oianj Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Hi Gents - I own several Subaru Legacy. Most of them are 2010-2014 Legacy. I currently have one Outback and a couple of newer legacy's, but most of them are this Gen. I own a business and all of my employees drive these cars. Needless to say I spend a ton on repairs. I noticed on youtube that other models of subaru have a way that you can get the codes without a scanner by doing a bunch of steps. ON the WRX of the same year the guy would turn the car on and then hit the info button four times, move the headlights on and off a few times and the codes would display on the main screen. can anyone share these steps for the 2010-2014 legacy? It would be so great to be able to pull my own codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubaboo Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Sorry no help, first I've heard of pulling codes on our cars without a reader. Interested to know how as well! That being said, if you own more than one, a reader, even a cheap generic one, should pay for itself. Not to mention your other cars with OBD. I have a Tactrix cable and Romraider on a laptop I can get a lot of data with, but an app on your phone like Torque and a bluetooth OBD dongle is cheap and great for most diagnostic jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oianj Posted July 4, 2021 Author Share Posted July 4, 2021 yes, wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to have these scanners and the car just gave us the codes. lolol. That makes sense to me. I don't htink I can post links in a forum like this so I won't try. But if you just go to Youtube you can put in "subaru pull codes without reader" and you will see a few videos that shows you how to pull a few codes off. Very interesting. I would be willing to spend a few bucks to get something to hook up to a laptop. I went to ebay and it had a Tactrix cable but it was like 330 bucks. I am wondering if there is anything really cheap if nobody knows how to pull the basic codes without a scanner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubaboo Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 (edited) Wow are Tactrix cables $330 already?? I think they were around $100 when I got mine and I felt they were expensive then lol! There are replica Tactrix cables and other cable and bluetooth options that work with FreeSSM that may come out cheaper, but I dont know much about those, sorry. Our more experienced members should be able to help when they see this. EDIT: how about generic standalone code readers? Anything on the top seller list on Amazon should be ok with pulling OBD codes. And if you have an Android phone or tablet, you can use the cheap $13 bluetooth readers with an Android app like Torque for code reading too. Edited July 4, 2021 by Scubaboo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moral hazard Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Wow are Tactrix cables $330 already?? I think they were around $100 when I got mine and I felt they were expensive then lol! I've got a genuine tactrix , but if that ever fails I'm buying one for 1/10 of the price on AliExpress https://m.aliexpress.com/wholesale/tactrix-cable.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coco26 Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 There is a button sequence to pull codes without a reader in our cars, unfortunately it's only for codes coming from the cluster. None for any other sources around the car will show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastixx Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 I've got a genuine tactrix , but if that ever fails I'm buying one for 1/10 of the price on AliExpress https://m.aliexpress.com/wholesale/tactrix-cable.html I went down that rabbit hole and decided that they aren't worth it. They like to self destruct after a few uses and require some mods to get working properly. I would NEVER trust one for writing to the ECU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aphex28 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 I'm confused. OBD code readers are $30 on amazon? There are hundreds of options including some that use bluetooth to your phone as well as the generic kind that uses a cord. I mean yeah, being able to read it on a screen in the car is nice, but for $30 it isn't worth the hassle to even research Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootyologist Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 you don't need a tactrix cable for pulling codes. a $20 amazon OBD2 bluetooth scanner works great Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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