AutoZone and code reading subarus?

Sounds like BS. OBDII (on board diagnostics V2), which is what your sube (and all cars since mid 1996) has, is a standardized connector. Car mfg's cannot use a proprietary connector, they must use the connector specified in OBDII.

I have a code reader and have used it to read several makes of cars and trucks, however not a subaru. OBDII also states that the connector must be in one of several standardized locations, I know my truck has it under the driver dash, and VW's I think have it behind the ash tray, but there are only 3 or 4 locations where the connector can be located according to OBDII specs.

You can get an OBDII code reader (made by equus) for about $120. Worth it if you have a finnicky check engine light or you've got car fiend friends that are willing to split the cost of one with you.

-Tom

Totally bogus info. I'd go back in and talk with another employee. The only question I've ever heard from the Autozone guys was what year model Subaru---IIRC they said they could pull codes as long as they were later than 95 or 98 (sorry, can't recall). I've had codes from my 04 WRX pulled, and watched em pull from an older Outback also.

I have done codes on a '95 Impreza. OBD-II was widely adopted in 1996, but Subaru was using it as early as '95 I know. I have not tried any older than that yet.

He actually came out to the car withteh reader, looked under the dash trying to hook it up, failed, and proclaimed my car somehow unworthy of his code reader. Strange.

-- Todd H.

Where was he trying to put it, in the cigarette lighter? :) Does he know where the diag port is? It is on the left side of the dash down below the air vent. There is a little candy dish looking thing there. You flip down a cover in the roof of that dish to access the port.

Candy dish? lol...

The older Legacies had the port just behind a panel in the same location.

There's another possibility as well. I know that old Subies used to have a connection for something called a "Subaru Select Monitor", basically a proprietary diagnostic computer. I remember seeing something about it in my Haynes manual along with the OBDII connection, but my manual covered Legacies back to '90 or so and didn't specify whether or not that connector was still in the post OBDII Subarus. (We all know how ambiguous those Haynes manuals are.) Anyway, if that port is still there, (perhaps for AWD information or something Subaru-specific) maybe the Autozone guy tried hooking up to that port instead.

BTW, that special connector was supposedly up behind the dash somewhere. I've never seen it myself if it was there.

-Matt

Hi, You need an ISO connector. I do it myself using my laptop and interface box. Tony

Maybe you should have asked him if he knew how to use the reader and where the port was?

I guess you can also put coins in it. :) I actually don't keep anything in mine.

Hush Tony...it's the same connector that everyone else uses....now get off the net and get back to that Top Secret project!

Steve

I think he was in the right place.

-- Todd H.