Kol12

Whoohoo, I got it! What went wrong? My piss poor clamping of the vampire clips. Took them apart and they had barely even pierced the insulation let alone the wire! This time I clamped the #$#% out of them with heavy duty pliers! Bingo, it's all working One slight issue is that the satnav screen is intermittently flickering but I wonder if it might have done this originally also. Does your flicker? Mine will flicker for a bit and then stabilize and repeat. When the satnav is idle it just displays Japanese writing and it's not until you input the AC controls that it shows up on the screen. Is that the same for you? There is also a button on the right side of the steering wheel that appears to dim the satnav, have you noticed? Maybe it is a dimmer button? Wow, so glad I finally I got this sorted but you are the genius with the relay idea! I think I have a good understanding of how a relay works now. Cheers mate. Satnav when idle (no A/C input) Satnav when A/C controls are pressed Dimmer button?

So I'm booked in to get this work done next Monday, WOF is early Jan. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some idea of my vehicle health based on mileage? I am just over 124,000 km on this 99 Legacy TT, I brought it around 108,000 km. I guess I'm at stage where I'm wondering how much longer I should keep the car, it's still quite low mileage but I am wondering if there any big repairs in sight of 124,000 km+? I've had rear brake pads replaced, new front rotors and brake pads, new spark plugs, some sensors replaced (oil and knock) and maybe one or two other things I can't think of. Previous owner had things done but poor records of it. Timing belt and suspension and something to do with the radiator. I heard the turbos don't cause problems until around 160-170k. I am trying to evaluate when might be the best time to look at upgrading the vehicle. Cheers!

Hey mate, Cluster is back with the fuel gauge repaired, whoo finally! Battery needs a bit more charging but car is back to normal. So I thought I would give the relay another crack. Going back on your earlier post (2016) you say "when current is detected through pins 30 and 87 (ground and 12v switched), it opens the circuit through pins 86 and 85 (the two 'shorted' wires)" Now remember just recently you mentioned pins 30 and 87 being the ones that go to the satnav shorted wires and this is when things may have went wrong... Can you remember if pin 30 is definitely ground and pin 87 the 12v switched? I still don't understand these relays but will try to read up some more tonight. Maybe it is more difficult to understand given the circumstances with what we're trying to do with it. Edit: Maybe 86 and 85 are the switched power and ground, but this diagram says pin 30 should go to the battery or in this case I guess the battery constant wire on the radio harness? https://www.delcity.net/images/linedrawings/Relay Diagram.pdf

I have before but could do with a refresher. What does ECV stand for though?

What exactly is the ECV? Is it the ECV rod adjustment your referring to?

99 auto is 4 speed, but yeah 4th gear drives around 2000-3000 rpm and it does get boost off the primary turbo. Maybe next time I will see if I can get primary turbo boost in 4th gear for an overtake. Like you say, this is probably the way it's setup to work... Whether you can go right through the rpm range and benefit from both turbos is another matter... I can see this thread turning into a how to drive a twin turbo, lol...

I have thought about changing down to 2nd to get primary turbo boost but I haven't been sure. If your in 4th gear travelling at 100 km (4th gear sits around 2500-3000 rpm I think?) would it be a bad idea to drop right back to 2nd gear? I know that if I am in 3rd gear hovering on 4000 rpm at 100 km the car does not like being dropped into 2nd at that speed, I'm not sure what the term is called, it's like the engine over revs. Do you know what I mean? I'm thinking though that instead of dropping to 3rd from 4th to get the secondary turbo spooled up I could drop right back to 2nd and get the benefit of both turbos for an overtake? Since in 4th gear it's hovering very close around the primary turbo rpm (similar rpm to 2nd gear), dropping back to second shouldn't cause a sudden drop in rpm (as mentioned above) You would think you should be able to kick the primary up from in 4th gear but from what I remember I seemed to have some trouble with that. I've been using the 3rd gear and secondary turbo for so long maybe I should see again if I can get the primary to kick in in 4th gear for an overtake...

Ah so sounds about normal then. When passing I usually drop down from 4th to 3rd to get the rev's up quicker into the 4000-4500 range. It feels like it takes quite a bit of time to get from 4500 to 5000 rpm where the full boost kicks in, I have to push a bit, maybe this is the lag. It's usually about half way through the overtake that I'll hit boost, and nevertheless at that stage I'm off and usually always take the win! It would be nice to have a bit of boost when launching into an overtake but I guess that's not how the TT is designed to work. Can't beat that low end boost of the TT though either. I have the 4 speed auto version so probably not as tuned as the manual. I pretty much always drive in manual mode which gives plenty of control.

So the alternator doesn't charge the battery without the cluster, it's part of the charging circuit... Explains the huge drain on the battery driving around purely on the battery! Good news is the cluster has been repaired and on the way back to me.

I have never been overly impressed with the secondary turbo on my 99 Legacy TT. Mine does not kick in until 5000 RPM+ which usually means for over taking it comes in way to late... Apparently the spec is supposed to be 4000-4500 RPM kick in for the secondary turbo (Wikipedia). Is there any reason why mine would be triggering late like this?

I'm guessing because the battery was fully discharged the ECM had no power and could not initialize the fuel system maybe? Will pop the charged battery back in tomorrow and hope for the best...

You could be very right about the loss of throttle being the battery. I'm just looking at this: https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/23925/non-functional-gas-pedal-engine-stalling-dead-battery-broken-alternator What stuck out: "An insufficiently-charged battery would explain what you're seeing: the engine will stall because the fuel injectors need electricity to correctly meter the fuel into the engine. Insufficient voltage will leave the engine starved for fuel, reducing engine speed to the point of stalling" Sure could be it. Will know when I get the battery back tomorrow. The battery had been fully discharged, I don't think I've ever had a battery that flat. I was concerned about the exposed wires of the satnav cable, I taped most of them but I think I actually left the brown wire which is the one that will power it on exposed! It's possible it got hold of metal and had been powered on, dumb ass... I wonder if that is enough to discharge a whole battery? I hope that is all it was tbh, had no issues that I'm aware of before fiddling on the weekend.

Yep, pretty sure I've seen something under the steering column that will be the OBD connector. If the ELM327 OBD's don't work what should I be looking for if on the cheap?

What's the charge light? Is that something to do with the cluster? Could or would this be related to the throttle hesitation and stalls? Edit: Sorry, yes charge light in the cluster. So that is required to complete the charging circuit? Aghh could someone not have told me after I removed the cluster? Nevermind. Geez I guess it's pointless doing anything with the car until I get the cluster back now. I've got two weeks to get work done needed for WOF. I better see how the cluster is going tomorrow.

You saw the thread? Yeah could be repercussions of the incorrect wiring? The relay hadn't actually been plugged into the base though, just the 86 and 85 wires had been tapped into the radio harness ground and 12v switched wires. I noticed my front speakers plugged into my amp (aftermarket gear) was cutting out. Maybe the harness didn't like being hacked into like that but I can't see the problem because the actual relay wasn't plugged into the base. I don't know what any of this has to do with the throttle loss and stalls. Maybe because the battery was so drained the computer was acting funny? I will the put the fully charged battery back in tomorrow and way and see what happens. I've cut the relay out and disconnected it completely from the radio to rule that out. Anyway regarding the relay do you think it likely wasn't working because of the relay pin mixup? I'm not losing any hope in getting it to work just yet... The satnav plug with about 20 tiny wires, how did you isolate all of the unneeded wires? I was thinking of heatshrinking all of them to prevent shorts/touching etc. I did a very rough temporary electrical tape job even missing a couple of wires so a short could have been another possibility for the battery drain..

As some of you here know, I've had my cluster removed and sent away for repair. You may have also seen my thread about the satnav/aftermarket stereo mod. This involved tapping a relay into the satnav wiring. I tired installing the relay last weekend but it now appears I may have wired it incorrectly. I had not started the car since Monday and as I took the car out this afternoon a few hundred meters up the road it lost throttle and started puttering and it then stalled completely. It appeared when trying to crank it again that the battery had also been drained. I had my portable jumpstarter and was able to jump it but it still had no throttle, was chocking and stalled again almost immediately. The battery again didn't have enough charge to crank. I'm unsure how a throttle loss can be linked to an electrical or battery problem.. I have a feeling the incorrect wiring of the relay or a wire short has caused the battery drain. I took the battery in to get charged tonight and the guy said it had been fully discharged, so a significant current draw. The annoying part is it is a brand new battery I just brought two weeks ago. I was having no problems with the new battery or the car starting until today after playing around with the relay on the weekend. My questions are - is it ok to drive the car without the cluster? Does the computer or anything else rely on it for proper functioning? Could this be the cause of today's problem? Or is the throttle loss possibly linked to the battery being *fully* discharged? Perhaps the ECM is confused, fuel lines not running or something? I thought I was on track to getting the car all fixed up so this is disappointing. Would appreciate any help very much.

I carefully read back through the thread and it looks like you may have got the relay connections back to front. I quote this from you earlier in the thread, Quote: "A relay is basically a switch. When current is detect through pins 30 and 87 (ground and 12v switched), it opens the circuit through pins 86 and 85 (the two 'shorted' wires)" More recently you described relay pins 86 and 85 as being the ones that go to ground and 12v switched and 30 and 87 being the pins/switch for the shorted wires. So back to front it probably is after all... I've ordered in another wiring harness and will give it a shot this was round. Should have enough vampire clips left and be able to re utilize the relay.

Ah so something could be back to front?? I'm not overly confident with the relay either. I was reading through this: https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/relay-guide.html Number 30 and 87 should be like a switch to join the two satnav wires together which makes it power on. I'm not sure what's wrong, the fundamentals make sense. I may have to buy another radio harness just in case I tapped into the wrong wires. Ughh I'd love to get this going!

I've always wanted to get an OBD2. Are the bluetooth ones only more recent? Where is the OBD2 located in a 99 Legacy? And what is the most useful information to look for when you hook these up? What does it mean to re-initialise the throttle?

So does the battery have to be fully disconnected for some time before the computer will reset or will it reset as soon as you pull the positive battery cable off? If it re-learns very quickly I suppose this is not such a big deal...

I guess I am at the part where I would test the continuity of pins 30 and 87 of the relay base before I join the wires up. I've got just a cheap Jaycar multi meter and the manual says that the built in buzzer will sound if resistance is less than 75ohm+30ohm. I would imagine I'm to expect a beep to indicate the relay is activated but I'm not getting one. I'm pretty certain that I've teed into the correct ground and 12v switched wires of the radio harness with the correct relay wires and have good connections of the vampire/wire tap connectors. Only thing I can think of is that the vampire plugs didn't get good connection?

Ah man, I gave it a crack today but haven't been successful. I teed relay wires 85 into the radio harness ground wire and 86 into the switched 12v wire. I actually stuffed the first vampire clip up on the ground wire and had to put another one in front of it. Radio is still functioning so a good sign... It took me about an hour to strip every single wire of that damn satnav cable to find the right wire! But I eventually found it. The problem is when I connect those two wires to 30 and 87 on the relay the satnav isn't turning on with ignition. It should turn on at the same time as the radio right? Before the other accessories... Short the two wires again and the satnav still turns on but just not when connected to the relay wires. Any ideas what's gone wrong?

What exactly is skipping offline?

So if the pin that turns the satnav on turns on with any of the other pins what exactly does that mean in electrical terms? Also, that same pin/wire that does turn the satnav on - would you connect that to pin 30 or pin 87 on the relay? So I would be putting the DMM leads on the relay 30 and 87 pins in continuity mode to check I have pins 85 and 86 wired in properly? Sorry man, this is so new to me...

Hey mate, I need some more help if that's ok? I poked around with the paperclip today and what it looks like is that there is only one pin that is actually required to make it turn on. What I mean is that that particular pin would turn the satnav on with any other combination of pins, I'm pretty sure... So I am wondering when I cut the connector off the cable if I can use the main wire that turns it on with any of the other wires?