himile99 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 I was wondering that myself... Considering the car was (and still is!) a real cream puff, I'm hoping it's just a flaw in the ECU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 i'll give you a free bere if the ECU is not a 96. that was the year they trouble with the ''monitors not ready''. but that does not fit with the info above that the car did not used to have this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 this is really simple...simply listen to the advice you're given here and you'll be done in minutes and cheaply. i've already told you everything you need to know in a prior post including a phone number to a $35 ECU. crawlerdan is parting one, i put a link to that too. find your own here: www.car-parts.com the numbers on the ECU are meaningless and useless for this. any 1997-1999 EJ25 will work...auto/manual does not matter. there's a pin out to tell the ECU which it is and it can run both. you're obsessing about numbers that don't mean anything. this yard has ECU's for a 99 OBW: this yard in PA has them for $35 each, 1-814-635-3203 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himile99 Posted June 25, 2013 Author Share Posted June 25, 2013 Well, I'm gonna find out tomorrow, yanked 2 at the U Pull It. $20 each, how could I go wrong! I'll give you the auto/manual interchangeability, but a previous post states the '97's pins are different, and Hollander says that the '99's are unique, with a difference for 49 state and California. I believe the numbers do have meaning, otherwise why would they change? I also believe the AD70B was the final update, since it appears to be the most common. Hopefully, I'll only have to make one more post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 stop blaming the ecu find the real problem ecus causeing problems 3 out of 1200 cars very very rare i bet it has engine problem or exhuast problem is the egr opening try the ecu but not very optamistic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 ivansimports - it probably is the ECU in his case. hollander is nice but it only tells maybe 60% of the story. right - they aren't meaningless -but by meaningless i mean they aren't useful or helpful to me, or many others familiar with subaru's. matching them certainly gets you what you want - at the cost of ruling out lots of other options. i prefer to expand my options and not limit them by resources that really don't know or have any experience except in compiling databases. thousands of parts with different numbers, even different part numbers, are interchangeable. Subaru, hollander, are limited, albeit helpful guides. i could list hundreds....maybe thousands...of interchangeable parts off the top of my head that Subaru and hollander wouldn't agree with but is common knowledge in the subaru community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himile99 Posted June 26, 2013 Author Share Posted June 26, 2013 grossgary- I agree with you, except when when it comes down to the possibility of having New York State telling me to park my car permanently. I was just trying to avoid spending hard earned cash on the wrong parts. I actually have a long history of building Frankenstuff. ivansimports- You were only half right. So here's the update: Put in one of the ECUs this morning, it fired right up, and even felt more lively (probably has a different spark/fuel map). Some, but not all, of the monitors went ready. The nice thing is they stayed that way after cycling the key. As of my trip home, all monitors except EVAP have set and stayed. So it appears the ECU was faulty. Here's where ivan comes in: As soon as it reached operating temperature on the second start-up, the CEL came on, P0400. Frankly, I'm not too surprised about it. Or worried. At 269,000 miles, either the diaphragm is shot, or something is plugged. No big deal,I can work with that. The funny thing is that the old ECU didn't throw the code, it had no trouble throwing others. A P0446 a month and half ago lead me to the USMB, which lead me to the mouse-chewed and corroded vent solenoid wire right over the fuel pump. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been watching my monitors to begin with, so here I am. I hope this thread can get someone else out a jam, as this doesn't appear to be a common problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 excellent. glad you nailed it. Bingo - ECU was my one and only guess in my first post. i agree sticking with the 99 was the best bet and that's what i suggested in the beginning - i posted a link and info/phone number to a $35 99 ECU before you said they were going to be hard to find and an "arm and a leg", and started looking at $110 non-OBW ECU's on ebay...seemed to be stalling about easy, cheap, identical ECU's, but i get it when it's a weird situation, new here, and first time digging into something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 p0400 = EGR flow malfunction i think i got that when i put a 97obw ECU into a 98obw. it was a phantom code. the right ECU eliminated it. try the other ECU before you spend a lot of time trying to track it down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 The ecu just hasent learned yet give it time to figure out whats going on well gess that makes 4 out of 1200 lol. Bet the diafram is bust on the egr tranducer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 If the evap monitor doesn't set on its own soon, try the method from this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/134825-subaru-tsb-how-to-set-your-im-monitors-for-emissions-testing/ Lots of recent threads about the EGR transducer going bad. Also check all of the vacuum hoses for the EGR valve and transducer. There are quite a few sources for vacuum leaks there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 I suck on the bottom larger line and it holds or not if not junk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himile99 Posted June 26, 2013 Author Share Posted June 26, 2013 Good news! The new ECU is totally right! Not only is the EGR valve diaphragm leaking, but when I open it manually at an idle, nothing happens, so the passages are clogged too. I never knew about it because my scanner doesn't do pending codes, and given that the old ECU had memory problems, it didn't pick up on the problem for the 2 consecutive starts needed to throw the code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 27, 2013 Share Posted June 27, 2013 Maybe the EGR has been bad for several years and the old ECU was replaced with one from a non-EGR model in an attempt to get rid of the EGR code? Thin theory. Amusing if nothing else. Glad to hear the new ECU is working out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Glad you got it working correctly and thanks for the update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himile99 Posted July 1, 2013 Author Share Posted July 1, 2013 Update time... Fairtax4me - That's a plausible theory, since I don't know what the old ECU is from, you might be right. Got around to reading the TSB you posted, it looks like I should have passed without doing anything. I doubt it if the staff at the instant oil change place would've known what to do. I cleaned everything related to the EGR system from the throttle body to the head port, wow, what a mess! Turns out my old EGR valve wasn't bad, my lips leak. I got a new vacuum pump and it's fine. I picked up an extra valve and and transducer from the u pull it for $4.50, just in case... Glad I didn't spend the $150 that NAPA wants for the valve! I cleared the P0400, which hasn't come back. After clearing the code and before starting the car, 3 of the monitors were "ready". Strange, but thanks for the head start! After a good amount of driving, I get the feeling that EVAP may never go ready, just the same way that catalyst never went ready with the old ECU. It'll pass like that, so I don't care. When I have the time, I'm going to try the old ECU, and other new one, just to see what they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 M the old ECU was replaced with one from a non-EGR model in an attempt to get rid of the EGR code? Thin theory. t. an ECU operates both EGR and non-EGR vehicles, i've swapped them before with no changes. a non-EGR ECU will function identically to an EGR ECU when installed in an EGR equipped vehicle. it'll show the EGR codes and all just the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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