Stargazer's Garage

I decided to take the Suzuki Burgman out to Point Roberts today to pick up the RCE sport springs I ordered for the STI. It was raining in the morning, but the forecast was for sunny breaks in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the rechargeable battery back into my Nikon D50 and was unable to take any pictures of the Burgman. I actually had the bike all positioned for a photo shoot by the boat ramp at the beach in Point Roberts when I discovered that I had no power in the camera. At least it was a good ride and I had an opportunity to really stretch my legs on the freeway--especially since I started my trip by heading in the wrong direction.... I mistakenly headed over the Port Mann Bridge south towards White Rock instead of west and I ended up doing a loop through Crescent Beach before turning around and heading to Tsawwassen and Point Roberts. The Burgman handled really well at high speeds even with heavy crosswinds. Tucking in behind the windshield helped, especially when...

It had been more than 5 weeks since I had the Burgman out for a ride--ever since Aston was born--but with being so busy all this time, the fact that the battery could have died escaped my mind completely.... Actually, the last time I had her out (the Burgman, that is) she started up no problem despite sitting for a couple months through the snowy winter. This morning there was no sign of life at all. I opened the glove box and removed the cover for the battery. I had never actually seen a motorcycle battery before: I figured I have to take it out to charge it. Getting it out was no problem, but then I realized it was probably better to charge it in the bike so that I could perhaps jump start it. That was the tricky part, getting the battery back in because the wires and the tight space made it difficult. I looked at the specs on the battery and it looked like it said 5A. I had a 6A setting on my charger--negligible, I figured. With everything hooked up, it didn't look like much was...

I checked DHL's online tracking this afternoon and discovered that the sport springs I ordered from RaceComp Engineering arrived earlier than the original ETA of Wednesday. Now, it's always nice when things are delivered promptly, don't get me wrong.... But I had reluctantly scheduled installation based on the later date, the whole time I was thinking that it would have been sooo much nicer to get them earlier. Now that they're here, I've got almost a whole week with them sitting in the box, calling out to me to do something with them already!!!

I was in Gettysburg, PA the other day and had a chance to take some "I was there" pictures.... I was attending a conference in Gettysburg and unfortunately the person I was sharing a room with was a dedicated "no way in heck will ear plugs make any difference" snorer. Anywhoo, to cut the story short, I'll give it one last humongous sleepy "ugh" and mention that as a result I ended up with less than 3-hours sleep and with the need to waste some time before breakfast. As soon as there was light I decided to stop at the nearby Gettysburg National Military Park to see what I could see. I thought it was quite fascinating--not so much because of the cannons and monuments of which there are plenty, but because of the sense of history, the realization that here , on this ground, in these fields, men fought and tens of thousands died. It became a little depressing, actually, so I thought I'd take my mind off it by taking a few pictures.... Here are a ...

Top 10 Cars With the Best Residual Value It's nice to see the 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STI on that list.

The firmware update for the Cobb Accessport went smoothly. The nice thing about these updates is that you don't have to uninstall the AP from the car to do the update. The biggest change is the addition of the Performance Tests.... After I installed the update, I went out for a drive. There are two tests you can do: 0-60 and 1/4 mile. The AP records the time and speed at various intervals and when the criteria is met (speed = 60 mph or distance = 1/4 mile) the test is completed and the results are shown. If you happen to decelerate before the criteria is met, the test will terminate and it will show you the results it got. These are the changes for this update: Added additional screen when no DTCs are found. Added 0-60mph and 1/4mi performance tests. Fixed screen refresh issues related to the Map List, DTC list, and flash completion status. Increased animation responsiveness. Improved COBB USB to OBD Cable detection.

A few days ago I received an e-mail from Volkswagen .... The e-mail was a plug for the 2008 MkV Golf R32 , due to be in American dealerships in a few months. There are only 5000 units, and according to the e-mail only 250 R32s haven't been spoken for. I think that's pretty impressive for something for which I haven't seen many ads. My impression, given an earlier e-mail, was that VWoA only began accepting reservations for the MkV R32 in February of this year ( see previous post ). I'd have thought VWoA would have advertised it more, especially given the overwhelming success they had with the MkIV 2004 Golf R32 . Odd.

CobbTuning.com - 0-60mph and 1/4 mile update for new AccessPORT It's out of beta and was officially released yesterday, so I'm installing this update for the AP version 2 right now. Impressions to follow :0)

Despite the freak snow we got on April 1st (yes, it was no joke!), I had been wanting to swap the winter tires off the van. Today I finally got a chance to do it.... At the beginning of the snow season, I wasn't able to put the Hankook Ice Bears until after the first major snowfall and because steel wheels were back-ordered for a month. (I

Regular servicing for our Honda Odyssey isn't necessarily performed at every 5000 kilometers traveled. The ECU actually calculates "Oil Life" dependent upon the type of driving that you do.... Once there's only 15% oil life left, it gives you a reminder to schedule an appointment. I found that low speed, stop and go driving caused the oil life to deplete more quickly. The service reminder first appeared at 6322 km and I've got an appointment for tomorrow morning. Actually, I had an appointment on Tuesday morning, but I forgot about it and slept in!

Actually, this is Aston on Tuesday when she was 2 weeks, 1 day old. There were a few firsts out in the world for her this week: 1st school assembly (slept through the whole thing) and 1st visit to martial arts class. Click below for more pictures.

First impressions . I was out again today running some errands and took the opportunity to give Baby Aston her first ride in the STI. One thing that's always "imprezed" me about the Impreza is how kid-friendly the back seats are. I had no problem fitting the rear-facing infant seat in the center position, and the seat belts held everything tight and in place without any fuss--even without the base for the car seat (which is installed in the Odyssey). I'm also really liking the way the car is performing--especially with power available lower in the RPMs.... I used to just cruise around 3000-4000 RPM because I liked having that instant response available from the engine. With the reflash, today I was able to cruise uphill in 4th gear at 2000 RPM and still feel the STI pulling well and able to pass (normally, i.e. legally) without a problem. Once RPM gets to 2500, it really starts to pull (quicker, i.e. less legally :devil: ). Before the upgrade, I remember trying to cru...

The other day I posted about how my local stores rarely had suitable motor oil for the R32 ( Quest for oil ). I'd also asked rhetorically where I could find some online.... Well, speaking of trips down memory lane ( Wayback Machine ), while I was searching around on VWvortex I rediscovered a thread regarding motor oils for the R32. To my chagrin I saw that *I* had made a few posts in that very thread; one post of mine said that I was going to buy Amsoil 5W-40 from their website if I couldn't find Valvoline 5W-40 locally. My only excuse for forgetting this information is that I posted it back in 2004. I never did buy Amsoil because at the time I was able to find some Valvoline, which is much less expensive. Anywhoo, in the same thread someone posted a link to Oil-store.com , an online store that among others sold Valvoline Synpower 5W-40 --the motor oil I've been using. Hurrah! No more weekly trips to the local stores searching for oil! Shipping and handling is a ...

Internet Archive: Wayback Machine Someone sent me an email asking about the Rear Fog Lamp modification I did to my 1999 VW Passat GLX. European-spec Passats came with rear fog lamps standard. The North American ones don't, but they do have provisions for them so the mod is easy to do. The problem was that one of the resources that I used to do this modification disappeared sometime in 2003-- four years ago . I was trying to remember all that I did way back then when I remembered a site that archived old web pages.... The Wayback Machine allows you to search its archive for a particular URL and it will show you what the page looked like at that moment in time. Its archive covers web pages (not blogs) from 1996 to the present. It's pretty cool. You can see what the original Stargazer's Garage looked like in 2001 when I first started the page :0) Unfortunately, not all images on the web page are archived, but I definitely think this is a valuable service.

COBB TUNING Calibration Notes for 2004-2006 Subaru STi AccessPORT Calibration Stage1 93 v111 Power Output: 325 HP / 340 ft-lbs which is a 40 ft-lb & 25 HP increase over stock. Peak torque is achieved by ~3800RPM compared to ~4000RPM for the stock vehicle. We had some freak snow yesterday and today, but I finally was able to go on a short (25 min) test drive this afternoon when the sun came out and dried everything up. I'm running the standard 93-octane base map and using 94 octane fuel. Like a lot of people have said, there's definitely smoother power delivery with the AP and less turbo lag because the power comes earlier in the RPM. It's a noticeable difference and it should have come like that from the factory.... I didn't bother to reset the ECU after flashed Stage 1. According to the live data readings on the AP (I don't have a boost gauge), I was hitting 17+ peak boost in full throttle pulls in 3rd and 4th gear. From what I've read this is normal while...

One of things I didn't anticipate when I bought the R32 was how difficult it would be for me to find the correct motor oil. The owner's manual recommends synthetic 5W-40 motor oil that meets ACEA A3 and VW 502.00 specifications. Locally, the only brand I've seen that qualifies is Valvoline's Synpower 5W-40 . Unfortunately, it's only rarely that I see any in stock, if they sell it at all. Frustrating. I wonder if you can buy motor oil online, and where? I've read that Mobil 1 Delvac 5w40 is suitable for the R--it's marketed for diesel engines but is fully compatible with gas engines (same ratings, just some extra additives). Next time I'm in a parts store I'll have to pay attention and look.

A Letter from the Subaru World Rally Team Subaru introduced the roof vane on their production STI in 2006. The link above gives a really good explanation of the job that it does. Basically, it directs air to the trunk spoiler and gives the car more traction and grip at high speeds. However, I guess some other FIA World Rally Championship teams thought that this was an unfair advantage so the rules were changed and the roof vane is not allowed on the 2007 WRC race cars.... The rule changes don't apply to the Group N cars because those cars are based on production vehicles. This is a quote from P-WRC driver Toshi Arai: "Downforce at the rear has dramatically improved with the group N machine since the roof vane was installed. Group N uses production cars, so I don't expect the regulation will apply to this category in the future either. If we didn't have the roof vane, we'd have to re-shape the front bumper and reassess a huge number of aspects on the car including s...