ongoing saga of the '87 Suburu

[ca95965]

After much ado my father found a matching distributer and it was put in last night. I'm sure he has a great story to share about it in retrospect, but I will say that there must be a special place in heaven for fathers who go to such lengths for their children (though it's been suggested that maye Al-anon or something similar might help him more), and a special place in hell for junkyard dogs of the human variety who get senior citizens to pay in one location then drive much further to their OTHER yard to pick the thing up then find out that, "oops, it's not the right part after all."

 

But the distributer is done, and now that "check engine" light is on again. We're about to wander down the road to get the car, and would love to have some expert advice on this part.

 

Mary

[Hondasucks]

That's cool you got it fixed, but what's a Suburu?

[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.