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.
99 Subaru legacy Outback /w automatic transmission. The automatic transmission dos not engage when placed from P to D, or disengage from gear when vehicle stop. I was on a slight hill stopped. Car disengaged from gear and I could not move. In D - when I released brake the car rolled backwards causing contact with the car behind me.
99 Outback - tranny wont engage when shifting into drive from park, nuetral, or reverse. Rev the motor and then C-lunk into drive after long delay. Got worse over time. Subaru and other service shops say it's common on 99's, probably the main pump seals, and the tranny has to come out to fix or replace. I changed the fluid twice in a week to "flush" it - much better now, almost "ok" (compared to $2500 fix) but still not "normal".
Approximately 6 months ago automatic transmission started having trouble shifting from reverse to drive. Car would hesitate and finally lurch forward. Took it to the dealer and was at first told they couldn't find anything, then was told I needed a new $3400 transmission. I was told to baby the car for as long as I could. 4 months later car became stuck in reverse and would not shift to drive. Took it to another service center (not the dealer) that specializes in Subaru's and was told this was a common Subaru problem with automatic transmissions. I was also told that I could have gotten at least 15 - 20,000 more miles out of the transmission is the transmission filter had ever been replaced and the fluid flushed. (up until this time I had always had the car serviced under warranty at the dealer). I am being told now that I will have to get a new transmission. This seems ridiculous being that the car is only 5 years old.
When pressure is released from the brake pedal and the vehicle is in drive it rolls backwards. Also, gears are slow to engage. Dealer determined that automatic transmission needed to be replaced.
My 1999 Subaru legacy Outback limited developed an automatic transmission problem characterized by hesitation and harsh, abrupt engagement of the transmission when starting from a stop. Originally the problem only arose as the car was placed from park or reverse into drive. I took it to armando's Subaru in canfield, oh and was told they could find nothing wrong. Later this problem became more frequent and pronounced. The engine would rev up and the car would jerk when the transmission engaged. Also, the problem started occuring not only when I originally set the at into gear, but also from stops after the car was already in gear. I would sometimes have to rev the engine more than once to get it to engage and it jerked. When I returned to the dealer I was told it might be the control model but probably would need a new transmission at a cost of several thousand dollars. I did not feel the car was safe anymore because I could not be sure whether the transmission would engage or hesitate when pulling into traffic. Incident date listed is approx time problem first developed, it got worse over time.
- Youngstown, OH, USA
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While driving on highway traveling at 70mph with cruise control on, had to apply brakes because of a slow moving vehicle in front. Vehicle locked and the rpms shot up high, and shifted into a lower gear. Shut off the cruise control at this time, and it was still locked into that mode.
While driving down road applied brakes and transmission jumped hard into a lower gear and then brakes would grab. Driving on highway, travelling 35mph with snow on the road and coming off a ramp, tapped the brakes, and all wheels locked up, and vehicle went out of control, hitting a pole. Contacted dealer. Dealer informed consumer that the transmission was causing the problem. Also, this was the second time vehicle went out of control. Was also told that transmission was being redesigned.
There was difficulty downshifting when the car was new. I thought it was just tight. In may, 1999, after extensive clutch use on a trip to san francisco, while driving on the freeway, the car would not shift from 4th to 5th or 5th to 4th. It seemed to be ok later. Within a couple weeks we noticed a terrible burning smell from starting on a hill and extensive clutch slippage. The clutch was eventually replaced in August, 1999, but the new clutch showed the same problems. The difficulty in shifting has gotten worse and my son was almost in an accident when he needed to downshift from third to second to change lanes in bad freeway traffic. He had been using the cluch a lot, because it was stop and go traffic. The problem of being unable to change gears has been getting worse and is very scary. The clutch continues to slip and burn. We have been attempting to get Subaru to buy back the car with no success.
When driving down hill, if you touch the brakes to slow the transmission abruptly downshifts causing the car to jolt sharply and startle the driver. The transmission will not upshift until throttle is applied for a moment which causes you to shoot up on the car ahead. Not applying throttle results in a lot of engine breaking and high RPM's. I feel this is very distracting and potentially dangerous if it happens on a slippery surface because the abrupt and unanticipated braking cvould cause a loss of control and/or skid. The dealer says there is no fix - it's designed that way. They also told me they had received other complaints.
A new design change with the chip within transmission is causing the vehicle to downshift when applying brakes.there is no way to fix it at present moment.
'slopecontrol' causes the car to downshift any time the brakes are applied on a slope of a certain pitch. This is an acceptable feature at speeds below 40 mph, but at freeway speeds the car reacts violently and decellerates to an unsafe speed with little or no warning to following traffic. Subaru is not advertising this feature and the car was sold to us with no disclosure concerning 'slopecontrol'. we have narrowly escaped two rear-end collisions and are selling the car back at a loss to purchase a safer stick shift.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Orlando, FL, USA