Hi
I have a November 1991 Subaru Legacy Turbo Estate (2.0 single turbo). This car is fitted with a Hayward and Scott exhaust from the turbo back, removing the cat etc, an ITG airfilter and superchip are also fitted to this car.

In the past 4 weeks or so the car has started acting up intermittently. In the mornings after about half a mile or a mile of driving the check engine lamp would come on for 10 seconds and then go back off. I have also noticed that the engine has been running rough at idle, withthe car actually shaking. Lifting the bonnet i found the engine wobbling about all over the place. The car has also been reluctant to start.

Yesterday the engine check lamp came on when i started the car from warm. The car was hesitant to idle for a couple of seconds and kind of spluttered a wee bit. The lamp is now on all the time. When the car is idling now it is very smooth without the engine shaking at all. The car does seem down on power though, all though this might be my imagingation.

What i would like to know is how to check the error codes for my car. Where is the led that flashes that i have heard about ? The "superchip" is taped to the front of the ECU that is under the dash. Is the the led under it ? A link to the error codes for my car would also be great !

Please help as i don't want to be stiched up by my local subaru garage. This garage has just started selling subaru's recently, jumping on the bandwagon i think... they are also a rover dealer !

Hoping somebody can help

Craig

 

Forgot to mention, this car is drinking petrol at an alarming rate ! I'm getting about 100 miles less out of a tank !



Craig

 

I don't know if the Legacy ECU layout is the same as the Impreza but i'll put this up anyway. Might help you.

Clicky

 

Oh, how rude of me just noticed its your first post. Welcome bud. Hope you get the Legacy running sweet again real soon.

 

www.troublecodes.com or co.uk

There are four connectors on my 95 impreza. connect the two yellow coloured connectors to recieve the fault code (flashes the check engine light on the dash board) Use the fault code listings to find which it is.

This workd fine on my scooby.

Hope it can help you and everyone else in not paying huge bills at subaru garages.

 

Is it not the black connectors for fault code reading!!!!!!

 

Thanks for the welcome chaps

What a day....

Went out to move the car and tried to start it... crank crank crank... try again... crank crank crank... try again... click ... click.. click... the very intermittent starter motor problem i've been having decided it wanted to join in the fun I tried the FBH on the starter motor but it decided to have none of it . So... i had to disconect the battery, wrestle with the intercooler to get it out of the way and get the surprisingly small starter motor off.

A while later i had cleaned it out, polished the contacts in the solenoid etc and put it back together. Tested it on the bench and it was working fine Put it back in the car and reassembled all the bits i'd moved out of the way and started the car...

No more Check Engine Lamp on... bummer must have been because i had the battery disconnected for ages.

I'm back to car running rough with the lamp coming on after a wee while for about 10 secs.

I followed the procedure from this link http://www.geocities.com/subarushrine/checkmodes.html regarding the Read Memory part and all i got was the Engine Check Lamp on when i turned on the ignition.

I then tried the D Check mode test. When i got to the part when you connect the two greens i had a valve thing buzzing under the bonnet. Its a cylinder about 3" tall with a pipe connection at the top and bottom, on my car the bottom pipe is not connected. I have a weird looking thing fitted to the car instead, was on the car when i got it, looks like a little black box with a gold cone sticking out of it. WTF is it BTW ? It's got some kind of screw adjustment on it.

Anyhow all i got during this test was the lamp flashing regulary.

I'm now a bit lost, i'm a carbs and points kind of chap !

Where is the MAF sensor ? Where is the other sensor for the warmup. Is ther anything i can do or clean or check ???

HELP !!!

Cheers
Craig

 

the MAF sensor is the sensor just after the air filter box the air will flow through it on way to intercooler

 

Is it cleanable ?

Cheers
Craig

 

have you tried changing the spark plugs/leads/coil? It sounds like the PCM is detecting a misfire and is going into some sort of limp-home or self protection mode. If an engine misfires repeatedly the this will blow the cats through and then the car will fail emissions - its a legal thing. Perhaps this is the case and so to protect the cats the pcm overfuells the engine to cool the cats (a rich mixture will burn cooler than a lean charge as there is more fuel to evaporate which takes heat). even unsick cars will do this at high engine speed/loads typically richening up to run at about 12:1 AFR.

 

What's a PCM ?

The car has no cats, been removed.

When the engine check light comes on and STAYS ON the car runs very well, with no crap idling etc. So i'd think that it's some sensor or other instead since it runs well when the light is on. Althought it is down on power when the light is on.

So what sensor is it ? Where is the warm up sensor or am i getting confused with the MAF ?

Cheers
Craig

 

If the engine check light comes on surely the ECU must have store the error code, unless you remove the battery. My advise would be to try to idenfity the error code again, sounds like a MAF or Lambda probe failure.

 

Need an expert here, but when running in safe mode does the ECU ignore the Lambda or MAF? Try replacing the lambda use someone like Cats Direct @£25

 

sounds like lamda had similar symptons and this is what it was.

 

Found this on here yesterday...

http://www.saxonfields.freeserve.co....htm#_Dyno_Runs

Cheers
Drew