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matt1710

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Everything posted by matt1710

  1. Hi I'm trying to hard-wire a radar detector in. I'll be selling the car within a few months, so don't want to tap into the fuseboard and the hassle of running the cable from there up and under the head-liner, so figured (after some googling) that the best solution was to tap into the 12V present around the map lights, just aft of the rear view mirror. The problem is : I can only find a permanently on 12V feed up there. I need one that goes off when the ignition is turned off, otherwise the radar will drain the battery. Any hints? Maybe there's not one up there?? I had a good prod around with the multimeter, with the negative probe earthed on a bolt hole in the ceiling - is that what I'm doing wrong? Matt
  2. It is a Pioneer double-DIN unit. Under that is a fancy covered 'pocket' - then the AC control panel. Am reluctant to ditch it as it's got the hard-disc in it - no idea how big but have loaded 35 CDs so far... I thought I'd have to spend $600 to get a decent unit (was quoted $600 + $400 fitting) - so not too keen to drop $1000 on it, especially when the current one has the HD. I'm also concerned that if I replace the HU, I'll lose the steering wheel control functionality - do you know if that's correct? The current HU does have digital TV, toll card.... It's a pain that periodically, a Japanese voice comes in telling me to take it easy - I guess it thinks I'm somewhere 'dangerous' (based on the GPS) and sends the warning. Would be good to turn that off! Are you saying there will be a built-in reversing camera? I did turn on the reversing camera option in the HU, but it comes up with a message about it to being connected.
  3. Just tried the Fat32 formatted USB drive - no go. Get a message on the HU saying that it needs to be formatted. Is a strange drive in that it mounts 2 volumes on the Mac desktop-will try another USB drive that mounts just a single volume, and will try formatting that. Wouldn't pickup my iPhone or iPod either - not via USB. Frustrating as can see iPod and BT options on HU screen - but they're greyed out. I do have the full stereo manuals...but they're in Japanese! Also tried BT options on iPhone - couldn't 'see' the HU. Perhaps the cable in the glovebox isn't plugged into the right input for what I'm trying to do?? The cable actually terminates with a strange pin connector, but there's an adapter that plugged into the pins that allows USB devices to plug in. Hmmm.
  4. Just looked in iTunes (my version is 12) for the preference described in the link (i.e. the CD-Text feature) - it wasn't there. Perhaps it will pop up as an option once I go to burn a CD- will have to borrow a CD burner for that though! If iTunes can't do it, I may well look at burning CDs for the car's HD using another burning app such as Toast. If I could just get the damn FlashDrive and/or iPod interface working, I wouldn't need to bother with CDs!
  5. Have located the kit - however I don't think it's the problem. It seems that the motor that folds the left wing mirror doesn't hit its 'stop' - and just keeps on running until it goes into thermal overload - at which point the motor stops running. Today it ran for about 5 mins before that happened! Anyone know how to open the mirror up to get at the motor?
  6. Hi Kiwijoe - thanks very much. Will check out the links you've provided. The Pioneer manual also talks about (in Japanese!) iPod and BT audio - I hope to make sense of that too.
  7. Thanks a bunch guys. I turned off K and X - and note with interest Boon's comments re the new speed cameras operate on Ku. The V1 has Ku detection (off by default I believe) however I think I'll turn that on. That said, if the beam operates as it did with the old cameras, you don't get enough warning until you're snapped... Re laser : unless I'm mistaken, isn't that when the cop parks sideways to the traffic flow and aims a gun out the window? If so, I've seen that heaps up here.
  8. The Valentine detects the laser too - I'm most concerned about tickets that have demerit points, so I guess that's anything a cop hands you - i.e. not a speed camera ticket. The way the speed camera beam shoots across the road (rather than down it) means it's apparently very hard to get much warning on. I recently experienced it and didn't receive notification from the detector until I was basically in the camera's zone of operation...so not much point attempting to detect that. Plus, the vans are usually pretty easy to spot.
  9. I'm looking at that too, but as I can read some Japanese (used to be fluent...many moons ago!) I'm persisting for now. It's a pretty capable HU, so would be a shame - and an expense to ditch it.
  10. Hello I just got a Valentine One radar detector and would like to know which bands I can turn off, and which I must leave on. The X band seems to be the one that all the automatic doors operate on, so would love to turn that off as it's ALWAYS going off - so much so that I'm beginning to always ignore the radar around town, which isn't good. Not that I'm speeding around town, but having had a ticket for 52km/h in a 50km/h zone, they're not showing much tolerance...hence the detector. Any advice of which bands to turn on/off would be MUCH appreciated. Matthew
  11. Hi I recently imported a 2010 JDM Legacy GT - it has had a proper Subaru "optional extra" kit installed that folds the wing mirrors in when I turn the engine off. It worked for the first few weeks, then suddenly the motor that folds one mirror in started running continuously without actually folding the mirror in. I was forced to disconnect the relevant fuse - now I can't control the mirrors at all (tilt etc) nor can I fold them in. Am picking the kit is faulty - I guess I should just remove it? Any ideas where to locate it? Thanks! Matthew
  12. Hello I have two questions : one that relates to displaying track/album info on the stereo unit, and another that relates to connecting a USB device to a mysterious cable in the glovebox. I recently imported the above car, which has a Pioneer AVIC-HRZ900 sat nav/multimedia unit in it. Enquiries and research so far shows that it's not possible to get the GPS functioning here - bummer, but I can live without it. However, there is an integrated HD which I've succeeded in ripping about 20 CDs to. However, as all the CDs are compilations I've burnt on my computer, the Gracenote database (which must be embedded in the unit's operating system?!) can't recognise any of my "home-made CDs' so displays them all with meaningless track & album data - i.e. it lists them as "unknown album" and 'track 01' etc. I understand that one can burn CDs, then submit the track names (to the Gracenote database) and then a few days later, the track info for that particular CD will be available should that CD be played in another CD player that has access to the Gracenote database. My question is : how does my car's Gracenote database get updated? Surely it has to connect to the internet - and how does one do that with a car?!? Or is there another way to get the stereo to display track/album data? ----------- Question two relates to a mysterious USB cable that sits in the glovebox. I've plugged an iPhone & various USB drives into it, as I assume that's what it's for. No response from the iPhone, however when a USB drive is plugged in, it tells me that the drive can't be read as it isn't formatted correctly. I researched this, but haven't found a way to format the drive/s in a format that can be read by the stereo - I always get the same 'invalid format' message. I'm formatting the drives on a Mac and don't have access to a PC - and suspect that the Mac is causing the problem. Any Mac users out there know how to solve this one? Any help will be much appreciated! Matthew Auckland
  13. Yeah - that\'s what I need to do now - just got to try and do it without paying Subaru $120 for 10 mins work....
  14. Seems there\'s no immobiliser and the alarm silences once you insert the key. I got a locksmith to scan the working key - he confirmed there\'s no transponder in it. So he copied the working key - so now I have a backup key blank that opens and starts the car. If the car was locked with the original key\'s remote - and then opened manually (ie via the door) using the backup key - the alarm sounds - however silences once you insert the backup key into the ignition. You can then start the car - and it stays running - ie doesn\'t cut out after 90s or so. I even did this procedure with the original key about 50m away from the car - and it still worked fine. So seems that the only use for the genuine (but incorrect) backup key that I have - is if I can get it coded to lock/unlock the doors, and silence the alarm. I might have to try that open/close door - ignition on/off thing again...
  15. Thanks for the help. I have a spare genuine key - it\'s just not for this car - it doesn\'t fit into the lock - nor the doors - nor do its buttons operate the central locking/alarm . I had hope to get it recoded - but I understand there\'s also a chip in the key fob that deals to the immobiliser. Then there\'s the key blank itself - however surely that\'s the easy part?!?!
  16. Hi I have a 2004 Outback, just arrived from Japan - it has low kilometers (49,000) and was a grade 4.5B so is in pretty good shape all round. As such, I\'m surprised that the right rear door is randomly failing to lock when the car is locked using the key\'s remote. All other doors and the boot lock 100% of the time - however I\'d say 10% of the time, the right rear door fails to lock. I\'m pretty handy and willing to open up the door if it\'s just a case of some lubrication/tightening of a locking component - however I\'d like some advice on the chances of the fix being that simple... Anyone had a similar issue that they resolved themselves - or is it due a trip to the mechanic? Cheers, Matt
  17. Argh - just contacted Winger Subaru - they said a new key will be $360, coding will be $120 and cutting a further $20 - all plus GST. So I\'m looking at $575 just to get a key that\'ll disarm the alarm and start the car - seems pretty crazy given that it\'s just a backup key, that\'ll hopefully never get used. Winger told me there\'s no immobiliser - just an alarm. I can confirm that there\'s an alarm - and as long as I unlock the car using the buttons on the key, the car starts with just the key blank - and the remote part of the key hidden 100m away - so I assume there is no immobiliser - unless unlocking the car with the key\'s button disables the alarm AND the immobiliser?? Anyway, if I can get a functional key cut (my wife got one done recently for $60) then all I need to circumvent is the alarm. Anyone know how to do this manually - remember that hopefully I\'ll never have to do it. The last car\'s (a Legacy with an after-market alarm/immobiliser) security system could be over-ridden by manually \'entering a code\' using the on-off method. Maybe there\'s a way to do this with the Outback? Any help on this would be much appreciated - I don\'t really want to spend close to $600 on a backup key... Matthew
  18. Did you mean "connect the WHITE wires..." ?
  19. No thanks - my previous car was a GT-B E-Tune with body kit and it drove me nuts as it was too low at the front and scraped on all sorts.
  20. Thanks Sobanoodle - have looked through that however the keys depicted don\'t resemble mine - even when I look at different years. Gotasuby - that\'d be much appreciated! We are borg - good idea - I\'ll try that with the operational key.
  21. Thanks for the feedback so far. I\'m not even sure how to determine exactly what the car has in terms of immobiliser, factory alarm etc. I\'m fairly certain it has a factory alarm - it certainly has an alarm as I set it off once. What I don\'t know, is whether there\'s a chip in the key that must be present in order to start the car - or whether unlocking via the remote also disables an immobiliser. I\'d rather not go to the expense of getting the key copied - only to find that it won\'t start the car without the involvement of the remote - and then find out that getting the remote reprogrammed is expensive as hell. I guess getting setup with a fully operational spare key will be cheaper than having to start from square one if I lose the only operational key... I\'ve read various guides on how to programme the remote - the one I tried so far didn\'t work. Anyone have any success reprogramming one with the door open/closed, key on/off method/s??
  22. Hi I\'ve had a good look around on the net, both here and elsewhere, for a solution to this problem - but no luck as yet. I recently acquired a 2004 Outback from Japan. It came with only one fully functioning key - the key has two buttons on it : lock & unlock. These buttons perform those functions. Another key (exactly same appearance) was supplied with the car however it\'s clearly not for this car : the profile of the "cut" in the key is different, and the buttons don\'t lock/unlock the car. So - how can I get this key functioning so that I have a backup? As it\'s only ever going to be a seldom used backup it wouldn\'t bother me if all it could do was to open the doors and start the car. However perhaps I\'m misunderstanding things - and the electronics in the key are needed to communicate with the car and/or deactivate the immobilizer - if it has one? I have noticed a red key icon in the dash when the car is locked... I tried a few procedures listed on the web : door open /closed, ignition on/off so many times with x seconds etc but couldn\'t seem to enter the programming mode they spoke of. The guides also talked of an 8 digit code written inside the key - the only code I could see was a stamped 4 digit code. Any help would be much appreciated! Matt PS - by the way, I\'m in Auckland.
  23. I'm not up with speed as to exactly how car thieves do their stuff - sounds as though they're pretty crafty though. Essentially, the sound barrier's sole purpose when installed in a vehicle, is to make the interior an unbearable place to be. If located, it could be neutralized - one advantage it has though is that there are 8 transducers - so they could be spread far and wide in the car - and even some under the bonnet. This would make it more difficult to defeat. That said, given enough time/will/knowledge, just about anything can be defeated. It's not the silver bullet - just another layer and one that prevents the thief sitting in the car, undisturbed, while he rips apart the interior searching for _____.
  24. Hey Scoobydoo Thanks - will look at those options. What I really need is a free-lancing expert who wants to earn some cash on the side!
  25. Hey I would really appreciate a suggestion re a good auto-electrician (or car stereo expert?) who is prepared to locate the source of a super irritating fault in my ICE system. I've been struggling with a sporadic fault in my ICE system - see the post here for more info. http://www.clubsub.org.nz/forum/index.php/topic,13425.0.html Someone suggested that it could be speaker shorting to ground - and as it often turns on (or off) when I hit a bump with the left front wheel, they suggested looking there first. I did so the other day - the two speakers in the left front door seemed fine - and the sounds certainly didn't start when I wiggled their connections, nor even when I disconnected the speakers. At the same time, I unplugged the factory McIntosh HU and plugged in an identical unit (I have two of them) - same problem. I haven't swapped the amp (I have two of them too!) but all things are pointing to it being a bad connection, rather than a fault in the HU or amp. SpotMe suggested that I check the tempo of the amp while the stereo was on but not producing sound - I did so and the amp was not at all warm. So I guess that means the problem is between HU and amp, as the signal is not getting to the amp... Could a badly connected band expander do it? The issue is - how to locate the fault?? I assume I need someone skilled with a multimeter so that they can isolate the area where the fault is, then actually find the dodgy connection...the issue is, who's that someone? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm in Sandringham, Auckland. Cheers.
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