lazybummm

Just wanted to say thanks for this - really helped me narrow down my search. I had the same issue last week with my '05 (115k miles, NorCal, so heat, not cold, causing the aging). The hose going from the 1st to the 2nd nozzle/sprayer literally ripped in two as I turned it a little to see if there was a tear (after seeing a bit of water seep down).

 

Symptoms: water was only spraying 4-6 inches up the windshield, and only 1/2 sprayers on the back (wagon hatch) were producing any water.

 

6' of 5/32" ID Prestone brand hose from Kragen (like $4.xx) later, and it's all good. 6' of hose was about 12-16 inches more than needed to replace everything under the hood (starting from the 90-degree elbow at the edge). I replaced every piece, including the ones going to the nozzles, etc.

 

The "mist" option (pulling on the stalk, instead of pushing the button) seems to have mysteriously stopped working, but pushing the button works better than it ever has..

 

bringing this from the dead because I am having same problems. and I saw the mist on the stick and pulled it too think it might mist maybe? Took a few second before I realized, other cars have the single wipe too.

thanks again, everyone for your input and ideas. I finally passed smog today, can get my real CA plates now.

Maps should all be the same regardless whether it's v2 or v3. the Support is primarily referring to if the AP manager (on the PC) breaks and can't communicate with your AP because of a windows update.

way too much testing.

 

A lot of people said to me 18x8 is too narrow for 245....and advised me to go with 235 40 18 instead...I'm still struggling between the two.

Haha, this is like the never ending saga. Went to State Ref at LA Trade Tech, they are super nice there. Did a pre-test, and data checked out!! Finally. Looks like the tech did a full visual and was ready to do the full smog check, and BAR server went down, so they are instead having me go to a normal smog check, I thought I was gonna save 30 or 40 bucks, but I guess not.

 

BTW, for anyone that care, my secondary air injection went to ready on 2nd cold start. I was planning for 4 cold starts to make sure, but it went ready after 2nd cold start, the other ones pretty much went ready almost right away, and Evap does not need to be ready in CA

 

All in all, I think they just look at ROM ID.

The saga continues. I went to Church Automotive today and they flashed the factory 08 Spec. B Rom on, just 2 minutes. Now the Accessport recognizes it as a Spec B, so that's very positive sign. I have a smog appointment tomorrow with state ref, yeah might not be a good idea, the only I/M not ready right now is secondary air and evap (evap can be not ready in CA). I will get a few cold starts in before tomorrow and hopefully it'll be ready for a state ref smog tomorrow.

Mike I think you might have hit the nail right on the head. This is what Cobb had to say about this back in 2011.

 

"There's over 250,000 lines of code in a modern Subaru ECU, so it is difficult to say anything definitively. We suspect that there may be a flash counter of sorts in most 08+ Subarus as we've found ROMs submitted from different cars of the same model/year/etc. (and same ROM version) where a few bytes are different (in the past, there would not be any difference). We haven't spent any time investigated this as even if it is a flash counter, it would be irrelevant as it is stored in the ROM and the AccessPORT v2 backs up the original ROM when you marry and flashes that back on when you unmarry. I also have not heard about any dealer function relating to a flash counter. Regardless, it is not an issue with our product.

 

Again, it is difficult to say anything with certainty regarding a current/future flash counter especially when you are dealing with the later CAN vehicles. You would literally have to purchase every new Subaru every year and tear it apart spending hundred of hours reverse engineering every module in the car. Subaru could be very sneaky in implementing this type of functionality if they wanted to."

 

Obviously this info is 8 years old, but I think it correlates with what the smog technician was trying to explain to me. The newer the ECU the more information can be accessed.

 

So far what I know

 

The VIN on ECU matches the car. Based on the history and limited mods, I highly doubt that the ECU was ever swapped, so my best guess is that the ECU hardware is original. Otherwise it seems that it would be significant pain to get the ECU to have matching VIN. Car was previously not in an area that required smog, so if ECU was swapped I doubt they would have gone through trouble of sending it out to get Vin burned on.

 

I bought a Cobb AP V2 (too cheap to buy V3). When I connected (after updating firmware on AP), it detected the car as LGT 08-09 but it also detected as already having a Cobb Tune on it. So whatever Cobb tune was on there was over written by this V2 AP I got, but again LGT not spec.b specifically.

 

I bought a used AP V3 thinking that maybe it's because the old V2 (even though firmware updated) just didn't have Spec.B, but the AP V3 still recognizes it as LGT/OBXT 08-09 and not Spec.B

 

I spoke with Cobb several times about this. They confirmed that Spec.B is different and should be recognized as Spec.B on AP, they recognized the type of car by looking at the ROM ID, not checksum, so my guess is that CA DMV has a database of ROM IDs, and mine is reflecting a LGT ROM ID and not a Spec.B Rom ID.

 

The one guess the Cobb guy said is that maybe earlier in life the car was tuned with OpenECU and whoever tuned actually tuned it with a LGT Base map thus the ROM got changed to LGT (thus wrong ROM ID), so now it's just recognized as LGT.

 

I have 3 options for next steps:

 

1)send ECU to Cobb to have OEM Spec.B ecu installed, which they said they could, but that means I have to send my ECU and AP in, troublesome, although not entirely sure that is the problem for smog.

 

2) to the dealership to reset, although I'm a bit concerned about the dealership, they might mess more up, haha, mostly because 2 out of 3 dealerships I called had no clue what I was talking about. I would uninstall the AP and take it in

 

3)I am looking for someone with Tactrix Openport 2.0 cable to put the factory Spec.B rom on so the ROM ID will be back to Spec.B and hopefully AP will recognize it.

 

Thank you again for everyone on responding.

NM, got a call this morning from State Ref saying that even though it initially looked like it passed, they did a data analysis and said that the programming is nothing like the one for that year and make...WTF?

 

Does anyone have a stock 08 Spec B map they would be willing to share, I will try to install it through romraider to see if that makes a difference. I feel like maybe a LGT 5 speed was written on and the checksum is not checking out now.

Quick question, I noticed you put R160 rear diff, how come you didn't go up to a R180?

 

Thanks!

Quick Update. Went to the state ref today, the guy didn't even pop the hood, he connected obd scanner, and then climbed under the passenger side, I assume to make sure there was a stock downpipe, and then 5 minutes later, state ref requirement lifted, now back to smog place after a few business days while the system updates.

Oh wow, I've missed a lot of discussion in this thread, lol!

 

I've got my state ref appt next Friday, I'll post an update. The VIN on the ECU matches the car, so that's good, probably original is my guess.

 

Hopefully it won't be anything.

 

I was planning to upgrade the turbo, injectors, and pump and then tune, now with the smog and I hear it will only get stricter, I don't even feel like bothering anymore.

 

If none of this works, I'm going to transfer the car into my brother in law's name, he's active duty military and can register it anywhere (somewhere without smog)

I've been doing some reading on wheels and tires for 08 Spec.B.

 

Planning to get 18x8 +43mm wheels, stock Spec.B suspension, deciding whether to go 235/40r18, 245/40r18 or 245/35r18? let me hear your thoughts!

 

I am really tempted to go to 245, but might not be practical if I have to do a lot to get it to fit.

Thanks, I've confirmed the VIN matches the car, I guess I will find out when I show up at the State Refs. The State Ref scheduling people just said there was data inconsistency, I will update when more in 10 days after my visit to the state Ref

Thank you for your response. The AP was uninstalled and driven for a while before the smog (~100 miles).

 

My concern was since Cobb AP recognizes it as LGT/OBXT (verified by another Cobb AP/Spec.B owners), when it flashes back to the stock rom upon uninstall, does it put a LGT rom on the ECU? thus showing a mismatch of some kind perhaps? I realize they are pretty much the same car except for 5 vs 6 speed, I noticed that Subaru has different part numbers for the 2 ECUs on LGT v. Spec.B.

 

I am thinking about finding a 08 Spec.B OEM rom and loading it using RomRaider (after AP is uninstalled of course) to see if that might make a difference.

 

Thank you.

Are ECUs between LGT and Spec B (2008) the same? I see two different part numbers on Subaru. I assume Spec B rom can conceivably be written on a LGT ECU and vice versa?

 

Asking because I am having trouble with CA Smog, everything is ok except that obdII datalink failed, the data apparently was

"inappropriate" for the car, any ideas?

 

I am wondering if previous owner put in a LGT ECU, my accessport auto recognizes the ECU as LGT/Outback XT 08-09, not sure if it distinguishes the Spec B from LGT on auto recognition.

Bring this thread from the dead...

 

I just picked up a spec B and want to confirm a few things. I am considering two routes currently:

 

FIRST, E85. It looks like if I want to go to a bigger pump to support E85 on a 16g with 1050x ID injectors (probably AEM 320/340 E85 pump), and possibly the Cobb Flex Fuel kit, what is the best way to accomplish?

 

The DW pump wire kit, it directly wires to the battery, I don't need to connect it to any wiring in the car right? So it will be a independent of the car's wiring and the pump will just be on 100% duty at all times, correct?

 

SECOND option, don't bother with E85 and then go with 16gb DW65c pump at some 750cc top feed injectors (or should I just go with 1050x anyway), and I don't have to worry about the pump wiring?

 

Thanks in advance!

you guys think this will work in a wrx 5 speed? I've searching to see what the difference is between the wrx and legacy 5 speed, haven't found anything.

Well if anyone cares, I picked up 3 quarts of this stuff and put in the front and rear diff of the 5EAT LGT, I figured at 4.50/qt, I might as well try it. The car feels smoother, although it could be just pyschological, I did drain/fill the tranny fluid with bg conditioner so it's shifting a bit smoother as well...I have about 31k