This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Key will not remove from ignition when put in park. Happens about 40-60% of the time and must shift several times in and out of park to get key out of ignition. This is a known faulty part with several models (see Subaru Service Bulletin 16-112-18R) yet Subaru has not issued a recall. Replacement of known faulty part is at customer's expense. Safety issue - unable to exit car upon parking.
This 2015 Subaru accelerates without warning and without gas pedal input. The issue arose about a month ago (July 2021) and has persisted ever since. The vehicle will rev while in park and once put into drive will jolt aggressively and without warning. Additionally, the vehicle will enter low-power mode at random and decelerate to 15-20mph. This has caused multiple hazards when driving on highways/interstates where pulling over is difficult or impossible.
The contact's wife owns a 2015 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while reversing into the driveway, the vehicle inadvertently accelerated while the brake pedal was depressed. The contact stated he depressed the brake pedal all the way to the floorboard and he pulled up the parking brake to stop the vehicle from crashing into the wall. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer and the manufacturer were not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 53,002.
Merging onto a a 70mph highway and vehicle stopped accelerating around 45 mph. RMPs kept increasing, black smoke-type substance was coming out of the exhaust pipes when I tried to accelerate. No lights, warning noises, or any other indication of anything wrong with the car. Vehicle kept lurching and rev'ing but no acceleration.
Pulling into parking spot, vehicle started to stall, gave a little more gas and vehicle launched forward and hit cement pole. No damage to pole car damage around 8K.air bags did not deploy. This has happened when pulling out into traffic also
- Palmer, MA, USA
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The contact owns a 2015 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while driving, the vehicle experienced an unintended acceleration, causing the speed to increase to approximately 62 mph after leaving from a stop light. On another occasion while driving, the failure recurred and the driver downshifted to slow the vehicle which caused damage to the transmission. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer austin Subaru located at 8100 burnet rd, austin, tx 78757 and the manufacturer were notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 134,000.
I have experienced unintended acceleration during my ownership of my 2015 Subaru Forester xt while I was stopped on a city street. There is also a "lunging" feeling whenever you press the acceleration of the vehicle after proceeding from a complete stop.
The contact owns a 2015 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while driving approximately 70 mph, the speed suddenly decreased independently to approximately 20 mph. During the sudden lose of power, no warning messages were displayed. The vehicle was towed the local dealer schomp Subaru located at 580 S havana St, Aurora, co 80012 who was unable to duplicate the failure. There was no repair performed on the vehicle. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 70,000.
On 3 separate occasions, my car has shutdown on the highway at speeds around 75-80 mph. They all happened during road trips while my car was between 1/8 and 1/4 tank. The car has a noticeable drop in power, which feels like the transmission disengages and applying more gas doesn't help. This is incredibly dangerous!!!! luckily I was in the middle of nowhere on all 3 locations so I was able to pull over without incident. The car will not start, until more gas is put in the car. It's not out of fuel though because I tracked how much gas is in the car and how much I filled up after towing. This only happens after driving for multiple hours. I can run the car to empty if I'm just driving around town. A recall needs to be issued for this issue. I can see there have been tons of complaints around this issue.
Rough idling, uneven acceleration when stepped on gas, the car would accelerate, slow down, and accelerate again. Uneven deceleration when letting go of gas, the car would slow down, speed up, and slow down again. Seem like a software problem with computer.
Using cruise control at 77 mph in fast lane of I95 northbound from fl when, approx 10 miles South of va border, I felt a snap like pull in vehicle - kind of like a rope breaking when playing tug of war. The rpms increased and car rapidly lost speed and would not accurate. Fortunately, I was able to safely pull off I95. I noticed all lights on dash were on and car was running. I turned it off, approx 15 to 30 seconds after pulling off highway. After I turned car off, it would not restart. I was towed (innerstate towing) to a Toyota dealership in roanoke rapids, nc due to no Subaru dealership. Toyota tech looked at car and car started fine. The mechanic felt the transmission over heated. I then limped along to Subaru dealership in colonial heights, va. I traveled in slow lane on I95, at no more than 70 mph, with a full tank of gas and no issues. A Subaru tech drained fluid and found metal. It was determined the transmission needed replaced. While at Toyota dealership, I contacted the location where I purchased my Subaru Forester and that tech indicated it was a faulty fuel pump or transmission. When car lost speed, I had two fuel bars left. I am now getting the pump tested as well. Fortunately, my car is under warranty due to Subaru's extension but I find this unacceptable. I could have easily been killed in an instant. This is my 3rd Subaru and I have had more problems with this one than my two previous cars combined. Further, I keep going up in models and price point but the quality has declined. I am a loyal Subaru customer but I think this model may be my last. Because nothing seized up and no loud bang, jerking, or rattling; I am beginning to suspect it was the fuel pump and I coincidentally the bad transmission was discovered. No belts were broken and the snap like noise is unknown. I have no invoices yet and police were not called. I am driving a loaner car.
I had two instances where my car stalled on the highway while doing 50-60 miles an hour. The engine runs fine and revs go up when I push the accelerator, however the car does not speed up. Both the times I was able to move the car to the side of the highway, narrowly avoiding accidents. The engine died both times and after a period of time stranded on the side of the highway I was able to start the car and drive to my destination. I took it to a local dealership to get it checked out. The dealership claims they could not find what the issue is with the car. According to them, they idled the car for about an hour to warm it up and drove it for an hour. They repeated this one more time. However, they could not replicate the issue and cannot fix it. Apparently they performed a throttle body service on the car and charged me for it. Looking at the mileages on the invoice, the car went into the dealership at 91223 miles and went out of the dealership at 91255 miles. However when I picked up the car, the mileage on it was 91241 miles. So basically they drove the car for a total of 18 miles in 2 hours? I have two issues here. 1. I have a car that has a potential to put the safety of my family and I at risk in the middle of the highway. 2. the dealership claimed they tried to diagnose it but evidently have not even tried, if you look at the mileage. I would like to know how I can get this issue fixed and feel safe in the car.
On two occasions while driving roughly 65 mph the acceleration completely gave out in my car, as though the car went into neutral. I could press down on the accelerator and the RPM's would shoot up in the gauge cluster, but the car simply continued to slow down. I drifted into the shoulder, turned off the car, waited a few minutes, and turned the ignition. Both times, the car resumed driving normally. Both times I brought the car into a Subaru dealership, and both times they kept the car for a few days before saying they couldn't replicate the problem, and that there was nothing they could do. This has happened to other owners of Subaru Foresters from this period (~2015), and we have connected online to try and solve this dangerous defect. A link to our discussion is here: Https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/2015-2016-lose-power-as-if-transmission-goes-into-neutral-merged-thread.627562/
While driving on the highway at 65mph the car lost all power. The rpms went up like it was in neutral (car was still in drive). Fuel tank was down to a little less than 1/4th of a tank but still had 100 miles until empty. Adaptive cruise was engaged at the time (automated cruise applied accelerator that rose the rpms to 4500). This was in the middle of a 4 hour road trip on a flat straight road. Car exhibited no warning or lights until complete power was lost. I was able to safely pull over to the shoulder. All lights came on in the dash after I was stopped. I turned the car off and I was able to immediately start it again. Shortly after I filled up the tank and the car drove fine for the next hour until I was home. This was a scary incident that could be very dangerous. I noticed that this car has about a dozen other reports that are much like this in the past year.
My vehicle lost power while driving today on the interstate. I had cruise control set and the car was accelerating up a hill. It was like my car shifted into neutral. I was able to safely get to the shoulder and initially my car would not restart. I did get it to restart after a couple of tries and drove it home. I see a recall for a similar issue: 19V-856, but my car is not included. I have replaced the PCV already and this is the second time my car has done this toward the end of a long road trip (1000+ miles).
Going 70 miles an hour on interstate with cruise control on, when the gas light came on the car lost power like it switched to neutral. We made it to the side of the road and the engine shut off. This happened twice.
This is an intermittent problem. The vehicle surges sometimes and misfires when it cold starts. I took the car to the retailer, they did not found any issue. Only the differential oil was changed. They told me to return if the problem occurs again. Again it came back and intermittent. I am sure retailer will not be able to find the problem again. It is sudden loss of powers for couple seconds and it a hazard on the road. Hope there are recalls on this issue.
We were driving down the road approx 65 and the eye sight disabled, ABS disabled, traction control and hill assist stopped, cruise control stopped at transmission oil started flashing and then check engine light all came on we were driving down hwy 61 in AZ. Power to the vehicle slowed and we could not go faster than 40mph. The brake light switch was on recall and replaced 10/2019 and the 3xacr same thing happened except the check engine light didnt come on.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Little Rock, AR, USA