Hello everyone

 

I bought a 97 Impreza a few weeks ago and it has failed the NJ inspection. It has a code that says the OBD is not ready. I got a scan monitor and drove around and it says ready. Yeah! Then I shut off the car turn it back on and guess what? It says not ready.......... Everyone is telling me there is something wrong........Oh yeah? What? They say it should not do that. It should stay on after it is ready.

 

Anybody got any thoughts? Is there a burn out battery in the ECU?

 

I did try the green connector flashing CEL that I read about here. It did not work. I took it to the dealer and he reset it and said drive it around and come back in a week to check. I have also pulled out the ECU to look at it. Loooks great to me. I drive about 124 miles a day.

i'm not up on this stuff, but i recall a recent thread where folks talked about this not-ready stuff, you might try searching for that thread - it was this year sometime.

I wonder if you have an early production '97, or if someone replaced your ECU with a '96. See: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=99635

Early production? Oh yeah I got one. It was made in march of 96. It is a two door, red and the VIN ends in 000001. What does all of this mean?

you should click on that link he posted.

i think what it means is the fact you need to drive a certain amount of cycles of this speed, that speed, freeway time, local, etc so the computer system has time to build a memory.

Okay, I'll spell it out. Subaru 1996 ECUs reset their monitor status to ''not ready'' whenever the engine is turned off. The EPA and state inspection agencies know about this and exempt the '96 models (see the links in the post I linked to above). The ECU in an early-production '97 model could have the same programming as a '96, and therefore have the ''not ready'' problem.

 

If you have an early '97 and can convince whomever is doing the inspection of this, then the car should be exempted. If not, then contact Subaru of America, give them the VIN, and they should be able to provide a letter of explanation that will do the trick. (Either that, or tell Subaru that they owe you a newer ECU .)