f15ejedi Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I know this has been beat to death in this forum and I have searched through the old forum topics and can't find a definitive answer to my problem. My friend has a 1997 Legacy wagon with an auto transmission that has an AT oil Temp light that flashes exactly 16 times when the car is started. It also seems to have a shifting problem but not all the time. Shop says tranny is bad but they never addressed the flashing light. Do I need to download the OBD II codes to figure out the issue or is there a proceedure to figure out what may be bad on the transmission without downloading it? I cant find a list of codes that addresses the 16 flashes directly. All my Subaru's have been 1990 or earlier and manual transmission. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
presslab Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 (edited) I know on the older ones you can perform the "secret handshake" to get the codes to flash without any reader. Maybe it will work on yours. http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/trans.html Edited October 23, 2013 by presslab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f15ejedi Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 Unfortunately it doesn't have the code for 16 flashes which is what mine is indicating. I have a code reader on the way so I'll try to check it that way. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
presslab Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 16 flashes just means something is wrong, it's not a code. You need to go through the sequence with the shift lever, etc. described on that web site to read the actual code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f15ejedi Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 Ok I got you now. Its a similar thing on my Land Rover but you jumper the connector to get the number of flashes to retreive the code. When I do the handshake proceedure I'll then have the code for the problem. Thanks for clarifying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f15ejedi Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 Reading through the proceedure for the test I realized there is no manual switch on the shifter. I did the test anyway but the light just stayed on the entire time. On the website with the proceedure it says newer models "may" require a scan tool. So I'm going to borrow one from a friend and give that a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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