OBD2 Connection Problems 1999 Subaru Forester Limited

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AusTas75
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Location: Hobart Tasmania

OBD2 Connection Problems 1999 Subaru Forester Limited

Post by AusTas75 » Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:22 pm

I have recently purchased a 1999 Subaru Forester, And just when the car starts I get a check angine light come on for a minute or so then goes away.

So I thought just to be safe I would buy a OBD2 bluetooth ELM32 from memory that uses an app on your phone and I could not get it to connect to the phone. So I did a bit of reading on the net and some say the 1999 forester is OBD2 compliant and some other sites say I need a subaru dealers reader ?

So I thought what the hell I will buy another OBD2 reader that states it does all cars from 1996 upwards. Has a cable conected to a led screen with menu buttons etc. I pluged it in turned the ignition so all acccesories lighted up and scanner lighted up followed the instructions.
First display said CAN OBD2 I pressed enter,
Second display showed SCAN VPW, THEN SCAN PWM, Then SCAN CAN, Then SCAN KWP 2000 and last it did a SCAN ISO9141 PROTOCOL it took about a minute to do this scan then came back with LINK ERROR tried doing this several times but still the same thing so I have given up.

Is a 1999 subaru Forester 2.0L Limited OBD2 Compatible or am I wasting my time ? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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pitrack_1
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Location: ACT

Re: OBD2 Connection Problems 1999 Subaru Forester Limited

Post by pitrack_1 » Tue Dec 11, 2018 11:03 pm

Hi OzTas75,

OBD-II (and OBD preceding it) originated in the USA.

1) "since 1996" means in the USA because that's when OBD-II was mandated in the USA
2) Oz's version, basically compatible with it, was mandated from 2006 for petrol and from 2007 for diesel passenger vehicles.

So your 1999 almost certainly doesn't have OBD-II. However it likely has one of the Subaru protocols and there are readers and programs available for that. I haven't played around with them because I don't have a Subaru that old.I think the Subaru system was called "SSM" (Subaru Select Monitor). Some programs that can either communicate and/or help are Romraider (I think mostly for uploading/downloading ECU reprogramming) and FreeSSM. You may or may not need a different scan tool because of the particular pin it may use as if not OBD-II, the connectors were not standardised between companies (and even if they are it may use pin 7 the K-line which is not usually used on the el-cheapo connectors).

It may be possible to get a program on e.g. Android marketplace that will read out the older cars, I don't know.

Maybe someone else with more knowledge/skill with these things can chime in here?

Best of luck,
Patrick
Ex- 2010 Forester Diesel

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L-Rex
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Re: OBD2 Connection Problems 1999 Subaru Forester Limited

Post by L-Rex » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:17 am

If yours is pre-OBD, it will have the green connectors under the steering column.

Here is the procedure for the early WRX (Forester is the same process).

https://uk.subaruownersclub.com/forums/ ... entry11088
L-Rex

1992 L-Series Wagon, which used to be EA82 auto.

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AusTas75
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Location: Hobart Tasmania

Re: OBD2 Connection Problems 1999 Subaru Forester Limited

Post by AusTas75 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:56 pm

Thanks for the help guys.

Pitty I was of the impression that they were OBD2 and was looking forward to using my phone to check error codes. But oh well the my outback had the old OBD1 system so time to start counting flashes :roll:

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