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.
The engine will randomly loose power. This has happened three times now. You must coast to a stop, turn the key off and try to restart the car. Sometime it will take several tries to restart. I see this as a real safety concern in heavy traffic. Especially so if heavy traffic makes it impossible to reach the side of the road safely. The service code points to the throttle peddle position sensor. Reading some of the internet forums it seems to be a fairly common issue. Of course internet forums must be considered carefully. However with the above said I see this issue as a real safety concern. Not only for my safety but those around me if this happens in heavy traffic. Thank you
The accelerator pedal position sensor is faulty. It is prone to wear in these vehicles based on my research. This caused my car to go into limp-mode on the highway, rapidly cutting my speed in half. The accelerator provides no response until vehicle was restarted. The ECU put out the code P2138 for loss of voltage in throttle system.
I experienced my gas pedal no longer working while driving, car was driving well, on a residential street going about 25 mph, then there was suddenly no gas/acceleration, had to coast to a stop. The check engine light came on, cruise control light was flashing. About 2 hours later the car was running normal again. The diagnosis code given was P2138 throttle/pedal position sensor/switch D/E voltage correlation. It is very scary and unsafe to suddenly not have power while driving, will be driving on the outside lane until the problem is fixed to I can get out of traffic safely.
I was driving straight down the highway going about 50-60 mph and out of nowhere my throttle peddle failed to work. My car immediately slowed down to a crawl and I had to quickly find a safe place to pull over on a road with barely any shoulder. Luckily not many cars were on the road so I did not have to worry about a pile-up accident. The check engine light came on and stayed on while the cruise control light began to flash on and off. After turning the car off and waiting a few minutes I decided to try and drive the car again since I was in an area with no service and it was below freezing outside. The car started and I could use the throttle peddle and the car drove with no problem for about 5 miles before the same exact thing happened. Luckily someone drove by and I was able to catch a ride with them to get service and call a tow truck. This issue came out of nowhere with no prior issues to the car. This is a very dangerous issue that could result in not only an accident on the road because of the rapid speed decrease but also risks leaving people stranded like I was.
At highway speed the vehicle suddenly lost power. The check engine light came on solid with the cruise control light blinking. The car did not respond to any inputs from the accelerator pedal and began to decelerate. Upon stopping and shifting into neutral the car held itself around 2800rpm with no accelerator input from the driver. After reading the check engine light code, the car gave a P2138 indicating a problem with the pedal position sensor.
- Southington, CT, USA
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Three times the engine RPM's speed up and the throttle peddle fails to work, the only way to reset this is pull to the side turn car off and it usually but not always resets. This has happened twice while car was in motion and once while car was in park. Luckily I was in a 40 mph zone when this happened and not on the highway. I have had the car looked at and it has a engine code that says there is a problem with the throttle system. It's only a matter of time that this happens when the car is in motion and throttle peddle is unresponsive and unable to pull to side of roadway.
The same problem has happened several times over the past several months, randomly, while vehicle is in motion, both on highway and on auxiliary roads at lower speeds. On 01/20/2020, while driving ~65 mph on the highway, suddenly, the car lost power--although my foot was on the gas pedal, no acceleration was possible. The car "locked up, " and began to decelerate, since no gas was available. The check engine light came on, with the flashing cruise light simultaneously on. Luckily, I was able to move the car across the highway and stop on the shoulder. The car was turned off, and I re-started and drove away. When this same type of event occurred another time, on 02/01/2020, the car was in motion on an auxiliary road, ~30 mph, in heavy traffic. The car again locked up, no gas was available--the car was only able to drift very slowly. I was able to make it to a stop light, which, luckily, was a red signal. At the stop, I shifted the gear into neutral. While in neutral, the engine revved to ~2500 RPM, even though no pressure was being applied to the accelerator pedal. I had to restart the car twice, but the problem didn't clear right away. After a few minutes, it did. In the several other instances when this very unsafe condition of loss of power/acceleration and revving in neutral has occurred, when the car resets, the check engine light also resets, so the code cannot be read in time. Following the most recent incident, I was able to read the error code: P2138 throttle/pedal position sensor/switch "D"/"E" voltage correlation. I have read many other reports to NHTSA and on Subaru online forums of this very same problem. I have read that it may have been corrected on subsequent year models, but not on the 2005 and 2006, and dealers don't fix. This is a very serious, dangerous, life-threatening condition. I am afraid to drive my car. Please investigate. Should be a recall.
P2138 check engine code. Vehicle lost all power while traveling 55mph in 4 lanes of traffic. Gas pedal didn't work and the engine was racing. Thankfully I was able to coast over into the left turn lane. The vehicle would only move forward while in drive and at a slow crawl. I was able to get a large enough window to crawl across the other 2 lanes and crawl into a parking lot. I ended up getting towed from there. When checking for repairs I had a smaller 'Subaru only' repair shop tell me this is a very common problem and I am lucky no one was injured. They said they repair 1 to 2 of these each month. My local Subaru dealer says they've never heard of the error code or my specific problem. They don't even stock the part I need. The internet has many reports of my specific scenario. This seems like a serious safety concern to me. Something is not right here but no by seems to be doing anything about it.
Error code P2138, lots of people are talking about how Subaru is not fixing or calling out the defect in the accelerator pedal position sensor. Issues with connections of the plug, water/dirt causing corrosion to not allow it to work, and dealers not fixing the real issue. I was driving and slowing down as light was red but then it changed to green. I pushed gas and wouldn't allow me to accelerate and check engine light came on. 30 seconds later pretty much all of my indicator lights came on. Cruise light was even blinking. Videos I've been watching talk about fly by wire pedals and how it puts cars into limp mode. Which is what it was doing when I first try to accelerate. I cleared a lot of codes by doing the cruise button reset which for now turned most lights off but still have limp mode issues when first trying to accelerate after a complete stop.
Car will suddenly go limp. With no warning or anything the car is still running but there is no throttle or throttle pedal response. You can floor the gas pedal and nothing happens. It has happens while driving down a road and all you can do is hope that you can get to the side of the road. I was driving down a country road when this last happened. I came to a turn where you either have to stop or merge to the right onto another road. As I went to accererate there was no response from the car. I looked down and the check engine light is on as well as the cruise control light is now flashing. I tried turning the car off and back on several times. I finally shut the car off for 3-5 minutes before the throttle would respond. If this happened on the a busy freeway with heavy traffic, it could be very dangerous!!
While in motion, rapidly applying the brakes causes check engine light to come on, the cruise control indicator flashes and control of the accelerator pedal lost. The car essentially becomes limp and is not able to receive input from the accelerator pedal at this time. Turning the car off and letting it sit for 30 seconds and then turning the car back on re-provides control to the accelerator pedal. At this time the check engine light is still on. After a couple of days the check engine light goes off. My local authorized Subaru shop traced the issue to a faulty accelerator pedal sensor. The entire assembly was replaced and the car is operating nominally. Two two instances where this caused a serious concern was when I was left stranded in the middle of an intersection when a car in front of me slammed on it's brakes and chose to turn right instead of the intended direction of travel straight through the intersection. The second time was to avoid an animal running across the road in front of the car. In both instances the car was moving at roughly 25mph.
While driving car check engine light will come on and cruise control light will flash. Car goes into limp mode and the accelerator will not longer respond dropping the cars speed drastically. This can happen on any road, at any speed, and any weather condition. Temporary fix is to stop and cycle the cars power three or four times. More permanent fix is to replace the pedal assembly-accelerator at a cost of $199. Happened a few dozen times before I finally got the pedal assembly replaced. Issued started early 2016, and replaced the assembly in 2018.
Accelerator pedal goes limp and unresponsive at random moments including highway driving. It has happens more and more often and other Subaru owners have said the same. It seems to happen the most during colder weather and the cars gas pedal becomes completely unresponsive and requires the car to be pulled over over and turned off to sit for a some time. When putting the car into park the rpms jump up and rev higher to around 4000, unsure of what's causing it.
While traveling at highway speed the gas pedal quits working and car goes into limp mode, this is where car travels at 30 mph with no control from the gas pedal, the check engine light comes on and the cruise control light flashes, the only way to reset the fuel pedal is to pull over, shut car off for 1 min. And restart pedal will work but check engine light and cruise control light will flash until error code is reset. Code is P2138. This may fix pedal temporary but it will happen again. When pedal quits working this is very dangerous in heavy traffic. This has happened to the car at leased 20 times, have not found a permanent fix yet. Needs to be recalled and repaired
On street, from park with engine idling, car in drive, accelerator pedal dead at first, then high RPM 3000+ with pedal released. No control of engine RPM. Cel and cc illuminated on instrument panel. Put transmission in neutral. Killed ignition switch. Engine shut down. Restarted engine and RPM was normal. Very frightening! found dtc P2138 acc pedal sensor failure. Called Subaru support, no such record of failure. Called dealer from which car was purchased, answer was bring car in and will try to repair. This is a serious failure and danger. Please see this failure on google. Many people are reporting the same issue. I am apprehensive to put this car on the road especially with other people in it. An investigation should be pursued in these drive by wire vehicles as this car is. Please take this seriously.. thank you
While driving on the highway, the car went limp and lost all accelerator function. Check engine light illuminated and cruise control light was flashing.thankfully, was able to coast to the shoulder of the highway without incident. Diagnosed with code P2138 and failed pedal position sensor. Based on Subaru Outback forum searches and identifix database, this issue is very common for 2005 and 2006 model year Subaru. The pedal assembly was redesigned in 2007 but is not reverse compatible. This is a significant safety issue which Subaru of America refuses to recognize.
My car has been experiencing episodes where it suddenly stops accelerating while I am driving. This has happening both on city streets, and on the highway. It's mostly about 5 minutes after I initially turned the car on, but not always. I will be driving normally and all of a sudden the check engine lights and cruise control lights will come on and then the car will instantly stop accelerating with no additional warning. The most recent time this has happened, my car actually sped up without me pressing on the gas pedal. The code reads P2138. After turning my car off and waiting a few minutes it drives fine (although sometimes the lights are still on). I have had a Subaru dealership check out the problem and after looking at the car for about one week they could not find the problem. The problem is that this issue appears suddenly but then goes away so that by the time I can get it over to a mechanic it is no longer an issue. This has been going on for about 4 months and I would say I've experienced the issue about 6-7 times. It is very dangerous when I am driving on the highway and the car stops accelerating.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Rockwell, IA, USA