Barca had won six on the trot before their trip to the Mestalla but struggled to get any rhythm going in the face of intense pressure from the hosts.
Keeper Victor Valdes made some decisive interventions and all Valencia lacked was the cool finishing of top scorer David Villa, who failed to recover from injury in time for the game.
"Valencia have very good players and a very good coach and caused us a lot of problems," Barca coach Pep Guardiola told reporters. "We have to be happy with the point."
Deportivo Coruna are fourth on 15 points, the same as third-placed Sevilla, after Juan Rodriguez's spectacular strike gave Depor a 1-0 home win over the in-form Andalucians.
The midfielder crashed in a 30-metre drive in the 38th minute and Deportivo's well-organised defence kept the visitors at bay to end Sevilla's run of seven consecutive wins in all competitions.
Earlier, Gonzalo Higuain came off the bench to settle Real Madrid's jitters with a superb lob that completed their victory over Valladolid.
Manuel Pellegrini's side, who were without injured forward Cristiano Ronaldo, had suffered their first defeat of the campaign in Sevilla last time out.
"Scoring four goals is good for the team and the fans," said Pellegrini. "We made a couple of errors that allowed Valladolid into the game but it would be wrong to say our defence was weak.
"In general we played a good first half but in the second we were inconsistent."
