Hello,

I am new to this forum, have had a '02 Legacy GT since new. Almost 80Kmiles on it now, it's been virtually trouble free so far, but it seems that the time is coming for me to start getting my hands on it. And it seems that I should start with the OBDII scanner.

A while ago it threw a check engine light because of the gas station attendant didn't properly close the gas tank cap. Was $40 to reset at the dealer, plus the wasted Saturday morning.

 

I see plenty of different OBDII tools offered, but having no experience with it -

what is the most prefereable one to work on Subaru? What features to look for?

 

-michael

I bought the Innova 3100 digital O.B.D.II at Wal Mart for around 100.00 dollars it works fine on my 1997 Legacy. Stay away from the 49.00 dollar one from Harbor Freight it works fine on our Saturn but it will not read the Subaru codes.

http://www.scantool.net/products/elmscan_iso.htm

 

This is a link to the scanner I have, it works well. You can read the codes, reset the light, look at you engine parameters while it is running, and more. It does require a laptop computer, the scanner is hooked up between the car and the computer.

 

Keep in mind that whatever brand you get it must comply with the ISO protocol or it will not work properly on an OBD-II equipped Subaru.

At work we've got a scan tool made by Actron. It's a step up from the really basic models, and I checked - it does work on Subarus. Cost like $250 I think.

Harbor freight has a decent one for $59

Harbor freight has a decent one for $59

 

Couple of posts above, there is a post how this DOES NOT work in Subaru.

 

Newer Subs (2000 and up) use wideband A/F ratio and not conventional O2 sensor. This could be a problem for some scanners and interfaces. I use BR-3 from http://obddiagnostics.com/

and it works fine in my 2000 subaru and 2003 toyota.

Harbor freight has a decent one for $59

 

Does the harbor Freight scanner work on your Subaru? I could not get it to read mine. Someone else here also had a problem with it. It may just depend on the year model.

It does work in my 95 OBD2 Impreza

 

 

Todd

It does work in my 95 OBD2 Impreza

 

 

Todd

All I got was the four small dash lines. But mine is a 1997 Legacy wagon. They must have changed something from 95 to the 97.

I got those lines when I had no code. But when a code is stored it will get it. I disconnected a sensor, got a code and it captured it. Someone told me the CEL can be on with no code stored??

For 4 yrs now I have use version 1 of the scanner described below:

 

http://www.obddiagnostics.com/

 

I paid $45 us for it. Now it's into version 3 and up to $96 us post paid. I hook it to a laptop I have plugged into the lighter outlet so I can even track sensors as the vehicle is driven. Mapping an O2 sensor helps show when you may have a slow one that doesn't set a CEL light. It reads all (except newer CAN BUS). ISO9141 (Mopar, European and Japanese) , Ford and GM. I have used it many times on many vehicles over the last 4 yrs. Software is updated right at their site. Best $45 I spent on getting an insight into the sensors and what they think the engine is doing at any given time.

My $.02