Need help with 2004 Subaru sti wiring

Hi all. I have a modified 2004 Subaru sti that I bought like a month ago. about a week or two after I bought the car I started noticing a little problem with the electrical. I noticed it in the radio first. When I would hit a bump the radio would fade in the passenger front speaker and if I would tap on the passenger quarter panel it would come back on or if I hit another bump it would come back on. Then one night I was driving and all of a sudden the radio went out and my gauges in my pillar pod went out as well for a few seconds then they came back on. After that the radio didnt have any sound really. So I thought maybe it was just the radio so I just turned it off and didnt really drive the car too much after that really. Now its getting worse. When I'm driving the car will actually shut off. Its like I'm hitting fuel cut kinda but the headlights and everything else shut off for just a split second and come back on. So I dont really know what to do because I'm not good with electrical at all and since the car is modified by p&l motorsports in Chicago not many shops that I trust want to touch it because they don't want to fix someone elses mess. So I was curious as to if anyone here that is good with Subarus would be willing to help me out and maybe take a look at it sometime. Willing to pay reasonable price if the problem is fixed. It would save me a trip to Chicago and be greatly appreciated. Hit me up. Thanks guys

Well theres alot of subaru people on here, but i think Tusk is the stereo/anything with wires guy

Corey electrical stuff is a bitch! Old mopars are the king of this stuff.

This sounds a lot like bad grounds too me. Especially the first part, but since you loses power I would first clean off the terminals to the negative post on your battery. Also look over the negative wire to see if it is corroded. Is this car your daily driver? A lot of electrical wiring issues just need time to sort out. i would get under their with a test light and to check stuff out.

I think Cletus said he had a friend who was good with electronics and wiring. Lets see if he has some idea's

Mike

ive had problems like this in the new pontiacs..............





it turns out it was the connection between the radio and the factory harness because of the vehicle diagnostics

Yeah this is some sort of a loose/dirty/bad connection very possibly a ground issue.

Is this the factory radio or an aftermarket head unit?

stupid thing to check but are the battery cables tight?

Provided it isn't just a loose connection somewhere Im gonna go out on a limb and say the person that has been modding the car prolly knows or has a good idea where the problem is.

I personally am not a fan of buying a modded car because who knows what corners were cut where in any of the work that was done.
With all that said Curt Miller of DynoTuned Performance does all of my wiring let me know if you would like to get in contact with him.

same here. curt does most of my wiring. some cars i would have drove off a cliff curt has fixed, tucked and looks very nice.

I would atleast look at how the radio is wired. I don't think 04 sti's even came with a radio from the factory so I would atleast start there....

Curt Miller is who i would trust according to Cletus and Bryan he does good work on wiring.

Mike

Since you's in Oregon, you could roll up into TJ Auto Sales and let dem fix yo whip.

Call P&L and talk to them. They did the work, and they would know if this problem occurred before they swapped in the new engine. It is very possible the PO left out a few details, I can tell you that for certain.

Zac, thanks for rubbing salt in the wounds! hahaha

moparkid wrote:

Since you's in Oregon, you could roll up into TJ Auto Sales and let dem fix yo whip.

i know the owner of this shop..i do all of his snowmobile work.....and i would definetely not let them work on my things!

nightrunner06 wrote:

moparkid wrote:

Since you's in Oregon, you could roll up into TJ Auto Sales and let dem fix yo whip.

i know the owner of this shop..i do all of his snowmobile work.....and i would definetely not let them work on my things!

Yeeaaaahhhhh Dogggg................. I was actin' a fool, yo.

I don't like this Tim style version of Moparkid.

1. Take it back and have them fix it their shit.
2. See above.
3. Open up your fuse box and see it there is any nastiness in there such as cobbed up wiring.
4. Check the positive connections on the battery, alt., fuse/relay block in the engine compartment. Check the ground connections from the battery and engine.
5. Open up your service manual and get the wiring diagrams. Hopefully they can trace to a shoddy ground at one point. It doesn't seem like they're all on the same circuit.... it might take some time digging around.

This type of wiring ghosts are not my cup of tea. You can't pay me enough to start digging like that on someone else's car. Mine.... maybe if I'm really bored and looking to give myself a headache

There is a huge main ground point ontop of the engine. if you are looking from the front it is bolted to the top of the intake manifold on the right side somewhere. Bigass ground lug. If that is loose, all hell will break loose.

I am with tusk, troubleshooting stuff like that is a nightmare and I hate doing it.

Evan

I drove to iowa with no issues. At a stop light my radio cut out and came back on. 5 mins later I parked and checked into my hotel, went to move the car and it was totally dead. I tightened the battery terminal connectors and everythings been fine. Always start at the source with the basics

check the grounds etc,or battery connections like others said.I know they had issues with grounds in 04.You can go on nasioc.com oriwsti.com there are lots of subi diagrams on there and also alot of info on subi's there. I work on cars everyday and wiring SUCKS ASS....

moparkid wrote:

Since you's in Oregon, you could roll up into TJ Auto Sales and let dem fix yo whip.

haha this guy was trying to tell me his donk with a carb and headers would walk on anything i have.