Electric Gremlin

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ParticleZX
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Electric Gremlin

Post by ParticleZX »

New here.

Owned my Baja 2.5 turbo for about 3 years now. Electric issue crept up where my parking and tail lights would stay on with the key removed...

No it's not the rocker panel switch, I checked.

Took it to my local Subaru dealer and they diagnosed it for 2 weeks and couldn't pinpoint the problem. Cleaned grounds and the disconnected the engine bay fuse box then reconnected. Issue gone. Came back 7 days later. Back in and they have it down to either the

- chamber assembly electric throttle ($680)
Or
- ECM ($300 used)

Bad things about the throttle is cost and 3 weeks out order time. Bad thing abiut the ECM is, it's no longer available, which leads me to my question. I ordered a used ...971 model from PMP Autogroup and it'll be here Friday so hoping it's solid but don't know where else to look. Does anyone have rebuilt ECMs available? Junk yard stock is pretty slim on them too.

Thanks.
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anarchy1024
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Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Electric Gremlin

Post by anarchy1024 »

If I remember correctly, I think there a module at the rear of the car that controls the tail lights.

The Outback that the Baja is based on has separate lights of the turn signals and brake lights, but the Baja uses the same lights. So, instead of designing a different turn signal switch or something, they stuck in a module that would make the lights illuminate appropriately, depending on the signals it received from the turn signal switch and brake pedal.

Not sure if that has anything to so with your issue, but replacing an electric throttle for a lights issue seems odd to me in a car this old, since all of the systems are pretty-much independent.

Newer cars have shared wiring and CANBUS systems that effectively network all modules together, so any of them can glitch out a seemingly-unrelated one, but the Baja isn't designed that way. Not saying it's impossible, but to me it sounds unlikely. Did the mechanic say why they believe the issue is with one of those parts?

If you want, I can look up the wiring diagram and see what is connected to the lights.

If so, just to confirm, the issue you're having is the front and rear parking lights stay on, but not the brake lights or turn signals (even if not flashing)? As in, the bulbs that have two "brightness" levels are in the "dim" mode? That's important because although it looks like the same bulb is either dim or bright (like a turn signal and parking lights on), the bulb actually has two separate filaments, each controlled by a different circuit.
firebanex
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Re: Electric Gremlin

Post by firebanex »

I had some super weird issues with lights on my 06. Turns out the trailer hookup plug thing had shorted out and caught fire at some point. It would randomly keep shorting and blew all sorts of fuses and issues elsewhere in the car before I found it.

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Diggndeep
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Re: Electric Gremlin

Post by Diggndeep »

My local scrap yard quoted me $75 for a used 05 Forester XT ECM that I'll be swapping to so I can get a Cobb access port. Has to match your trans from what they tell me.
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