jarz21

Work and such have been crazy busy lately, so today I finally got an opportunity to remove the plastic pieces inside my '96 Impreza Outback to see if I could find a factory trailer wiring connector. Before removing anything, I found the small two-prong connector pictured in the attachment, but that is clearly not for trailer wiring. My only guess was maybe for an AC power outlet, but otherwise I don't know. After removing the rear plastic side panels, I found no sign of a factory trailer connector. Fortunately, I had been helping a friend move a few weeks ago and, while picking up his UHaul truck, I purchased a trailer wiring harness (UHaul product # 13486) for $16.95 just in case. Good thing I did; I was able to install the trailer wiring while all of the plastic panels were unfastened. I learned (after connecting everything once) that the harness wire colors do not necessarily correlate to car wire colors. I ended up having to remove two of the scotch-lock wire taps and busting out the voltmeter to make sure I was actually tapping the correct wires. Note that, when installing the trailer wiring harness, all but one wire (right turn signal) are hooked up to the driver's side taillight wiring. I quickly realized that all of the bulb holders and wiring were on a single, small sub-harness that included the female harness connector, so I decided to splice all of my trailer wires onto those wires rather than the primary wiring harness. This way, if I accidentally cut through a wire, I could always go to a junkyard and yank out just that sub-harness with the bulb holders (which is probably the same on any Impreza from that time period). I ended up connecting the ground terminal to the taillight mounting bolt (8mm nut). I connected the wires as follows: Harness Wire Color / Car Wire Color (Function) -Yellow / Yellow with Red Stripes (Left Turn Signal) -Green / Yellow with Red Stripes (Right Turn Signal) -Brown / Red with Black Stripes (Running Lights) -Red / Green with Red Stripes (Brakes) -White / None (Ground) The nice thing about the UHaul harness is that it has test LEDs built right into the trailer connector. This is how I realized that I had connected something incorrectly at first, but was then able to swap a couple of wires around and was good to go. **Caution!** The UHaul trailer wiring harness will work on trailers with LED taillights/ turn signals, but the tow vehicle must have regular incandescent bulbs. This should not be an issue for 99% of old Imprezas, but some people do install those aftermarket LED bulbs. I suspect that these steps will work for any 1993 to 1997 Impreza wagon, coupe, or sedan, but you'll probably want to double-check your wiring first.

I pulled off the small taillight panel and was trying to reach around to see if I felt a connector of some sort, but couldn't find anything. The back of my car is completely packed with work stuff and I haven't had an opportunity to unload it and pull the whole left side plastic panel off. :-\

I just ordered a Draw-Tite 24710 Class I SportFrame Hitch with Drawbar from Amazon for my '96 Impreza Outback wagon. I'm now trying to figure out what wiring kit I can use for the trailer plug. After searching the forum and reading most of the trailer wiring threads, I'm having difficulty identifying whether a '96 Impreza Outback would be pre-wired (ie, have the taped-off plug on the wiring harness) in the same way the Legacy Outbacks of that same time period allegedly are. I suspect that it isn't, so I'll probably have to order a hard-wire kit. JC Whitney has something for $13.99 (SKU Number 1JA 428712) that is claiming to be "4-way". The picture is probably not for the actual product. Otherwise, I've been looking at the ModuLite Tow Ready Circuit Protected Taillight Converter with 4-Flat End, part number 119175. The ModuLite is supposed to help protect the car's wiring in case of a short in the trailer wiring, and I doubt that the JC Whitney harness would have much more than a fuse. Not that it's a problem for me, but it might be worth noting that the 119175 will not work for cars with LED taillight bulbs (must use the upgraded 119176 instead), but will work if the trailer has LED bulbs. Mostly, I'm wondering if anyone has installed either the JC Whitney harness or the ModuLite. Odds are that I'll end up going with the ModuLite for $30 shipped, but it would be interesting to know if the Whitney unit has the same/ similar features for nearly half the cost.

I managed to find a '97 OBS with manual transmission and cruise control, but go figure, the cruise ECU had already been removed. Fortunately, I was at least able to get the actuator and cable, so now all I need is a cruise ECU to see if my setup will work. So in a last-ditch effort to get help, does anyone even own a '96-'97 Impreza with manual transmission and cruise control?

Thanks for the tip! It turned out that there was a screw toward each end, accessible from the inside. The trim piece was a bit reluctant to slide, but I managed. Looks and works much better now!

The car in question is a 1996 Impreza Outback. I'm guessing that the previous owner had somehow dropped something heavy on the window trim while the window was open and managed to ding up the metal part of the trim. As a result, the rubber scraper is partially pulled away from the glass, allowing water to roll straight down into the door. I'm heading to a salvage yard tomorrow morning and figured I'd try to swipe the same piece of trim off a car there, but I'm not sure how this trim is mounted or how I can remove it without damaging it. I tried searching and couldn't find any information, so I figured I'd ask. See the attached image for a shot of the trim piece.

Bump. Anybody have any part numbers?

After a seemingly exhausting search of the forum, I am still having difficulty identifying exactly what cruise control ECU would be used in my car. My car (EJ22, MT) was built in March of 1996, which I'm finding may make it more similar to a 1997 model year Impreza than a 1996. I've also read that there was a change from cable-driven to electronic speed metering in 1998 sometime. I called multiple dealers and they claim that the cruise ECU part number for my car based on VIN is 87022 FA707; however, I cannot reference to that part number anywhere online/ in the forum. According to this website, part 87022 FA031 should supersede part 87022 FA030 for manual transmission Imprezas from '92 to '00: http://opposedforces.com/parts/impreza/us_g10/type_59/manipulation/cruise_control_equipment/illustration_4/. I've called countless salvage yards and they either have no Imprezas or only have cruise ECUs from cars with automatic transmissions. I was wondering if anyone with a (March) 1996 or later Impreza EJ22 with manual transmission and functioning CC could confirm their cruise control ECU part number for me. If you could also indicate whether the cruise was already installed, installed from kit, or pieced together from junkyard cars, that could be helpful as well. I appreciate any input that anyone can provide. I'm really trying to get cruise control installed. My ankle was really sore after over 7 hours behind the wheel yesterday! I already have the main switch, steering wheel control lever, brake & clutch switches, and vacuum actuator & cable (which is from a '93 Impreza and is 1" too short).

Thanks, Nathan. Yeah, I'm stumped by the failure as well, but I'm just happy to have a working car again. I changed the oil yesterday (before the pouring rain came to Boston), and today I drove an hour to a junkyard so I could find some cruise control parts and a variable intermittent wiper switch. The car never skipped a beat, so I'm content for now. I got completely drenched working my way around the 'yard, but I got a great deal on the parts, so both my Subie and I are happy. Once I find an MT cruise ECU, my Outback will essentially be everything that I could ask for in a car, so I hope for my wallet and sanity's sake that the cam was a fluke and that I'll get another 150,000 trouble-free miles out of this thing!

Sorry Nathan, you're right! Anyway, I had run out of justifiable vehicle downtime, so I had already told the mechanic to replace the cam. I just picked it up and so now have a functional car again. I have attached a picture of the broken cam. I've checked that thing up and down and can see no signs that the cam had actually seized prior to breaking. The mechanic said that it's uncommon, but he has seen EJ22 cams simply fail in the past. I am still skeptical, but there's not much I can do right now (except update my AAA membership to the Premium level).

Hypothetically, if the the oil starvation was caused by the engine leaking out all of the oil while the previous owner still had the car, what are the chances that this was some sort of delayed cam failure? I ended up having to replace the plastic oil separator with a metal one (and oil-soaked clutch because of the leak), as well as all of the front oil seals and the cam o-rings. There were signs when I replaced the clutch that the original oil separator had leaked before but they just resealed it. The primary shaft seal had also been replaced already. So, I didn't realize it until after I had bought the car back in November that it had such major oil leaking problems until I had to drive it 400 miles home for Thanksgiving. At least when it started leaking oil at an excessive rate, I managed to catch it before it got too low. But I agree; the real concern is when and how the oil starvation occurred.

In this case, it was hoof beats that logically should've been horses, but when no horses appeared, zebras became the next likely thing. In the end, it turned out to be wildebeest. I personally never would have suspected a broken camshaft unless I had gotten to the point of pulling the cylinder head off myself, which I never would've done if I only suspected a timing issue. I'm anxious to see the broken cam.

Well, I was finally able to get my car into the shop to diagnose and repair my what I had originally suspected as a fuel issue and then thought was actually caused by a bad head gasket causing low compression. Well, it looks like we were all wrong, though Gloyale actually came the closest: it wasn't the camshaft locating pin, but the camshaft itself that broke! Oddly enough, the mechanic was less surprised about the camshaft failure than he was about my thought that it was a blown head gasket. He asked me if the engine ever ran out of oil, which it hasn't, but when I first bought the car I had to add nearly 2 quarts in less than 400 miles because of a series of major oil leaks that had been half-assedly fixed by the previous owner (unbeknownst to me). Granted, that was around Thanksgiving last year and the car has run perfectly ever since. At least now I know, and I should have a fully operational car by the end of the week.

Will do! I suppose now would be a good time to just have the passenger side headgasket replaced too, if the driver side gasket has already failed at just over 82k miles.

The funny thing is, right before reading these updates about possible leaking between cylinders, my brother called me to say he had spoken with a friend who had suggested the same thing about my car. I guess I never realized that the cylinders could leak to one another without any external signs, but that certainly makes the most sense in this scenario. It's a bit reassuring that 3 different people came to the same conclusion at the same time! To answer Gloyale, I could not identify any indication of a sheared pin on the cam. Nor were there any additional noises. I think that the simple answer (that an engine in a make of car that has been known to have head gasket issues may have a head gasket leak) may be the right answer here. Either way, I'm reaching the limits of what I can physically do to fix the problem myself given my limited resources after moving to a new state, so I think I'm now at the point where I have to take the car to a nearby reputable shop and have them take a look. I appreciate all the suggestions and input, and it will definitely help when explaining the problem to the mechanic. Kevin P.S. It really does kill me having a mechanical problem that I can't fix myself, but some situations can't be helped. I haven't taken a car to a shop for anything more than an inspection in probably 8 years!