Re: '93 Impreza - CEL 33 - Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS)

Okay, sorry, I forgot to mention, yes it's an automatic, and no it doesn't have anti-lock brakes...

The aggravating part is that after searching over the entire transmission, top to bottom, I can't find damage anywhere, just dirt. No broken wires, no dents, no scrapes. Only single wire sensor looking part is what I described. It looks like it could be a magnetic pick-up, going into the final drive, and yes, it's under the passenger side of the final drive portion of the transmission. The wire for it actually goes over the top of the transmission and into a larger harness. No visible means to disconnect the wire when I pull the thing out...

Looks like a trip to the junker to try pulling the sensor out all the way over there and see how the wire detaches.

There is a VSS in the dashboard also? If that were the failing unit, wouldn't the speedo still function?

Also forgot to mention, the transmission is flashing out a problem using the 'power' light on startup. Anybody know the means to read those flashes, which I would assume is similar to reading the CEL?

~Brian

Sounds like you have found the transmission VSS. Wire does not disconnect at the sensor. Look where all those wires for the transmission connect on the passenger side under the firewall. This is where the VSS wire can be unplugged. 16 flashing lights is not good. Flashing because something is seriously wrong with the transmission. I found a file I had stored that shows the procedure for pulling the transmission cods but can't paste it for some reason. I have a Mac and the file is a pdf, whatever that is.

PDF? Macintosh? :-) It sounds like the document you have is in Adobe's Acrobat format. I would love to get my hands on the document, if it has codes and the procedure for retrieving them, but I feel I'm putting you out if I ask you to email it. strchild-hotmail-com Either way, thanks for the help so far. I will trace the wiring all the way back to the firewall. From my vantage point yesterday, it looked as if the single lead became part of a larger harness and became inseparable but maybe not... Seems rather obnoxious, but it is what it is. I'm actually assuming the transmission is beeping out something because of the VSS, but who knows. It likes to flash at me if my engine stalls out at a stop, also, but after a restart it's happy. My all-wheel-drive still works, and the tranny still shifts through the whole range, and pretty much feels the same as before the VSS failed, except I can't tell if my lock-up clutch is working. I don't know when I hit 55 so it's hard to watch for that small 250 RPM drop on the tac.

Would be nice if an online auto parts place had a picture of the part, so I could tell if I had the right one or not, but sounds like I must be close. :-)

~Brian