2001 Subaru Legacy sputtered and CEL blinked, now normal and no light

Asked by apappone May 19, 2014 at 10:27 AM about the 2001 Subaru Legacy L Wagon AWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Two days ago I began driving and less than a half mile from my house, my car started puttering when accelerating and the CEL would blink and then go off.  I drove home and sat with the car off for a few minutes.  Then I started it back up, planning to go to a shop to have the code read.  But then it worked totally normally.  The CEL does not blink and is not on at all.  The engine is running normally.  Could this be a one-off misfire or just something that felt like it and I should forget about it or is something probably wrong that necessitates my following up?

1 Answer

10,535

You may still want to get the codes read, sometimes when you have a missfire (sounds like one from your description) it will store the code and not turn on the CEL (aside from the flashing when it happens) unless it starts to missfire again or on a regular basis. It should still have a "pending" code in the memory though that will tell you what was happening for sure. From there you should be able to tell if it's something you need to look into more or if it was just a one time deal.

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