Hook up a boost gauge to see what the turbo system is doing.

 

I ended up borrowing an OTC scan tool from one of the techs at work. I plugged it in to see if there were any pending codes that I didn't bother to check for when I cleared the light last time. Nothing. All looks surprisingly good. Even all the monitors that it can read on my car were set and ready....

So I went to live data and watched Short Term fuel trim, TPS, O2, and a few other things. Other than the fuel trim bouncing around more than what I'm used to seeing from my STi, it all looks really good. It's gotta be this cheap, garbage Dorman MAF I put in the car. Now I wish I had spent the extra money on the Bosch MAF in the first place. . . .

 

Sometimes I find newish MAF sensor at the junk yard.

 

It's all good. I ordered the proper Bosch MAF from RockAuto and installed it on Friday. Car is back to 100%. Also ordered a degas bottle cap. The original was cracked on all four sides and the top. I am now all set for winter and I can hopefully save up some money for my first couple of mods to be installed come spring.

 

Wow. Been a while since I've posted any updates.....

Check engine light has popped on in the last month. Got a code P0410-Secondary Air Injection System. I'm not spending $600 to fix it, so I'm going to do the resistor mod that I was directed to do over on Swedespeed and delete the rest of that bull****.

Finally got around to installing my new RH fog lamp and I'm glad I did. Having the fog (driving?) lamps doesn't make a whole hell of a huge difference, but any little bit helps because these headlights are gawd awful. I need some Depo Jewels or something similar.

Next up will be to finally get around to redoing the suspension. I'll be throwing a set of KYB struts and shocks on, as well as some IPD HD mounts and spring seats, then a set of lowering springs (Manufacturer to be determined). The factory springs need replacement due to both LH sides being worn out - they're sagging just a bit.

 

It's time for some more maintenance.

I decided to clear the driveway for the eleventybillionth time this season (I'm so over this winter crap). Took both vehiculars out of the garage to knock the built up salt/snow/slush stalactites off them, then shovel the remaining gunk out of the garage. That's when I discovered that my car had decided to start marking it's territory. I crawled under it while it was running to see what I could see and found evidence that it had been pushing oil out the dipstick tube. Pulled the dipstick out part way while it was running and it's puffing smoke out of the tube....sweet. Time for a PCV system replacement. This is going to be a pain in the dick. It's not hard, just time consuming and I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do it just yet.

I finally got a few resistors for the SAS delete, so it looks like I'll be doing both at the same time as well as an oil change. Oh, I have to figure out why my fog lights stopped working as well. Yay for old cars!

 

Decided to mess around with the fog lights yesterday. And by mess around, I mean I checked the fuse. It was blown. Installed a new one, hit the switch and promptly popped that fuse too. I have a hell of a short somewhere. Time to track down a wiring diagram, I guess.

 

 

As you're on your way to sorting out a long term relationship.. - Not sure of your opinion on doing a transmission flush - I did my 95 850T wagon (owned since new) at about 100K miles and could feel the difference. Probably time to do that again soon... (once the snow melts).

 

I was planning on doing Rspi's drain and fill method after I get all the other BS out of the way. The level hasn't budged and it's still relatively clean for having 98k miles on it.

This weekend it's time for the SAS delete, then I'll hopefully have time the following week to get the PCV system service done. I've got all my parts, I just need time and a warm place to get it done....

 

Nearly a month and the CEL has stayed off. I'd call that success. Now if I could just find the time to get the PCV service out of the way.....

 

Ok. So, I got around to doing the PCV service finally. That was months ago. Fast forward to now (well, just a couple of weeks ago). . .

I've been having to travel back and forth to Albany for an up coming career change. It's a four hour trip (give or take) from where I live. I thought the brick was up to it....I found out the opposite. On the way there with eight miles left to my hotel, the low coolant light came on. I'd back off the gas and the light would turn off, get back on the gas and it would come back on. It made it to the hotel without overheating and when I opened the hood, the degas bottle was just about empty. It looks like the cheap *** URO replacement cap I bought is just that - cheap. I'm going to replace both the bottle and the cap anyway. I topped it off and it's been fine since. The rest of the car, not so much....

At the end of my four hour ride back home from Albany, I'm blasting down Rt.531 (local expressway) at 80. Sick of being on the road at this point. I-90 sucks in case anyone was wondering. I'm yelling at the frost heaves pretty much the whole way like, "Stop blowing holes in my ship!"

Anyway, I'm just about to the exit of Rt.531 and I look down and notice that my steering wheel is cocked just a bit more to the left than normal....I make a mad dash for the light, catch the first one, then didn't slow down much for the second one as I'm making the left on to Rt.31. It bobbles, makes a **** load more tire noise than it should have, the steering went waaay loose, I lost quite a bit of grip (as you could imagine) and there it sat. I got out of the car and was greeted with this sight....





Ended up having to wait 90 minutes for a tow and a ride home. AAA only covered the first five miles....I was on the hook (pun intended) for the rest, which was about 30 miles. I had them tow it to where I work so I could sort it out the following day. Found a broken strut bolt. My buddy and I jammed a bolt in it to make it work well enough to get us to his house so we could take a better look. We found no damage other than the tire rubbing on the strut body and bottom spring seat. We repaired it temporarily with some used strut bolts to give me time to order up a round of new hardware.

I already had a full set of used (16k miles) IPD lowering springs and Bilstein HD struts and shocks w XC90 mounts and spring seats assembled and ready to go. We set aside a day to do it and it only took about four hours. When we were done we had to lower it on a few blocks of wood to get it off the lift. This is where I'm at now....





Looks good, isn't too low, and doesn't ride like a sack of rocks. The front springs squeak a little, but over all it is way better ride quality wise than my STi was.