Check Engine light (or 2.5 trouble part 1)

[kahoona]

I am on my 4th Suby now and have found them all amazing vehicles butI have several problems with my Suby Legacy so I will seperate them to avoid confusion.I have an 97 outback with a 2.5 (you could have guessed) auto. I replaced the air filter and fuel filter and the engine ran terrible. I drove it 2 miles like that hoping that it was just a clogged injector or something.You told me to find the hose under the air inlet and plug it in and I did.That fixed the problem but the check engine light stayed on.Someone said to wait a while and it should go out. It has been around a week. I drove it every day. It is still on. The car still runs "ok". It revs and has no problem at highway speed so I think the converter is OK. Now what. Should I try reseting the computer?

Kahoona

[p.monro]

I am on my 4th Suby now and have found them all amazing vehicles butI have several problems with my Suby Legacy so I will seperate them to avoid confusion.I have an 97 outback with a 2.5 (you could have guessed) auto. I replaced the air filter and fuel filter and the engine ran terrible. I drove it 2 miles like that hoping that it was just a clogged injector or something.You told me to find the hose under the air inlet and plug it in and I did.That fixed the problem but the check engine light stayed on.Someone said to wait a while and it should go out. It has been around a week. I drove it every day. It is still on. The car still runs "ok". It revs and has no problem at highway speed so I think the converter is OK. Now what. Should I try reseting the computer?

Kahoona

The next thing to do is check the codes. Josh (legacy777) has a web site with the procedure which I presume works with an outback. Have a look round this forum for the link to his site and previous enquiries about reading codes. The legacy will run satisfactorily with some of its tranducers out of spec but eventually,when they get too far out, performance will suffer.

[rabidsqrl]

Reset your ECU by unhooking the positive battery cable for 30 minutes (I think). Then reconnect (may have to turn off the alarm if you have one once reconnected) and start the car letting it idle for 5 min. without touching the throttle. Turn off and restart again. If the light stays off you should be good to go. If not, you'll have to get the codes read.