00' Outback, check engine light

[freakmech]

hello, this is my first post here but im a regular on modelling forum.

So... this started about a year ago. Check engine light came on. uh oh haha. I changed the plugs and did simple tune up like oil, filters etc... no more light and ran fine for about 2 weeks then went to hell and ran really rough and light came back on (note it is now at about 90k miles). took it to Suby dealer in New Orleans, and they said it was a bad knock sensor. did some work and again fine. 6 months had past and we ran it alot due to Katrina (7k in about 2 months) but no problems. Now we are in Maryland and its been acting up. We took it to a Delaware dealer and they said need major tune up, oil every where etc... So they did some work and it was fine. after about 3 weeks it now seems every other day the Check Engine light will come on and it will run like crap (no excelleration etc), but the next day it will be fine and no engine light. Im sick of these dealership A-holes and want to know whats up? any ideas? PS this is an Auto tran car and i keep saying its got to do with the Tran but dealer says no. Thanks for your time!

Chad Repaal

[StNicholas]

There are only a hundred or so reasons the CE light can come on. Each time the CE light has come on, it may be the result of a different problem. The simplest (and very common) problem is a loose fuel cap.

Many of the auto parts stores (Advance, O'Reilly, etc.) offer to check your codes for free (in the anticipation of selling you the parts to fix it) as the technology has been standardized. You can buy a code reader for your car, too. Check out:

http://www.obdii.com/

Nick

[BlueRoo'02]

I've had a similiar problem with mine. The diagnosis is that I need new rear oxygen sensor and new catalitic converter. The consensus is that only a factory part will guarantee that the engine light will remain off after problem is fixed.