thanks - car's doing well, I just took it out for a spin again last night, after putting in the new cabin air filter etc.

Before going out I set the dampers to full soft, makes a world of a difference - steering felt much easier and the ride was better, but felt like there was almost a slight delay in when the car turned

 

New map sensor in, and still throwing P0069 code - checked with the tuner and he has confirmed that he's scaled for it, no idea why it's throwing this...

::edit::

So the tuner has disabled the code that reads the sensor to barometric pressure (map vs baro bit14), and the map sensor no longer throws any codes, so I swapped the old sensor on to test, same result - no more code. I guess I am all ready to start tuning!

 

Small update of two new issues:

One is that I'm fairly certain I stripped the fill plug for the rear differential - no idea how this happened. The bolt was tight from the shop, and I undid the bolt in typical fashion to do the rear diff fluid, albeit there was a small amount of resistance - then when I put the bolt back on, when it got to the end it would just spin.. not sure how I'm going to correct this, since I'm pretty sure it's not the bolt but the threads in the carrier. Thankfully-ish, I believe the rear diff is basically a no or low pressure environment, and where the fluid sits is well below the fill plug.

The second is that I have a hybrid boost setup, but as far as I can tell the MBC is not regulating PSI at all.. I'll have to check that out soon...

Otherwise, I was almost all ready to start logging the car to finally get it tuned..

 

Update:

The thread inside the diff housing was definitely stripped, 99% sure by the shop that had the car. The inserting angle into the rear diff is really finicky to get, so it must have had a slight angle when it was spun on. The fill plug had a good amount of resistance coming off, so that must have been it, because when I put it back on, it would go in but by the end just spin.

Extremely pissed. It's only one of multiple things that got screwed up at my last visit to this shop.
The local shop here that I had inspect the threads said I'll probably want to flush the fluid and inspect for metal shavings, and probably want the diff to get inspected too. I'll talk to Jon@TRE about it.

 

mini update:

so the car will be down while i get the rear diff sent out (still haven't pulled it yet) and i've got a few other little things i'd like to do with it - but first:

i'm considering going back to the stock intercooler - for my setup (stock turbo, <25psi), i don't think i'd lose much if anything, heatsoak is not too much of a concern since i only autox the car, and i think the weight savings would be better - any thoughts on this? i can't seem to find intercooler weights though..

 

Here's a thread on the weights of various parts on these cars - http://highboostforum.com/forum/show...duction-thread


The stock intercooler is roughly 10-11 lbs, while most aftermarket intercoolers are a good deal heavier. I know when I first picked up my ETS 3" FMIC, I was shocked at how heavy it was.

 

thanks for that info - it seems at least Buschur's is about 24-27 lbs - so may be fairly significant for me

 

What I wouldnt give to find a IX in this good of shape right now. Very nice my friend!

 

thanks - they're out there - i knew when i saw this one i had to jump on it!

 

My goal is to have both my 06 STI (World Rally Blue) and a Wicked White Evo 9 MR SE in the same garage. I'm not too far off on paying my 06 down completely, as soon as that's done I'm going to have a bank draft ready to go and begin the serious hunt to fill my Evo needs.

 

gotcha nice. personally i don't see a reason to have both but whatever works for you! i thought long and hard about what I wanted for my second car - decided to go with the Mini Cooper base - can't argue with 40+mpg on the highway! Fun for auto-x too

 

man this is such a steal.. great car man.

 

lol a steal? i never listed how much i paid for it

anyway, i'm hoping it's a great car.. believe it or not, i've owned it for 5 months now - no WOT pull, havent tested out the trans, rear diff, coilovers/suspension at all.. car hasn't been in running shape since the work I had done to it

 

I'm "that guy" who has a garage full of cars. I'm a car salesman, so I suppose it's fitting in a way. Plus I put so much money into my cars it'd be like flushing it all down the toilet if I sold them.

 

i'm already looking into getting another car.. maybe an NA miata.. (i'm cheap)