I have the original FFR two wiper system. It does involve cutting the back of the hood, but the end product looks and functions well.Attachment 166162Quote:
Originally Posted by mcamera
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I have the original FFR two wiper system. It does involve cutting the back of the hood, but the end product looks and functions well.Attachment 166162Quote:
Originally Posted by mcamera
Painted and re-installed the wiper system, washer bottle, and battery bracket. Longer 20" wiper fits great. Hid my clear washer lines in black sheathing because it looked a little messy.
Attachment 166236 Attachment 166237
Waiting on a 4 wire trailer harness to finish wiring the pump. I didn't want to hard wire it in just in case it has to be removed to service something in that area. Still riveting in the front fender wells / under car aluminum.
It took a month but I got an approval letter for my VIN application! Now I have up to 60 days to get an inspection from the sheriff so I can apply for title/registration. Not 100% sure what I need to pass inspection but I don't think it's much more.
What needs to be finished for inspection:
Exhaust exit
Rear fender wells
Connect center console to dash
Mount hazard / window switches to console
Reinstall doors / seats
Other items:
Add visors
Wheel alignment
Improve turning radius
Front grille mesh
Paint aluminum cover under radiator
Align headlights
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After talking to a local tuner it sounds like the Cobb Accessport can't be used to disable emissions related check engine lights any more. I have 4 codes active right (shown in the pics below). I'm not sure if I can pass my inspection with a check engine light on. Has anybody else had similar trouble? I'm debating cutting power to the check engine light itself vs an expensive stand alone ecu as my tuner has recommended to eliminate the codes.
Also is everybody running a rear O2 sensor? I had planned on not running one but I'm reading mixed reviews about the 06-07 ECU using the rear O2 sensor for minor fueling adjustments during closed loop. Not just verifying the cat is working as I thought all rear O2's were meant for. I'll have to buy a rear O2 sensor and track down the connector which is hiding somewhere in my car.
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I am not running the rear O2 on a 2006. No issues so far, but I'm only go-karting. You can disable the CELs with a Tactrix Cable and RomRaider, if the Cobb hasn't locked your ECU.
Wondering - if you cut the Check Engine Light - it won't show during pre-igntion - an inspector would see that. And does KY connect to the Diagnostic Plug as part of their testing - that would also show codes if you say with a simple lights out.
I'm not sure how in depth the inspection will be. I feel like it will be a basic check of working lights. Hopefully they don't need to run a diagnostic or dive that deep into details. I just ordered a Tactrix cable so I can disable the codes with RomRaider. I need to research what's involved with RomRaider now.
Just called the sheriff to ask some questions about the inspection and he insisted he come out this Friday to take a look. He only mentioned lights, seatbelts, and handbrake as examples of things he's looking for. Nothing about running diagnostics or checking the quality of work. We'll see what he says!
Sheriff came out and looked at the 818. Saw that it had headlights, asked if it had high beams, blinkers, and hazards which it does. Checked that I had seatbelts and a parking brake and approved me! 60 second inspection and I didn't even have to turn on the car. Next steps are getting a VIN plate and applying for a title. Now I can keep working on the car while the paperwork gets processed in parallel.
Attachment 167597
Congratulations on a big milestone!
Here's how my exhaust ended up. I took the FFR exhaust tip and cut off the flange. I waterjet cut a new flange at work out of stainless and a friend helped me weld the pipe to the new flange at a better angle. I rotated the pipe to point out of the bottom of the car. There isn't a lot of room to work with between the rear passenger fender well and the "up turn" in the center of the rear bumper. I then cut the exhaust flush with the bumper so it's hidden. I need to clean up the bumper hole a little more but I like how it turned out.
Attachment 167732 Attachment 167733 Attachment 167738 Attachment 167734 Attachment 167735
The rear passenger fender well interfered with my air intake so I cut off ~2" of my 45deg silicone elbow to shift the intake toward the engine more. I had to adjust the aluminum bracket I made to support the end of the intake also. Now I have about 1" of clearance to the fender well and the passenger side scoop that feeds it fresh air.
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Last night I used RomRaider to eliminate the codes causing my check engine light. It's not difficult but it was intimidating at first because there's a fair amount of setup before you understand what you're doing. Here are some things I learned that may help others who want to use RomRaider to eliminate CEL's. My tuner said the Cobb AP no longer does this and I'd need an expensive stand alone ECU. However, I was able to figure this out for $180 and I can still use my Cobb AP.
The codes I had were for:
- Deleting the rear 02 sensor (still need to see if rumors are true about this affecting closed loop fueling on 06/07 ECU's)
- The evap system (likely from using a homemade charcoal canister instead of the OEM canister w/ electronic valve)
- The fuel level sensor (aftermarket sensor used in my Boyd fuel tank)
- Fuel tank pressure (using aftermarket Boyd fuel tank)
Attachment 167811 Attachment 167812 Attachment 167813 Attachment 167814
Here are the basic steps for using RomRaider on my 07 WRX engine/ECU. More details are on the website and I recommend you use them over my quick overview. I'm just trying to give people an idea of what's involved. https://www.romraider.com/index.php/...GettingStarted
- The only thing you have to buy is a $180 Tactrix cable. This connects your laptop to the OBD port in your car so you can modify the ECU.
Attachment 167815
- Download the EcuFlash software. This is used to transfer settings from the car to your laptop, and flash the modified settings from your laptop back to the car. EcuFlash doesn't include any of the Subaru specific files you need to work with your car so you have to download those separately.
- Download the RomRaider software. This is used to change settings. RomRaider doesn't include any of the Subaru specific files you need to work with your car so you have to download those separately.
- I connected the green test connectors (OEM connectors) under my dash to put the car in test mode as required.
- I had to unmarry the Cobb AP from my car before I could retrieve the settings from my ECU. The Cobb locks the ECU when it's married.
- I used EcuFlash to retrieve my stock ECU settings
Attachment 167816
- EcuFlash only had the option to save my stock settings file as (.srf) or (.bin) but the RomRaider instructions wanted (.hex). I saved my stock settings as a .bin file, opened the .bin file in RomRaider and there I was able to save it as a .hex file. I saved a copy of my stock settings just in case I need to revert in the future.
- I opened my stock .hex file in RomRaider and went to the "Diagnostic Trouble Code" section
Attachment 167817
- In that section I turned off the 4 codes I previously found with my Cobb AP and saved the new .hex file.
Attachment 167818
- I then used EcuFlash to flash the new .hex file back to the car.
- Disconnect the green test connectors or your car will be in limp mode
- Started my car and there were no CEL's!
Because I unmarried my Cobb AP, my car is back on its stock tune but with the changes I made with RomRaider. I'll have to marry the Cobb AP again to apply a performance tune. No big deal, just mentioning I couldn't keep the Cobb tune on the car while making changes with RomRaider.
mcamera, question about the DTC disable. You mention you need to unmarry the Cobb AP to read the ECU and access the ROM. Do you know if the DTCs stay disabled after remarrying the Cobb AP and reloading a protune? Or does the protune overwrite the DTC disable? I'm battling a persistent evap code.... Thanks!
I haven't tried to remarry the Cobb AP yet. I'll give it a shot tonight and let you know if the disabled DTC settings remain or get reset.Quote:
Originally Posted by carnutdave
I have an app (program) that can compare 2 flash files. This is my base flash code compared to my current flash.
I've only used opensource. I do not have a cobb access port.
Attachment 167879
I went the open source route also. Cobb tunes put the DTCs back from what I read. Assuming you unlocked accesstuner to shut off the DTCs, you could copy the tables you want. That was what I did to get started. You can use the data to learn the direction to go. Don’t forget to do MAF scaling if your going to use one. My modded air box needed 10% more fuel to get correction within 1-2%
I flashed a tune from my Cobb AP back to my car last night and 3 of my codes came back immediately. I was going to take the Cobb Access Tuner learning course for $150 as needed to unlock the tuning software on the Cobb AP but Cobb no longer offers it. They've stopped supporting it. I'm going to switch back to Rom Raider and drive on the stock tune for now with the DTC's eliminated. If my local tuner doesn't want to work with Rom Raider I guess I'll try to find an online tuner?
https://www.thedrive.com/news/cobb-l...rs-are-furious
The RomRaider website has a list of tuners who support the software, I'm sure more than one will be willing to work remotely.
I'll check that out, thanks AJ.
Also for anybody that's wondering what it takes to title a kit car in Kentucky, the sheriff did have a checklist. Nobody else I talked to during this process was able to give one to me so here it is for your reference.
Attachment 167935
Wheel wells are painted on the engine bay side. Waiting to put flex seal on the wheel side.
Attachment 168227
2 months later I finally have a Kentucky VIN plate! Need to rivet it on and call the sheriff back out to confirm the car is ready for title/registration. 1 step closer to the road.
Attachment 168228
That's awesome congrats!
Man, I didn't realize you were in Lexington, I fly back to Houston in the morning. Maybe next time I'm up I can come see your car.
Yeah just let me know. I'm only 10 min from the airport.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ajzride
I played around with the steering radius last night as I'm still looking for a way to improve it. As expected, adding a 15mm spacer doesn't reduce the interference between the tire and frame. With the car up on jacks (wheels hanging at their lowest) my wheels hit the frame at 1 steering wheel turn (2 turns lock to lock). With the car sitting down on the ground (wheels pushed up higher into the wheel well) I gain ~1" of clearance between my frame and tire. I'm going to re-adjust my steering limiters to the ground setting to improve my turning radius at low speeds where I need it the most. But at 3/4 - full lock my tire will still be at risk of hitting the frame if I go over a pothole or bump and my wheel travels too low or bottoms out which I don't like. As I've said maybe an alignment will help me gain a little more clearance also, but the turning is currently bad enough that I don't trust the car on the road. I think it's time for a test drive around my development to see if I'm over reacting.
I also mounted my license plate with the FFR bracket and it sticks out too far and doesn't look good to me. Because of the curvature of the bumper, the center sticks out the furthest from the car and then you add a bracket that holds the license plate out another half inch and it's just hanging off the back of the car. I opted to just rivet the plate straight to the bumper so it doesn't stick out at all. I'll probably switch to rivnuts eventually, not sure why that didn't cross my mind earlier.
Attachment 169021 Attachment 169022
Hi Mcamer,Quote:
Originally Posted by mcamera
1. Adding a spacer to the front wheel has a negative effect. The pivot point for the wheel is the ball joints. A spacer increases the swing radius putting the tire closer to the firewall when turning.
2. Rims with high offset are important for the same reason as above. I run 17" x 9" 45mm positive offset with 235/40-17 tires.
3. Many have installed the hurricane brackets up-side-down causing a lot of problems.
4. A couple of tricks to move the wheel forward include.
a> flipping the pivot shaft on the aluminum LCA.
b> spreading out your hurricane brackets to effectively move your lower ball joint forward.
c> using Sadan LCA in the wagon mounting holes.
Thank you for all the notes Bob, they're very helpful. Some members realized I installed the hurricane brackets upside down a year ago, so I flipped them to the correct orientation a long time ago. I'm running 17" x 8" with a 45mm offset and 205/40-17 tires. So I'm surprised how little clearance I have with skinnier rims and tires. I put the car down on the ground and realized my ride height is very low, so I raised it to 4.5" as suggested in the FFR manual and to give my front bumper a chance of surviving.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob_n_Cincy
I put the car back down and was able to remove the collars I installed on the steering rack to limit steering. With the car on the ground, the closest tire interference moved up from the frame to the center of the aluminum panel behind the wheel. There is very little clearance but I now have full turning! It'll likely still rub a little a bit but I can hammer the aluminum in some if needed. I only need full lock steering at low speeds so I'm not concerned. No issues with clearance from the tire to the aluminum panel in front of the door.
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I'm picking away at details. I haven't installed my headlight lens covers yet, because the headlight buckets aren't sealed and with all the fiberglass grinding I'm doing I figured dust would get inside of the bucket. I'm at the point where I want to put the covers on but I noticed I can still see the raw fiberglass edge through the covers even with my painted border. So I painted the edges black and I'm ready to permanently install the covers with double side tape.
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I broke the studs for my hood mounts again. The first time was when I fell on the car and broke the passenger side, and this time the hood fell shut and broke the driver side. Each time the bonded studs ripped away from the fiberglass. I ground all the adhesive off, cleaned the surfaces, and bonded the studs again. But I'm finally reinforcing them with fiberglass as recommended. This is my first time doing fiberglass and it's pretty simple but I learned some things quickly.
My first batch of resin cured in about 2 minutes so I didn't get very far before I had to mix another batch. My garage was about 90deg @ 70% humidity so I guess it just reacted quickly. I mixed another 1oz of resin with less hardener (8 drops instead of 10) to get a longer working time (7 min instead of 2 min). I pre wet the surface, laid down 1 layer of glass, wet it out, laid down a 2nd layer of glass, and wet it out. So each side has 2 layers of fiberglass reinforcement now. Some of you on here said this will really stiffen up the hood so I look forward to seeing the results. I'll sand the rough edges of the fiberglass patches and paint it black to finish up.
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2 things I'm also working on. Getting my parking brake light to turn off on my dash. I found the single wire connector that used to connect to the OEM handbrake but grounding it didn't turn off the light. I've read something about running a 12v wire to it, but I'm still not sure. And if I rev my car, the rpm's drop really low and the car barely catches itself to stay running. I'm checking for vacuum leaks on the engine and did find the O-ring on my MAF sensor is rotted out. Dealer said the O-ring isn't sold separate and a new MAF sensor is $360. I found just the O-ring on FastWRX.com (where I bought most of my Subaru parts) for $10 shipped. Hoping that is my only issue.
Concerning the parking brake light, for the 04, 05, and 06 models, the combination meter pin B19 RY (center green connector) goes to the parking brake, which when activated, grounds that pin, and to the brake fluid sensor which, when low, also grounds that pin. The schematics for the 04 and 05 show that grounding B19 lights the parking brake light. However, the 06 (and 07) schematic shows a reverse circuit for the light indicating ground turns the light off and open turns it on. I believe that is an error in the schematic, and that an open on B19 will keep the light off. Wiring 12 volts to that pin would create a problem if either the parking brake or fluid level sensors are wired to it, as they would ground it when active.
In addition, pin B1 BW is connected to that same light and to the alternator such that if B1 is grounded, the light comes on.
So, verify that neither B19 nor B1 are grounded and the light should go off. Hope that helps.
RPG
https://www.autobodytoolmart.com/pro...BoCZLYQAvD_BwEQuote:
Originally Posted by mcamera
jim
RPG, here is my 07 schematic. I don't believe B1 has any effect on the parking light. Is that correct?
Attachment 169373
You're right, Mike. Sorry, my mistake. I checked your first post for your donor year and saw 06, rather than checking your signature line for 07. The 06 schematic connected B1 to B19 with a diode such that the alternator warning also lit the parking brake light. No idea why. See the schematic below. The 07 schematic doesn't show any such connection.
Attachment 169391
Thanks for posting your headlight lens design. I'm getting close to that stage.
Enjoy your build,
RPG
Covered my fiberglass reinforcement with flex seal. It was runny coming out of the can but stayed exactly where I brushed it. I expected it to run and drip but it was surprisingly easy to work with.
Attachment 169428
Finally got to put a few miles on the car. After driving 5 miles my check engine light came on. Ran up to Advance Auto and did a scan. Just another code for my deleted rear O2 sensor and deleted evap equipment. Turned the 2 codes off in RomRaider and reflashed my ecu.
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I noticed some bump steer during my drive and I have an alignment appointment today, so last night I finally put on my Baer bump steer kit. I've read old posts where people had trouble with the length of some parts or the taper of the ball joint stud, but I had no issues. It was a direct replacement for my OEM arms. My drive to the tire shop had a couple rough bridge transitions and the steering wheel didn't fight me with the bump steer kit installed. I'm excited to drive an aligned car in a few hours!
OEM vs Baer arms
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You should only have an issue with the taper if you install longer longer studs to get more spacers. I wanted about 40mm of spacers, which required a longer stud.
How does that help with bump steer? I guess I don't understand. I thought bump steer was when the pivot points of the suspension, say looking at it from the front, don't line up and the tie rod pivot at the steering rack end is not in line with the A-arm pivots so the tie rod moves out of sync with the A-arm pivots. How does dropping that end of it that small amount help? Something to do with the instant center of the tie rod that I don't understand much about?
Good discussion on the 818 bumpsteer in Hindsight's thread. This link should jump into it at the right spot.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post256790
The studs in the Baer kit have the correct taper for the Subaru steering arms. What many have found, as AJ says below, is that the studs are not long enough to to allow for enough spacers to eliminate the bump steer. The alternatives are to use Pinto studs, which need to be machined to the correct taper, or to drill out the steering arms to accept a straight bolt.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcamera
I gave that a quick read and am no smarter. What I'm concluding from that is what I originally said. The bump steer is from the pivot at the inner end of the tie rod (inside the rack basically) not being in the correct place. Tie rod/rack extenders are the only way to correct this, and I don't think any are really available. So I'm back to asking why the Baer modification (which as far as I can see lowers the connection point for the outer tie rod end on the spindle) should really make any difference. And why do some people need almost a 2" drop and others about 1/2"?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ajzride
I'm not a suspension expert, but I can tell you the difference between the stock setup and the Baer setup with the 41mm of spacers was night and day, no way was it a figment of my imagination (like the cold air intake butt dyno).
I think what is happening there is that dropping the outer end of the tire rod makes it almost in line and parallel to the lower control arm, so it is following the same arc as the LCA. By following the LCA arc closely you are reducing (but not eliminating) the bump steer.
Yes, after looking at the pictures above a bit more I concluded the same thing; that it puts the tie rod more parallel with the lower control arm. So why 41mm of spacers when it looks like mcamera has maybe 5mm?