Vostok 7

My first contribution and my first major mod on my car!

What brought this up was the fact that where I live, it's nice to have a temperature gauge to see if it's icy outside. The problem is, there's no factory solutions for the New Age Impreza, short of the attempt of a OBS gauge swap (the OBS has a temp gauge in the temp/fuel cluster), a JDM gauge swap or some cheesy aftermarket gauge.

There is another solution though! For the MY98 Forester and MY98-01 Impreza, a digital gauge was made that fits where the triple-gauge option would go. This digital gauge featured a barometer/altimeter, thermometer and a compass!

The problem was fitting it to a New Age Impreza... but the gauge will also fit the triple-gauge option for the New Age Imprezas as well, but there was some question as to the wiring... So hence, this guide was born.

What you will need:

Subaru Part # H0010FE920OE Gauge Pack Cover (New Age Impreza)
Subaru Part # H5010FC001 Digital Gauge Pack

It should run you in the $150-200 range total.

Now on to the install!

Before:



What we are replacing here is the clock. It will go byebye, unless you can find another place for it (like the "have your gauges and clock too" mod).

Let's start with the first (and easiest ) step,

Install the Temp Sensor

Take the temp sensor from the digital gauge pack. (also called the "thermo sensor") It will look like a black metal box with a bracket and a connector for the wiring harness.

Now, open the hood and remove the grille. There's four clips at the top and two clips down inside on each side. Set it aside in a safe place.

Look at the hood latch. On the passenger side, you will find a bolt hole (illustrated below). It's already drilled and tapped so you don't have to do anything!



Position the sensor as shown and tighten the bolt (with a 10mm socket/nut driver or a phillips screwdriver).



And you're done!

Installing the Gauge

Now were getting into some of the difficult stuff.

First, remove the facing around the radio and the top piece with the vents and the hazard switch.

To do that, pull out the cupholder and unscrew the two phillips screws inside on either side. Now, the easiest thing to do is remove the facing around the radio first and then remove the top one. The facing around the radio has for clips, one on each corner. Take a flat screwdriver wrapped in electrical tape and slowly pry at the corners until the facing pops free. Then, pry out the top and remove the plug from the hazard switch.

BE CAREFUL prying off the facings (especially the radio one) as they are fragile and can break. You can also damage the foam inside the vinyl on your dash if you pry too much against it. BE CAREFUL

Next, take out the clock module. With a blade screwdriver, carefully press on the clips in the front of the clock pod until it pops up. Then it'll come out easily. Disconnect the plug from the clock and set the unit aside (or throw away if you wish).

When you're done, it should look something like this:



Now, remove the radio. There's three phillips screws on each side. Pull it out carefully and disconnect the harness (in the back), the antenna (black cable on the drivers side) and another cable on the passenger side. Carefully set it aside.

Take the main harness from your gauge pack (it will be the one without the conduit covering and three connectors). Feed it down on the driver (left) side of the heating ducts, and feed it down all the way to where it will come out behind where the radio is.

Be sure the single 9pin connector stays at the top.



Here's a description of the connectors you will see at the bottom.



Now, I took the time to make sure the clock harness won't move around. Take it down from the top and use electrical tape and tape it to another harness. There's another plug that floats around loose behind the radio. It's a two prong L shaped plug. I took the clock harness and the L plug and taped them together so they wouldn't rattle around.

On to plugging in the gauge!

Take the one side of the harness you fed down from the top and plug it into the radio harness.



Then plug the other end into the body harness (the one that the radio was plugged into).



You will have a blue wire and a 2pin connector left over. Here's where having two people can be useful. Feed both wires down into the space inside the dash on the drivers side. It's easier with two people to have one feed it down and the other finding it and pulling what they can out so you can plug the temperature sensor in later.

Now, take the bracket supplied with the gauge housing and use the two small screws enclosed with the gauge (not the housing). One on each side. Make sure the gauge is all the way back in the track.



Now, take the four clips supplied with the gauge housing and slip them onto the dash where shown. Remember, the silver ones go in the back and the black ones go up front.



Plug in the 9pin connector to the back of the gauge and use the four screws supplied with the housing to screw it down to the clips in the dash.



Then, the housing slips on. Set it down onto the gauge and bracket and then push it back until the tabs at the back engauge the dash and the two clips on the front engauge the bracket. Might require some work to get it to fit right.

At this point, if you feel confident with your work, you can put the dash back togeather by screwing in the radio and then snapping everything back together.

On to the next step!

Routing the Sensor Harness

The first step (and the hardest) is getting it through the firewall. If you look under your dash, by the accellerator pedal you will find a rubber hose going from up under your dash into the firewall; this is where the wire will be coming out. Next, find where the hose comes out of the firewall. There's already a grommet there! It's right behind your intercooler (on the WRX) as illustrated:



To get the wire through, using a pair of wire cutters, cut the two wires a few inches from the connector. (you will splice them later, no worries) Then, use some electrical tape to tape the wires together at the ends... This will make it easier to get it through the firewall. Again, two people are helpful! On one side, push the wire through the grommet next to the hose carefully, while someone on the inside keeps their eye out for it and pulls it through once it comes through. When pulling it, be careful as you can mess up the grommet if your not careful. Just pull it through until the conduit meets up to the grommet.

Now it's time to route it through the engine compartment.

First, clip it to the two body clips on the firewall and ziptie it to the brake lines on the passenger side as shown.





Then, feed it around underneath the cruise control module, and then the air box. It's easier if you own a WRX to remove the snorkel at the front (if you haven't already). There's two 10mm bolts at the front and then it just slides onto the silencer at the back.

Once you've fed the harness under the airbox, feed it around the ABS module and up to a spot by the radiator.



Feed it around the radiator and then ziptie it to the rail.



Then, another ziptie later, bring it down and plug it into the sensor.



We're in the home strech now!

Final Touches

Now, we gotta hook up the sensor to the gauge. Take two small butt end connectors (from an automotive electrical kit. The red ones work best for small applications such as this) and put the wires back together. Make sure you make sure each wire is matched up to it's mate, otherwise you might have trouble. Crimp the end connector with a crimper (usually supplied with an automotive electrical kit) over each wire, making sure they're well crimped so they won't fall out. Then, wrap it with electrical tape to make it secure.

Finally, plug the the connector from the sensor harness into the plug you fed down from the main harness.

That's it! Test everything to make sure it works and if you didn't before, put the dash back together.

It should look like this:



Then, follow the instructions that came with your gauge to calibrate the compass and etc.

If your wondering about the blue wire... The blue wire is for the speed sensor in the gauge which makes the little blue strips by the car on your gauge move when you move! It's a neat little gimmick, but I still haven't figured out how it hooks up I will find out, and update (unless someone else has the info!)

Well that's it! If you've been wondering how to get a temp/compass/altimeter in your Impreza, or know about the Digital Gauge but weren't sure how to install it into your New Age Impreza, there you go! It's really great to have! I love it!

Vostok 7

 

Vostok 7

I took some picts of the gauge in the daytime so everyone can see what it will look like.







Vostok 7