2012 Outback 2.5, approx: 75,000 miles. She was driving on the highway about 40 miles into a 65 mile trip. Check engine light and traction light came on, Cruise and Brake warning lamps started blinking. Apparently these lights normally come on all at the same time when the ECU sets a code of some sort. Seems excessive to me.
Scanned it and got a P0456 - Evap System Very Small Leak.
Checked the gas cap and it was on and tight. Removed it and checked the seal, and there was a fine silvery layer of what looked like lead all the way around the seal. In some spots it was fairly heavy. Wiped it off with a rag and some light degreaser, also wiped around the filler neck where the seal makes contact.
Reset the code and drove it about 30 miles while watching the monitors with my scanner and got the evap monitor to set about 5 minutes after I got on the highway. Rescan showed no new codes. Going to keep an eye on it and see if it pops up again.
This seems to be a common occurance with these newer cars, and it looks like most people just replace the gas cap.
Wondering if simply cleaning the seal on the gas cap is something that could be done periodically to prevent this problem.