Things you should know after buying a BRZ?
 

I bought my limited this tuesday. I love the car so far, it is very fun.

I have been scouring the forums learning what I can. This is my first brand new car. I have learned a few things such as how to activate your alarm if your dealer hasn't and how to sync bluetooth (seems kind of buggy or sluggish at times.)

Is there anything else I should know about?

Read this:

Hidden Features

Read the owners manual.

Learn the height of your air dam - and BE careful.


Within one week of having the car I hit a parking block.
Didn't damage it but was very close.


The parking block on the driver's side was nice and short.
The parking block ON THE PASSENGER SIDE was twice as high.
I obviously couldnt see that as I pulled into the space.


I also back into my driveway over the curb, and "waddle" the car down the curb when I pull out, and I am not even lowered.


Oh - and: the passenger side auto-up feature works if you pull up on the switch TWICE. Drivers side is once.

So, If you unlock the car with the button on the key and only open the passenger door. The car will lock its self. (30 sec or so)

I was grabbing my jacket on the passenger seat and set my keys down while I was putting it on. Got locked out of my own car. It's funny now. But was not then.

If you open the drivers door after unlocking with the key. The car stays unlocked.

Just what I was looking for!

I have pursed it a few times. Probably should read it more. Thanks

Wow, that sounds crazy. I'll have to be aware of that.

Did not know that. I tend drive with the windows up. Good to know though!

Interesting, I haven't encountered that yet. I will keep it in mind.

Wait - with the keyless entry-PTS (push to start), you got locked out with the keys on the seat?


1 - I don't think the car will lock the doors with the keys on the seat (or anywhere in the car for that matter).
and
2 - If the keys are on the seat (assuming it DID lock in step one above), wont the car unlock by just touching the door handle?


I was about to go test this, but better open a window first :-)

Ah, that's what I get for assuming it was the same. I have a 13' scion...

Not on mine!

IIRC, you can change the behavior of the door locks by sitting in the car and holding both buttons on your remote until you hear a beep. There are different lock settings that it cycles through each time you do that. One of them disables that self-locking.

I was working in mine and kept getting annoyed that the doors kept locking. Then one day someone posted that here on the board, and my heart swelled with gratitude.

lol

Eh, that doesnt happen with mine.

But since we're talking about the automatic windows:
- That switch has two stages, half engaged and fully engaged. So you can pull it up halfway, or pull it all the way.
- When you pull/push it all the way, thats when the window goes into auto mode and closes/opens all the way.
- When you pull/push that switch half way and hold it, thats when it works in "manual" mode. Once you let go, the window stops moving.
- At any point during "automatic" mode, you can hit the switch halfway and it'll stop the window where its currently at.

I read about how people were having trouble with the window drive circuitry and I thought there was even a Tech Note about it and the dealers were replacing a lot.


Anyway, mine never seemed to work right (like you had to tell it more than once).


So when the car was in for some other maint. I asked them to look at it.
They said "It seems to work fine. And.... did you know that you have to pull the passenger switch twice for auto close?"


Now that I try it, that is how it seems to work.

We've all been focused on features of the car, but there are also a lot of quirks of this car that can alarm people, yet are completely normal. Before you freak out over something weird the car is doing, search the board to see if it has already been discussed. You will probably find that it's normal.

For example:

Cricket sounds coming from the high pressure fuel pump are completely normal.

A "clunk" when you put the manual version of the car into first gear from neutral is completely normal.

A rattling "can of marbles" sound if you coast a manual in neutral is normal.

An occasional brief engine knock on startup in cold weather can be pretty alarming the first time you hear it, but it's normal. (Mine has only done this once.)

A periodic dip in the RPM at idle is normal, unless they have finally tuned that out with the new model. I doubt that.

It is normal for the A/C compressor to cycle on and off if you run the defroster, even if the A/C is off. That's often a cause of the idle dip noted above.

A faint honking sound during acceleration is normal. Mine did this after a few thousand miles and then went away.

An unexplained drop in the coolant level in the overflow bottle is normal. Nobody can figure out where it goes, but it doesn't seem to be going into the oil or exhaust.

If you have a manual, it's normal for the clutch to stink for several thousand miles. You're not necessarily burning it up if you smell burning clutch.

A squeaking clutch pedal may be a sign of a problem, but it's usually just normal.

An irregular ticking sound from your rear deck or trunk area is normal. There's a fix for it, but mine actually went away on its own over time.

It's normal to see soot around the exhaust pipes. Clean it. It will come back.

It is normal for the shifter to rattle.

It is normal to hear rattles behind the dash.

All sorts of rattles are normal in this car. It's a very stiff car with virtually no soundproofing. You will hear things in this car that are masked in other cars.

It is normal for your shifter to be stiff for the first few thousand miles (manual transmission).

It is normal for second gear to be particularly stiff before it wears in and loosens up.

It is normal for your coolant temp to run as hot as 210° if you turn your A/C off. With A/C on, it will cycle the engine fan more often to keep it around 190° to 195°. You will only know this is happening if you monitor your actual coolant temperature with Torque or an aftermarket temp gauge, because the coolant temp gauge on your dash is fake. It shows the needle in the "normal" middle position starting at 170° and staying there at least to 210°, possibly higher. (And that's normal.)

If you come back to your car a few hours after driving it (five, actually) and hear a humming or buzzing sound coming from under the rear of the car while it's off, that's the fuel evaporation leakage check, part of your emissions system. It's normal.

Metallic ticking and pinging sounds from the engine bay after shutdown are normal. That's just the header cooling down. Lots of cars with steel headers do this, and it's normal for them too.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. There are just way too many normal things about this car to remember them all.

Also, here's something that will help you find information on this site:

Ignore the search button. vBulletin's built-in search is terrible, not just on this board, but on every board that runs that software. It will ignore the most relevant posts and give you lots of garbage that has nothing to do with your topic. Or it will tell you no such topics exist. It's an all-around failure.

Instead, use Google. Yep, just good old Google. You can restrict a Google search to just this site by using Google's built-in "site:" tag, like so:

site:ft86club.com normal

Just enter that text into the search field on Google. What I've done there is told Google to only search pages on the domain ft86club.com for the word "normal," which it's more than happy to do. You can do this with any domain name. Some companies actually build in a Google search into their own websites to use Google this way.

If you use that tag a lot on a single website, Google will occasionally think you're trying to mine information, and it will take you to an intermediate page where you have to prove you're not a robot. Don't be alarmed if that happens. Just fill out the captcha thing they give you and keep going. It's a little annoying, but it's not usually permanent.