2000outback Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 I have a 2000 Outback and this morning when I took it out the CEL came on and has stayed on.It has been very damp out with lots of heavy wet snow.Any idaes.Is it safe to drive it.I know on North American vehicles the CEL is usually an emissions issue.Is that the same with Subaru? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e4620 Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 It probly is emmissions related, take it to autozone, they'll read the codes for free for you. As far as safety in driving, it shouldent hurt much, drove my '90 legacy for over a year with the CEL steady on and 7 miscelanious sensor codes, only reason I traded it in was rust. Still ran great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 sort of correct, emissions issues. it is okay to drive so long as it's not experiencing any immediate issues. check oil level and make sure it's not overheating and drive it. go to Autozone or Advance or other auto parts stores that offer free diagnostics. they'll use your OBDII plug to tell you why the CEL is on. a dealer or shop will charge $50-$100 to do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 the ECU (engine computer) will throw a code anytime it sees an issue with a circuit related to the input it receives. so basically any sensor in the engine bay can give a bad reading, but it's not always critical. depends which sensor it is and what kind of failure mode or problem it is experiencing. sometimes it's just corrossion on a connector making a bad connection. sometimes the car will drive, sometimes it won't, again that just depends. now if something really bad happened it is possible a check engine light could indicate bad things for your car and you shouldn't be driving it, particularly since you have an interference engine. if a failing timing belt rips your crank sensor wire off, so the ECU sees no crank sensor input and the CEL light goes on then that's a problem. that's not a realistic scenario, just something off the top of my head as a disclaimer that it "might" not be good to drive it. there's no certainty until you get it checked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e4620 Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 Oh yeah, forgot to mention, if the light is steadily flashing, thats bad news. In that case don't go driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2000outback Posted December 26, 2005 Author Share Posted December 26, 2005 Oh yeah, forgot to mention, if the light is steadily flashing, thats bad news. In that case don't go driving. It's not flashing .It just came on and stayed on.The car is running perfectly.Will it reset itself if it doesn't detect the problem again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OB99W Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 It's not flashing .It just came on and stayed on.The car is running perfectly.Will it reset itself if it doesn't detect the problem again?This can sometimes be caused by something as simple as an insufficiently-tightened gas tank cap. Make sure the cap and/or filler neck aren't damaged, then tighten the cap fully (a few "clicks"). If the problem is resolved, the CEL will go out after several ignition on/off cycles. Or, you could have any stored codes read and erased by an OBDII scanner, and see if they recur. My own '99 OB used to intermittently light the CEL, and it was also under highly humid conditions. The dealer said they were unable to find a cause, and the problem hasn't reappeared recently, so I can't offer other insight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 If its not the gas cap it often seems to be PO420 for the code. I just got it again on my Forester for the third time in just short of a year. It means reduced catalytic converter efficiency on bank one if I recall. Basically it might mean the cat is not hot enough to burn off exhaust gasses which could mean the cat is slowly wearing out of an oxy sensor is lazy. I just changed the fornt sensor on mine as I am tired of resetting the code. Since I bought my sensors from Jamie they it fit perfectly and took 10 minutes to change. Naturally it seems to be about 22 mm and I seem to have all the metric sizes around it, but not it. I used a 7/8" from my old SAE kit and it worked fine. On a Forester you can just open the hood and lean over and do it without jacking up the car. I now have the battery disconnected to make it relearn about the new sensor. The reason I changed the front oxy sensor is that it is much cheaper than a cat and should be changed at about 100,000 miles anyway. You could have other codes, be sure and check, but if it's PO420 its not a panic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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