06 BP Legacy Questions

[tmhlegacy]

Hi there, newbie Legacy owner here, it’s a Japanese export facelift 2006 BP wagon, 3.0R with SI drive and a few unusual items I need some help with. I’ve searched around the usual places and still have a few queries that I hope you may be able to help with:

SI Drive

If I search for the 2006 Legacy manuals online, the results I get (mainly US-spec) don’t have SI-drive. Did SI-drive make it to the US (where manuals are available), and if so what MY, or is there an SI drive instruction manual anyone can point me towards? It’s fairly easy to understand, but I get a beep from the dash occasionally when manually down-shifting using the paddle shift. If cruise control is active and I try and manually shift then I get a message in the dash (in Japanese) presumably telling me that cruise is on standby whilst I manually shift. But sometimes, without cruise active, if I downshift for a bit of acceleration I get a beep or double-beep and I don’t quite know what it could be. Same beep as when you change modes in SI-Drive (I/S/S#).

Cruise Control

The car seems to have radar cruise control – I don’t know if this was standard on Japanese models or not on this MY. There is a black box in the front grille which I presume is the radar, and when set to 100kmh for example it will reduce speed if someone pulls in front or if I approach behind another car. Clever and I’ve used it on other cars, I just wasn’t expecting it on a 2006 MY Legacy BP. If the car in front comes to a stop it reduces my speed to about 30 and then “BRAKE!!!” appears in the dash! What I don’t understand is what the green arrows on the dash are telling me! They are constantly flashing and I get 2 arrows when following someone – presumably when “locked on” to a target in front, and only 1 arrow when the road is clear. Can anyone shed some light – or again point me in the direction of a manual?

Push Button Start

Again, not sure if this was standard or not, but I have a remote key fob with lock, unlock, and trunk unlock buttons only. Once inside the car, push button to turn ignition on or press brake and push button to start. There is a key hidden inside the keyfob which unlocks the door, but with no key barrel inside the car, how could I start it if the battery in the keyfob was dead? Also – how do I get a replacement keyfob? I only have one and a spare is going to be a must. I expect this will have an immobiliser chip and I’ll need to take the car to someone to programme the new key? Going to be expensive? There are also little black rubber buttons on the boot and door handles – I assume this locks the corresponding door if pressed? I need a manual to see if there are any other tricks I need to know...

Couple of other items I’ll be working on…

Headlight glass – bit misty so will polish them up – seem to be polycarbonate rather than glass – is that correct?

McIntosh stereo is really decent, pity about the Japanese Nav unit, locked to Japanese time via GPS and no English available. May think about putting in a UK spec one at some point, and hooking up an ipod cable. Again, all the dash dismantling instructions I've found are for 2006 MY cars without SI-drive, so I wondered if there are any specific dismantling instructions for removing the SI-drive shift surround in order to get to the head-unit??

Subaru Servicing – any suggestions for the best / most recommended independent garage for servicing / maintenance / repairs going forward? I’m in Auckland. When servicing the E39 I’ve just sold, people would recommend Burgers or BM Workshop. Is there an equivalent well-known well-respected all-round nice-guy Subaru specialist in Auckland?!

Thanks in advance

[killervq30de]

SI Drive - BEEP. You are trying to down shift at too higher RPM or upshift at to a lower rpm. The arrows that show in the dash above gear say whether you can up or downshift at that time. You can't in into Sport# until the blue light under temp gauge goes off

Push button - Replacement keys I'm told are like $500 from Subarau. If you remote is flat you can hold it over that little grill thing to the left of the steering wheel for a while. apparently it has a conductive charger in there gives you just enough juice to power transponder. I don't think we can do anything special with the remote like wind windows down like the previous years could (I've held unlock,etc nothing)

The soft buttons on the door are to lock or open the door. it won't work if you don't have the key out side of the car. Theres also one on the boot lid to the right of the handle.

The only trick I have found to leave the stereo running and turn off the car is to

1. with engine running and stereo on

2. put car into neutral then push the start/stop button

3. stereo should still be on

4. shift to park

Otherwise you have to push the stop,button then start button again which I don't like doing

Headlights - yes plastic. I used a plastic polish that said for head lights. Is you passenger one more foggy?

Alarm - These do have a built in alarm that will sound the horn if the door is opened by key or someone reaches in window and unlocks. the horn will sound. sometimes this is off from the factory but you can get this re-enabled.

standard toys

-shopping bag hook in the boot

-electric rear seat fold down

-you can unlock the doors without a key - you set a code where by you lift the door handle in a certain seuquence and it unlocks

-you can put drivers window up and down for about 10 secs after car is off

I brought the JDM translated to English manual of trademe, got it for about $20 on $1 reserve. It covers a lot of features but is still generic and doesn't cover everything. I think its an 03 one with stuff like SI drive added to it.

If you drive for 2hours - it will pop up message in Japanese saying to take a rest brake

if its overly cold when you start driving - it will pop up message telling you to watch out for ice

I brought my car from Winger Subaru and have had very good experience with services. I compared prices with another company I had heard of subtech and they seem competitive so prefer to go to Winger who are official Subaru dealer

I had a post about most of this stuff back in Julu 2014 if you want to search to find anything I missed

[Andy_Mac]

Killerv seems to have most of your questions covered But here's a walkthrough for pulling apart a facelift auto stereo area.

http://forum.liberty.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17301

Also worth noting that apparently with the MY06 and some 07 units the optional aux setup you can buy to plug in does not work. Mildly different hardware in the unit people who seem to know what they're on about say.

So easiest option would be using an anycar module, or similar device.