5 spd swap.

[subaru_terrence]

show us some pics of your interior please

[studum]

Thought I'd post an update:

First of all, my car is finally paid in full and I've closed 2 of my 3 credit cards. That's right baby, she's all mine Just school debt to pay off now.

The car is still running great with teh 5mt. Shifts are good and solid - aside from my occasional screwup.

Quite a while ago I corrected the shifter / trim situation to my satisfaction until I can source a 5mt shifter trim and boot. I used the auto trim and with the crafty use of something like 8-12 wire ties, a small drill bit and a $10 faux leather shift boot from crappy it's presentable. You can't tell its not supposed to be like that unless you really look at it from the right angle. It's topped off with an '07 WRX shift knob purchased off ebay brand new for a pretty good steal I can take a pic if anyone really wants to see it, Terrence has already seen it in person.

I have a couple of minor issues with the car still outstanding. The CEL and the ABS light are still there. I read that leaving the TCU in with one of the connectors left disconnected solved the problem and I was going to do this until I realised that I was an idiot and my TCU had to go to the GC to use with my old 4EAT. I'm still searching for a solution to the CEL.

The shop seems to think that replacing the ecu with a 5mt one from the same generation will do the trick. I'm sure there's another way though, just have to find it - after hours upon hours of searching I still haven't come up with a solid solution.

The car has a high idle when cold, while moving. It's hard to explain, but the situation completely disappears when the motor reaches operating temps.

This is what happens:
If the wheels are rolling (it's could be 3km/hr, slower than walking pace), the idle raises, in this situation to about 1200 rpm. When I completely stop the car after a second or so the idle will drop to about 800 - 900 rpm during warm up.

But if I get moving, say accelerating when leaving for work in the morning, the idle between shifts is significantly higher. If I rev to 3000 rpm in first gear and clutch in to shift, the revs will stay put until I engage the clutch in second gear ( I cringe every time). If I rev to ~3500 rpm and shift the revs will usually fall to 2500-3k rpm until I engage in second. If I rev up to `3k rpm then put in neutral and roll the revs will slowly drop as I slow down, eventually reaching standard warm up rpm levels about 1 second after I have stopped the vehicle (900 - 1k rpm(ish)).

Once the car reaches normal temps, it is an absolute dream to drive (operates perfectly). As the car is warming up, the effects described above decrease in magnitude until they disappear completely. It takes a few blocks (3 or 4) to warm up to the point where I don't feel bad about driving it while its cold.

I forget the code(s) that the ecu is throwing. If I remember correctly I think it has something to do with a second speed sensor that was originally in the 4eat tranny but is not in the 5mt (which is from a '99 LGT). I have to find the cable for my scanner so I can pull the code again.

So that's where I'm at, a CEL and ABS light outstanding and a weird high idle when cold.

I'm not angry that my shop hasn't resolved the issue. They're extremely busy and have been doing a heck of a lot for my girlfriends car making sure its perfect as well as helping me out with some other small problems that I had. I wasn't putting my problems on the list of highest importantcy (is that a word) because my car is still working more than well enough to drive on a daily basis.

Off Topic:

For those who are wondering - the GC is doing great. It's getting an alarm installed this weekend, stereo was done a couple of weeks ago, we cleaned up the interior a bit this past long weekend. As you can see its been getting most of the attention lately.

The motor is getting swapped out for another one due to a pretty major noise issue when cold. The noise has not been affecting performance at all (piston slap) so we've been running it for a month or two now I guess to give the shop time to get some of their other projects out of the way. The shop is doing this free of charge, and is putting cometech head gaskets on the new motor as well. It's actually done and ready to go in the car, we just need to fit it in our schedule. They also have the only outstanding piece of trim in their posession - the shifter surround. Aside from that when they put the new motor in they are installing the cruise control and what they can for the a/c. They will also be swapping the motor mounts back to stock replacing the group N mounts that they put in originally. We appreciated teh gesture (they gave these to us free) but they're a little much for an auto daily driver.

[BL2.5GT]

What I did to fix my ABS light was putting my old TCM back in but disconecting the middle connecter and the idle will be fine but after you ground one wire at PCM witch tells the PCM that your car is manual now not automatic. I also had MIL on but that's because the PCM didn't see nuetral safety switch all I did was connected two wires for the nuetral safety switch or you can wire the safety switch from the tranny to center console. Hope this helps, but your cruise control won't work untill you wire it in.

[SubaruKenny_d]

Sorry to bring up an old thread guys, I gathered my parts for the 5 speed swap and I got an 01 legacy wagon. I can do the manual labor like cake however when it comes to wiring thats where it becomes iffy. If someone could give me a pinout of the harness and what I need to do to bypass the neutral safety, wire the reverse lights, and the speedo sensors. Any information would be greatly appreciated, I couldn't find that much information on swapped 3rd gens.