Color changing gauges

So, in Japan, BN/BS models with eyesight have a gauge cluster that changes color. It is described near the bottom of this page.

 

http://www.subaru.jp/legacy/b4/design/interior.html

 

It states that there are 10 different colors, and that the cluster turns red with an eyesight warning, and orange when the transmission is switched to sport.

 

I've only ever played with the non-eyesight models, but does the eyesight package in the US have a gauge cluster with this functionality as well? If not, I wonder if the US cluster at least contains the different colored lights so that it could be enabled/modified to work.

thats pretty cool..

Taste the rainbow

As far as I know, no, ours don't do this. Also no sport mode. If someone knows different it would be cool.

I think by sport mode, they mean the tiptronic mode for use with the paddle shifters. I'm not 100% certain on that though.

Subaru's three-mode SI intelligent drive system that brings different settings for throttle response and the transmission. Impressively, like its sportier WRX sibling

... as usual, JDM gets all the wicked cool stuff!

 

I had an early 5EAT LGT with 'sport' mode, sliding the shifter to the left changed the shifting points for more aggressive driving, and the word 'SPORT' illuminated in green on the gauge panel. Bumping the shift up and down put it in manual mode and allowed you to change gears. The Outback with the 4EAT has it, but I never use it.

My 08 4EAT LG had this too. Nothing to write home about. Yes 4 speed...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The gauges turn orange whenever the transmission is in Manual mode. Switching SI-drive mode doesn't change the ring colour.

 

If an obstacle is detected, that's when the rings turn red and flash - see this Youtube clip.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFjlU_thpkA

Ive changed mine away from the default blue. No way you can change the manual mode away from red though..

Yes the Oz spec Legacy (Liberty in Aus) comes with the colour change gauges, Eyesight, SI drive and 18" alloys even in the base model 2.5i... but then it does cost us AUD$30,000.

 

I changed the gauge colour and then went back to the blue as I didn't like the pink, purple or green.

But the full tricked out unit is suppose to be $15,000 less this year over previous years which is way over what be pay in the states.

Such a deal!

Yes prices of Japanese cars have dropped a bit here recently due to a new free trade agreement between Oz and Japan. But there's still quite a lot of taxes loaded into new car prices though.

 

On the bright side we do get the colo(u)r changing gauges

 

What is this SI drive you speak of?

SI drive uses switches on the steering wheel to change the driving mode between intelligent (economy) and Sports.

 

WRX CVT adds S# to S, and I, but is also paired with a High Torque CVT (3.6 Legacy has a High Torque CVT as well, but not the SI Drive programming, if you compare the power output between the WRX CVT and a 3.6 Legacy CVT the engine power and torque are similar, but the actual acceleration as tested is not, WRX blows the Legacy away due to the SI Drive programming vs the standard Legacy CVT, though we need Australian numbers in S mode to compare and see if it makes a difference over US specs...).

 

Of the three modes on a WRX CVT, I was the most useless. S was good for daily driving, and S# with 8 gear ratios and fast shifting was the best, also useable for daily driving, although it held gears for a long time so if decelerating the car was slow to drop down to 1, keeping revs up, anticipating acceleration.

 

SI drive is a pretty good system, still being improved, it is more than a gearing change when you switch modes, it also changes how accelerator input is received, so ECM+transmission+accelerator input speed and amount are all integrated.

 

Forester XT also has SI drive, but not the same as WRX CVT, which is currently the engineering flagship for pairing power with CVT's.

What is this SI drive you speak of?

 

To expand a bit more from what has been posted. The Subaru Australia website here explains SI-Drive for the Liberty as: “Liberty is smart enough to adapt its driving style to suit your day, thanks to Subaru Intelligent Drive (SI-Drive). Choose from Intelligent (I) mode for everyday driving. Sport (S) mode for enhanced acceleration and sporty performance. And SportSharp (S#) mode – available on Liberty 3.6R – for a truly exhilarating drive.”.

 

This Subaru Australia website page shows graphs indicating how throttle response changes.

 

All 3 modes on our Liberty 3.6R are very useful. ‘I’ mode for around town in traffic where less sensitive throttle tip-in & acceleration using the bottom end torque at low revs is useful. ‘S’ mode for most of my driving where good quick response is required. ‘S#’ comes into its own when driving in winding mountain roads, especially downhills approaching corners where firm braking will drop & hold lower gears. Our SJ Foz XT had the 3 SI-Drive modes but the modes on the 3.6R Liberty seem better & not as laggy.

How about changing out the white light that lights all the numbers with a Red light ?

 

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Currently it looks like the trend is to replace the clusters with fully dynamic displays, and then the gauge color issue is gone or handled entirely in software.