Durty-Sanchez

I use a wideband from Zeitronix, which comes equipped to handle other sensors such as boost. All the sensors are sent through their hardware and come out the other side as a much nicer serial interface for your PC/Laptop. Wideband cost me NZ$360, but the dollar was a bit better then. http://www.zeitronix.com. Works a charm for monitoring all the stuff you want, and their dash-units would be good if you wanted a more permanent monitoring option

I wait 30 seconds but rarely longer for mine to warm up before driving.. by placing the engine under load it heats up faster so less damage is done. Leaving it to idle until warm means the engine is cold for longer so way more damage is possible. By no means jump in it and go, give it some time to distribute the oil so the parts are at least lubricated (30 seconds or so)

Heater control works well, that was my first guess but I have 2 units now and both give the same result. All the actuators and stuff move too, so I don't think that's it. At low enough fan speed the heat is decent, just when you speed it up it really cools down. It's like not enough heat is making it from the coolant pipes to the heater fins. No coolant system problems either.. bit of a mystery. I remember someone mentioning that they just stop working for no reason, only way to fix it is to replace the core, just wondered if anyone had any light to shed on why it happens, or if you can reverse it

My heater used to be quite good, but of late it has become very very average (i.e. luke warm at best). I figured it was something clogging up the heater core pipes so I gave it a bloody good flush, and at the end the flow through it was quite good. Removed all the air locks, but still.. it's just crap! Aside from removing the whole rotten dash to replace the core itself, what can be done? Anyone know what causes it to just pack up like that? Thanks

You'll probably have the 1 bolt type. Use copper plugs, they're $5 each retail.. only last 20,000kms though, but they're great for regapping to your own spec. The longer lasting but not as good platinum or iridiums are something outrageous like $20-25 each

The shuddering/missfire/hesitation under load is most probably the coilpacks (mine are up for replacement now and it does the same thing), but nasty plugs wont help either. Boost cut is a total cut in power.. it'll be like someone just turned your engine off for a second. It takes longer to do the plugs than the coil packs, so if you're going to get a mechanic to do them then you might as well do it all at once. Otherwise, if you're keen to do the plugs yourself, I often try out new spark gap sizes using the copper plugs. They cost around $5 retail each and you just gap them to where you think's good (0.7-0.8mm for me). They only last around 10-20,000kms though.. otherwise the long-term iridium or platinum plugs come pre-gapped so you don't need to adjust them. I had no idea that repco did the legacy coils (they're in-head design, a bit of a bastard), so that's awesome to know too!

Pump as above. Coils - it depends how old they are. Mine tend to pack up every 3 years (coil-in-head design.. genius.), and when they do they cause missfires galore. If you try cranking up the output you'll start running in to problems with bad coils as they'll missfire more the higher the load you put through the engine.. a definite replace if you're looking to get decent power out.

You probably mean coilpacks.. they are around $100 each, so $400 total (you're best to replace all 4). Easy to install, just takes a bit of time and you'd have to do it anyway if you were doing the sparkplugs. Fuel pump, can't say how easy, but a walbro was going to set me back around $180 last time I looked.. that may have been before the exchange rate went tits up though.

I'm with Ichi.. if you stick the battery in the boot the least you should do is run a grounding cable, that is equal in size to the power cable, back to the engine bay. By all means earth the battery in the boot also, but that good clean low resistance earth in the engine bay is a must. You'll need to make sure that once it gets to the engine bay that you split it to the block, to the starter motor, and then off to the main fuse/relay box. Any feedback from the starter motor will be directed straight to the battery, which will dampen it, rather than it being fed through the block and fusebox, where you can get floating ground voltages at the ECU (bad things start to happen).

Remember though that each of those 3 warnings includes having your car confiscated off of you for 28 days while being presumed guilty. The old laws allowed punishment without the burden of proof, while these new laws build upon that by restricting personal freedoms. It's a shame the justice system is so clogged, as by the time you have the chance to defend your case you've already been punished and have had your car back for some time. I only hope that they at least wait until you've had the chance to defend your case before crushing your car.

I'm looking forward to cruising around the same patch of road in an "attempt to draw attention to the sound or power of the vehicle or to create a convoy".. in my standard carolla. Subjective OTT laws FTW.

Not worth repairing, it's a throw away item.. plenty of 2nd hand ones floating around I bet

It probably wouldn't work.. 8bit chip -> 16bit bus, i'd be suprised if anything happened at all. The 16bit ECU's used this bizzare chip that you can't buy anymore, infact it was probably only ever made specifically for JECS and their ECUs. You can emulate it though, which is why most use a daughter board, but an 8bit chip in all likelihood wont work

You're beasty made 183kw at the flywheel when it rolled off the production line, although 15yrs will have reduced that somewhat. There's nothing out there that specifically covers your model although you can piece together how it works by using the USDM spec manual for the 94, JDM manual for the 97, and even the newer ones have similar components. Fluid service is fairly easy though, not a lot changed in how you do oil/coolant/brake fluid/etc through the different models so these manuals will do the trick.

I run anywhere between 0.6 to 0.9mm depending on what tune i've got installed

My money's on AFM or knock sensor..

Be prepared to wait though, this guy can take weeks to answer emails or send you anything after paying. Software is also relatively useless for cars he hasn't found definition files for yet.. although he'd be very keen to get any off of you if you have some/figure them out. It's mostly limited to newer models who's definition files have been documented on other forums

Sounds about right! The secondary bypass valve is almost identical to the primary BOV (which makes sense), so you could probably replace it quite happily with an aftermarket plumback BOV if you find that it's leaking as much as the others do. Replacing it with a factory one might be the smarter option though, as it's tight for room in that area

Fixed, was teh ghey interwebface. You weren't missing much, the pictures are so blurry they look better as thumbnails anyway

Right.. the AFM fixup guide! This is probably most relevant to early-mid 90's AFM's that have no servicible parts in them. The basic idea is that over time the solder joints on the connectors become dry and crack, which makes for a bad electrical connection and sometimes an error code. Even if no code is given, you may experience random loss of power from time to time, which can also be caused by this. Sorry about the blurry photos, it was a crap camera! Anyway, moving on, you'll need: Solder Solder wick/sucker (optional) Soldering Iron (preferably a hot one) Knife Silicon or some other kind of sealant. 1. Locate your AFM on the drivers side of the engine bay. It's attached to the airbox by bolts, and to the flexi-joint pipe by hose clamps. It's probably wise to unbolt the AFM completely from everything, although not necessary. You'll need to unplug it too! 2. After getting the AFM off you'll need to cut through the black sealant that lines the outside of the circuitry housing. The lid is quite deep so be careful when prying it out, I managed to crack the outer casing from prying too hard. 3. After you get the lid off you'll see a copper EM sheilding plate that is soldered down by one side. If the plate is loose then awesome, take it out, otherwise you'll need to remove the solder to get the sheilding plate out. Solderwick is great for this kinda stuff, but i'm sure there's more than one way to skin a cat. 4. Once that's out of the way you can see some of the circuitry involved in the mysterious AFM. Down one side you will see 4-5 connector pins that go from the main plug on the outer casing through to the circuit board (see number 3 on this incredibly blurry excuse for a photo). Usually these are the culprits! It's always best to remove the old solder before re-soldering, but you can probably get away with not doing that. If you look down at the pins inside the casing you'll see that they are actually made up of 2 pins connected with a solder joint (one from the circuit board, the other from the plug). Heat the joint so the solder is liquid then remove the old solder, then add some more solder as necessary. If you don't have solder removing stuff then i'm sure that re-wetting the joint should be ok. Repeat for all of the pins. 5. You're done! Put the EM sheilding back on and re-solder it to the grounding connection. Then replace the plastic lid and seal it with sealant to keep moisture out. This should conclude your adventures in to the AFM, and should be enough to have repaired it. I've done several of these and never had any more problems with them afterwards. If you're problem persists then you may need to either buy a new AFM or find one on trademe. Best of luck!

Long gone i'm afraid, I still have the pictures on my photobucket though so maybe i'll re-write it tonight. For the meantime though, arm yourself with solder, a soldering iron, a knife, and some silicon sealant and you'll be all set to fix that badboy up.. 30 minute job.

Are you always using the same turbo, or have you tried primary turbos from the later models too? You remind me of a single turbo Jehovah's Witness.

It's not *that* ridiculous.. I remember paying $80-90 for a brand new primary pipe alone from Subaru! I can only imagine the secondary is similarly priced, and end of the day the samco looks like it would suck a whole lot less (and last longer) than the factory items

Agreed, probably a missfire

Replace your entire black box, it's probably the easiest way, around $200-300 new i think or wreckers might have them cheaper