Team O'Neil Rally School has released a new promotional video giving a quick overview of their outstanding facility and rally school programs. If you haven't yet checked them out I highly recommend you do so — I've attended multiple Team O'Neil rally and safety programs over the past few years and it's drastically improved both my performance driving skills and overall driving ability!

I can recall of two or three incidents at Maine Forest Rally 2005 that, without Team O'Neil's excellent training, I literally would have found myself off in the weeds.

After quite a few months of ignoring a P0136 O2 Sensor Circuit Malfunction I finally replaced the front and rear O2 sensors on the Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza. Three miles into the post-installation test drive the car immediately threw a P0325 Knock Sensor Circuit Malfunction. Go figure. I was being punished for something.

A new knock sensor and liberal cleaning of the block didn't solve the problem. Eight miles into the post-installation test drive the car threw a P0325 again. Cleared the code, went for another test drive, threw a code. This went on for a few days of adjusting torque (17.4 ft-lbs), clearing the code, and taking test drives. I finally ended up giving up and asking for help which gave me some more info but didn't help solve the problem.

I acquired a second new knock sensor and, this time, the ECU threw a code immediately after starting the car. No test drive. Just threw a code every time. In disgust I decided to give up on the knock sensor and I replaced the PCV valve which was on my todo list anyway. Just for shits and grins I cleared the code and went out for a test drive. No code. WTF?

So it appears that for some odd reason replacing the PCV valve may have solved the knock sensor issue. Perhaps my grungy old PCV valve with over a hundred thousand miles on it was causing some sort of flutter or harmonic that the knock sensor was picking up? Who knows; all I know is I successfully got the car inspected the next day.

Trunkmonkey Racing will be competing at Engraving Awards and Gifts Rallycross in Stafford Springs, CT on Saturday, January 28. Be sure to keep an eye out for the Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza! Hopefully we'll have better luck with our axles than last time.

After the past year of fighting with alignments and rounding off some bolts after replacing a snapped axle we finally took care of replacing and antiseizeing all the trailing link bolts. Brian opened up one of the garage bays at Exeter Subaru this morning, got the Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza up on the lift, and helped out with the repairs. It also gave us a chance to inspect the car for post-Maine Forest Rally damage, untwist the steering boots, and repaint some crusty underbody bits.

Maine Winter Rally 2005 is definitely on this year! We're not yet sure if the Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza will be running but the good news is the entry fee includes licenses for the 2006 Rally America season! We'll have to see if we have the budget and can borrow a trailer for the event.