'09 Leg: Flashing CRUISE light, CEL on, and icon with swervy tires on.

[NorthWet]

My time is short, so really hoping for a quick response.  This is my Teacher's car, and she is concerned over what it means.

 

'09 Legacy sedan, automatic transmission:  Driving in to work, when suddenly the cruise light starts flashing, the CEL comes on and so does some icon of a swervy car.  No obvious drivability problems.   

 

My initial guess was that the alternator had failed, but she said that it was only these 3 lights acting differently.  Second guess was something like a VSS signal failing.  Ideally, she would go have the codes pulled, but her schedule makes this pretty impractical.

 

Anybody recognize these symptoms?

[nickb21]

I will throw out a guess - might not help at all.

 

I believe I read that it's pretty normal on this gen when the CEL comes on that at least cruise and possibly stability control become disabled.

 

Also - you can pull the codes through the display on the dash.

 

Edit: Yay google:

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/99-do-yourself-illustrated-guides/19053-06-09-how-read-diagnostic-trouble-codes-dtcs.html

Edited September 3, 2013 by nickb21

[NorthWet]

Thanks for the info.  Time was too limited to do much more than get a general idea of how serious the problem is.

[Fairtax4me]

Loose gas cap?

These deactivate cruise and Traction control (the swervy icon) when the CEL comes on. Dunno if it can be reset without a scanner (possibly the secret handshake in the link above will have an way to do that). But you can unhook the battery negative for a few minutes and that should clear the codes and re-activate the cruise and traction control. Find out what the CEL code is first.

[NorthWet]

Yeah, she just had a lot of commitments today, plus a 50 mile drive through near-nowhere to get home later tonight.  It sounds like something at least limpable.  I will get her to have it scanned tomorrow... after our first day with the students back.

 

Thanks again for indulging my asking rather than taking the time to research.

[Nbe1210]

My wife's 09 forrester did the same thing.  She had not put the gas cap on.  It was inside the door but not screwed in.  I breathed a sigh of relief and then laughed at her for being careless and then ran before she hit me with something.  Good luck.