Please help 89 xt check engine light

[pwoens]

My brother-in-law has an 89 xt 2wd auto 4cyl and is a fire fighter for the seatac department. He is a newbie and still on newbie probation. His car, after completely warmed up, constantly flashes the check engine light. He is an hour from the fire department and doesnt want to risk the car breaking down and thus violating his probation by being late. I told him its probably a sensor and he would be ok to drive it until he had time to have codes pulled? Im going to check my chiltons after I post this but im assuming someone knows this constant flash mode and has an answer. He says it resembles his hazards in the fashion in which it flashes....constantly.

 

Any input?? He's gonna call me at 5:15 am and I hope I can give him a good answer. Id hate for the car to die on the way to work and have him violate his probation on my mechanically declined intuition.

[1984subaru]

In my experience with cars i have never heard of a check engine flashing like that.

But yes u r right it may be as simple as a sensor or it might even be worse eg: ECU.

If it was me i would borrow another car till i can get it into a workshop where i could get codes pulled out. Coz it might be the ECU and if that fails the car fails.

Hope he gets in to the fire fighters and i wish him all the best of luck..

[tysn]

my ecs light came on my 85 xt all i did was change the fuel filter and it went away for the most part. come back when i put crappy gas in it.

[hooziewhatsit]

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/article.php?a=44

 

You could have him pull the codes real quick from there. I'm not sure where the ECU is mounted on that car though... On my GL and Loyale they're on the steering column.

 

I have a friend who drives his car around with a flashing CEL all the time.

 

Depending on the codes it pulls would tell us whether he needs to get it fixed now or later.

 

good luck

[LeakingOil]

Borrowed from XT6.net

 

 

Smiles,

Melis

[Syonyk]

If it helps any, my 88 DL Wagon has had the check engine light either on or flashing since I purchased it, and the previous owner had taped over the light because it was bugging him, so I suspect it had been doing the same for quite some time (the electrical tape covering it was hardened and pealing). I drove mine to Chicago & back with the light flashing the whole darn way, and it made it just fine.

 

It's worth checking, but I wouldn't be terribly concerned about it making it or not. Near as I can tell, the Subaru engines are quite durable.

 

-=Russ=-

[torxxx]

if its flashing on a half second off a half second at the check engine light in the dash, nothing is wrong. That means system ok, and it part of the test mode. Unplug the white and green test connectors under the hood and it should fix the problem. To verify nothing is wrong, after you do this, look at the ECU for codes. There shouldnt be any