I now have my hands on my daughter's '87 4WD SPFI wagon to troubleshoot. Doing an oil change and a Wix filter helped with the valve clatter, but

now I can hear intermittent clanking at idle and deceleration which sounds major-despite this, I want to pull codes first.

I printed out the code info both from a link on this site and from the subaru_18 site. That site shows where the ECU and oxygen monitor are supposed to be , under the steering column, and I have a Chilton book , which is no help, but I don't know what these components are supposed to look like, so can't find them. Besides the CEL, is there another light on one of these components that blinks to flash the codes?

Finally, I found a bunch of loose connectors under the hood near the dash, on driver's side, but no two of them seem to plug into each other. Somebody told me these were "for smog" but that's no help either.

Ray Mac

i'm no help

 

 

but i'm in the same boat !

 

hoping someone can explain the color scheme or visuals or something

 

sorry :{

if you look under the steering colum, there will be the RED LED from the ECU...it will blink....long for uncrements of 10, and short for increments of 1.

 

Like, 2 long and 4 short is code 23. I have never had to plug anything in for it to spit codes...just turn the ignition on and wait to see what the LED blinks. THen look it up on the chart and go...oh...i need to look into that i guess.

 

thats how i do it on my RX's and GL-10....

...

Like, 2 long and 4 short is code 23.. .

Is that a typo, or is that correct: 2 and 4 being "23"?

Is that a typo, or is that correct: 2 and 4 being "23"?

 

Correct, its a typo! supposed to be ...3 being 23...i didnt catch that before I went over to nasioc...

Well that's part of it--is it the CEL that will blink, or something else?

 

I don't know what component to look for with another light on it. I haven't located anything else that has an LED on it.

Well that's part of it--is it the CEL that will blink, or something else?

 

I don't know what component to look for with another light on it. I haven't located anything else that has an LED on it.

 

Not the CEL light...the LED in the ECU that is set back under the steering colum...

The green connectors under your hood are for timing the engine. Plug them in and then set your timing with timing light to 20 degree BTDC. When done unplug them.

 

They are so it wont try to advance/retard timing as you are trying to set an exact degree.

OK, thanks again. I'll go out and look some more for the ECU.

 

Bubonik, do a search on here for the pulling codes post I put on here a while back. One of the replies gave a link to the codes, which is great. Only thing is, it doesn't tell where to find the blinking light.