Headlight High Beam Problem

Are service writers former technicians or just someone hired off the street that is (somewhat) good with communication and placating the customer?

Are service writers paid more than technicians (I'm talking at dealerships)?

In my perfect world, you would have to have been a mechanic/technician before you could be a service writer so you knew WTF it was you were talking about.

 

I talked to SOA today. They offered to pick up 50% of $1,800 cost. I still think $900 is way to much. Not sure I can pull pin so I made a drop off appointment at Bloomington for Saturday afternoon. @Sjogun, do I need to provide directions to service adviser?

 

Why don't you just skip going to Bloomington subaru and ask @Sjogun to do it on the side to save you a lot of time/effort/MONEY.. And he could make some side money and help you out? Assuming he is willing to help you out, that is the route I would go.. There's also a couple other people that have offered to help you out..

 

I like that idea. I'm new to using the forums and not sure about imposing on others.

thx

 

Has anyone figured out what that wire is used for and if it's related to the high beam issue, or is everyone stuck on the $1800 broken wire?

Edit: never mind, I see Todd figured it out, and looking at the wiring, he is correct.

Just run a wire around the connector, it's the easy button solution

 

I'm happy to report that the broken wire was definitely the problem and it is now fixed.

I especially have to thank @Sjogun for all of his help. He performed the repair and did a fantastic job!

When we took a look at the situation after getting the car back from the dealer we found that they did try to replace the wire and damaged the harness and a pin was broken in the connector. The solution was reattach the wire to another location on F108 and move the B361 pin to the corresponding location. Bottom line is that my STi wiring does not match the wiring diagram, but I have High beams again. Happy, happy, happy.

I will be talking to the dealer regarding their repair and Subaru about the design issue. Note that this harness contains connections related to AC, the radiator fan, and the clock feature (ambient temperature in particular). If you have problems with any of these functions, this could be a place to look.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help.

 

I wanted to report that I have had two conversations today regarding this issue.

I talked to the dealership and their tech indicated the connector male pin was broken when this took it apart. They could be right, but I doubt it. If the pin was broken off of the connector, why did they try to replace the pin in the harness terminal? Having a female pin in a harness that has no male to connect to will not work.

I also talked to SOA. The rep indicated that they could not agree with my suggestion that there is a design issue with he fuse box. She stated, and I cannot disagree, that if problems like this are not brought to their attention by owners or dealerships then they do not know how widespread the issue might be. For this reason I want to encourage anyone who notices problems with the ambient temperature gauge, high beams, air conditioning, or the radiator fan to report it to 800-SUBARU3. Unreported problems will not get fixed.

Again, thanks for everyone's help in resolving my headlight issue.