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CEL Out of Nowhere


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Driving down the highway this morning on my way to work in the 2005 2.5 NA wagon. I'm closing in on 50K miles.

 

All of a sudden, up comes the CEL and the green "Cruise" light starts flashing.

 

I tried turning the Cruise on but got nothing. I stopped and restarted the engine but got the same lights.

 

Any ideas?

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i have 2006 2.5i and i have 50k on my car as well, my cel came on about 10k ago. i took it to get it scanned and they said it was some sort of speed sensor malfunction. i told them just to reset the code and see if it would come on again. well about a week ago the cel came on again with the blinking cruise light. i had to make a few stops that day and by turning the car off and on in between stops the cel went out on its own??? so idk. i would just take it to an auto zone and get it scanned for free and see what code pops up. dont take it to the dealer they will charge you like 85-100 dollars for dignostics test.
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i have 2006 2.5i and i have 50k on my car as well, my cel came on about 10k ago. i took it to get it scanned and they said it was some sort of speed sensor malfunction. i told them just to reset the code and see if it would come on again. well about a week ago the cel came on again with the blinking cruise light. i had to make a few stops that day and by turning the car off and on in between stops the cel went out on its own??? so idk. i would just take it to an auto zone and get it scanned for free and see what code pops up. dont take it to the dealer they will charge you like 85-100 dollars for dignostics test.

 

Appreciate that. Thanks.

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i had to make a few stops that day and by turning the car off and on in between stops the cel went out on its own???

 

The CEL resets itself after a certain number of engine starts is reached and the code did not reoccur within that time.

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I just had a neutral safety switch cel come on (W/ flashing cruise). Went through the usual things of starting the car several times and not even starting, just turning the key to "on", I could get the CEL to go away but, it would come back on the next start-up.

 

I had the ECU reset and the light has since stayed off.

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I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong, however IIRC an easy way to do it is you can disconnect the battery for 10-15 mins to reset the ECU.

 

I do with the AP so I don't recall if indeed this is the only way.

 

I would do it like this:

 

-disconnect battery

-pump the brakes several times (about 5 -10) to release anything remaining in the electrical system

-go do something else for about 5 hours

-reconnect battery

-then drive how you would normally drive (since this is when the ECU will learn how to normally function)

 

I heard about people just disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting it several minute later but I also heard some people claiming that several minutes isn't enough.

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Go to AutoZone and they will scan the code and give you a print out for free. It could be one of a million things.

 

Clearing the code will only put a temporary band-aid on the problem as the CEL was triggered for a reason, and an important one in fact.

enough zip ties and duct tape will fix anything.
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disconnect the battery and touch the battery wines tog hither. That only takes about 5 seconds for a complete reset.

 

make Sure that you check the codes first. I know mine did this a few times and took it to the dealer past to fired out that there was nothing stored on the ECU and the light was still on.

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If you disconnect the battery and hold the brake for 20 seconds the system is completely dry.

 

these methods only work if the cables are both removed fromteh battery and the ends are held together. circut has to be completed in order to drain the pcm's memory capacitor!

 

onthe down side, when doing this the computer is also reset to base shipped parameters, and must relearn things like shifting, and fuel curves.

some vehicles even require special procedures after doing this, in order for everything to be relearned correctly. i advise against it unless it is your only option. if a local parts store has a scan tool to read the code they most likely can erase it too. reguardless of being able to erase it if there was a problem that stored a code, that means that a test failed three consecutive times in the same drive cycle. many things can affect these intermittent codes... moisture, loose wiring, bad grounds, etc. you can erase it and hope it goes away, but most likely it will be back to haunt you. lol good luck!

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Subaru does not want a customer to continuously use the cruise control while there is an engine fault. The ECU is programmed to deactivate the cruise control in this case.
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Subaru does not want a customer to continuously use the cruise control while there is an engine fault. The ECU is programmed to deactivate the cruise control in this case.

 

 

especially if its a speed sensor code, cant keep it going a specific speed if the computer doesn't know exactly how fast it is going, or if it sees the tranny slipping (auto trans).

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  • 2 weeks later...

my CEL came on beginning of the summer... about 75k miles...

I would see if you can figure out what the code was... you should have done that before you reset it... your car can pull the code by itself. then you just google it. the little panel where your fuses are next to your left leg... if you open up that and look up... above the harnesses seen there is a bunch of connectors tucked up there... pull those down and then i think you plug in only the green ones... and turn the car to ACC and hold down the trip reset thing... Search the forum... how to do it is in here somewhere...

oh FYI... the code I pulled was for my Catalytic Converters... they were recalled or w/e for 2005... buttt they have a 8 year 80,000 mile warrenty on the cat's themselves... so if you go to the dealer you can get them replaced for free... another FYI... i did it, and the total cost was about $3500... dont know why but it was super expensive. so if it comes on again, pull the code!!!!!

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my CEL came on beginning of the summer... about 75k miles...

I would see if you can figure out what the code was... you should have done that before you reset it... your car can pull the code by itself. then you just google it. the little panel where your fuses are next to your left leg... if you open up that and look up... above the harnesses seen there is a bunch of connectors tucked up there... pull those down and then i think you plug in only the green ones... and turn the car to ACC and hold down the trip reset thing... Search the forum... how to do it is in here somewhere...

oh FYI... the code I pulled was for my Catalytic Converters... they were recalled or w/e for 2005... buttt they have a 8 year 80,000 mile warrenty on the cat's themselves... so if you go to the dealer you can get them replaced for free... another FYI... i did it, and the total cost was about $3500... dont know why but it was super expensive. so if it comes on again, pull the code!!!!!

I am sorry the cats were not recalled for 2005.

 

The problem with just a Google search on a code is that only tells you what system is malfunctioning. You have to figure out what part is failed and causing that malfunction. Sometimes it is cut and dry, other, not the case.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well it's been over two weeks (closer to four) since the CEL came on. I never did get the diagnostic but did remove and re-attache the battery cables. The CEL has been off and everything seems normal.

 

Thanks for all the advise. I'm better prepared now. I actually did take my mother's 1996 Saturn to Autozone for the free diagnostic two weeks ago since her CEL has been on for months. Found that the fix - mainly clean or replace the EGR valve - was easy and cheap compared to the rediculous quote she got from the local Saturn dealership.

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You got another 30k miles or so before the warrenty of the cat's are up anyways... but if the CEL light comes on before then... pull the code yourself, if it's the cat code,normally P0420 I believe, take it straight to the dealer... won't cost you a thing to have them replaced... you'll just have to miss your car for a couple days. Just make sure they know you are aware of the warrenty on the cat's, or they might try to charge you for it.
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i got the same thing but it was because my motor was throwing a lean code... new CAI and had to wait to weld on the extra bungs. :p

 

i figured that's what the problem was but i didn't really understand why it was throwing the cruise... i had autozone check it anyways.

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i figured that's what the problem was but i didn't really understand why it was throwing the cruise... i had autozone check it anyways.

 

It disables the cruise control.

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  • 1 month later...

OK, so it's four months since I started this thread after the CEL came on and I didn't notice any issues until last week.

 

I just did a reset when the CEL first came on without getting a diagnostic scan. I did some long distance highway cruising recently and noticed that my average MPG was about 3 MPG less than normal. My tires are inflated correctly and my K&N filter is clean. My only idea is that it had something to do with the original fault back in early September.

 

Is it too late to get a diagnostic scan? The CEL never came back on.

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