Alrighty folks... i've eliminated everything i can think of. I brought the tuner into my electronics class lab tonight and ran all sorts of power tests and checked for shorts everywhere. Even had my instructor look it over. Everything checks out.

So, it's definitely the tuner... OR a combination of the tuner and something wonky in my car. Could the extra current draw possibly cause something like this?? That's all i can think of.

My next step is to try it out in someone else's car i guess... but that's a tall order. I might just shelve it for a month until i get my WRX and worry about it then. ... yeah... that's what i'll do. THanks for all the ideas guys. I'll try again later.