Subaru - Outback :: 1997 - Brake Light Keeps Coming On But Everything Seems To Be Working Fine
Dec 8, 2013
I have a 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback that has a brake light that comes on, then turns off under certain conditions. I have checked to make sure the brake fluid reservoir is full and there are no apparent fluid leaks from the calipers, lines or master cylinder. Also, the fluid reservoir level stays consistent. Braking power is normal and the ABS system seems operable (just got to test it with the arrival of Wisconsin winter).
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I'm on a road trip and was taking off this morning when my CEL, vehicle dynamics control light came on steadily, with a flashing brake light. It's Sunday and no repair shops are open and I need to drive from CO to S. Cal today. Is it safe to travel? From what I've seen, it could be a problem with the gas cap or ABS is disabled. Haven't had cruise control light come on (yet), but haven't tried driving anywhere.
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1999 Outback 2.5, idles fine but bogs or loss of power when stepping on throttle. Can "feather" or tease to get going and will hold rpm once it gets there...
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What is wrong with her car. It is an 05 subaru outback 3.0. She bought it 4 months ago. A week ago the battery died at red light. It tested bad and was replaced. Then yesterday it died at stop sign. Jumped it and died in 5 seconds. Before dying, car would not rev. Jumped it leaving cables on for 5 minutes since battery was almost drained. She made it half mile back to office and coasted into lot. Battery tested good but drained and was fully charged. Alternator tested 7 times to be certain. We bought a 10A multimeter (our town has no 20A).
Tested for parasitic drain. No results. We took Alternator off and tested a couple more times. We took out non essential fuses to be safe. Nothing was left running. There was a phone charger that has been plugged in for the whole four months. She took it out for good measure. Starter tested good. 3 people said battery cables are good. They appear to be non corroded and tight imo as well. They checked fuel pump. All was well.
She wants to go on vacation for the 4th but is scared to try. Mechanic friend said wait until it happens again, go to o reileys and demand them replace the battery as it has to be bad even if testing good. I'm not sure of this is the correct approach, but what else is there? One online mechanic said a voltage test on electrical system is next step but only a few select mechanics even know how to do it such as one that specializes in electrical wiring or something like that.
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I have a 2002 Subaru Outback. The rear right brake light housing cracked, and filled up with water, shorting the bulbs. I thought I was clever in taking the light unit off, draining the water, changing the bulbs, and caulking the crack with silicon. This worked for a while, then the battery died. I couldn't really figure out why - it was a year old, and had no prior issues starting the car. I swapped out the battery for a brand new one, and that seemed to solve the issue for a week. Then the car refused to start all over again. I remembered the brake light, checked it - filled again. So I replaced the unit and the pig electric line, and charge the battery. This seemed to solve the problem, but then the car failed to start after about 3 weeks.
One additional detail is the dial light switch on the driving shaft. One is able to turn this to adjust light settings. Regardless of position, the lights turn off when I turn off the car. However, failure to start seems to be additionally related to the position of this switch; if it's switched all the way back towards the driver the car appears to start consistently for weeks on end, BUT the tail lights fail to turn on in this position (though the brake lights work). Alternatively, dialing the switch all the way away from the driver turns on the tail lights, but seems to be related to battery drain.
I've checked the health of the battery and the contacts - everything checks out. At this point I'm wondering if it's an electrical fault or the alternator.
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My 2010 Subaru Outback recently surprised the hell out of me by simultaneously turning on the brake warning light, the traction control light, the check engine light and (just for a bonus!) disabled my cruise control while flashing the cruise control light. I pulled over, quickly surmising that all of those systems could not have failed at 70 MPH without instantaneous death to either me or the vehicle. Both apparently still being alive, I tried turning the car on an off to reset the lights. No go. Subaru was not going to miss this chance to get me to the dealership! (who I had avoided to this point!) As I was far away from home and the car being very healthy, it seemed, I decided to drive on. I proceeded to put a couple of hundred more miles on the car before I got back to town.
My car had 39,000 miles on it, 3,000 miles beyond the warranty end. I learned that I have an error code of P0171, "Fuel Trim Malfunction (Air/Fuel too lean)". So I guess I'm wondering about a few things...why would this sensor set off every light on my dashboard and disable my cruise control? Seems a bit overblown for running a bit lean. My gut tells me Subaru has a sensor/software problem they are not owning up to. I'm a big fan of conspiracy theories and this really smells like one...
Second, jeez, I'm only 3K miles over warranty, don't you think they'd cut me some slack. I mean I love my Subaru, or did anyway, until this happened. Now it's just another POS car that breaks for no apparent reason...
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I drive a 98 Subaru Forester and last month the village cop pulled me over for having no brake lights. It turned out to be a blown fuse for the brake lights so I replaced it, problem solved. Well, I got pulled over by the same cop, in the same place tonight. Blown fuse for the brake lights. It seems like a fuse should last more than a few weeks. Is there a problem which would over tax the fuse?
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When I turn my 2005 Subaru Outback sharply, especially when in reverse, it seems to brake without my touching the brake pedal. About the same time it started, the automatic transmission would give a slight jump when shifting into or out of neutral. Took it to one shop, they said I needed a new transmission to install. Took it to another shop, they fixed my differential. But they didn't fix the seeming braking. The nearest dealer is 150 miles away and I haven't been able to get there at the right time on a weekday.
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I recently bought a 1997 Subaru Outback. There is a burning smell sometimes and can't quit put my finger on any specific time that this occurs. Also, I find the heat is really crummy. Takes a very long time to heat up and never gets really warm. I might add that when I bought this car the air conditioning "condenser" was not hooked up. It came with the car and looks like a small radiator. Could this have anything to do with either problem?
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I own a 97 outback with an 07 engine 5 speed manual. It wont stay in 3rd or 4th gear and is getting worse what exactly is the problem?
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2005 Subaru 2.5 Limited Outback. If I drive my Outback for over an hour, when I make sharp turns at a low speed in a parking lot my front end doesn't seem to turn right. As a I turn it seems like maybe the front differential is not working right, both wheels want to spin a the same rate. what could cause this?
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My 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R (bought in Feb ’11, and has 4k miles) has already had several issues in its short life. In just the past week I've noticed a sloshing noise coming from the gas tank. I first heard the noise when I was backing out of my driveway. I also notice the sloshing sound whenever I go over a bump or come to a quick stop. To determine where exactly the noise was coming from, I parked the car, turned off the engine and I pushed on the rear bumper to make the car move up and down. After doing this I determined that the noise is definitely coming from the gas tank.
Is it normal to hear gas sloshing around in the gas tank when driving? Could there be something wrong with the gas tank?
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I recently rebuilt a 97 Subaru Outback Legacy, and everything was fine however, whenever I've taken it on the highway, I began noticing a distinct odor of burnt oil. Last night I got home and I actually began seeing smoke. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that oil was running down the differential, dripping onto the power steering and then onto the exhaust. When I looked at the flywheel it had no oil on it so I'm assuming it's not engine oil, however the oil that is dripping looks like engine oil (Im using mobile 1 full synthetic). The fluid levels are all ok, transmission levels ok, engine oil is a little more than full( I added 1 gallon before starting it up for the first time) and there is differential oil, but I know the smell of differential oil, and the oil that was dripping down the differential was not differential oil.
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I have an 04 outback wagon with the right side headlight that has stopped working. I put a new bulb in but it still doesn't work. I tried swapping the fuse and the relay from the left side light but it still doesn't work. All the other lights on the car work. When I was poking around the connections with a meter the light flashed on/off a few times. Could this be a connection problem or something wrong with the rear headlight assembly?
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My Subaru just had the thermostat replaced, and it seemed to work until the wife took it she said it over heats when not driving the fans are working, it's over flowing out the reserve tank the fluid looked good when changed the thermostat so I don't think it's the head gasket my next guess would be either the water pump... After I last changed the thermostat and test drove it I felt the upper radiator hose it was hot but the bottom one was cool/warm.
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My Subaru Outback is dying on me when I come to a stop and has happened when just idling. I have been told it is the torque converter and replacement is 2 thousand.
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I have a 2000 Outback, 80K, and I've been having brake issues. The first thing I noticed was a burning brake smell. I pulled over and found that my two front wheels were very hot. I pumped the brakes a few times and let them cool down and drove on. Pulled over in a bit to check them and they were fine. Took the car to the dealer who said, "We can't really find anything wrong with the fronts, but the backs are sticking a bit and we fixed that." So, off I went. Of course, it happened again. Left front seemed the hottest, but this time I noticed that the rear wheels were warm as well. Took it in again. Again, "We don't know." "Could it be the calipers or the lines or the ABS chip," I asked? "Well, yeah, maybe the front calipers." So they replaced the front calipers.
Picked it up and noticed two things of interest on the print out: "Rear brakes hanging up," and the front pads are a 8mm and the rear at 3mm! Hm... Seemed fishy to me. I had all the pads replaced a year and half ago. The last set lasted 75K, so this is odd, as is the discrepancy between back and front. I had the dealer pull the service record. In May the rear were at 5mm. Two weeks ago they were at 3.5mm. Yesterday they were a 3mm. I asked, "What would cause that?" They said, "Well, probably whoever did your brake job didn't clean the brakes up well so they are getting stuck and wearing down." I took the car and drove 60 miles, mostly on the highway. Fronts wheels were cool. Rear wheels were warm to hot.
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Every once in a while in heavy traffic the engine overheats. I can't get out to check on the highway bit I suspect a an isn't on. I can drop the temp in the usual way of blasting the heat but I can also drop it precipitously by turning on the AC! It seems to stay down even if I turn the AC off - at least for a while. The radiator is new and it has plenty of fluid.
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97 Outback, 143 K, auto. 2.2. When in a tight turn in a parking lot or doing a U turn, the car lurches, like my p.u. does when in 4 wheel drive. Not as strongly, but it does not feel right. There is no CV joint noise, tires seem equally worn. The seller says it is tires, my experience with 5 different soobs says no and I never carefully match tire wear, ( I do not replace all 4)If it is not tires, what might it be?
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All of the sudden the remote to my 2009 Subaru Outback stopped working. The car doesn't respond at all. I mentioned this when I had the car in for service and they tested my remote. They detected a signal that it was sending out so that means something is wrong on the car side and the remote appears to be functioning fine. Unfortunately I only have 1 remote (bought the car used). I didn't have them look any further into it because they admitted that they don't know what the problem could be and it would take time to investigate.
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The car in question is a 1998 Subaru Legacy Outback. Just had the heads resurfaced and new gaskets, and timing belt. Runs great. Acceleration is good, stays cool. However, it has developed an intermittent knock/tapping. it sounds like its coming from the top end of motor. I added Marvel Mystery and the noise left for about a week but came back. Is this the beginning of the end? Or could it be a small problem involving the lifters/followers/valves?
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