I drove my sister's Legacy to church yesterday with her; the CEL started flashing and power got weaker though not basket case situation; the problem went away later, I refilled the anti-freeze this morning.  Personally I would not be concerned but she is disabled and worried as she has a lot of "professionals" who help her.  My thinking is running it by Auto Zone they would do a free code check and cel reset.  Any clues, could the low reservoir antifreeze fluid have triggered this?

Antifreeze could have caused the misfire but the low level would not.

 

Try a basic tune-up first. Plugs and wires and some new filters can do wonders.

It is running fine now, but the flashing check engine remains a mystery.  She has had tune ups done regularly and puts about as many miles on it as your grandmother.

Edited November 25, 201312 yr by ThosL

Flashing CEL indicates a steady misfire.

It is running fine now, but the flashing check engine remains a mystery.  She has had tune ups done regularly and puts about as many miles on it as your grandmother.

a tune up with cheap plugs and cheap spark plug wires will cause a miss fire after not many miles. Look at a repair receipt, or a brand name on plug wires to see what's there.

OK, I will check her receipts.  She regularly goes to "Oil Star" and shells out $50 for the oil change, much more often than she needs to as much as I advise her to look around for the $25 specials; on the tune up, it may be overdue, but frankly for someone who rarely puts more than 30 miles on the vehicle on a given day, it is hard to see why she would need much in the way of replacements.  

Have had lots of subarus of late that have had water / crap in the tank pluging up the screen on the feul pump try some gas line antifreeze and mabe a new sock on intank pump also check plugwires and plugs for tracking

Doesn't a flashing CEL light set a code?  I am asking for information.

Yes, it indicates a steady misfire. Any time a misfire is detected a code will be set for the cylinder(s) that are misfiring.

Flashing ce light indicates misfire on multiple cly that maybe damageing cat converters if sees multiple misfire will flash light to tell you to back out of throttle