IN THE STICKS

After 3 visits fromm Subaru assistance and being left at the dealers for a day, all in the past week, my 03 wrx is going back in yet again tomorrow for them to try and sort out my immobilser problem again, symptoms are .....When I've been driving it for a while and I turn it off and take the key out ,the oil pressure light /battery light/a couple of other lights on the instrument cluster light up very faintly and stay lit up for a short length of time , whilst they are faintly lit the red key symbol (immobiliser) on the instrument cluster doesn't flash as it should and the car wont start (It will turn over but wont catch). The length of time this lasts for seems to depend on how long I've had the car running for (a longer journey it will take last longer).After a while these lights will fade off and the key symbol will flash again and the car will start fine . Also sometimes the car won't lock with the remotes until it's sorted itself out . As you can guess it's driving me mad and makes filling up with petrol a bit on the tricky side . The dealers solution when it went in earlier in the week was to replace the cars battery , which was obviously not the solution . Has anyone experienced anything like this before ?Or any clues for me so I can try and get the dealers to sort it once and for all

Thanks

Dave

scoobyboy

have you had it from new if so is it standard or modded and are there any things like tracker on it and what other lights light up?

IN THE STICKS

I bought it back in May of this year , so it was just over 2 years old ,only mod is a Prodrive backbox , and it does have a RAC Trackstar fitted, the other lights that light up (but only very faintly) are the battery light and check engine light (all in the same area of the dash )

scoobyboy

i would try another ecu and disconnect the trackstar and go from there

Sigma Sam

Hi Dave, sorry to hear that you've not had this sorted yet.
In my experience, dimly lit warning lights on the dash are usually caused by a poor connection/bad earth somewhere. This could be something as simple as the multiplug on the rear of the instruments not being locked in properly. The instrument pod is matched (coded) to the engine ECU, so could also explain the immobilisation problem if the connection is poor.
SS

IN THE STICKS

Thanks for the thoughts Sam I will pass them on to the dealer as they seem stumped by it . It sure does sound like a bad earth , the lights will gradually fade (the length of time this takes seems to equate to how long I've had the ignition on for !).The car was back at the dealers on Saturday and they recoded the keys , this seemed to cure the problem for a couple of days , but the problem is back now (also the Sigma part won't lock now with the fobs until the lights fade and you hear the 'click' from under the dash). Spoken to the dealer today and they are going to speak to an alarm ' expert' (might be you ) and get back to me

Dave

IN THE STICKS

Spot on Scoobyboy turns out that the tracker was playing up in some way and creating some kind of electrical bleed to the immobiliser/alarm , mind you the dealer did change the battery,reprogram the keys , fit a new alarm module then send it to a proper auto electricians in the end for them to find it

Dave

scoobyboy

cool at least it's sorted now it's rare that they have problems with standard wiring you only get problems when something has been added.