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?

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, 201312 yr by nickb21

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

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.

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.

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.