gr1

hi,looking for a bit of info on above model

was out for a test in a MY 2001 WRX ,but after a short drive a light came on which looked like a gearbox.the sales guy said it was the check engine light,is this right or is it a gearbox warning light

thanks for any info
graham

pauld37

It is the check engine light, CEL, will be on because a number of reasons, did the sales guy know?

gr1

cheers m8,

no he didnt know for sure,but said they'll get it sorted(as they do).
(Got a bit of a barganing tool there if i go back for another look.)
Just wondered about the light as on my classic it actually says "check engine" and it wasn't the gearbox on the way out

acko

its most likely something to do with the cats on the zorst. They might need a good flushing out to clean them, but a MY01 wrx will need to be put on the machine to read the codes to find out the faults.
You cant read the newage cars by joining the wires together and finding the fault yourself.
So ask for the print out from the machine then you know theyve done things right.

hope this helps you out

paul

antonm

Which wires are you talking about. I have a 02 Sti and the Engine Managment light was on before i had her fully serviced and it was turned of, it came on the other day when I went on a fairly long drive. It's not flashing and there is no loss in power from the car. She has a straight though magnex on her too. the guy in the garage said it was normal for the light to be on cause of the exhaust.

hades

Could be a number of things - the list of potential codes is several hundred long. I believe the two most common on early bugeye WRX's are cat efficiency below threshold (often caused by the cat being in someone's shed and not in the exhaust pipe!), and EGT too high (often caused by a duff sensor in the up-pipe, just occasionally by an overheating up-pipe cat).

The "cat below efficiency" light tends to come on whilst cruising at a steady 60-80mph if you have a decat, so might be the cause of the original poster's problem and is very likely the cause of antonm's problem

They also do throw assorted other codes if a sensor is on its way out, or if they've been standing around a lot will sometime throw a misfire detected code (mine does this occassionally, I've never actually noticed a misfire when it does it!)

Do a search on here for a list of all the codes, and a way to get round the cat below efficiency threshold issue (I posted step by step instructions 2-3 years ago) or google / invest in an OBDII code reader if you want to find out more.

speedking

Or ...

pauld37

Exactly the same happened to mine when I had it decatted, you need to have a CEL fix wired in to bypass the 02 sensor.
Its not doing any harm but with the light on, but you wont be able to tell when you have something else go wrong

antonm

Cheers!!

hades

Interesting, thanks . . . Seems about the same trick mine does, but mine mainly does it when the car has been standing around for a while. Might just give it a try, anyway!