my check engine light came on the other day on my 03 wrx it stayed on for a few days and then it went out about a week later i filled up with esso petrol (i normaly put maxol petrol in the car)
the next day the light came back on i tried the petrol cap trick and it didnt work could it be the petrol should i use octaine boost. the car is driving fine no misfires etc. the same thing happened to my 02 bug eye model,i brought it to subaru garage and they just turned it off and said there was no problem with the car is there a way to turn off the light

 

You can get CEL fixes. I think Hayward & Scott do them. I'd be more concerned in why it keeps coming on, get the garage to investigate further.

 

Does it come on or flash under acceleration? If is does then its probably the neutral position switch.

Hope this helps.

Wolfie.

 

no its stays on all the time

 

is this a common fault in subaru's the same thing happened with my last car
and a friend of mine had a loan of a subaru for a few days and his check engine light was on too and in both cases cars were driving fine

 

Look here.

 

filled the car up with petrol on saturday paid for petrol started the car and light goes off great i think, used the car all weekend and light stays off now this morning it comes back on as soon as the the fuel gauge hits the first mark as usual the car is driving fine can anybody help solve this problem

 

John,

Read speedking's link - that's probably the cause of your problem. It cost me £35 or so to fix

 

thanks still dont understand the problem its strange that i fill up car with
petrol and the light goes out then when i use up petrol the light comes back on is the problem related to the fuel tank? getting car serviced in a few weeks will let them turn it off

 

John,

If it's definitely related to filling the car up, it's not the same thing.

But...a lot of new age (MY01+) suffer from the CEL coming on due to the problem with the gearbox switch. Having lived with my CEL on for a couple of years I read lots of threads with interest and many ended up fixed when this switch was replaced.

I may be wrong, but as the cost of replacing is very cheap, it's worth ago IMHO.

As for turning it out. You'll either have to go to a dealer, get something like Deltadash or just wait. If the problem doesn't come back for (30?) on-off cycles of the engine then the light goes out on its own.

Good luck

 

[QUOTE=Nigel H]John,

If it's definitely related to filling the car up, it's not the same thing.

But...a lot of new age (MY01+) suffer from the CEL coming on due to the problem with the gearbox switch. Having lived with my CEL on for a couple of years I read lots of threads with interest and many ended up fixed when this switch was replaced.

I may be wrong, but as the cost of replacing is very cheap, it's worth ago IMHO.

As for turning it out. You'll either have to go to a dealer, get something like Deltadash or just wait. If the problem doesn't come back for (30?) on-off cycles of the engine then the light goes out on its own.

i had the same problem with my last bug eye MY02 and the subaru dealer turned it off and said there was nothing wrong with the car it it seems very strange that as soon as i filled up i started the car and it went off

 

there is a 2nd hand secs data monitor for sale on here at the mo - a useful byproduct is that you can read current and historical fault codes amonst other stuff

 

John,

Just remembered. Did you get hold of the error codes for when the CEL was on? If it's a misfire on cyl1 then it's more evidence to the neutral position switch

 

no i will check it out ,connect the 2 green wires?
would you notice it if there was a misfire

 

I had the same prob while drivin home at the weekend ,it came on so i left it till the mornin to get some advice,but when i started it up the light was out,dont really know what to do ,its been out since,does this tell me the prob has gone?

 

If the CEL light's coming, sod all this extra electronic stuff. get it back down to the dealer, and play your face and insist they find out why it's coming on.

CEL lights are there for a reason. The only real exception is when you De-cat the car. All other CELs should be sorted by the dealer, otherwise, you could be looking at a VERY expensive bill for a new engine.

Your call though.

Dan

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Saved me the bother

 

I took mine to the dealer. Diagnostics said misfire on cyl 1. Dealer "could hear" an obvious misfire Car was running perfectly. He suggested that an engine strip was the first step to curing the fault .

Took it to System-R where the diagnostics showed misfires on cyls 1, 3 and 4 yet still car drove perfectly. Neutral position switch at £35 cured the problem.

With a lack of any other symptoms the dealer will just try to extract as much cash as possible IMO.

 

My MY01 did the same thing, error codes for cyl1 misfire and EGT. CEL came and went away on it's own a few times and eventually stayed on. I reset the ECU and it hasn't come back since, (about 5 months).

 

What speedking said. The CEL issue in MY experience did not indicate any sort of true problem. I lived with it for 2 years

 

just a thought its very hard to get high octaine petrol in dublin
i used to get 98 in texaco garage then they stopped doing it
most pumps dont tell you what ron the petrol is but most of them are 95
so i guess im putting in 95 ron all the time i wonder could that be the problem gonna start using octaine boost from now on.

 

Mine runs happily on 95 RON, without putting the CEL.

You really don't want to change the neutral position switch do you

 

getting the car serviced in a few weeks get it sorted out then
just curious why it happens judging by all the posts on cel
its a common fault but most people dont have any problems with car

 

Has anyone considered that this might be an issue with the car....

Shouldnt you get a dealer to get the error code and check its not something serious.....????