I back up on a hill there's this horrible smell, like burning carpet. I'm 99.9% sure it's the clutch because it happens consistantly at my friends house who has a horribly disfunctional driveway and in order to turnaround to leave you have to point down a hill then backup (3-pt turnaround). That's when I smell that smell- right after backing up the hill. I also have issues in the morning, when the clutch is still cold, when I take off the car shudders. No matter what I do, how I feather the clutch, more gas less clutch, less gass more clutch, nothing helps until the car warms up then it's not as bad. I realize theres a TSB on that "clutch judder" but I'm wondering if this contributes and/or is related to the smell mentioned above. It doesn't even smell like burnt clutch either- like i said, it's like burnt carpet or something... it's really weird.

It's also a fuel additive Chevron gas stations uses in its gasoline.

Oh cool, I didn't know that! So 2.5 once the light comes on? What makes it a seperate mechanism fromt the gage? I realize the light is a light and the gage is a gage but is the light tapped into the float in the gastank? or is it a pressure switch or some other transducer?

I've got a 2000 OBW- I'm wondering how many miles I can go once the orange gas light comes on.