Cougar

The harness matches the wires of the new deck to the cars radio plug. This means you don't have to destroy the car wiring. The wires are color coded and labled as to what they are. It makes the install job real easy. There are kits available also to match the front of the new deck to the dash. You can check with http://www.Crutchfield.com to see what unit will work in your car.

What you describe sounds like it could be the temperature sensor but I have never seen one myself so I can't help you there. You may have to order the sensor from the dealer if you really want to fix it. I doubt anyone else will be able to help you. You could talk to Jamie at http://www.allsubaru.com and she may be able to give you a disount on the part. She is great to deal with.

I would suspect this would be tied to a breaker Chip instead of a fuse. Not sure if this circuit would use a relay to supply power to the heater or not but suspect it is just the switch. I would check the switch connections to see if they are ok as a first step. If the wire to the switch is fairly heavy then you most likely only have the switch in the circuit.

You should be able to just remove one of the vacuum lines and see if there is suction at the end of the line by placing your finger over the end of it. You could also measure it using a vacuum meter. The device that is in between where you have suction and don't have it is your problem.

You need to see if you are getting voltage to the solenoid from the ignition switch first Peter. This would relate to your #2 question. Following this procedure will tell you what you need to do, the fastest way I know of. You need to pin down the area of the fault and this is the way to do it. Find the small wire on the starter solenoid and put a test light probe, or the positive lead of a voltmeter, on the connection. Tie the other lead of the tester to a good ground. When you turn the key to the start position you should see the light turn on or have 12 volts on the meter. If the starter does not turn on and you have voltage there, then you need to either replace or work on the starter ( I assume you have already cleaned your battery connections and checked your main cables for internal corrosion). You will need to do this check when the problem is happening but you can verify the operation while things are ok. If you don't have any voltage there then you need to look at the safety switches, ignition switch, or bad wiring to the solenoid as your problem.

One other good thing to check Peter is the small wire to the starter motor. This is the wire that provides voltage to the solenoid to turn it on. If you don't have voltage there when you turn the key to start then there is a problem back towards the ignition switch. Using a test light to check that will tell you real quick what way you have to look for a problem. If you have voltage there and you don't hear the solenoid click then the solenoid coil may be open. Skip mentioned the fuel pump timer in the ECU and I beleive he is correct. Thanks Skip, right on as usual. This will not cause the symtoms you have with the starter Peter. Listening for the pump to run will tell you that some other things are happening though and can be real handy to know.

The high current draw from a starter motor running is what causes the dimming. The battery voltage can drop to around 9 volts while running the motor. If the solenoid contacts are not really making the connection to the motor then you won't have the high current draw to cause the dimming.

The short whirring sound you hear is the fuel pump pressurizing the system. When the pressure is up the pump turns off. Your problem with the starter could be due to poor battery connections and you should clean them first if you have not done that already. Also check the main leads for internal corrosion that can cause this kind of thing to happen. If those things don't solve your problem then you may have some bad starter solenoid contacts. You can replace those seperately if need be. With the age of the car this is a real likely culprit.

I would check your main battery cable to the starter for a problem. Also make sure your battery is good by having a load test done.

Just purchase a new interface harness that will tie between the new deck and the cars existing harness. This way you don't have to cut into the existing harness. You just make the connections between the new decks harness and the interface harness that plugs into the cars existing connection plug. You should be able to get a harness at most car audio outlets for about $15 dollars. The leads are marked and color coded. Just match them up to the new deck leads. I recommend you solder the leads and use some heatshrink over the joints .

The tires that came with your car will most likely be ok for what you want to do. I have an '01 LL Bean and live in Alaska so I have a set of winter tires for it also. If you have never driven a Subaru in the snow you will be nicely surprised on how these cars can handle it. I think you will love it. Enjoy the ride and remember, "it's what's driven inside". The 'Ultimate Subaru Message Board' is a great web site for Soobie owners.

While reading these posts I had a thought about the two senders that are mounted on each side of the tank. I would venture to say that those who have a problem with the level gauge showing a reading, but not correctly, that one of the senders has a connection problem. I think these senders are connected in parallel so if one is open you still will have a reading but not the correct level. Using an ohmeter to measure the resistance of the contacts at the connector will tell you which one of the two is the problem and open up. I hear that just cleaning the contacts will cure some of the problems. My manual gives warnings about opening the access panels with more than 3/4's of a tank of gas as fuel could spill.

Your welcome for the help. Hope it works out. They deal with a lot of different car audio systems.

Your fuel level sensor may be the problem with this. It is a pretty common problem with these cars. Some folks have been able to clean the slider contacts and correct the problem.

Here is a link you may be get some info from. http://www.scosche.com/scosche/connectors/factory-stereo.asp

Here is a link for you to use. http://www.ccrengines.com

Since that is the case I would have to say there is some wrong information somehow. Either you have an ECU that needs a sensor hookup and the new pump does not have one, as I think you mentioned before, or there is a problem in the wiring and the wiring diagram you used for reference is not the correct one for your model and the sensor pins on the ECU are different. When you check your pump connection see if it has 6 pins and if so 5 and 6 may be your sensor connections also.

Wow. You have to wonder if the previous owner knew something about this. Sorry to hear about that. Hope you got a good deal on the sale at least. You may want to talk with Emily at CCR Engines and see about getting a rebuilt engine that has all the "bugs" fixed in the rebuilt and have a good warranty. This would be a good time to exchange engines. Welcome to the forum Dr Farco.

Hi Kevin, You stated that your car is not supposed to have the sensor, the ECU has no wires where they should be if you did have one, and yet you get a error code on your pocket logger. Does your CEL light come on with this error code or have you had the dealer check for this code with the Subaru trouble code reader? I am wondering if perhaps your particular reader may have some sort of a glich with this specific code. The place where you saw the fuel lines go into the tank is where the pump should be if you have an internal pump. I'm not sure about your model. On my car there is a 6 pin connector on the access plate that makes connection to the devices inside the tank. Yours may only be 4 pin since you have no temp sensor. I know what you mean about the cost of manuals for the car. I happened to find some good used ones for my '01 on Ebay. I purchased 7 out of the 9 manuals for under $185 dollars. The two I did not get were not worth bidding more on as I could buy them for less new. You can contact Jamie at http://www.allsubaru.com if you want and she will sell you manuals at a reasonable discount. She saved me almost half over what my local dealer quoted me for the books. You don't have to purchase all of them either. Just what areas you are interested in, though it is nice to have the full set. Also check out Ebay and search for Subaru service manuals. You just may get luck as I did.

Your car does have two level sensors as you say. There is a sub level sensor. I think the one that the FSM manual suggests replacing with the temp sensor is the regular one. The temp sensor is mounted on the same cover plate the pump is on, inside the tank.

I just learned about this sensor recently and I think it was the same poster on the Car Talk board that was inquiring about this. I have the factory manuals for my '01 Outback and here is what it says about DTC 183. This means the ECM is seeing a high input from the sensor. I believe this means a high resistance in the circuit to the sensor or the sensor itself is open. The temperature sensor is in the tank mounted near the pump. can be replaced seperately, and that you should replace the fuel level sensor also when replacing the temp sensor. The connection to the sensor is through connector R58 on pins 5 an 6. Pin 6 ties back to the ECM on connector B136 pin 26. Pin 5 ties back to the ECM on the same connector pin 16. On the sensor side, it looks like pin 6 is the high side and pin 5 is the ground side. It may be pin 5 is isolated from ground but I can't say for sure. The book says you should see between 4 to 10 volts on pin 6 to chassis ground with the connector removed from the pump connection if things are ok with the wiring back to the ECM. One quick thing to look at would be to measure the voltage between pin 26 and 16 on the ECM and see what it is. There are warnings about removing the fuel pump if the fuel level is above 3/4 of a tank and making sure the ground is connected to the assembly before putting the pump back after removal. Unless you are real intent on doing this I would leave it for the pros to do. When it comes to exposed gasoline I don't like to mess with things unless I really have to. The risks are not worth it to me.

They do have a different fuse and you need to check that first. If that is ok I would check the ground connections.

Hopefully you have a voltmeter to check things with. If you don't have one already then I would advise you to get one to help with this problem. I would first clean all the connections on the battery posts to see if that helps. The smaller wire on the positive post supplies voltage to the cars accessories so make sure it is ok and that it isn't corrodid internally near the battery. Check the fuselinks for loose connections. To check for bad connections, you can use the voltmeter to measure voltage drop across the wire connection. A good wire connection will have very little voltage drop across it. If you see more than 0.1 volt drop then look for a problem. You can check the ground connections the same way. Your problem may be in the ignition switch or the power relay also but I think you will find the problem in the other things first mentioned.

I have to agree with the the others. I would try swapping the thermostat with an OEM Subaru unit if it isn't one already and also replace the radiator especially if it is the original one. They do get clogged after time.

I would check these things to try and find the problem. The fuel pump may be weak so check the fuel pressure. Check the intake system for a vacuum leak. I have had to replace the intake manifold gaskets before. Your CAT may be causing some back pressure in the exhaust system. PS- Say hello to the Cartwrights.