I am in the process of buying a 2006 Subaru Tribeca, the car run great and has been well taken care of. On the way to sign the title and make the sale, the check engine light came on flashing intermittently as well as the anti skid light, the cruise control also was flashing and neither the skid or the CC we're functioning. I had driven the car earlier and had no lights on. Car ran very smoothly. Had a couple mechanics take a look and nothing seemed to be out of order and there were not codes coming up from the scan. Mechanic said it might be a tight valve.....anyone have any advice about what this might be? Love the car but don't want to get involved with something that's gonna be more trouble than it's worth.

Without codes, we can't help you in any way. The codes range from P0001 to P9999. There's 10,000 of them and it could be anything. 

 

Sounds like the safe bet is to not buy it. Honestly the H6's are very expensive to work on, and the Tribeca was a huge flop with limited resale value. 

 

GD

Flashing Check Engine light means a misfire

 

Cruise light will flash and system will be disabled whenever the Check Engine light is on, so that part is normal. I don't think the VDC light should, though.

 

 

Unless this was more of a "flicker" than a "flash". Could have an electrical gremlin...

Vdc would likely come on as traction control comes on whenever the mil is set.

As GD said, don't fall in love with this car. Seller can clear the codes so the light doesn't come on again for a few miles and by then you've bought someone else's issue.

Walk.

 

Flashing light means there's a multiple cylinder misfire - the other items were simply disabled due to that occurrence.

 

The probable history is that the seller/previous owner has seen this happen before, cleared the lights, and then told themselves "must have been bad gas" to feel good about selling it without disclosing anything. 

 

That alone is enough to walk - being a large unknown at best, or outright deception at worst. 

 

It could simply need spark plugs or valve covers resealed due to oil in the spark plug tubes.  Those commonly cause misfires, but so do plenty of other things.