wtf!? Did the dealer cover the wiring harness or was it out of pocket? That's wild a whole new harness didnt fix anything. No one has any other idea what could be causing it?

 

Why would they cover it? They didn't damage it and it's a 10-year old, heavily modified, car.

Getting closer though. Posted the picture of my ECU on fb, got a comment that the burnt section is a part of the Passenger TGV circuit. One of the new things is Cobb's Flex Fuel kit which connects to the TGV circuits. Ethanol content on the Driver's side and Fuel Pressure on the Passenger side. After replacing the wiring harness and ECU, the car ran. It ran for 1 day when it came to the same symptoms as before. Unplugged Ethanol and Pressure and the ECU became responsive again. Engine would crank but not fire. At that point, the fuel was about 65%. Talking with a friend, he said, with his BRZ, if he tried to use the 10% map with over 40% fuel, the engine wouldn't run. Plugged Ethanol back in, left Pressure unplugged, engine fired up. Drove it around for a day before giving it back to the dealer. There's something going on with the Fuel Pressure side of the Flex Fuel kit.

Fun Fact: While the bulkhead harness is about half the price of a short block. The additional labor to pull apart the dash puts both operations at about the same cost.

 

eeeeeeeeesh

 

Which is why they bought my WRX instead of trying to fix it when they damaged my harness.

 

I thought they had to use a new harness which wasn't available...

 

They didn't have one and the cost of repair was beyond what they were willing to do. Fixing all the stuff on the new hatch has already cost me more than the cost of the old car lol. It is a better car than the old one though.

 

I hadn't realized that I had neglected this that much...



Anyway... Where were we?

The dealer was in the middle of swapping the bulkhead harness.

Finished that job and it ran. Was able to drive it home.



Creepy security camera shot because... well, the homecoming was short lived.



That spoiler alert from earlier how the harness didn't fix the problem... Took it back to the dealer.

They were doing their best to figure out the issue. In the process, they ran another car into my car.



Really just added a month to them having my car. But a neat kicker was that the car needed to be running for them to be able to take it to the body shop.

At some point the determination was that there was a problem in the CAN Bus. Hmm, the new flex fuel **** is on the CAN Bus. Decided to unplug the ethanol and fuel pressure sensors. Car fires up and runs.

Cool.

Car goes to the body shop. Body work is done. Car won't start to be taken back to dealer. Gets towed back to dealer. Dealer, they find that the fuel pump won't prime. Check the connector, it's melted.



Fine, I can fix that.

Tow it home from the dealer.



This was somewhat expected and a fuel pump hardwire was on the list of things to do. I have a few pictures of that... So, next post!

 

Fuel pump hardwire!

Pulled the basket out. It's only kinda melted...



I wanted to get the kit from iwire but they were out of stock. Made a trip to Ace Hardware instead.



Process was pretty straight forward.

Take everything apart.



Drill some holes and mount the studs.



Make sure there's adequate slack on the wires.



Remember which stud is which.



This was actually kinda hilarious. I wrote the +- in sharpie. During reassembly, I got some fuel on it. Sharpie marks immediately washed away.

Also, notes for later. If this happens to you (it is common). Replace the whole lid. Not long after this, fuel started to leak through the melted pin in the connector. Had to do all this crap all over again.

 

At this point, the car ran. I was finally able to properly use an e85 pump.



At this point, I have the Ethanol sensor plugged in and working. Plugging in the fuel pressure sensor, the car dies. But runs fine without it. Throws a CEL, but runs.

I was digging through Cobb docs... Found this nugget.



That seems real familiar...

I wonder what kind of sensor I have...

Go take a look, it's an AutoMeter...



Lets see if I how much a new sensor is... Found AutoMeter's page for it with specs and such.



Oh, there are also reviews...



Cool... So my sensor is likely a POS and the source of my issues. Find that AEM makes a sensor that is identical (Honestly probably same sensor but I have some trust with AEM over AutoMeter). Ordered both.

Hook up the AEM unit and everything runs fine.

At this point I was able to get back to some regularly scheduled shenanigans.

Did an oil change. New header is stupid close to the filter. Slightly irritating.



Also swapped out exhausts. Highkey getting sick of the single. Dual should be better, right?



How it looks...



How it feels...

 

So the car runs. Gotta shake it down.

Definitely proven to be unreliable. So tried something new.



Welcome to the thread, my daily, 2001 Toyota Sequoia. It towed the Subaru pretty okay.

Ultimately did ok. Not terribly fast but not last.

Some action shots





Best runs



Album of the action shots

https://ibb.co/album/d0P2tB

 

Friend got some tires that he didn't like. Offered them to me. I decided to roll the dice. I had a set of Rota Flush new in box that I bought a couple years ago that have been waiting for tires.

Tires are 285/35/18 Federal RS-Pro. Wheels are 18x9.5+38.





The tires are for sure big. But they didn't seem to rub too bad.

Drove on them for a bit before taking them off to swap to some track wheels.

Found a little bit of rub.

Passenger side;




Driver's side was a little worse.



Ok, a lot worse.



Only kind of a groove on the tire.

 

I totally forgot... I also got a neat little feature with SpeedSF.

https://www.speedsf.com/blog/2022/4/4/jourdans-wrx

 

AutoX shake down was a success. Time to hit the track.

I had also found a CAT scale locally to me. Scoped it out with the Subaru, found that the Subaru weights 3300lb. Went back with the Sequoia, it weights 5300lbs.

Got the Sequoia loaded up with track day crap.



Tipped the scale at 6240. Grabbed the trailer. Empty Trailer, 8460. Then went and got the Subaru...



All-in track day weight... 11,740lbs.

 

At the track. Got a garage.



Day was not a success.

First session, finally got some clear air and then spun out.

Second session, got some CELs.



Turned out an intercooler coupler had come undone. But it did kinda hold together enough to keep the engine running. Put it back together.

Went out for the third session. Car died and had to be towed in. Turned out the same couple came apart but blew apart this time.

Put it back together and decided to hang it up. That was enough tempting fate.

Best lap was a 2:16 which is not at speed at all.





Did pull 115 into Sunset. I don't think I've ever gone that fast.

 

Some topical memes that helped me though tough times and hopefully help others.