So you will have to forgive the grainy picture I'm about to post. My parents are in the mountains in Colorado driving back to Minnesota. The "brake" light, and "traction control" light are on. The traction light is flashing. I'm not actually with them which makes this tricky to diagnose. Any help is appreciated. They are about 40 minutes from civilization currently. What is this potentially?
People on other forums were saying the dealership told them to check the gas cap. Sounds goofy and totally unrelated, but leave it to Subaru...
...and if that other light that's on is the CEL, they're saying that it disables TC and cruise when it comes on as a safety measure.
This seems ridiculous. Not that it was the problem, just the fact that it could be. Frickin Subaru...
I learned something new on this topic about a month ago. My wife's outback had this issue, and I had known about the gas cap issue. That didn't solve hers. She'd just gotten a new battery and the 2nd cause of this can be faulty battery connections. I took off the terminals and used a fine wire brush and that took care of it.
This happened to me in the Forester ('14 FXT) once after I jumped a co-worker's vehicle, and then again after I had to get a jump. Put in a new battery and no more disco party on the dashboard. It also put the car in a limp mode of sorts, where I could only stay in the "Intelligent" mode (No S or S#).
I've actually seen the gas cap issue in many different makes and models. Normally it doesn't light a bunch of stuff up, but its such a normal issue that if I ever see a check engine light on in any vehicle that's the first thing I check.
I had the same symptom on my old sube when a cylinder would misfire on startup. Glad that's not the case in your car!
Guess it's because it's a pressurized fuel system, and if it's loose or cracked it causes vapor leak.
