'91 L: read some CELs, help with repair path?

Hey all. I sent this email to the admin at Legacycentra.org last night, but I thought I'd post here as well.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on what I should do!

I found your page:

http://legacycentral.org/library/literature/codes.htm

 

...And just tried out reading the CEL(s). I found the wires you mention (black/red and red/black I think), and saw what I think is five codes. I thought you could maybe let me know how to piece this all together. It seems that I have:

 

32 - O2 sensor

35 - solenoid valve

11 - crank angle sensor

13 - cam angle sensor

31 - throttle sensor

 

 

Now my big question is, though I'm sure all of these things could certainly be dead on a car its age, should I try certain ones first? The O2 sensor is a given, I'd say. Replace that. Maybe the solenoid valve. As for the other three, on your page it says "no signal from crank angle sensor, but signal entered from cam angle sensor." And vice-versa for the opposite code. So I'm wondering if that means both are gone, or maybe there's a single one I should go for.

As I later mentioned in my email, it was pretty cool to figure out how to read OBD-I codes!

=S2=

Oh bloody hell... it's a '92, not a '91. Sorry! Picked it up for $500 for my sister-in-law, a few weeks ago.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/Siper2/1992%20Subaru%20Legacy/SSPX0215.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/Siper2/1992%20Subaru%20Legacy/SSPX0214.jpg

Crappy cellphone pics, didn't have the chance to take better ones, yet.

Well if the crank angle, or cam angle sensors are dead, the car won't start. But most of the codes just mean the sensors need replacing. Crank angle, cam angle, throttle position sensor and the o2 sensors are all quite expensive items i'm affraid.

My advice is reset the ECU (disconnect the battery for about half an hour, if that doesn't work, leave it overnight) and see which ones pop up again after a "good" drive. Some may be old codes.

And yeah, OBD1 is f*ckloads better than OBD2, makes life so much easier (my 98 GTB was the last of the OBD1 subies, yay for JDM keeping it for so long)

Yeah I was going to say, '98 is awfully late for OBD-I.

I've not tried to reset the ECU yet, yeah I'll give it a shot when I have time this week. In that respect, does it work similarly to OBD-II, in that within like three full engine cycles, the active codes should return?

AFAIK, they stay until the ECU is reset on the old ECU's. I really don't know though, that's just what i've been told. So the codes could be recent, or very old.

And yeah, i think they went to OBD-II early in the US, for the same reason you don't get Gen-2 Turbo's. US emissions laws. Just a theory though