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Just got 1990 Legacy L wagon has codes please help.

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 3:23 am
by scottahicks
Greetings everyone,

YEAH!!! I got my first subaru!!!!

BOOO!!! I have codes with it.

Ok so I am a 33 yr old husband, father, college student. I totaled my 94 nissan altima on the way to school the begining of the semester. That sucked. A family just gifted me a 1990 Subaru Legacy L AWD wagon. The car has 229023 MI on the odometer.

I just picked the car up and brought it home. It looks like some bum living in the woods owned it. its filthy nasty dirty inside... But hey it was free and will be much better than driving a truck that gets 10mpg 60-80 miles a day.

The codes I have pulled from the ECU are 11 Crank Angle Sensor, 22 Knock Sensor, and 32 O2 sensor.

with this combination of error codes coming up what suggestions can you give me? I read about the knock sensor and I will try the pull, clean, and replace method to see if I can save the 50 bucks, I just dont have it right now.

Your experiance and knowledge will be of great assistance, thank you in advance.

Re: Just got 1990 Legacy L wagon has codes please help.

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:35 pm
by Jessekrs123
Congratulations on your first Subaru, you will love it. You will love it even more because it's a first gen legacy. As long as you take good care of it, it still has a long way to go before it can be deemed undrivable.

If the crank sensor is bad, try resetting the codes and see if it comes back. If it comes back, I would suggest getting one from a junkyard or something. I got a crank sensor from the dealer... $230!!!

You can get an o2 sensor from anywhere, I got mine from a parts store for $20, hooked up with no problems.

I got a knock sensor from the dealer for $50. You can attempt to clean it and see what happens, but a lot of the times, the knock sensor will develop a crack that you cannot fix, so a new sensor is needed.

Re: Just got 1990 Legacy L wagon has codes please help.

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:16 pm
by Legacy777
Welcome to the BBS.

As mentioned, I'd suggest clearing the codes and then see what comes back. Check the knock sensor for cracks in the plastic or wiring. Also if the sensor connector is gray, it's the old design and you should try and replace it. The updated knock sensor has a white connector.