My CEL came on yesterday while I was playing with the car, the idle was unsteady. It would try to bring the idle down, but when it did it would sputter then kick the idle up again. Don't know if that had anything to do with the CEL. I plugged the white connectors together, turned the key to 'run' then looked at the LED. It's flashing 5 short flashes then just repeats the 5 short flashes over and over. What does that mean?

model designation 49 states (non california) and canada,

What kind of car is it?

 

Looks like it's probably

55 EGR Temperature Sensor or Circuit, which would only be in CA cars.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49918

 

What code do you get if you disconnect the white connectors?

 

-Dave

that would be five long and five short, not just five short repeated. but + on type of car, and year, carb, FI, etc,

Oops! It's a 94 Loyale, SPFI

Yes, like j2coe said, 5 shorts repeated over and over is just telling you it's non CA and is standard transmission.

 

It's not reading any error codes. Was the CEL actually lit?

It was for a few minutes then it went out again.