Hi – Mid January, many of you were following/helping me find and fix a Check Engine Light fail. That problem meant I was not going to be able to get the van smog checked. I finally resolved all issues (well, mostly). Thought I would explain what had to happen. I wish this was a tale where I learned some great secrets, have become an expert, and can pass my wisdom on to others.

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Nope.

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I finally called the original installer in El Cajon, CA, and he agreed to see me and fix the issues – to his credit. So I made the 5 hour drive down (took 7 hours as I had to cross the LA basin north to south amid morning traffic). His guys got right on the issue. Turns out there were two problems – a connector into the main connector cluster – pin 14 I think - in the Instrument panel was broken. And – very key – it was also missing the wire that should have been in that slot (presumably providing power to the CEL). Once that all got rectified, I was good to go.

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Bonus – El Cajon has a couple state certified smog shops and are very familiar with this conversion. 100% legal in case you were wondering, and they don’t need that silly Sticker/bar code, as the engine is clearly marked indicating it meets/passes the CARB directive. So, while we were down there, we were able to get smog certified, no problem. Then another 6 hour drive home . Good Times.

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Only took two+ weeks of futzing around to get to this point.

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Thanks to all who offered support. Hope I can one day return the favor.

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Terry

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From: tcline001@... <tcline001@...>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2024 3:45 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [SubaruVanagon] Engine light check - Smog Check purgatory

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Thanks Christoph – I am still learning/looking for a solution. Do you (or anybody) know which pin from the ECU I need to find? According to what I saw on Busaru.com, it should be part of connector F47, pin 19. Attached is the document from which I got this information. Check the bottom of the second page of this PDF

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If I have located this pin correctly (hard to know the orientation of the connector on the ecu), it has a red/yellow wire currently connected. A similar red/yellow wire can be found in the main VW cluster connection, but it is for coolant heating (per cluster images and VW information available), not anything to do with the CEL.

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I tried checking for voltage at that ECU pin, but got zero reading. This could be operator error (me!) as I am not sure the volt meter lead was getting any electrical connection in the first place. It’s a small opening, and the red/yellow wire is firmly seated within it. Not much room for a volt meter lead. I’ll try again later today.

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Thanks for the advice and knowledge. Am soaking it all up as fast/best as I can.

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tc

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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Christoph Pistor
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2024 4:18 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SubaruVanagon] Engine light check - Smog Check purgatory

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Just like Wayne says you need to run a long wire from the ECU CEL pin to the LED in the dash. You really want that also to check error codes. Just because the light is not on does not mean you don't have any error codes. this is a good site to understand which codes are allowed at the SMOG and which are not:

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Christoph

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On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 3:58?PM Wayne Sitarz <wesitarz@...> wrote:

What year 2.2? The ECU should have a CEL pin that should have certain voltages when on or off according to the pinout (Busaru.com) The CEL is likely wired through the black box upper left engine firewall. Do you have a labeled CEL in the dash cluster? Is there voltage at a repurposed wire at the 14 pin connector to the dash cluster when you turn ignition on? Did the CEL ever work? Ask the builder? If it's the bulb you could wire a LED somewhere on the dash.