CarlJNgmail.com

Yep, two deployments and a little boy later I'm back, just been in Cali for the last 3 years with a year and a half more of sunny days to go!

 

Coilover time, the jello struts are finally going, what do you all think of BC racing?

I'm still alive (just been out of Jacksonville since 2008...)

 

Happy New Year strangers!

I've got one and two. Number 3, not sure since I've personally never had the problem (but the previous owner did). Nothing on 4.

 

1) Yes. If you turn the car on with no a/c on and the fan immediately turns on, the ecu is fried (there are some other weird situations like my car which have been well documented). However, Opie can confirm this, I don't believe they can order the ECU until the fan relay replaced and they see if it fixes the problem.

 

2) Issues aren't related. Also you're not going to cause any issues with the car if the fan keeps running. Trust me, it took about 10000 miles to get it and no issues (knock on wood), and that was about 30000 miles ago

Wow I had this problem a year ago. I'm surprised there are still cars floating around with the issue

Now if only I waited until this week to do the plugs, I would have saved myself an hour and a half of frustration...Great video

So I didn't have a torque wrench so I cinched it down til the crush washer crushed and gave it a couple pushes with my thumbs (since thats the most i could fit around there most of the time) Sound about right for torque?

Wow that sucked. Just finished up, that rear drivers one was ubertarded. Don't want to say how long it took. I'll post up some plug pictures soon

Ha I still need to get that email address as my screen name fixed

FIXED!!!!!! Finally my car doesn't sound retarded. More to come...

1) Bridgestone Turanza LS-V 225/55VR17, All-season grand-touring, Firestone bought for about 139.00/tire, 14,000miles

 

2) Jacksonville, FL

 

3) 2 Cross-country trips, bi-weekly 380 mile (one-way and the 380 back) trips, 20 mile jaunt to work

 

4) 80 highway / 20 city (if that)

 

5) RE-92s Death slicks (OEM)

 

6) RE-92s wore out in 30k and were worn at an angle. Terrible. Thought I was going to die multiple times in a rainstorm on I-10. LS-Vs give a little less noise, the same fuel economy, but the roadholding in all weather conditions is straight amazing (especially since this isn't supposed to be a performance tire). And the tread pattern looks awesome to boot.

 

Over 14k miles there have been near no signs of wear.

Add me in, carljn@gmail.com, and does anybody know how to change your username? I never actually intended it to be my email...

Also on the hold issue, I got to the dealership and was told that even though they told me two days originally, SOA wouldn't release the part to them until they got more in because there were only 2 left in America.

 

So I was wondering, whats the longest wait time anyone has experienced thus far? I saw 8 months with Carlos, I'm up to 3...

I've gone 7000 miles and 2 months on the bad ECU and everything seems to not be broken.

 

Also, I was told they change part numbers very frequently on this part since in my saga, I've experienced a 2 week wait time in california, 4 weeks in PA with no delivery, and 2 days in Florida...weird

My car is at the dealer today, but the car is gonna be stuck there until Wednesday cause of a fried ECM which needs to be replaced

 

Kept the car at the dealer? Jeez, they just let me go on my way and drive the car from Ventura, CA, to Pittsburgh, to Jacksonville, FL, and its still in one piece (and this so far a 2 month ordeal or so, i lost count).

 

Car finally getting its computer replaced on thursday, lets hope that is the problem for real...

The story continues...so this might help:

 

Took the car back to Pittsburgh and a real helpful dealer look at it. Shop foreman said there was nothing wrong with the car but was nice enough to take me in the garage and explain what he thought I was seeing. Turns out that my subfan was never the problem (ok no flaming please, I'm still a noob to the suby, or twin fans for that matter) the main fan (driver side) was the one coming on. Still something was wrong so I had the foreman drive the car with me inside and confirmed that the fan was staying on after an easy 10 minute drive and there was a problem.

 

So now, 4 weeks later they're going to replace the computer in the car

but we're not convinced that will solve the problem completely. Possible other causes:

1)The main fan relay heats up and gets stuck or;

2)There is a short in the main fan that caused the problem the whole time

 

So if your in Pittsburgh, Day Subaru with Dave the service manager was really really good.

So update on my Outback's relay problem that started 3 weeks ago:

 

This is a bit ranty so I'll bulletize it:

Bear with me, this is a bit long...

 

1) 3 weeks ago, driver side fan starts running, not all the time but randomly. Sometimes it would come on when the engine was cold, sometimes not, just most certainly working incorrect. Also somewhere in here the ACC started not blowing properly. Like I would set it to 71, then it would barely blow and I'd be sweating. Then I would shut the car off and immediately restart it, and the fans would rush to max.

 

2) Dealer orders relay and computer under impression that the fan was on all the time.

 

3) Take vehicle to dealer last friday and have the relay replaced, they start the vehicle, pull it out, wash it, give me the keys and say that the only needed to replace the relay. ACC problem not addressed. So I drive the vehicle down the road about 3 miles, fan back on, and won't quit running. Turn around, go back to dealer and service manager who was good up to this point with me says verbatim what the TSB states. He was pretty much a robot repeating the same thing over and over again as I try to tell him the problem. He then says, well maybe the "problem hasn't fully manifested itself." So knowing I won't get anywhere with him anymore, and after he tried to explain how cooling systems and computer work to an engineer (me, who pretty much focused on thermal fluids and wanted to be an automotive engineer through college) I left.

 

4) Call SOA the next day since it was 4:30PT already and gave them the full problem statement. They give me a case number and told me to make a new appointment and to follow up afterwards. They also called the dealership immediately and notified them of the case. Dealership called me to make an appointment.

 

5) Today, April 12. Take car to dealership. After sitting for an hour they bring the keys back to me an say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the vehicle, the fan comes on at 193 degrees and shuts off when it cools below 193 degrees (something started to tell me upstairs that that didn't sound quite right for my problem). Again the ACC isn't annotated or addressed. So understanding that his computer tells him that my car is normal, I try to get him to troubleshoot the vehicle and figure out why then I have a car without normal operation. After he again is repeating the TSB verbatim, and is constantly condescending to me about how he wouldn't know since I drive the vehicle and he doesn't...IMPORTANT POINT, nobody has yet to drive the vehicle and try to diagnose my problem...I call him out on being condescending. So he argues about that with me and tells me that he has been awarded the best customer service manager on the west coast (for which he proudly wears a ring). So I, now experiencing some of the worst customer service I had ever seen, tell him that I'm from the East coast and had never seen such poor customer service. So some more arguing (note, calm, no screaming) he tries to tell me that I couldn't possibly know how my car is exactly supposed to operate...yeah exactly what you tell and engineer that hates to be wrong...Well I told him exactly why I know why my car operates as such and he tells me that maybe I should try another dealer since we aren't getting anywhere with this.

 

6) Call SOA immediately to tell them this litany before they contacted the dealer. They annotated it and my customer service rep who was done for the day is calling the dealer tomorrow morning and will follow up with me then.

 

7) When I get home, the hampster in my head started running a little faster because now I had figured out why what the service manager was telling me was wrong. 193 is way to low for a subfan to come on, that sounds about right for the main fan to kick on. So I read the service sheet I signed with the problem writeup (still lacking the mysterious unexplained ACC problem) and see the same words I had read and signed, that the problem was with the right fan. Right looked right to me because when I stand over the hood of my car and work on it, the broken fan was on the right side. Yeah you guessed it, after telling them drivers side and saying numerous times it was the same problem as the recall, they tested the wrong fan. In fact, at no time did they perform a thorough check on the drivers side fan, and as usual when I called the service manager he just ad nauseam repeated the TSB and answered no questions.

 

8) Called SOA and had them annotate this finding so that the dealer won't spin it tomorrow.

 

Sorry, I know that was long...

 

Any thoughts? Any known problems with not correcting the ecm problem immediately, because I have no time to take it to the dealer next week, don't want to take it to that dealer anyways, and am making a cross country trip back to Pittsburgh next Sunday.

Update:

 

Called dealer about it, ecu on backorder, 2-3 week wait. Said just to wait and do it all at once. Luckily the fan isn't causing problems other than being annoying.

 

Another note, do you guys throw wheel bearings often?

Obsidian Black Pearl '05 2.5XT Limited 5mt with Tan leather.

 

15k miles in 5 months and haven't been happier!

Thank god I found that, I just started having this same issue 2 days ago with my 2.5xt 5mt. Saved some major brain racking...

 

My driver side one is running most of the time. Basically when it starts it won't quit running unless you kill the engine and sometimes that won't help either. Sometimes it just comes on by itself or sometimes it takes turning the a/c to get it going. Nevertheless, engine temperature has no effect on the problem.