ECU is under the pass side carpet. Where your feet would rest on the uphill slant.

Yeah, but only on a honda....

 

No, Legacy era 91-94 its up near the steering column, up from where the hood release pull is....wow. and his is an Automatic ( i can see the ATF cooling lines in the pick) so you have the transmission ECU in there as well. The transmission ecu is the one to the right, the ECU is more to the left up there.....good luck a 10mm socket and long extension will aid in getting the nuts off the studs that hold the ecu in place

Edited April 9, 201114 yr by bheinen74

No, Legacy era 91-94 its up near the steering column, up from where the hood release pull is....wow. and his is an Automatic ( i can see the ATF cooling lines in the pick) so you have the transmission ECU in there as well. The transmission ecu is the one to the right, the ECU is more to the left up there.....good luck

 

Thanks for catching that!! Sorry!! I forgot we were talking OBD1 stuff here. *hides under a rock*

up near the firewall or near the seat? i didnt see anything up near the firewall. except the a/c drain hose.

pull the plastic cover off under the steering wheel. follow the spagetti to near up above the hood pull, not firewall, just up above.......like behind your defrost and cruise switch......

there is a gold box just above and towards the dash near the fuse box. it has two phillips screws that looks like that is what it holds it in. or is it above that one?

it has 10mm nuts that mount it. You may have found it, the screws you see may be for the cover for it. dont take screws out, you must find the nuts...wofc....watch out for critters. good to have battery disconnected when digging into spagetti you probably don't want to short something accidently.

yeah i am kind of wondering if that is what may have done this in the first place. hooking up the battery charge positive lead last instead of the negative last. that is all i can think of. if the ecm is dead. hey i have an idea. well it wont work. theres no way to get a ecm from a test drive vehicle. and use it to start my car. i would have to get a car the same years as mine. the dealers would only have 2011 and 2010 models.

yeah i am kind of wondering if that is what may have done this in the first place. hooking up the battery charge positive lead last instead of the negative last. that is all i can think of. if the ecm is dead. hey i have an idea. well it wont work. theres no way to get a ecm from a test drive vehicle. and use it to start my car. i would have to get a car the same years as mine. the dealers would only have 2011 and 2010 models.

 

Also don't think the sales guy would be too happy about you jacking parts out of his ride while he waits.

 

Seriously. Check a few more things before condemning the ECU. If you don't have the FSM for 1st gen legacy, you can get it here: http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru_manual_scans/

i have access to a mitchel manual that has some basic diagnosis in it. but by that chart if i didnt have power to the coil the coil was bad. well that is wrong. if you have no power to the coil how can you say the coil is bad. now if you had power to the coil and it wasnt givng spark then yes the coil would be bad. myself i am lost here. i dotn knwo these systems as well as other stuff. so searching for bad grounds will take me forever. it has to be that or a bad ecm. that is what i am gathering from all i have read.

is there a fuel cut off switch in this car? where is it at? can i reset it by hand? and where is the ignition relay at?

Edited April 9, 201114 yr by General chaos

Theres no fuel cut switch.

 

The Main and Fuel relays are up in the upper dash behind where the ECM and TCM was on a brass bracket. One is square and brown with a matching color plug, the other is silver with a green plug. They are WAY up in the top of the dashboard on the driver side. When you cycle the key to ignition on, have somebody listen with you for the fuel pump buzzing and then shutting off after it builds pressure. Should run for about 3-4 seconds and the go away. Fuel pump is back behind/above the passenger seat. MOst of them are loud enough to hear alone too.

 

I have seen 1 bad Fuel pump relay in my years of working on Subarus, and 15-20 Main relay failures, most of which were 97 or so model year for some reason.

Yeah, but only on a honda....

Or most Subaru's newer than 94.

someone remind me what those two green plugs at the bottom of the dash are again. you can plug them together for one reason or another. but you r not suppose to keep them together whiel driving or something.

ok so now the tach isnt moving when the key is turned and the car is trying to start. this is the first thing i have noticed this morning.

i dotn know what haapened. i redone all the tests i have been doing. since the tach wasnt jumping. or pulsing. i took the cam sensor out and wiped the dirt off of it. it wasnt as dirty as the crank sensor. i retsested the power to fuse still the same 9 volts. i then re tested power to coil with the yellow wire and now have 9 volts there also. finally. but still not 12 volts. i have also tapped on a plasitc thing marked relay under the dash. we then tried starting it and it actually tried to start for a second and then stopped trying to fire up. i have not been able to replicate the car firing up yet. i even retried starting fluid. nothing. tapping on the fuel pump cover does nothing. you cant hear it usually anyway.

nothing so far. i am also reading this meter wrong. it is .9 volts not 9 volts. that i am getting when testing. i am running out of time today. i am about to give up and move on. i have a 2 trucks to remove parts from today. is there a chance the batter y may not be right? i tturns the car over with ease. when charged up and will crank the car over without a jump start from the charger.

ok more exploring. i took the fuse box completely out of the car. took the back off and seen where the fuse hs other connectors for it. fuse 16. knowing that this fuse also runs the srs air bag. there was a green or blue wire probably for that. the yellow wire coming from behind the battery has .9 volts. so it is assumed that the green wire may be the power wire. going into that fuse. or the yellow wire is. or both? no way.

 

anyway is it possible for the air bag to be tripped but not deployed and not suppling power to start the car? if so how is it untripped or bypassed. maybe unplugged.

someone remind me what those two green plugs at the bottom of the dash are again. you can plug them together for one reason or another. but you r not suppose to keep them together whiel driving or something.

 

This is the 93 legacy? The green plugs are for reading the codes

ok thanks fo rthat i couldnt remember. well i was wrong about the fuse box. that was the out going side i was seeing. once i poped the back off of it. there is a second plastic plate covering the in coming side. so i couldnt see if it was burnt in half or anything. i didnt see any burn marks though. has anyone ever had probelms with the fuse box burning out or not working right?

 

can i run straight battery power to the yellow wire withou tdamageing anything. blowing up the ecm or something?

is this what the book calls the mpfi control box? also known as ecm? i tested both yellow wires coming out of it. and i am still getting .9 volts from this box.

 

can i run straight battery power to the yellow wire withou tdamageing anything. blowing up the ecm or something?

There is more than one yellow wire in the car. Which yellow wire do you want to run power to?

 

Have you checked other fuses in the under hood fuse panel?

all fuses and power to the fuses is good. the yellow wire going to the coil pack is the one i was thinking about.

 

ok i have thought about this. cam and crank sensors report to the ecm? right? and the ecm delievers power to the ignitier. if it gets good correct signal from both of those sensors. is this right so far? then if the igniter is good it deliver the pules to the cooil pack. and the ecm will also deliver 12 volts via fuse 16 to the yellow wire to the coil pack. is all of that right?

 

so assuming this is all right. i take the sensors one at a time. while cranking the enigne and the sensors hooked up. with my volt meter set to ohms and i check for 3-4 of resistance on each sensor? and they will be pulses. if i get those pulses of that resistance level then the sensors are good. so if the sensors are good and the igniter is passing those same siganals throught it then the ecm should give 12 volt via the yellow wire to the coil pack. if it doesnt send that 12 votls then the ecm is bad? or if the siganls dont get through the igniter then it is bad. is this the correct sounding way to get this checked out?

 

i need to stop screwing around and get this done. i cant get the transmission out of my truck until at least tuesday. so we are now down to my F250 again. so either my other truck needs to be fixed or the subaru. i have to work on one or the other but not both at the same time. that isnt working for me. not that i can get the transmission out either. stripped bolt heads.

you might have put the cams gears on backwards.... the one with the R goes on the left when you are looking at the engine. if you have them on backwards then there are no timing marks on the drivers side cam=no spark.

If you put the cam gears on the wrong sides the timing belt wouldn't even go on. They have different offsets side to side.

i never removed the cam gears.