VDC warning light AND flashing BRAKE light?

[akinneyww]

Wiring is all about a time vs parts trade off.

It sounds like the dealer doesn't want to or doesn't have the skills to track down where the fault is besides "the wiring harness", which is more than just a bit general.

A skilled electronics person could spend a day or two tracking down the problem and fix it directly without actually replacing the wiring harness. Odds are, this will cost considerably less than the $2700 quoted by the dealer. Probably closer to $1500 if it took two full work days.

Andrew

[Bobaru]

Thanks all, and mpnret in particular, for the advice, and the DTC codes and troubleshooting info.

The troubleshooting process for 1578 -> 1572 seems to match up with what my dealer told me they had done. I didn't receive the full details of the troubleshooting, but the conclusion was that it was lack of wiring continuity between the Body Integrated Unit and the ECM. In looking at the wiring chart, it seems to me that this is a specific cable, and not necessarily bundled into some massive wiring harness. But I need to investigate that further.

One other tidbit of info is that I just got back from a 5-day, 1200-mile road trip, and the lights never came on. What was different? Three things:

- vehicle was heavily loaded - this would have changed the suspension position/compression somewhat, possibly flexing the wheel sensor wires differently, and perhaps resulting in other subtle changes
- my wife was sitting in the passenger seat, so that the passenger-airbag sensing was activated
- the passenger seat was moved a bit forward from where it had been

Since then, the car has been unloaded, and I drove solo to work today. Still no lights. The seat is still in it's slightly forward position. After another day or two I'll see if moving the passenger seat back a bit causes the lights to return. (I'll also look into what module(s) or cabling are possibly under the passenger seat, to see if there is any possible logical connection between passenger seat position, and my wiring issue....)

[WHandVV]

I experienced exactly the same problem as described so meticulously by Bobaru in his original and subsequent posts: the flashing brake warning light and the solid VDC warning light would come on together after about 10 minutes of driving, and on a couple of occasions the AT Temp warning light came on as well when I had driven the Outback for a longer trip (> 45 mins, or so). I called the dealer in Redwood City and they wanted $150 to figure out what the problem was (the car is just out of warranty, with almost 39K miles on it). I did not take the car into the dealer.

After this issue had been going on for 4 or 5 days, I then discovered that the driver’s side low beam lamp was out. A day later I discovered that both brake lights were out. I have no idea when any of these bulbs failed; there appears to be no indicator in the ‘warning light cluster’ that tells you when either a headlamp or a brake light fails (strangely enough, my 1994 Lexus LS400 had these indicators… somewhat strange that the top-level trim version of the 2010 Outback does not).

In any case, the whole point of this post is this: as soon as I changed the three bulbs that had failed, the VDC and brake warning lights disappeared. After three 30-min trips since changing the light bulbs, the warning lights still haven’t come back on. I have no idea of the chronology of the bulb failures and the appearance of the warning lights. The only thing I know for sure is that the warning lights were coming on immediately prior to the bulb changes, and they stopped coming on immediately after the bulbs were changed.

I am not intelligent enough to determine any kind of cause and effect relationship here. I know that Bobaru had the self-healing version of this problem. I know that a lot of folks have posted about a connection between malfunctioning warning lights and defective gas filler caps. I just thought I would add to the database my own experience, for what it is worth.

[subiesailor]

By the way my buddy who owns a super high end custom car shop his specialty is custom electronics - the local dealers Ford, Mercedes, BMW and GM all take cars to his shop that are suffering from electrical issues they can't or won't spend the time to sort out.

My guess is that they bill the cars owner double the cost and only pay my buddy about half of what they are charging the cars owner. He really enjoys doing it even will go buy auction cars with low miles that dealers are dumping due to electrical issues - sort them out keep them for a year or so then sell them at near market value. My favorite one was a super nice cherry red top of the line Miata model with 6000 miles on it. Entire dash cluster was dead - note on the car at auction said dash will light up when fuse replaced but fuse will blow once the car is driven. He bought it for like $1400 - spent about 45 minutes fooling with it back at the shop. Turns out the back up switch on the manual shifter was faulty and would blow the fuse in the instrument cluster!!! He fixed the car drove it for a year then ended up selling it to a neighbor for $18000! Super Crazy nice car very good looking! He tossed on some racing springs and adjustable shocks for the neighbor at that price. I still see it even 5yrs later neighbor still has it!

HA HA

His current all time top favorite car is the Audi A6 he picks them up cheap does all the classic high dealer cost fixes - water pump leaky seals and some electrical fixes cleans up the interiors - drives them for a few months then sells them for near double what he put into them.

[OutbackUFO]

Nothing is more frustrating than intermittent electrical gremlins. Most, but not all, involve a loose/dirty connector/connections, loose/broken ground wires and bad switches.
I just can't fathom busted bulbs being the cause of half the dashlights coming on like a Christmas tree though...
The gas cap thingy happened to me too and I was amazed at the somewhat idiotic reaction of cruise control shutting down and half the dash light flashing like mad...
I guess the mothership feels we need protection from ourselves....

[Deputy91]

Take a look under the car. Tire guys arent always the brightest and I have had to fix crushed fuel lines brake lines and harnesses and even a post that went tbrough a fuel tank on an ambulance in the past when they were crushed by not using the proper points to lift the vehicle.

Mike

[flat4underpressure]

So today my 2011 2.5 auto was going down the highway at 75. Car started stumbling like it was running out of gas, vdc came on, the brake lift started flashing, then engine light, pulled off on the next exit, put it in park. Brake light and engine light went out but vdc stayed on. Never turning the car off, got back onto the highway and car ran fine for 5 miles. Went to gas station to put some gas in it. ( gas light had just turned on and computer said I had 70 miles to go) When turning the car back on, no lights, no issues. WTF?? Will take it to dealer in the next day or 2. Closest one is 60 miles away
Any ideas?