Need advice- 1994 Legacy L

I made the sage purchase of this car for $750 after nearly a decade without an automobile.

I have three error codes and I want to know where to start or if I should bail.

31 Throttle Position Sensor

35 EVAP -canister purge solenoid valve

and Power Light 15- Shift Solenoid 1

I am fairly mechanical and am of the perfect temper for car repair (stoner level relaxed). The car has 118K, owned for one year put 5K on it.

I have over the ownership replaced, brake pads, rotors, one caliper, both inner and outer tie rods, both ball joints, AC compressor, and done the normal maintenance including replacing wipers and headlights and oil changes.

The engine idles softly around 500rpm, slight torque binding at slow speeds- still present with FWD fuse in place. The Power Steering and ATF were alarmingly low and went unchecked for a long period of time. I have ordered lubeguard and fluids to drain and fill the ATF.

Where shall I start?

What's up morry!

I posted the procedure for testing the throttle position sensor (TPS) here: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/turbo-power-mode-issue-192937.html

It also gives you directions on how to read the trouble codes from the tcu and links to the Factory Service Manual (FSM) which is invaluable.

For Code 35, you don't need to worry about that code. It won't effect the running of the car. It will just give you an annoying CEL. A new OEM solenoid is about $125 or so and it is easy to swap it out. The solenoid is under the intake manifold on the passenger side. You could get a junkyard sensor and swap it in but generally the solenoid craps out with age so swapping in a used one will likely give you the same problem. I went through a few junkyard solenoids before I just gave up and bought a new one.

Drain and fill the tranny a few times and see if the light goes away. You could have a clutch pack going. Replacing the duty c solenoid and clutch pack is doable but a bitch. But worth it if you plan on keeping the car.

By the way, the generation years are a bit confusing on this site. The designations are based on the year the model was released in Japan. So your car is actually a first gen. A great place/resource for first gens is the first gen forum on this site, but the best site is bbslegacycentral.com.

I wouldn't give up on your wagon and if you have to swap in a replacement 4eat it's not the end of the world. 118k is nothing for these vehicles and you will probably get a ton more miles out of it.

When was the timing belt last replaced?