98 Legacy SS Issue, Need Help!

[BrendanS]

About a month ago a friend and I pulled out the motor on my 98 Legacy GT to replace the clutch and cam seals. Just a little background info: I am not a mechanic, just an enthusiast. However, my friend was a Subaru Tech for almost 8 years, and has done many jobs like this in the past.

 

The job went well and we didn't have any issues until we put the motor back in. After the engine was back in and everything was tightened up and fluids were filled I took the car for a spin and realized that my speedometer wasn't working which threw a CEL code P1540. After doing a search, I found that this code was for the speed sensor in the transmission. The next obvious step was to replace the speed sensor in the transmission which we did. After replacing that sensor a CEL came on for P0500 and the speedometer is still not functioning. The car is running poorly, the tach will drop very low when idling and has even stalled on me once or twice. I have read that this is normal with the P0500 code because the car is in "limp mode". Before taking the motor out, everything in the car was running smooth and I had no obvious electrical or sensor issues.

 

My questions are: has anyone experienced this before? How do I troubleshoot the P0500 code? Do I need a new ECU? What steps should I take?

[snm95ls]

Make sure you didn't pinch any wiring between the engine and transmission.

 

Make sure the engine to chassis grounds are attached and in good working order.

 

Otherwise, good luck.

[BrendanS]

Thanks! I will check everything over and report back, hopefully with good news.

[Legacy_Guy]

Could be a loose connection causing your problems. Check out these videos, they solved my speedo problems.