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Trouble codes on a 1990 Legacy

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Ok, so the legacy I just bought has a CEL on all the time, but seems to drive fine.

 

I also noticed the "power" light flashed at startup. Which I didn't think anything of it (thought it was normal) until I read the boards and saw all the posts about torque bind.

 

Convinced I had just bought a car that would shortly need a new transmission I checked the codes.

 

ECU-

22- Knock sensor

33- Vehicle Speed Sensor

 

Transmission-

33- Speed Sensor.

 

Phew! No solenoid C code!

 

So anyways, can anybody help me with where the knock and VSS are? I'm making the assumption that the VSS is shared by both the TCU and ECU and thus the common code in both.

  • Author

By looking at other threads on VSS, I should point out that my speedometer works.

The 1990 has a mechanical speedometer ( I owned one from 1990 to 1996 ). The speed sensor was a reed switch in the speedometer head itself. So if your speedometer is functioning ( needle working properly ) then the internal reed switch is defective. That requires replacing the entire speedometer OR it can be a defective connection between the speedometer and the ECU.

 

If the speedomter is not working, then you can have a defective speedometer, cable, speedometer cable adapter ( on the tranny ) or internal speedo gear in the tranny.

 

Loved my 90 legacy LS wagon......it was destroyed in an accident....no one in the wagon was injured.

  • Author

Ok, how to I go about removing the instrument panel?

My service manuals for the 1st gen Legacies are long gone. Maybe some else here who currently has one can offer some insight. I do remember it wasn't real easy.....but not too difficult either. Removing that speedometer cable was very tight I do remember.

It's a pain. You have to remove the entire black trim around the dash and vents. Plus to get it out, you need to loosen the two bolts holding the steering wheel column to the dash. This is needed to be done to wiggle the plastice out.

 

To first get the plastic trim out you need to pull the vents out to get at the screws behind them. You probably also have to remove the trim surrounding the radio, and you need to pull the mirror and cruise buttons to get at the screws behind them. This goes the same for the plastic blank on the right side of the steering column (assuming you don't have air suspension).

 

Once you get everything out, you can get at the combination meter.

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