DirtyMech

Excellent! That sounds about right because my mileage has been pretty crappy recently. ALSO! I found out I have neither the Carter-Weber or the Hitachi. I have a DCZ328-504C/505C as found on the old Chilton manual on page 210. So is this coolant temperature sensor located on the carbureter or the engine or the radiator? I am checking my manual to try to find it right now..... ALSO! I know that the fan switch has two wires going to it, but it isn't that one right? I think that is the only one connected to the radiator....

The vehicle is a 1984 DL 1800 wagon, carbureted. According to http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/subaru/1983-1988-subaru-carbureted.php , this is either a coolant temperature sensor or idle-up solenoid problem. Now, when it says coolant temperature sensor, it isn't talking about the fan switch is it? Because that thing on my car has been out for years. I've nabbed two of those things from Subarus in a Pick N Pull, and they were all bad too. I know the wirings good because ive just connected the two wires and the fan runs whenever i turn the key on, which sort of solves the problem but is still annoying. I suspect that others here may have had a similar experience. But about the idle-up solenoid. I only have a crappy Chilton manual as I said before, and I can't find a damn thing about an idle-up solenoid. I checked the Automotive Dictionary at http://100megsfree4.com/dictionary and it tells me that the idle-up, AKA fast idle solenoid controls the throttle in an automatic choke during acceleration. This makes sense because my acceleration has been pretty rough recently. But the diagrams of the carbureters in my Chilton manual for both the Hitachi and Carter-Weber don't show a fast idle or idle up solenoid. I'm not even sure which of the two my car has. I've tried looking, but its just a mess trying to make sense of these exploded diagrams.

Oh hell...well that helps. Thanks guys. I turned the key on and the 11 went away, with no new code to replace it. I guess I'll have to catch the code when the light comes on again and pull off the road to look under the dash... I'll post what I find out later.

Hello to everyone on the Ultmiate Subaru Message Board. This is my first post, obviously, and I would like to express how happy I am that a forum such as this one exists. I've had a 1984 Subaru for more than two years, and have been able to repair the few problems that I've had with amaetur mechanical skills alone. The older models are excellent, economical and very durable. My vehicle model is a 1984 Subaru DL 1800, with around 178K miles on it. I've put about 23K of those miles on it myself. At the moment I am attempting to correct a problem that is hard to pinpoint. My ECS (engine check) light has been comming on and off ever since I bought the car in 2003. It only used to come on after more than an hour of prolonged freeway driving during roadtrips, and would flicker off once I gave the engine a rest. At first I believed the problem had something to do with the engine being over-stressed, but within the past few weeks the light has been turning on sooner and more frequently, even during around-town driving trips. I checked the computer under the steering wheel and when I turn the key on it flashes a red light, one long flash and one short flash, for a Code 11. According to this website: http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/subaru/1983-1988-subaru-carbureted.php A code 11 indicates something is wrong with the ignition pulse. Now, this could be many things, but I read somewhere on the Net during my research that the most common reason for the ECS light to come on in an older Subaru model is due to a failure of the EGR solenoid (or perhaps the solenoid valve). This makes sense to me because the last time I went to smog my vehicle it almost didn't pass because of extremely high emissions, especially with regard to NOx. Now here is my dilemma: Should I test the EGR solenoid, solenoid valve, or look somewhere else for my problem? I have not yet checked the timing, idling speed, and timing belt tension, but will here at some point soon. Any of these are culpable, but whatever it turns out to be I would still like to find out what is going wrong with my emissions system.