Thanks! Check these problems out!

Well quick back story, I have had a 96 legacy for about a year now, automatic trans btw. And so I also have an Rx7 which I had rebuilt but it was only about a month left of driving season for it(im in MN) and then I had to go back to the slushbox. And so I have not liked having a stick fo a little while and the itch got to me.

 

So I found a 98 Legacy L for $1200 I didnt think it was a horrible buy, because they threw in a new battery and too off some money for the alternator problem. I figured it was charging at 11.6 so ok...get a new alternator.

 

(Yes I know I was stupid by throwing parts at it.)

 

Well got a reman from autozone, that didn't take care of it and then terminals looked pretty bad too, plopped them in. Still 11.9 volts.

 

I am finally home(obviously) and can use my voltometer and maybe see if there is high resistance from the wires?

 

Anyway, then there are all these codes:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/Screenshot_2013-01-07-16-13-36_zps7c22b5e5.png

 

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/Screenshot_2013-01-07-15-30-36_zpsb30c3dab.png

^And thats what it looks like going down the road.

 

Thanks for looking wish me luck! And any help is appreciated.

 

OH, and the dash lights dont work. Tried moving the signal switch on the left stalk and nothing.

So is this the way everything should look?

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/20130107_200922_zpsd53cb584.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/20130107_200956_zps9ff581c6.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/20130107_201007_zps91ba1053.jpg

^oh and yes it was stationary when I took that photo.

Nope, stock as stock can be. In fact for some reason I cant tell how to set the time on the dumb thing. You would thing its just hold the tune button up or down. I don't have the owners manual. But i bet I the 96 manual may have that in information..

in the fuse box under the hood, toward the front, there is only one red fuse? i thought there was two

Then that could lead to some problems if there is supposed to be 2...

I will pick up a 30? It looks like... any idea what its for? Again i don't know how much use my 96 Brighton owners manual would be.

May want to look under the dash on the drivers side and see if the green test mode connectors are connected. That could be the cause of the speed sensor and idle circuit codes. These should not be connected and are only for use by the dealer for diagnostics.

Ah, I don't suppose you could MS paint where that is from my picture? Please? Or is it not near the fuse box?

p0500 is your speed sensor. with out that you will not have a speedo. (or AWD if it has an auto trans)

 

p1540 is speed sensor 2, is this an auto trans????

 

fyi: in this pic you virgin switch is on. it will kill your battery.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/20130107_201007_zps91ba1053.jpg

This should give you a general idea of where to find the test mode connectors.

http://www.oocities.com/ej20subaru/connectors1.jpg

Nope, stock as stock can be. In fact for some reason I cant tell how to set the time on the dumb thing. You would thing its just hold the tune button up or down. I don't have the owners manual. But i bet I the 96 manual may have that in information..

 

For a second, I thought I might be useless to you in this thread, but lo and behold, I know how to set the time! You have to hold down the 'DISP' button as you tune up and down... I think. Yours is not the same unit my car had, but I bet it has the same setup

I didn't know the second gens had the green connectors. I thought it was a first gen thing. Learn something new on here all the time.

p0500 is your speed sensor. with out that you will not have a speedo. (or AWD if it has an auto trans)

 

p1540 is speed sensor 2, is this an auto trans????

 

fyi: in this pic you virgin switch is on. it will kill your battery.

Yeah and from another thread I should check it on the passenger side in the engine bay. Right? And it's a manual.

 

And that doesnt seem to do anything on this car, but Im sure it could have a draw if its still on. So I was fooling around with it and I thought I turned it off but I don't know if I turned it off after taking this picture or while we were checking the volts on the vehicle. But you wouldn't think that would be a big enough draw.

 

Thank you 97LegaGT for that picture. Also, good to know Stang70Fastback, thank you.

Not a problem. Can't say for sure what side they are on but on my '97 it was on the drivers side, should be the only green connectors. Mine was plugged in and didn't even know it because my CEL doesn't work. I did have more codes come up than you and the CEL should flash when they are connected but it is a possibility.

 

Yeah and from another thread I should check it on the passenger side in the engine bay. Right? And it's a manual.

 

And that doesnt seem to do anything on this car, but Im sure it could have a draw if its still on. So I was fooling around with it and I thought I turned it off but I don't know if I turned it off after taking this picture or while we were checking the volts on the vehicle. But you wouldn't think that would be a big enough draw.

 

Thank you 97LegaGT for that picture. Also, good to know Stang70Fastback, thank you.

manual trans only has one speed sensor. and i think it is on the driver side. but i'm not a MT kind of guy. they may still call it VSS2 not sure.the auto trans has 2 so it can compare front wheel speed to rear wheel speed for the AWD. the 5 speed AWD so 100% mechanical so only one VSS.

 

a used subaru alternator is a better choice, imho, than a reman from the parts stores. measure the voltage at the alt and the battery and compare. there is also a subaru reman from the dealer for 98 outbacks, i think. the stock units had a recall, so subaru reman-ed a lot of them. much better quality than the parts store.

 

FYI: the battery starts the car. the alt makes the electricity that the car needs to run. (if the alt does not supply enough power the car will use the battery to run the car.) as the demand for power increases, head lights on, so does the alt output. if your battery has a bad cell, the alt can over charge or ''cook'' the other 5 cells trying to fill the demand for power. or the alt can be weak and not generate enough power as it should. but the common fail point, if not bearings in the alt, is for the diodes to fail and the alt does not generate / regulate correctly. some times too much, some times too little.

What does the speed sensor look Like?

And I had 2 or 3 alternators for the 96 before I found a used one that did work..

 

But I just may bring it back to autozone and ask for 2 lol.

 

Also i checked the green connectors, they were not hooked together.

OH, and the dash lights dont work. Tried moving the signal switch on the left stalk and nothing.

since the CE light and the ABS light work, this is probably in the illumination module or what ever they call it. it is easy to over load it if you mess up the wiring, maybe when doing a radio or other under dash wiring.

 

there is or was a craigs list ad some where near me for the whole stalk combination switch, both lights and wipers. they bought it from subaru because they needed the clock spring inside , i think.

Well as stated its the stock radio in there.

 

Although whats weird the 96 the center console doesn't light up but the instrument cluster is just fine. Is the center console supposed to? The light indicates whats selected though....

the lights in the heater / AC control unit are known for going out. they are expensive from subaru and a pain to replace, but doable.

 

do a search, there are some pretty good write ups on how to.

 

if you need this......

http://tricities.craigslist.org/pts/3471172221.html

 

http://images.craigslist.org/3K83Mb3Ja5La5Gf5Eeccb0afa75c8f91b1a46.jpg

Oh here is another weird thing, It only revs to 4500 in any gear.(well I dont know about 4th or 5th)Like I bounce off the limiter.

 

Would this be related to the speed sensor?

could be.

So now when I went to autozone, I saw trhem test a good alternator but then after installing it, the ecu read 11.9 however today I checked again and it was at 14.2:confused:

 

So does anyone know if this is the type of instrument cluster I am supposed to have in the car? If not I'll yank another one out of a junkyard.

 

Although I still may have to get the stalk combo too, the rear wiper doesn't work either.

rear wiper is often the wires where they move from the chasis to the rear hatch. they wear and break.

 

what type of instrument cluster?

 

the ECU does not read voltage or output that info to the cluster /gauge. or at least i have never eread that there has ever been an issue with it.

I dont know about the voltage situation...weird, I was able to make the rear wiper work on the brighton by replacing it since the gears were gone.

 

But my instrument cluster is it the one that's supposed to come with the "L" model?

 

Also while changing my oil I fixed my lights for a bit:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/misc%20junk/20130111_182236_zpsfbcbbce4.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh264/thatmanwithwhat/misc%20junk/20130111_182842_zpsf97bcb28.jpg

 

But yeah the Check engine light even cleared itself...even though the speed is still clearly wrong...

Since you are using torque, set one of your displays to vehicle speed from the ECU not gps and then drive the car and see if the speeds on the dash and on the phone match if they don't just that dash may be your issue. if they do match it's probably a broken speed sensor

But my instrument cluster is it the one that's supposed to come with the "L" model?

this will not cause a problem.... but.

 

if some one removed the speedo needle and re-installed it wrong then that could explain the speedo. maybe.

 

i have a good bit of experience with speedos. i swapped a legacy L 140 mph speedo into a legacy GT that had a 120 mph speedo. it is not easy and not worth the trouble, but i learned a lot about the speedos in these cars.

 

question, does the speedo go to '0' when you turn the car off and jump up to 20 or more when you turn the key on??

 

if your speed sensor is ok, and your speedo is the problem, it is likely that the needle was swapped out and reinstalled incorrectly. there are 2 solutions, the easy one is to replace the whole speedo with one from the same year and model as yours. if it is the speedo this will fix it. and it is easy. you may have to buy the entire instrument cluster to get the speedo, but you can just swap out the speedo. maybe a hour on your first try. look for one at http://www.car-part.com .

 

the second solution is complicated. basically you remove the clear plastic cover from the speedo and then remove the needle and then reinstall the needle pointing to '0' with the key on.

 

please note, the speedo needle is very very very fragile. if you bust it you are going to need a new speedo.

 

if the speedo does not read the correct speed after the fix the next solution is to install the speedo needle point to 60 when the gps says you are going 60. this is very very very dangerous.