eulogious

I am down to roll up to Seattle, but maybe meet up and caravan up for those of us that live down south? Weekdays won't work for me since I work nights (hopefully that is changing soon), but if we could get something together on the weekends sometime... But I am all for having an "old skool" meetup! I like this idea!

Hey I will check my car when I get home today, I can't remember if it has the shoulder belts, but I seem to think it does... Yup, I gots them Come get'em buddy! You can grab all the trim/interior pieces you want to go with it! All you need to do is tap and drill a new hole, shouldn't be that hard. Maybe weld in a plate behind the bolt before doing the drill/tap to add more strength if you think it's an issue. Someone correct me if I am wrong...

For the record I am only responding because my response has everything to do with why I did the upgrade for the alt for begin with, not to be an a$$hat or anything I think there are a couple of things you missed in my post that you really should pay attention to if you are really interested in learning about car audio. There is alot of math and theory behind it all, I didn't just make all this up. You are correct in saying that any amp can put out big numbers, but not without clipping. Clipping kills amps and speakers and this is what separates the men from the boys if you would when dealing with amplifiers and manufactures. You really need to understand this concept if you really want to get into loud, clear car audio. This is also why adjusting your gains correctly can make or break an install, is one of the biggest reason why younger kids will "blow" their equipment, and it can make the difference between the install sound like crap and it sounding fantastic. It's because if the gains are adjusted wrong and it sends the amp into clipping, which will eventually destroy the amp and/or the speakers, and all the while making the audio sound like crap. All of my amps are adjusted to not clip at 75% of my headunits volume (on number 24 out of 32) and be amplifying the signal to it's fullest potential (deemed by me, not the amps ratings) at which time my system will be putting out 800 watts. This is not by accident, this is a number I came up with when trying to figure out how to adjust my gains on my amps. My system is actually rated at about 1000watts RMS and can put that out, but I don't run it at that because it's just too loud and puts too much strain on an already taxed electrical system. I should also mention that I am into SQ, not SPL, so even though it gets loud, it still sounds really good. That was the entire point of my install, not loudness, but sound quality. A little side note... If you look at the fuses on the amplifier itself and multiply that by 100, you will generally get what the amp is capable of without clipping. One of my amps is fused for 60amps, the other one 50amps, hence about 1000 watts RMS give or take a little. Same concept can be applied to offroad lights and the like as well. Coming from someone who spent lots of money ofnall of his stereo stuff, I can tell you that I for sure use all of that 800 watts almost daily. I didn't spend the money on this stuff to not use it I generally drive around with my stereo between 18-22, and when a good song comes on it goes all the way up to 28. I designed the system so that when I drive down the freeway with all my windows rolled down @70 mph, I still have to turn the music down because it's too loud Granted I don't listen to it THAT loud all the time, but a majority of the time I am using well over 60% of my systems capacity. And this is all without clipping or any distortion what so ever from any of my speakers. I also bought all my equipment with this in mind as well. My sub can handle up to 650 watts RMS, and my front components 150 watts RMS. Again, I am not pushing the system to its limits because there is no need to, it gets plenty loud and sounds plenty good without the need of stressing my car or my equipment. This is also why my alt failed in my loyale within 2 weeks of installing my stereo, it was just too much stereo for the little, old alt. I tried to avoid this a little bit when designing my install, but when there just isn't enough power there from the alt, but the little alt is trying as hard as it could like GD suggested, it really didn't stand a chance. I knew this, and had a backup plan in the works already before it failed. What's my point in all of this? You would be surprised at how much juice a decent, not a huge, but a decent stereo will pull. I could see easily pulling 20-30 amps off of a "normal" stereo install with a couple amps and a sub. Hell, even 3 sets of hella offroad lights (about 30amps) and you would be maxing out the alt. Thats why the maxima alt made a world of difference. That's also why my 70amp alt in my legacy is still working today and stands a fighting chance even with the same system installed from my loyale. That extra 15amps makes a difference. When it fails, I am going to be upgrading it to the 90amp version found in the newer legacy's for the same reasons I listed above. Now did I junkyard it? The first alt I got, I got from GD. He went to the yard, got the alt, tested it, made the spacer for the pulley, installed the pulley, and sent me the whole alt as a package that was ready to be installed (mostly, still needed to do a very small amount of "wiring" on my end, especially because of my turbo). I would highly recommend getting it through GD if you don't have access to a lathe, and he is a good guy to boot. But it failed, and GD took it back and essentially gave me my money back. So then I got a reman Bosch alt, and it failed within a month as well. So I think there was something up with my loyales charging system, but I totaled it before I could figure it out. So I would grab a junkyard alt and give it a go. If it fails, you are only out a little bit of money. It's a lot cheaper to go that route than the $130 I paid for the bosch unit.

Talk to the user "Chim" on here... http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=108882&highlight=megasquirt http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=108146&highlight=megasquirt He got it up and running in his RX. Hope that helps man

Some of this info is somewhat wrong and depends on the brand/setup. I have 3 amps that I own right now that put out about 100watts MORE than they are rated for, and yes I have tested all 3 of them. This is not uncommon among the higher end/more expensive brands. So this all depends on the amps, your power wire, and all sorts of other things that are going on in your install. I can tell you right now that I pull about 80amps alone for my stereo I have in my car now. Yes, that's 800watts RMS when at full bore without any clipping. 510watts (37v AC@2ohms) to the sub, the rest to the front speakers. And this is from the speaker terminals on the amp, AFTER taking into account amplifier efficiency/inefficiency. (Oh, and my sub amp is rated at 400 watts RMS, not 500watts, and it never shuts off due to heat, and I have been running it this way for over a year now...) There's pics of my old install around here somewhere where I had all this installed into my loyale if you care. It's easy to calculate this if you have a DMM handy. Well at least you can get close to it. If you really want to tune your system right, you need a o'scope and a 50hz test tone to play, and then you can see the wave form of the sound wave playing and adjust your gains to the max with out clipping the sound wave. If you want more info on this, PM me. I got a bunch of info and sites for you to check out if you really want to know more of the theory behind it all this 12v stuff. I nerded out on stereo stuff about a year ago, and learned a TON. I also only run high end stereo stuff, so that makes a difference as well. So I did the maxima alt upgrade when my stereo killed my alt about 2 weeks after installing my stereo , and it was a HUGE improvement overall, and I would recommend everyone do it when the stock alt dies, even if you don't have a single extra accessory wired up in your car. I also had some hella offroad lights that I ran all the time, and they pulled about 10amps additional all the time, so adding that extra 35amps from the maxima alt made a world of difference. No more lights dimming at a stop light, no more dim lights with the stereo was cranked, it was awesome. I could idle my car with lights on and heat full bore, and the voltage would be at 13.9v. There is no way the stock alt can do that. I really don't know why subaru put such a small alt into this car. The stock alt can't even keep up with the stock accessories I would highly recommend this upgrade to everyone!

Well I replaced the bad injector and have changed the oil twice since then. The first oil change I did on the car when I first bought it did not smell like gas, so it's probably related to the fuel injector. Anything I can do to double check that? A compression test would probably tell me alot of course, but I don't have the equipment, or money to buy the equipment right now, so that will have to wait... Thanks for the responses so far, and letting my hijack your thread

Sorry to hijack this, but I need to know... Why did you ask this? My oil has been smelling a little bit like gas lately, and since you mentioned it, my interest has now been peaked I don't have any noise coming from my engine (other than the normal sounds), but I am curious why my oil has been smelling a little bit like fuel when I change the oil. I did have a bad injector several months back, but I fixed that problem shortly after it started...

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=117696 It's about the injectors, but has some good info on the ECU's as well. The different ECU controls the redtop injectors, rather than the gray/black top ones. It seems everyone recommends that you replace the injectors and ecu at the same time. Verify that though... Or you could just slap it in and see what happens It will probably work. The code in the ecu should be forgiving enough to handle the slightly different flow rates of the injectors, I at least hope it would. This is only a guess though. But if I were you, I would just slap it in and fire it up! Trans doesn't matter when it comes to the ecu. Especially with odbI stuff. The TCU and the ECU are basically seperate systems, the only thing they "share" is the tach/rpm sensor. Other than that, they are completely independent of each other. All the ecu needs to know is if it's a auto or manual, and I think that is controlled by grounding, or not grounding a pin on the ecu. Hope that helps!

Probably a little late but anyways... The Pioneer: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=93670&highlight=paddle+shifters The Copier : http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110222&highlight=paddle+shifters

Not all loyales are 3at... I got a 1990 Turbo Loyale with a 4eat sitting in it right now! So yes, the 4eat will fit, no problems. The trans wiring for the computer is almost all self contained. The only thing you need from the ecu is the tach wire I believe, but you really don't even need the ecu for that, just the neg side of the coil. So you should be able to get it all wired in no problem. It will take some work, but doable. Truthfully, buy the adapter plate and put a D/R 5spd in it. I love the 4eat, but if its not in the car already, just swap in the best transmission made for that car, the D/R 5spd. The hastle of swapping over the wiring and all that jazz just really isn't worth it IMHO. And this is coming from someone who add paddles shifters to his 1990 4eat. But if you really want to do it, search for my paddle shifter build thread on here, it has all the links to the fsm pages you will need, and alots of info on how the TCU and the trans talk to each other.

ODBII (phase II 4eat) talks a LOT more between the TCU and the trans, compared with the ODBI (phase I 4eat) stuff. Nothing that a few resistors to fool the sensors couldn't fix, but more work than a phase I 4eat. A phase I 4eat is only looking for the tach wire from the ecu, nothing else, so it's really easy to swap those transmissions around. ODBII looks for several other sensors, but like I said you can figure out way to fool them since they aren't the complicated to figure out because they are early 1990's technology Those articles gary linked to should have all the info you need. If not, I got them around somewhere as well I can post. If you search for "4eat paddle shifters" on the forum and look for the thread I started, it will have a TON of info about the phase I trans in it, and some links to some of the fsm pages, and other good info. Hope that helps you some!

Could also be that the cables you pulled out were corroded in the core and the insulation looked fine. I have seen that happen. The cable looks fine until you cut into it and find all sorts of green nasty stuff inside Or by just replacing them you inadvertently tighten something down, bumped something back into place or something like that. Either way, glad it's running and it didn't cost too much!

A '96 will be ODBII I believe, so there is alot more communication between the TCU and the ECU, unlike the ODBI cars. BUT this only matters if you are running the auto in the bug, which it sounds like you aren't. The auto would require a bunch of work to get it to work, but if you are swapping out the auto for a manual, the only thing you would have to change is grounding a certain pin on the ECU telling the ECU that it's a manual car, not an auto. After doing that, you don't need the TCU anymore. So yes, the motor will run just fine without the auto trans, as long as the ECU knows that it is dealing with a manual trans, not an auto. The pin should be documented in the swaps that people have done... Good luck man, this looks like another sweet bug project

Here's the link to my thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=105299 And I PM'ed you back

Have you checked the fuseable links (think they are called that)? If one of those goes, then no power to the car... There should be mutli-colored ones in the fuse box under the hood. The different colors mean different amperage. Check these out. One is probable blown. Also, what about the connection to the fuse box next to the battery (I think its there, it's been a while since I have looked, but it's the fuse box under the hood)? Have you checked that for corrosion? That wire feeds the fusable link box, so if it's corroded, then no power to the links, no power to the car...

Ya, its been done. In fact, there is a dealer installed cruise system that is installed separately at the dealer after the car has been delivered to the dealer. My loyale had the dealer installed system in it. It still does if you want it , for a price of course. It's just sitting in my totaled loyale. So yes it is possible to do. The wiring should be separate and easy to pull if it was the dealer installed cruise. I also adapted the vacuum pump from the factory cruise system so that I was not relying on engine vacuum to power the cruise (no vacuum with a turbo ), and I intregrated the steering wheel controls to the system as well. So my system was the factory system, but it was installed after buying the car. I made a thread about what I did to make it all work if you care. I have a link somewhere to it if you want it. LMK if I can help as well, since I spent a few hours making my cruise system work great, compared to when I got the car!

Just thought I would share this link that might have some helpful info abut the injectors, or at least gives some background: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=117696&highlight=injectors I made the post while I was having injectors problems on my 1990 lego. Might or might not be of any use, but thought the background info might help... Good luck man!

From the sounds of it, what Jacob is saying is that a good open source tuner should be able to find the value in the ECU ROM code, change it to something to cause the code never to come back, and then flash that new ROM code onto your ECU solving the problem. Judging from your first post and all the other info in here, the ECU is flashable, so getting the ROM, disassembling it, and correcting the issue should be possible. Especially if the ECU is already flashable, that's half the battle. Granted I have not looked at this what so ever, but I am running custom TCU firmware myself, so I do know that it is possible to do in one shape or another. Whether anyone has done it successfully is another issue. Has anyone looked into getting a custom ECU flash done by a "tuning" shop? That's where I would go. Fix the problem at it's source, the ecu. Might cost a couple of hundred bucks, but better than new cats from the sounds of it. From the sounds of it, nothing is actually wrong with the car, just the ECU saying that something is bad, and it sounds like Subaru is trying to fix the problem without saying there is a problem by fixing the problem in the ECU whenever it's mentioned, rather than the actual mechanics of the car. Sounds like some crappy firmware programming on subaru's part to me, not a bad mechanical design. Just my .2 cents.

Still looking for ya! Hehe Ok, so it's been a while, and I got some more stuff installed, and made some more stuff as well. I am still saving up to get my kenwood radio (they cost over $500 ) so a buddy of mine just upgraded his radio in his car, so he let me install and use his old one until I can get my own gear. So here are some of the pics of that install... Here's a pic of the unit installed: I have the remote head seperation kit, so the actual radio is in the back, and the face is installed up front. Here's the cable for the speaker I made and ran up front: And the speaker: I rigged the ham radio to come on with my ignition, and also to come on when I turn on this switch, so I don't have to have the car on to use the radio. I also mount my bass cube remote there as well: So if anyone was wondering what the thing about the radio is, it's what's called a "rigrunner", and it's used to power devices, like radios and other gear using Anderson Power Poles. If you haven't looked into anderson power poles, you should, they are ************ing fantastic! I love'm, and I have been looking for a connector like this as well for the longest time. And you can get the connectors in tine little 15amp versions, all the way up to 200amp versions. They are a sweet connector, and if you want a good way to tap into the dc power in your car, they are fantastic. Here's a link to some info about them: http://home.comcast.net/~buck0/app.htm They have a diagram for the rigrunner on that page, and that's what I followed to make my own. Cost me about $15, and I bought everything locally, including the power poles. I think it turned out pretty damn good for my first try at this sort of thing... Pics of the process. Took about 6 hours total from start to finish to make the box, then about another 2 hours to install it.. I tapped into the power off my cap as well, so if the radio needs some extra juice it can have it Now to my next plan... I want to install a second battery, and an isolating circuit as well. Here's the diagram that I came up with: This system works by using an oil pressure switch to keep the relay on, and both batteries connected while the car is starting and running, and then isolates it when the car is not actually running, but the ignition could still be on. So I just need to replace my oil pressure switch with a new one for $5, and then add a couple relays in, and I will be golden! The relay that is off the starting wire is there to make sure that the second battery is used during starting. It also means that you just need enough juice to trigger that relay to start your car, since the other battery will be introduced to the system as soon as there is enough power to trigger that relay. Then if there is not enough juice to trigger the relay, you just push the momentary switch and start the car. It's perfectly seemless, and only only cost a few dollars for the parts besides the relay and the battery. No switches to flip for normal use, just turn the key and go, and not worry about having a dead battery. Here's a little bit more of a run down.. Right now in my car my oil pressure sensor only has one wire, the one for the idiot light. The one wire is ground to the case of the switch, and so therefore the engine block, and then it's grounded to the battery. So right now, when I turn the key on without starting the car, the oil light comes on in my dash because the sensor closed the switch completing the circuit. Then once I start the car and the oil pressure rises above 5 psi, the switch closes, turning off the dummy light. So it only comes on during low oil pressure times, either when the car is not running, or when something really bad is going on with the car itself. That's what's comes from the factory with my car, a one prong pressure switch. So by replacing the pressure switch with this 3 prong GM one, I am keeping the same functionality that it had before and the same behavior with the idiot light, I have just added in another switch/circuit that I can use. This other switch works the exact opposite, so when the engine is not running, the switch is open (isolating the starting battery), and when the engine is running and there is enough oil pressure, it's closed (adding in the starting battery to the system). So by tapping it to ground and the isolator relay, I can keep the starting battery as part of the system as long as there is enough oil pressure to keep the switch closed and the circuit complete. So when starting, the thing that I worry about is that there is NOT enough pressure to activate the pressure switch to add the starting battery to the system. So that is why I used the second relay that is only attached to the starting circuit. To ensure that the starting battery can actually be used when starting. It's not much of a starting battery if it's not used when starting the car. Most likely the starter will build up enough oil pressure to activate the switch but this won't happen immediately, which is what I want. So my system just ensures that the starting battery will be used while starting the car. It also has the benefit of adding the starting battery to the circuit when the non-starting battery is almost dead, without having to press anymore switches or anything else. I wanted it to be as seamless as possible, and I think that this covers that pretty well. But I also have a way of using the starting battery no matter what using the other momentary switch. Now the rest of it is just for more seamless integration. The momentary switch will ground the relay making the starting battery part of the circuit and allowing you to start your car incase you run down your other battery. So this is your absolute fall back if the non-starting battery is SUPER dead. You will be able to at least start your car still, no matter what. Then I use a distro block to take all the wires that are at the front of the car and put them all with the non-starting battery in the back. That way it's nice and neat up front, and I don't have to run anymore wires to the back. 0 awg should be plenty to run the car and carry what little amps it needs I would think. No need to run more wires. Now the whole reason I want to do this is not for stereo purposes, but for emergency purposes, and for camping and things like that (I don't use a backpack when camping, I "car" camp, thanks to the wife ) so it's nice to have power on tap for those things, so I designed this based off of that idea, not running my stereo full tilt till the batteries die, I am talking about a small load (15amps or so) for a long period of time. Now the other thing that I was worried about was what happens when you drain the sla completely, and then hook up the good starting battery to the circuit? Is it going to blow the breaker and pull over 200amps? This was one of the biggest reason to get a diode setup, was so that you could prevent this. Well, a volt drop of .7 is unacceptable to me, so I wanted to find out the pros and cons of both setups, and I can across this really good page: http://yarchive.net/car/rv/isolator.html It's about boats, but the same concept applies to what I want to do. They are powering stuff for a long time, not high power, and it was a really good read. This is a great quote and sums up my research (the quy is responding to points from a mailing list): Maybe it could (I don't think so but lacking 100% proof) but inpractice it doesn't. Some current will flow if one battery is completely dead but the current isn't enough to hurt anything. One can get an idea of the magnitude of this current by observing the current flow when one jumps off a completely dead vehicle. A few minor sparks but certainly nothing that could possibly damage any component in the system. A relay is always a simpler hookup. The diode isolator is a veryinelegant kluge that seems to have a life of its own. It wastes power (a little less than a watt for each amp flowing), it is relatively fragile (just as fragile as the diodes in the alternator), is subject to destruction from even a momentary reverse polarity (such as when one reverses jumper cables) and is difficult to make work correctly. It might be acceptable if the charging system is engineered (and not just kluged together) from scratch to accommodate the 0.7-1 volt drop across the isolator but it is a pain in the rump roast in the aftermarket. This is 20 years of experience speaking. That pretty much sums up my thinking on it, and that's why want a 200amp relay, just in case. So with a 65AH SLA battery in the back, I think that all my needs will be met. I should also give credit where credit is due. I didn't come up with the idea of this, I just adapted it to the soobie. I found it in "Idea 4" on this page: http://www.junkyardgenius.com/charging/dual01.html Anyone have any experience with dual batteries? If so what did you do? This seems like a very good, solid plan to work from, but if someone has done it before and has some tips, that would be cool! Not too mention that this is also fairly cheap to do, minus the cost of the battery. I found a 200amp relay for $52 shipped, the adapter and pressure sensor for about $10, the distro block for about $30 shipped, and a battery box for about $12. The battery is about $145 shipped. So for about $250 total I can have a dual battery setup. Not too bad, but not free either... I got some more work to do on the antenna mount and what not, so when I get that done I will post that up as well...

To power the radio, all you need is three wires, Red, Yellow, and Black (ignition, always on, and ground). The ground you can do yourself, so all you need is two wires, the always on (yellow off the back of the deck), and the ignition on (red off the back of the deck). Using the diagram Turbone posted, it looks like the green wire from the car will go to the yellow wire on the stereo, and the blue/yellow wire from the car will go to the red wire on the stereo. I am only guessing on that, so test the wires with a DMM (Digital Multi Meter), and if you don't have a DMM, get one before continuing. The green wire should always have 12+ volts, and the blue/yellow wire should show 12+ volts with the key on. Then find a ground on the car body and connect that to the black wire on the back of the stereo. Now for the common ground system in the car for the speakers, just forget it exists. Run new wires for the front speakers, that's the easiest way. You can try to figure it out, but I would just run new wires. In fact that is what I did with my stereo install (multiple amps, new speakers and head unit as well as a sub). It was just easier than trying to figure out the common ground system, and then dealing with it once I figured it out. The common ground system as no benefits other that it was easy for subaru to do. Other than that it sucks, so just ditch it in favor of newer, better wires. Obviously then just connect the new wires up the the back of the deck, and then you are done! Hope that helps!

If I was going to try to get one piece of software, I would get Microstation. Microstation can edit Autocad files, and Microstation files. My stepdad teaches Microstation for a local college over here, so I have the full versions and play with it my self at times I don't use them that much, but it's good stuff to know. Have you looked into taking a college class on drafting? Might help fill in all the basics. The one thing I have learned from playing with the software is that you can figure out how to draw lines and what not, but not knowing how to actually draft made it difficult to actually do anything "correctly", that's why I suggest taking a class if you can. Either way, good luck man, drafting is something that the world will always need in one shape or another!