Cougar

Hi Mary, Give your dad a good hug if you haven't already for this. You'll knock his socks off. The check engine light is on because a code or multiple fault codes have been set in the ECU (engine control unit). The ECU is a rectangular box located on the firewall above the driver's feet. There is a LED light that is visible out the end of the ECU. This LED will display the stored fault codes in a Morse code type fashion. EX: Two long flashes and three short ones for 23. You will be able to decipher the codes with the info from this link. Look up the codes for your model year. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/80s/specs/ecucodes.html The green connectors that you mentioned in an earlier post should be connected only when doing some troubleshooting. They put the ECU in the fault mode if I remember correctly and are left disconnected during normal driving. Hang in there; you are getting close to being on the road again.

I had two turbo GL-10's from that year. One I purchased new and kept for for over 13 years. Neither of them had a problem with the automatic tranny. The biggest problem I know of is with the alternator and head gaskets.

Your welcome for the help. I don't know enough about how these sensors are tied into the system to help you on that. Sorry. You may want to invest in a service manual for reference on things like this. This would be a good investment I think.

Since this problem seemed to happen after you cleaned it I would check for a bad connection problem first before replacing anything. Try cleaning the connections too these sensors and see if that helps. It also would be good to test out the sensor outputs first before replacing them. Some sensors are pretty expensive.

No prob-lem-oh Ray. We've all been down that road at times. I had to dig out my manual to check this. The park switch is supplied power through fuse #4. Since you say the rear lights work ok that means power is good. There is a connector (F65) that ties the connection to the front lights. It is located under the far left side of the dash. It is a 21 pin, 3 row connector with the wires located on the outside edge of one side in the middle row. The feed side uses a red/black wire and the other side of the connector uses a red/green wire. There are a lot of connectors up there so it may be difficult to find these wires. The red/green wire runs clear to the lights. You may be able to find the problem up front by back tracking the R/G wire. Possibly were it splits off to both of the front lights. I would recommend you use a test light to check for power while checking this problem out.

You either have a bad ground connection or bad connections to the lights. Since the lights are seperate, and assume they are good otherwise, I suspect a bad ground is the real problem. You could check for a voltage difference between the battery and headlight grounds or tie a ground jumper to the light ground point to see if that changes things.

You can download all you want from Subaru for a 20 dollar fee I believe.

Even if you hot wired it how would you deal with the wheel lock?

I would get a factory manual. You can order them from Jamie (Subie Gal), who posted earlier here. I have purchased some through her and she gave me a good discount over the price my local dealer wanted for them, including shipping to Alaska (thanks again Jamie). You don't have to get the whole set either, just the info you need. Getting the two manuals that cover the engine areas and electrical systems will answer most of the questions but if your like myself, you get all of them. These may run about $80 for the two but that will only get you about one hour of shop time if you have to have something fixed. Usually the manuals can pay for themselves with the first repair you do yourself with them. There are manuals always coming and going on Ebay. Do a Ebay search for: Subaru service manual. I have got some from there also at great reductions over new prices and in excellent condition. A factory manual is worth waiting for if you go that route.

Welcome to the group here. Hope you enjoy it. There are some savy Soob owners here with good technical advise. Hopefully this problem is just a loose connection. I would go over each of them and reconnect them. Also check to see if any could have been connected to the wrong plug. If that doesn't help then I would check to see if power is getting to them. I assume you have checked the fuses already. I recommend you invest in a good service manual for problems like this. They can save you a lot of frustration, time, and money over the years you have the vehicle. You can get CD versions off of Ebay cheap. You can also download manuals from the Subaru website for $20 dollars. Think about how much your time is worth to yourself?

It sounds like the neutral safety switch is either dirty, misadjusted, or going bad. Not sure where to locate it but it may be near the shifter. Hopefully adjusting it will take care of the problem.

I have a manual for a '97 so assume this info will be the same for your model year. The manual shows that there is a door lock timer module that passes the voltage on to all the doors. Since the drivers door works that means the module is ok. There is a 8 pin connector shown in the upper far left side of the dash that the module plugs into. The wires that tie to the door actuators from the module are colored red/green-pin 2, and blue/green-pin 3. These same colored wires that tie to the doors are tapped off somewhere and go to a connector that is located behind the passenger side kick panel. The connector is a 24 pin and shows the wires tied to pins 19&18 respectively. It is not clear where the tap to the other doors is made. The two wires may go through the drivers door jam and I would suspect that there is intermitant break in the two wires at that point if it does. If they don't go through there then you should check the connector on the right hand side behind the kick panel.

Try cleaning the driver's door switch. It sounds like it is has dirty contacts.

Glad you got it going. Thanks for the feedback

If you are seeing 12.3 volts at the battery while the engine is off that should be ok. Try taking a voltage reading of the battery while the engine is running around 2,000 rpm with the headlights on and blower motor running on high. If you measure between 12.3-14.8 volts that is good. You may have a problem with the red warning light. They use this a lot in the exciter circuit to supply voltage. If the bulb is bad then you will not have any output from the alternator. Turning the key to the on position should test the warning lights.

Since those things are ok then you need to check the voltage to the field of the alternator (the small wire). You should have nearly the same voltage as the battery level. It could be your new alternator has prematurely failed also. If your field voltage is ok then you are going to need another alternator. Was this one a new unit?

I would check with a place that specializes in electrical repairs and parts about a new alternator. Before replacing it though I would first have them verify that yours is really bad before replacing it. You should also check all the connections to the battery and the alternator plus the belt tension if you have not done this already.

You can also get a CD version of the manual on Ebay for around $20 or less. I was able to get a set of manuals for my '01 LL Bean Outback on Ebay for around $200. They were slightly used but still in excellent shape. You may be able to solve the wiper problem by cleaning the delay switch contacts with some contact cleaner. If that doesn't work I would check to make sure that the delay voltage changes as the control moves to prove out the control. If that is ok then I would look to the circuit delay box as the problem. The delay circuit is a RC electronic type I believe. The delay control changes the resistance portion of the circuit. I have never had to work on one before so I can't say this for sure.

Check the fusible links and see if they are connecting ok. They inside the box mounted on the water reservoir.

If you have an external regulator you should check that for a bad connection. Also check the fusible links for a bad connection. Also check the battery ground lead for any problem. The way things are acting it does seem you have a connection problem somewhere.

Well you got a good price on the parts. I still would get a test light and chart to guide you through the process. It sounds like there is a connection problem in the steering column. With a test light you will be able to check the connections to verify what is working and what isn't.

I don't think the two are related. The speed sensor may be located in the transmission but I'm not sure on that. I assume that the speedometer doesn't use the old traditional cable used for so many years. Check for a bad connection in the dash.

Instead of guessing at what part is bad you should get a test light and a trouble chart to do some testing with. These will let you do a logical testing procedure to find the trouble.

I would suspect a connector problem near the dash may be the cause of this.

I assume they have looked for stored codes in the ECU for a clue to this problem. Make sure that the crank angle sensor is working ok and voltage is getting to where it should be with the ignition.