I have an 98 OB manual.

The first thing I noticed was that my speedometer stopped working. A while later, at low rpms between gears, the engine stalled (she starts right up, afterwards). Then the CEL came on. As I was pulling into my driveway, the engine seemed to be misfiring or starved for fuel. I went out again and everything seemed to be fine, but when I let the rpms go down, she'd stall on occasion.

I see that the ECU uses info from the speed sensor. Additionally, there's a buffer circuit between the two.

I havent checked the code, yet. Am I on the right track?

Yeah, probably the speed sensor.

I have an 98 OB manual.

The first thing I noticed was that my speedometer stopped working. A while later, at low rpms between gears, the engine stalled (she starts right up, afterwards). Then the CEL came on. As I was pulling into my driveway, the engine seemed to be misfiring or starved for fuel. I went out again and everything seemed to be fine, but when I let the rpms go down, she'd stall on occasion.

I see that the ECU uses info from the speed sensor. Additionally, there's a buffer circuit between the two.

I havent chked the code, yet. Am I on the right track?

 

or it could be the speedo head there are problems with them in

98 and 99 outbacks to many i've seen

I had it diagnosed today. It's the electronic speed sensor, and because the ECU uses it to set conditions, performance suffers.

When I drove my MT 96 Legacy from junkyard A to junkyard B with no instrument cluster, it threw a Speed Sensor Malfunction code. Is the speed sensor locaed in the instrument cluster? If so, I've got spare instrument cluster parts I'd be happy to sell you. It's got a 140mph speedo.

I believe the Vehicle Speed Sensor is located on the transmission. Some cars have two of them, I think.

 

 

Matt

My speed sensor is on passenger side top of transmission. There is a buffer circuit in the instrument cluster, signal is processed here before going to ECU. Speed sensor- $100 new. $50 used

Pardon this post from a mechanically inept newbie, but my speedometer in my 99 OB has just started going on the fritz intermittently...once in a while it will stay stuck on zero for a while before accurately displaying the correct speed. I've been ignoring it just because my local guy won't fix speedos and I don't feel like going to the dealer with it (plus I figure it's good for one free get-out-of-a-speeding-ticket pass!), but is my car going to start stalling out and stuff with this...or is this another issue entirely? TIA

Pardon this post from a mechanically inept newbie, but my speedometer in my 99 OB has just started going on the fritz intermittently...once in a while it will stay stuck on zero for a while before accurately displaying the correct speed. I've been ignoring it just because my local guy won't fix speedos and I don't feel like going to the dealer with it (plus I figure it's good for one free get-out-of-a-speeding-ticket pass!), but is my car going to start stalling out and stuff with this...or is this another issue entirely? TIA

 

It depends if it's the speed sensor or if it's the gauge cluster. Usually the ECU will accept some margin of error when it comes to not receiving a speed sensor signal. However if it goes on too long, you will get a CEL. The AWD won't work either.