Bushwick

The "smart" buy would be getting the car you can afford The red one might be OK if the head gaskets are sorted. I'd splurge for a 3 year mechanical warranty if you go that route. If they refuse to offer one, go elsewhere. If you have $800-1500 in cash (about what most places are going to want for a down payment anyways) you might be better off buying one locally outright. I paid around $750 (IIRC) for my 95' Legacy wagon as I needed a winter vehicle and really wanted AWD and these are hard to find locally at decent prices w/o being trashed. Paid $150 to have it towed 50 miles north, then put another $20 into a rear crossmember and $10 into a brake line that busted when the crossmember went out. I own it free and clear and it's been a trooper the past 2 years while the other car is parked. Had to replace little things here and there along with doing a full tune up, tires, battery, timing belt, alignment, etc. I wouldn't hesitate to drive it cross country either. Now, if you get a car that requires payments, any missed payments will hurt credit rating, though on time will improve rating. Bad thing is interest will be very high so you'll pay WAY more in the long run. That's how those places afford to offer credit to anyone. But starting out in life with a first car kinda thing, it's a life line to establish or improve credit when/if you are a high risk. If the car ends up needing a bunch of little things and you are already spread thin, it'll make life difficult for you, so consider this before committing. If it was me, I'd find a car with a great track record of being dependable (this means the engine has little issues; a 96' or earlier ej22 qualifies but not the ej25 and mechanically they are cheap to repair; Subaru in general qualifies) and buy it outright for under $1500. The more you can save, the more money you'll have on hand if it needs repairs. Once you are doing a little better or earning more, you can trade that towards something a little newer. The best way to avoid debt is don't incur it. Looking at the prices of those 2 cars, the $7000 07' is out of your range. Remember, you'll have to pay tax which will bump that up a lot, title transfer fees, and registration, and will take you FOREVER to pay that down. If you were earning say $1k a week, I'd say then go for it and double up the payments to avoid the interest. The $4k one will be the same way. Figure a 10-20% down payment, tax, title, registration, smog, etc. JUST to get the car. If it needs brakes, battery, etc. that'll be more. If you were late by even a day on either car, expect to get HOUNDED by a collection service that will call you at work, call your family, etc. until you pay. Loose your job and they'll repo it. So again, the "smarter" choice is getting what you can own outright w/o getting in over your head. Not trying to scare you here, but just trying to help you avoid trouble that might not occur to you at this point. I waited until I was about 23 before buying first car and having a loan attached to it. Think car was $3k and it was great primer in how to get a car loan and pay it down w/o getting in over my head. Think I was making about 35k a year then. About 3 years later that was paid off, and financed my second car for $8k. It was significantly nicer and what I'd wanted for years. By that time I was making $40k a year, so making payments wasn't an issue and I wasn't getting spread thin either. If you go to buy a car outright, you can sometimes get them to come down in price if it needs work. Think they were asking $1000 for my Legacy. I looked it over for a good hour, got a rapport going with the seller, talked to his mom who was 72 (it was her car), pointed out what it'd need on top of what they already knew it needed, mentioned the lifters were noisy, etc. Eventually asked if he'd work on the price a bit and we settled on a lower price. They knew it was going to a good home, and it had been listed for nearly a month on CL (that crossmember being completely rotted out I suspect scared many away) so all these factors saved me nearly $250 off the asking price. So it pays to be patient and sincere. Big thing is don't over extend yourself. I had zero people teach me about finances so I get where you are coming from. Hope this helps.

We don't have that nonsense in Ohio. They aren't even allowed to pop the hood nor are they trained to do anything other than sweep under the car with a mirror to visually confirm a cat is in place. As long as it's not throwing a CEL when it comes or after restarting, they'll test it. If for some reason their device can't communicate with the OBD II port, they'll idle test it with a probe at high rev. They used to do a roller test on a dyno device, but that seems to have fallen out of favor. Just swap back and forth. While not technically legal, as long as it's running a cat it's not going to hurt anything, unlike mowers and motorcycles that still run catless and dump a ton of pollutants. Kinda funny how that works. While a pain to swap, if you are using anti-seize it won't be so bad. Don't forget to dab the threads of the O2 sensors but don't allow it to get on the actual sensor openings. This will make future removal of them easy. If you want more tangible performance, get a turbo car or a more powerful 6 or 8 cylinder car.

There are 2 metal rods; one attaches to the key lock and other runs from inside handle to the latch. You want to grab the one directly behind the exterior handle (again, assuming it's similar to a 95'). If the actual lock assembly is loose or seized in the locked position, I suspect that would prevent opening too. If you have power locks, make sure everything is unlocked first then try pushing the latch rod. If you can't get latch to release, try fiddling with the lock's rod.

I think the front door needs to be open. I couldn't find a plunger switch on mine. I just leave mine off (paranoid about a door ajar overnight and dead battery next day.

Seeing as how the cat will be included in the kit, I'm not sure what Matt was talking about? Worse case, keep the factory cats and manifolds and just swap that back if it won't pass. Can even ask a tester directly if there will be an issue or not beforehand (must state the factory cats are junk and ruined and you are fixing the car, but they might request some documentation so be warned). If there is, just swap it out for testing (but obviously keep this to yourself and don't discuss it; EPA doesn't have the funds to directly go after everyone, but why risk it?). If you ever sell the car and it's not passable, you'll need to revert it for the sale as the new owner could sue you (exception being maybe a car with historical plates or a race-only vehicle, etc. but need to double-check this as I'm guessing.) Those are actually Equal length headers. Unequal length are what most factory engines have as it saves space and lowers complexity of the cost to make it. Equal length means every exhaust port travels the same distance to the collector, which can improve performance. Unequal headers are like runners on a race track where everyone has a different stopping location and can reach their finish line faster than others. On a daily driver it's acceptable but not optimal. Just like how an X pipe crossover is better than an H pipe which is better than a Y pipe and all will get the car down the road, but the X pipe will offer best performance and free up a few hp more over the H pipe. Also, don't do this for the "sound" as it won't be justifiable. The benefit will be a better, smoother powerband. Buy a tube of anti-seize and coat each bolt with it from header studs to collector bolts, etc. every time you swap it and it'll be a 30 minute affair to switch over assuming the exhaust studs are NOT hard to get at with the equal length headers. If they are, consider converting to ARP studs instead. It'll be easier to just stick header up and set it on the studs than trying to fish a bolt through the flange while working around the piping getting threaded into the head. Studs can also make alignment issues go away as all you have to do hang it on the stud then start hand-threading a nut. Once both sides are aligned and all nuts are hand-snug, you can just wrench them down. Much easier this way. And having anti-seize on all threads will make future removals a breeze. Oh yeah, try and get the headers with the smaller runner if they offer them. I once went from a 1 5/8" unequal to a 1 3/4" equal on one of my 306 Mustangs and I regretted it as it lost some velocity. That car had 10:1 compression, 4:10's, small carb, 5 speed conversion and posi, and weighed about 2800 pounds with me in it and could run a 13 flat on street tires. It felt like it lost some early torque. On a car with over half as little HP weighing hundreds of pounds more and a ton less torque, having 15 hp more on the top end won't be justified if you loose 20 tq early on.

Years ago I had a huge yard that would jump to 6-8" or taller by the time to cut occurred. I originally ran 87 in my 4.5 hp Briggs and Stratton push mower which was new at the time. It had a hell of a time getting through the grass which also seemed to have excess moisture constantly. Even running w/o a bag and letting clippings blow, it bogged constantly. I modified the plug's arm by filing it back a little past center of electrode (this is a known racing trick from years gone by and many plug companies have actually incorporated it into some modern plugs as it unshrouds the spark and all but eliminates hesitation) and ran premium with a small amount of octane booster if the grass was wet and over 6", or just ran 93 if it was dry. That little B&S engine went from stalling every pass to just obliterating the grass. Only time it'd even come close to stalling was 8"+ wet grass. Octane does make a difference. It's benefit will be noticed more in higher compression engines that need it to prevent detonation, and most cars will just electronically pull out timing for 87. Less timing = a lazier engine. But as with the mower anecdote, it needed to be pushed to it's stalling point to see the benefit clearly. If you barely press the gas pedal, you'll most likely not tell the difference.

$450 is pretty pricey. Think my replacement hatch was $60 and it was even black and had everything still attached. But hey, you did a great job and got around the most difficult part of NOT breaking the replacement glass!

Probably sticking at latch where it grabs the striker. Could also have the bar that connects at the assembly loose or became detached, and is no longer operating. Climb in the back hatch area and try and carefully pull the rear panel off the actual hatch, starting at the window area. I'm assuming it's similar to 95-98' wagons. Anyways, if you can get it separated enough to get your hand into the actual hatch, reach down to where the assembly latches onto the striker and see if it'll release by pulling directly on it. Should have an arm that protrudes where the bar connects (assuming the bar is still attached). You'll want to pull/push on that arm while trying to lift the hatch to open. Once open, visually verify if it was just sticking (like say it rusted up from lack of oil) or something loosened. A metal bar just hanging or sitting loose at the bottom of the hatch would be a sign it detached from the handle or the latch assembly.

Turbo engines and higher compression NA engines need it to prevent detonation. Newer, higher compression engines have sensors that can detect the grade and adjust timing accordingly, but you loose significant performance as it pulls so much timing to compensate, which means you'll be pressing the gas pedal harder to make up for the sluggishness. I've also noticed better MPG with 91-93 octane and run it regardless now due to having the better response. Times I've run 87 in the Subaru, it seems to burn through it too quickly. Performance between the 2 in stock, lower powered engines won't be noticed in regular driving, if at all. Try this, run the tank down to almost empty (don't run it hard when low) then fill the tank with 87 and reset the trip odometer while noting how much fuel you put in. Drive the car normally, and avoid excessive idling as that'll skew the results. Try and get the tank down to the same point as before (like maybe use the fuel low light if it has one) and jot down the trip mileage along with the amount you added and this time add 91 or 93 octane and repeat the test, while trying to closely mimic the same drive style. That'll ballpark your MPG differences.

Noticed they listed it about a month ago. It's probably gone and they were too lazy to remove the ad. Texas has fairly inexpensive older used cars and even better is they typically don't have the rust, but the downside is most people either opt for RWD or FWD, and winter packages are often difficult to find unless the car came from out of state earlier on. My 95' just turned 187k miles and you'd swear you were riding in a car with a 1/3 of that mileage. A real testament to this era of Subaru. Even if the engine in that CL ad was toast, you could easily swap a lower mileage one in and keep it on the road. If it ran OK and no serious issues, maybe offer $750-800 cash (after pointing out everything you can find that'll need replaced; batteries are $100-150 now so keep that in mind too and might want to check if the alternator is actually charging as the dead battery might be because of that- which would be another tick in the price drop). If they don't respond after 6-7 days, it's probably sold. If it was me, I'd try and actually call the number to get the what-ifs out of the way.

Did they say why they went with a new pipe instead of just welding what was there back? Pretty sure that's either stainless from the factory or some high quality steel. Should have been able to knock the surface rust off and just weld back. Regardless, $80 is way cheaper than a new cat, and I bet your neighbors are happy

I'll pass. My own dad was one of the people being mentioned, so.....

Yeah, very nice work. Suppose piano or even guitar wire could work too. Did you spray any type of grease or lube in there to make it cut easier? Suspect grease, or white lithium grease would let the wire cut through that easier. Urethane is NOT fun to cut, even when using a razor. BTW, you *did* inspect each row of the defrost stripes, right? I replaced my hatch which was rusted and last winter noticed the rear defrost barely worked. Turned out PO of the hatch must have hauled something that rubbed on the lines Oh well, hopefully no one else throws a rock at it!

You'll want the thicker sway bar available to you. If the donor's sway bar is thicker, go with that. Make sure it'll clear your exhaust and do a quick search to what's a direct fit and what's not. 97' should already have the thicker bar. I have a 95' wagon and it's rear sway bar was so thin I can't believe they even bothered installing it as it added NO support on turns and the entire rear "wagged" like a dog's tail on even minor turns. Think I went with a 99' Forester bar (can't remember at this point) or possibly an Outback bar which was noticeably thicker and huge improvement with body role. Still not "great", but much better. If you have the thin bar (diameter is about the size of a pinky finger) upgrading will be noticed. If you already have the thicker bar, you can try going with a WRX STi rear bar. Dunno if it'll be a direct fit with the lift or not. Other option that "works" is possibly doubling up a rear bar and tacking it at the mounting area. Or buying a soft steel bar and bending that to mimic the factory bar, then welding it to the mounting bar section (the area that has the bolt hole makes a decent weld spot that doesn't seem to negatively hurt the overall integrity of the sway bar's performance). I did this on my Saab. Doubled-up a factory bar set up then tacked in a hand-bent steel bar to mimic the factory bars. Cost like $15 in parts vs. $150+ for some aftermarket piece. Car corners like it's on rails. You WILL need an alignment in the rear after doing the swap. If it's way off, you can have rounded corners in a 100 miles.

I'd expect a comment like that in a Honda Civic forum, NOT here. If you are having a bad day, being a jerk to someone asking for help isn't the way to "cure" YOUR issue. I'd expect more from a Canadian. Leave the BS at your home and don't bring it here. Think Fairtax pretty much summed it up. You might have a broken or heavily rusted spring, the cable could be binding, etc. causing the shoes to hang. A big screw driver should allow you to adjust. Try and set it so it's not dragging or touching and wheel spins smoothly. I suggest doing both sides so the e-brake grabs evenly. It should be enough to slow the car (be careful ever pulling while moving as it can kick the rear out on wet roads if it locks up). You can also adjust how much handle pull (handle free play) is needed by adjusting the cable nuts right next to the e-brake handle). A new car for example you barely pull and the brakes are engaged. Should be able to get a dew clicks in the the stop before near full braking. If handle is almost at the top of it's stroke it won't be as effective. Also, set the brakes in the rear, adjust the handle-side cable nuts if needed, then drive the car and use the e-brake about a dozen times at slow speeds on DRY pavement (like with no one else around on a side street; keep thumb pressing the button in and just pull handle- you don't want it locking it up) then go back and raise the rear and spin tires again by hand. You want to make sure it didn't bind or have other issues. If you smell a noxious odor just driving down the road (might need rear windows down and waiting at a light) and haven't been using the e-brake, that's a shoe dragging (pads make a noxious odor too if they drag as well). If the shoe is allowed to drag, it'll overheat along with hurting MPG.

@ Rooster I guess it's mainly demand and ease of acquiring. Lead is in everything from batteries to wheel weights to fishing gear to bullets, and with people hoarding ammo the past several years (I know average, middle-aged guys stupidly buying and hoarding tens of thousands of rounds of ammo in every caliber they own [each] thinking either the President will take it away or that they'll be involved in some delusional government take over 0_o and suppose they think they'll be on the front lines of an imaginary urban civil war II, so they are actually inadvertently creating a huge demand and ironically making the ammo harder for the next guy to purchase it and ammo companies in some cases are so back logged with orders you can't even find some calibers. .22 rounds were extremely difficult to find for years because of that for example. Anyways, It melts VERY easily (seriously easy, can melt it in a cooking pan over the stove and pour in a homemade mold if you wanted- if it wasn't so toxic) and since it doesn't rust or really degrade over time, it'd make sense to buy it as scrap and melt it down into something new vs. mining and refining it. Plus with mining you have to pay the miners, deal with environmental impact, process and transport, etc.

Turbos typically puke coolant before they'll have oil issues. If you suspect the turbo is bad, remove the intake hose feeding it (engine COLD and not running unless you want to loose finger tips) and grab the center nut to the impeller. Lift up on it and then try spinning it. It should have virtually NO up/down movement and should NOT bind or hit the wall while spinning the nut/impeller. Then check lateral movement. It should be barely noticeable. Proper way is to mic the movement if in doubt, but the finger test will let you know how bad it might be. Lateral movement is probably worse as the exhaust blades can hit the base and crack the turbine, though up/down movement is still bad as the impeller can clip itself and ingest the material, though your intercooler will block larger chunks from entering the engine. But it's cheaper to replace the impeller and get it rebalanced vs. replacing the exhaust shaft/turbine PLUS impeller. Another sigh to watch for is IF the impeller clips itself, it'll affect boost and can produce a "howling" sound under throttle when boost is building. If you hear that sound all of a sudden, it's too late. If that engine has a PCV valve and hose running to the turbo, it might be pulling too much oil out along with the fumes. If you remove the intake hose and see oil puddling in it right near where the impeller sits, that's a sigh oil is getting pulled in from the engine. Try replacing the PCV valve and monitor the oil consumption. If it quits dropping, you fixed it. If it's still dropping, purchase an aftermarket oil catch can. It'll sit between the outlet of the PCV valve hose and the turbo (or where ever turbo'd Subarus run them) and "catch" the oil getting pulled through the PCV vs. letting it enter the turbo's inlet. More elaborate units have an oil drain-back feature but cheaper ones will require you to manually drain it every so often.

Try a different fuse. It might actually be corroded at the link. If a fuse is in there and NO FWD light, it's not working or you have a short somewhere. You could even connect a fused toggle switch and confirm FWD vs. AWD operation from in the car. Mine handles differently (oversteers) and has excess front end lift when forced FWD is activated and understeers and stays more level with AWD. Very noticeable difference. Plus the engine makes enough torque to spin the fronts with forced FWD. Find gravel if yours won't.

I'm not a fan of adding anything to the oil either. Might as well be pouring honey into the oil or even sawdust.... Anyways, the "correct" way to manage the lifters is to remove the valve covers, then unbolt the rocker shaft assembly. Takes about 5-10 minutes per side even having never done them before. The rockers are thankfully mounted to a central shaft so they come out as a whole. From there, I suggest getting a bottle of synthetic engine oil and pouring some into the cap. Remove a lifter and inspect if it's collapsed or not. Ideally, it should be rock solid. When I did mine, all but 2 were either half-way pumped or collapsed. Grab the the top with your fingers and pull on it if it's collapsed. Then insert it into the cap of oil proceed to pump and bleed it carefully using the pick to press the ball valve down. Every time you pump it during the bleeding, you'll see a black gunk swirl out which is varnish and very old oil. Keep doing this until FRESH oil exits and no signs of black gunk. Then prime it until it's solid. I suggest getting a plastic cup, or an old plastic bottle and pouring a couple ounces of fresh oil into that, then dropping each cleaned and bled lifter into there until it's ready to go back into the engine. Takes about an hour to do all 16 lifters. Also, every time you start a new lifter, make SURE you are dumping the old oil from the cap and only using fresh oil to prevent that gunk from getting pulled into another lifter. ONE lifter alone can take the couple tablespoons of oil in the cap and completely turn it black (that MMO junk won't get rid of this so just do it right) so fresh cap full is a must. Even if the lifters are pumped up already, bleed and clean the gunk out. That gunk is what causing them to eventually fail. If any of the lifters won't/can't hold a solid pump, you'll need to replace it. Mine were so bad I even tried letting some degreaser get pulled in as a last resort then priming the hell out of them with fresh oil and they just would not hold solid. I also suggest spraying some degreaser into EACH hole the lifter resides in on the rocker making sure it's coming out the oil feed hole as those can get restricted with varnish and even sludge if oil changes were neglected, then wiping off excess or use a fast evaporator like starting fluid. Once dry, pour about a cap full of oil into the hole then reinsert the lifter and PUSH. It'll force oil out the feed hole in the rocker. I did that several times just to make sure it was cleaning out the hole and to verify proper flow through that hole. This will also help avoid any metal on metal with the lifter. That "piston slap" you heard with 10 30 was probably the tensioner as mine is doing that too when cold sometimes then goes away once oil has warmed (it doesn't increase with engine revs and stays constant). If the sound only occurs at idle and doesn't increase with engine revs like a piston knock does, it isn't the piston slapping. Also, actual piston knock doesn't go away. 5 30 oil starts out thinner when cold than 10 30 does. On higher mileage engines with worn tolerances, you'll likely have blow-by and increased oil consumption. Do NOT run a 40 in cold temps as that's harder on the engine and more for race engines or really hot temps. 5w is more of a cold weather-easier start oil. Investigate the tensioner and you'll probably find it's bad. If you still get noise, look at the lifters, though it sounded like one loud knocking sound on my home stereo. Usually the lifters are more of a ticking in unison sound. If you actually pull them, you'll also be able to see if any are actually collapsed. Very easy to do.

Glad a new coil eliminated the misfire. Crank sensors CAN have temp related issues. This is very common on some Saabs. But you'll need to probe the sensor's resistance when the car won't start i.e. unhook the crank sensor and confirm it's either out of range or acting like an open circuit then keep checking as the engine cools off to see if there are variations in the readings or not. I think Fairtax has mentioned coolant temp sensors in other threads. I know other cars have a no-start issue if that goes bad and I think it'll point to the CPS instead, but I'm not positive. Hopefully he'll pipe up.

Why you are running 5 w? I run 10 30 synthetic in my ej22 and it's quiet. Although, it had rather loud lifters when I got it so those were yanked and all but 2 I think would NOT hold a decent pump even after cleaning in fresh oil and bleeding by hand. Found another ej22 (think it was a 96') with about 160k miles and cleaned and bled those, then installed. 2 years later and it's still quiet. Hell, it's quieter than most engines guys rebuild or hop up and do transplants with. So "boxer tick" isn't normal. That ticking is noisy lifters and if the car is driven normally and it occurs constantly, they need attention as they shouldn't do that on a healthy engine. Anyways, I think your noise is actually the timing belt tensioner. It's hydraulic like the lifters. You can pull the timing cover and watch it move. If it's slamming back and forth violently, it's bad. There are videos of this online so can confirm off that. Also, the sound doesn't increase with revs, right?

Pull the relay out. You can separate the cover from the base with small flathead screwdrivers or picks (be careful not to puncture your hand if it slips). Do a visual inspection of the contacts (there should be a thin brass or copper arm with little pads at the end) and make sure they are actually there and that you don't see arc points, like say the pad came off and the arm is arced directly to the source. Anyways, doing this quick visual on a known bad unit will help you find a good one at the junk yard as you can repeat the process on the spot to know if the car in the yard had the same issue or not. Some of the other relays are interchangeable. You'll have to look at the side of the relay's schematic on the cover and look at the part number to tell (if you want to go with a newer year relay possibly) and should do that any way to be sure it's OK to use. Thankfully they tab them uniquely. Most yards I'd say "How much is a light relay"?. They say $4 or whatever and you go get it. Unscrupulous yards will see a giant relay in your hand and try asking more

If you plan on keeping the car for 4-5+ years, splurge and get the better battery with a 5 year warranty. Batteries have gotten expensive due to lead prices going up, so a 1 year warranty and 2 years later a new battery means you'l be over $200. It might seem pricey going with a Gold (or whatever) but it's worth it in the warranty when you can walk in with a dead 2-4 year old battery and get a brand new replacement. Made the fortunate choice of getting a 5 year warranty battery for the Subaru, then Saab battery died so put it in there, and snagged another cheaper one for the Subaru. That 5 year battery croaked so bad it wouldn't even charge a couple months ago. Took it back w/o receipt and they said they couldn't "find" it in the system. After 15 minutes and a couple attempts, it finally appeared and a new battery was handed over. Saved a ton of money with that warranty, and these auto part store batteries don't seem to go longer than 2-3 winters anymore.

I'm wondering if it's the actual CD player acting up. If you heard it cycling before w/o a disc in it, maybe something is sticking? Have you tried playing a CD recently? I'm not a fan of OEM radios as they rarely have proper sound quality and are lucky to output 4 watts RMS to each speaker, and despite being made in the millions, always seem to be less durable than a modern $100 aftermarket radio. For what it'd cost you to have a mechanic (who won't be trained to fix it and will suggest replacing) spend a couple hours looking at it, you can get an aftermarket Pioneer, Kenwood, etc. with adapter and trim cover for the same price or less. The bonus is you'll have more features and a better sounding unit, though you'd want to externally amp it to the doors if sound quality was a priority.

^ I mentioned that further up. All you need is to wire one of the key-on 12v+ sources to it and it *should* go out with key-off. Can either use the radio's own key-on 12v+ source or splice into the cig lighter which should need the key on to work. Older cars (cars in general) w/o the radio illumination circuit getting a newer radio with LCD backlighting this is the only option unless you want dig into the cluster and wire off the circuit OR dig into the switch (for dimming). I use the cig lighter for driver heated seat that was retrofitted into the base seat from a 98' Outback and think the illumination light for the aftermarket oil gauge is connected to the cig lighter. Key-on, everything works. Key-off, it's off. Not entirely sure what's up with yours if it's going out with illumination wire cut and you are saying there's no 12v+ at the illumination. Could be something as simple as a heavily worn ignition switch that's NOT shutting off the circuit completely and during your messing around it coincidentally shut off this time. Basically it might be letting you remove the key while it's not completely in the locked "off" position. Or it might be sticking internally, etc. I'd connect a voltmeter or test light to the illumination circuit radio wire (radio not connected to it) and try working the key on/off a a bunch of times and see if it's possible to remove the key w/o being fully locked, and watch that test light/meter to see if you can get the key out while still having a 12v source. If it doesn't repeat, reconnect the illumination wire and attach the test light there and try the key on/off again while also trying to pull the key out w/o going fully locked off.