Hi guys, finally getting settled in on W Coast and just wanted to say thanks again for all your help in finding our Subaru. The 2003 Subaru Outback H6 VDC we bought in N California before moving our here from the E Coast a) drove very smoothly has been a huge help in picking up all the light office furniture and supplies we had to buy for our office and home (I found the extra interior length of a wagon/crossover more helpful than the extra interior height of a small-mid SUV) . We were able to pick up every single thing we needed locally except for a couch set. It’s unbelievable what we were able to move with this car. I’ll post pictures shortly.

 

The car only needed the Serpentine belt replaced and wheel alignment and I also picked up a new set of tires. At 85K miles, we’ll probably also do the 90K servicing soon.

 

Twice while driving at faster highway speeds +75mph (the car is smooth enough on smooth highway that you really don’t feel the speed and everyone drives +70 here to begin with), I saw the VDC and ABS indicator lights switch on on the dash. Both times there were some cracks/bumps in the highway which jarred the car and may have triggered the lights. The lights stayed on after coming off the highway, but next time car was started, the indicator lights stayed off after start.

 

Why did the lights come on? Did the systems switch off because of the higher speed or because of a bump/crack in the road jarring the car? Does this mean that the VDC and ABS systems were temporarily disabled? If so, did they need to be switched back on? I’m going to check out the owner’s manual as well, just haven’t had time working crazy hours and getting settled.

The comon denominatir here is road vibration. On some cars the ABS light coming on during a bad stretch of road is not unusual. I havent heard this issue on a subaru, so we will take it as an incident.

 

I would look at the wheel speed sensors and the tone rings. Its possible a senosr is loose or a hairline crack in a tone ring, add in the rough road at highway speed, it can knock the air gap out of kilter.

 

nipper