[flightsuit]

Hello,

I'm a car enthusiast, but not an XB owner. I live in Pacifica, California, and I work as a freelance journalist. My daily driver is a 2003 Ford Focus ZX5 with the 2.3 liter PZEV motor and an automatic transmission. I don't expect y'all would find such a car very exciting, but it is quicker than a lot of similar economy cars.



I registered here in the hope of getting some basic questions answered for my father, who just got himself a white, 2nd gen XB. It's a manual transmission model, and I suspect it may be the quickest car he's ever owned.

Because it was a used car, it came without an owner's manual. He has downloaded a few owner's manuals that he found online, but a few things still remain unclear:

1. On the stereo, how does he set the clock? The manual said to press the "display" button, but all that did was turn on the display.

2. How does he turn on Bluetooth and get it connected to his Android media player?

3. What's the secret for opening the rear hatch? I told him there'd probably be a button the dash board and his key fob that would do this, but he says there isn't.

Thank you in advance for whatever guidance you can offer!

 

[flightsuit]

Thanks for your reply, Tartan! I don't think he mentioned the exact year model. I will ask him and get back to you!

 

[flightsuit]

Thank you, Slorocket!

Tartan, he tells me his XB is a 2010 model. He thinks he might have an Alpine stereo, but he's not too sure on that. He says he's found various PDF manuals for his radio, but none of them look exactly like what he's got.

Here are his exact words in his latest e-mails to me:

For now, I think I've figured out most of it except for Bluetooth, which I don't actually need. I have seen six different owner manuals for the radio, but I'm still not sure which model I have. It came equipped with a Bluetooth mike, but I don't know if it's hooked up anywhere. Maybe it just feeds directly to the NSA.

and

I think my radio is an Alpine, but the manual doesn't even mention Bluetooth.
However, it appears I don't even need an MP3 player. Allegedly, if I plug a memory stick into the USB I can play it thru the radio. Haven't tried that yet.

Thanks again for your input! I hope his comments help you narrow it down.

 

[flightsuit]

And just so I feel like I'm contributing something, here, for your amusement, is a blog entry I once posted, containing pics I'd snapped of a very unusual, modded first gen XB:

Badge Engineering

 

[flightsuit]

My dad came to town tonight, and I just got back from seeing and driving his XB for the first time.

So, um, answer me this: Is a 2010 XB supposed to come with a big, shiny, silver tube as part of its air intake?

And, um, do 2010 XBs normally come with a header, as opposed to an exhaust manifold?

And do they normally come with an oil dipstick (and the tube the dipstick lives in) that can not be pulled out because it's curved, as if somebody amateurishly bent it out of the way while removing an exhaust manifold and replacing it with a header?

Just checking.

Holy ****!

Will upload pics soon.

 

[flightsuit]

OK, a friend of mine looked at the pics I snapped, and he thinks it's the stock exhaust manifold, but the previous owner removed the heat shield so it would look like a header.

As for the cold air intake, he thinks it may possibly be a TRD part. No idea whether it's smog legal, but presumably the dealership would have had to smog it.

Also, my dad lives in Lake County, where, unlike the rest of California, you apparently do not need to get your car smogged very often, if at all.

I'm-a upload pics, but first I'm going to reduce the file sizes so you all don't curse my name.

:biggrin:

 

[flightsuit]

OK, here are some pics showing the CAI, the exhaust manifold, and the curiously bent dipstick. Is any of this cause for alarm?

 

[flightsuit]

Regarding the radio, here's a pic of that. There's a little microphone on the top of the dash board, that's apparently supposed to provide hands free cell phone use. As I said, he can't figure out how to get his Android devices to connect via Bluetooth. Hopefully maybe seeing the radio will help y'all know what he needs to do?

Thanks, as always, for your input! This is fun...

 

[flightsuit]

Thanks to both of you for your input! Regarding that dipstick, it's not bolted in place like it's supposed to be. Any idea what, exactly, it's supposed to be bolted to?

 

[flightsuit]

Say, regarding that Alpine, how do you turn down the brightness on the screen? When my dad was driving with it on at night, it was so bright, I found it really distracting.

Thanks.

 

[flightsuit]

Thanks!

Another question has come up: Where can my dad obtain a map of the fuse box? The fuse for his cigarette lighter seems to be blown, but opening up the fuse box and looking at the diagram inside the cover did not seem to shed any light on which fuse is linked to the AC outlet/cig lighter.


In other news, my dad was in town with the car again yesterday. This was the first time I saw it in daylight, and the squarish exhaust tip struck me as being somewhat aftermarket looking. I got down on the ground, and sure enough, it had the letters "TRD" on the side!

So this is great, not only did the previous owner absorb the cost of putting a cold air intake on that car, but it's also got an aftermarket exhaust. I'm guessing it's a cat-back system, but for all I know, it could be just the muffler and exhaust tip.

That certainly explains the throaty growl at full throttle. Dad let me drive it again, and the power was more than adequate.

 

[flightsuit]

Yes, that looks like the same exhaust he has. If it's axle-back, rather than cat-back, does that imply that it's less of an upgrade? Or is everything between the axle and the cat efficient enough that there would be no point in replacing it?

 

[flightsuit]

So, any word on where my dad can get a map of the fuse box? As I said, the diagram under the fuse box cover doesn't specifically say which fuse controls the AC outlet/cigarette lighter, and that's the one he needs to replace.

Thanks!