Flashing Cruise Light

Hillcountry

Forum Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Messages
54
Location
Central Texas, USA
Car Year
2004
Car Model
FXT
Transmission
4EAT
Howdy All,
on the highway a few days ago, using CRUISE. Exited onto a secondary road and CHECK ENGINE lit up. Watched & listened carefully for a mile or so, no other signs of trouble. Arrived & shut down.
Ready to return, normal start-up except the CHECK ENGINE light remained lit, and the CRUISE light was flashing; cycled the Cruise panel switch, no change. Everything else seemed normal so I headed for home. On the highway, could not turn CRUISE on or off, and it would not engage.
Anyone have experience with these symptoms?
TIA,
Hillcountry
MY04 FXT AT
 
The cruise in my 05 Outback works fine when my lights are off. Won't engage with the lights on. If cruise is on and I turn on the lights cruise cuts out.
Haven't bothered to sort it, if nothing else I recon driving on cruise at night is a recipe for dozing off! However, would be good to be able to cruise on the highway during the day with lights on.
 
$26 from eBay.

Mine does the same thing, I get a P0420 on highway runs, cat converter low efficiency. Then flash - no cruise. Motor runs like a pig for 150ks after a reset too.
 
taza said:
The cruise control won't work with the check engine light on. Seen it happen many times.
Click to expand...
hmmm. so CRUISE disables with any ECU'd drivetrain malfunction. I'd imagined a sensor used by by the CRUISE function had failed.
Either way, time to have a look at the codes.
Thx.
 
Update

Howdy All,
I found this Code:

P0442 - Evaporative emission control system malfunction

so, now need to learn what components this system has.
 
Gidday HC

Maybe you haven't done up your fuel filler cap properly/tightly enough? Or the seal is damaged; dirt on the filler lip?

According to the owner's manual, any of those will cause a malfunction.
 
Good call, Ratbag.
After your advice, I added that to my list of questions for this morning's appointment at the dealer's service department (they owed me one item post-sale). BTW, good staff at Austin Subaru - friendly, attentive, sincere. The service adviser pulled a scanner out of his own vehicle kit to check & clear codes.
Just the one, so we agreed that's a bit trivial for throwing a code, and I made a mental note to keep the cap & filler neck clean.
and to get one of the OBD scanners he's got :) He also had one of the mechanics spend a few minutes with me to discuss some suspension upgrades I'm thinking of. all together, time well spent at the dealer's ...
 
Sounds like you've found a good dealer, which is a change :)
I'd be keeping hold of that one for sure, as they are very few & far between :)

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Gidday HC

Hillcountry said:
Good call, Ratbag.
After your advice, I added that to my list of questions for this morning's appointment at the dealer's service department (they owed me one item post-sale). BTW, good staff at Austin Subaru - friendly, attentive, sincere. The service adviser pulled a scanner out of his own vehicle kit to check & clear codes.
Just the one, so we agreed that's a bit trivial for throwing a code, and I made a mental note to keep the cap & filler neck clean.
and to get one of the OBD scanners he's got :) He also had one of the mechanics spend a few minutes with me to discuss some suspension upgrades I'm thinking of. all together, time well spent at the dealer's ...
Click to expand...

Even I have to get something right, occasionally :rotfl:

Glad they were able to fix it so easily.
Back with my '93 Impreza (Roo1), that light coming on indicated the purchase of a new ECU, at around Oz$750 ... OUCH.
 
My 95 2.2 Liberty (Scooby) has a spasmodic engine light that I have been trying to track for about 2 years. The car doesn't have anything flash (i.e. cruise control or electric windows) - a very standard model - the engine light only comes on while driving and just flashes a bit, so have been told that the only way to diagnose it is when the light is on and the car is hooked to the diagnostic machine. Thank you Ratbag - I will investigate the fuel cap! Hopefully it's that simple!
 
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