im going to go look at a 98 forester for sale. The girl had the engine replaced at 94k cause she was on a long trip and forgot to add oil. it now has 150k on it. the engine was replaced at a dealership.

so now the check engine light comes on. she said shes been taking it to the local dealership and they say that some of the foresters have a glitch where the CE light comes on and nothings actually wrong with it. they say this is the case with this forester.

im gonna go have it checked out by the dealership today before i go and buy it.

 

has anyone heard of this before? is it common?

also any thoughts on the new engine and what i need to watch out for when buying a 98 forester...besides cv joints of course.

 

Thanks,

Pull the codes to find out why the CEL is on.

Yep, pull the codes to find out what's up.

Just to mention it, our '00 Forester had a CEL that used to come on frequently after tanking up with gas and then go out after several starting cycles. This was when it was new so the car went back repeatedly to the dealer and they could never stop it from doing that. Eventually it went away. It only worried me because I didn't want my wife getting used to the CEL being on...

thanks,

ill ask them to give me a list of the codes it pulls up and see if you guys have any advice on it after that.

 

it makes me feel better that other people have been told that too.

ok they got 2 codes.

 

po 325 which is a knock sensor code

and po 420 which is the cat converter apparantly.

 

what do you guys think?

 

is the knock sensor anything serious?

ok they got 2 codes.

 

po 325 which is a knock sensor code

and po 420 which is the cat converter apparantly.

 

what do you guys think?

 

is the knock sensor anything serious?

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29151&highlight=knock+sensor+code

[...]po 325 which is a knock sensor code

and po 420 which is the cat converter apparantly.[...]

The knock sensor code tends to point to the culprit. Replacing a knock sensor isn't a big deal, although sometimes it's a bit annoying to get to. If you wind up replacing it yourself, be careful to torque the mounting bolt correctly. It has to be snug to make the ground connection, but too tight can damage the sensor.

 

The P0420 code is often not due to a bad catalytic converter, but rather a "tired" front oxygen (O2) sensor.