I have had the same problems recently with my 1996 Legacy wagon. However my starting problems seem to occur after the car has sat for a least a couple of days. When it does start it takes about five minutes to run smooth and by that time the CEL has come on. I have been able to clear the light by disconnecting the battery for at least a minute. Now, I am trying to cause the bad start because I found that Auto Zone parts stores will code read for free.