general problems of the 2002 Subaru Forester

I had stopped my Forester in the left hand turn lane about 3 to 5 feet behind another vehicle while waiting for the signal to change from red to the green arrow. I put my vehicle into park and took my foot off the brake. I turned to check the pocket of my jacket in the rear seat. I turned back in the driving direction, put my foot on the brake and moved the automatic gear shift into the drive position. My car surged forward with the engine racing and hit the vehicle in front of me. I could not control the speed with the brakes, so I shifted back into park. This stopped my car. There is damage to my front grill and hood. This is not the first time I had this happen. The first time this occurred, I called Subaru headquarters and explained the issues to a Subaru representative. I was told this was a new issue and no recall was being considered. I took my car into the Subaru dealer and they checked it and said they could not find any problems. The same thing occurred at least two more times prior to August 10, 2015. I never had any damage to my Subaru or any other vehicle because I was not near any other vehicle when this surging occurred and I could get control of my Subaru by putting the automatic gear shift into park. I purchased my Subaru Forester new and currently have 160,845 miles.

The contact owns a 2002 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while making a u-turn the accelerator pedal went straight to the floor and his foot got stuck causing him to crash into a building. The contact nor his passenger were injured. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic and the investigation was pending. The vehicle was not repaired and neither was the dealer contacted. The failure and current mileages were approximately 94,000. Updated 3/8/11.

I was entering a parking space at a local grocery store when the vehicle surged forward into another parked car. I had my foot on the brake and had placed the vehicle in park when it suddenly and unexpectedly lurched forward. I damaged the parked car and my own. This has happened previously when backing out of a parking space going from the park position. Am contacting Subaru to see if this has anything to do with the recall.

Intermittent engine surging and/loss of power.

The contact owns a 2002 Subaru Forester. While driving in reverse at speeds of less than 3 mph, the vehicle suddenly and abnormally accelerated and crashed into the side of a house and proceeded to crash into a wooden fence. The vehicle failed to stop and the contact was forced to put the vehicle into neutral gear to stop it from accelerating. The dealer was contacted, however they stated that they had not heard of that type of failure in her model vehicle. Repairs were made at the expense of her insurance company. The manufacturer did not assist. There were no recalls. The failure mileage was 23,000 and the current was 25,000. Updated 3/16/10 updated 07/07/10.

The contact owns a 2002 Subaru Forester. While driving approximately 20 mph the driver side removable floor mat trapped the accelerator pedal to the floor. Consequently there was an unintended increase of vehicle acceleration. She was able to regain vehicle operation. The vehicle has not been inspected for the malfunction. The failure mileage was 160,000. The current mileage was 163,000. The VIN was unavailable.

When parking vehicle in garage, engine revved and car drove forward causing damage to car and garage even though car had been placed into park.

Driver of Forester was stopped at a red light about 10 feet away from car in front. Driver took foot away from brake pedal for a moment and car surged forward on its own. Driver slammed brake pedal to the floor, but Forester continued to surge forward. Driver swerved to try to avoid accident but still clipped bumper of car in front and caused damage. Forester continued to surge and buck forward for another moment before finally stopping (driver's foot had remained firmly on brake the entire time). I took the vehicle to the dealer I had bought it from just two weeks ago, but they claimed they had never heard of this happening in a Subaru and refused to even investigate if there was a mechanical error that would be under warranty because of legal fears. They implied the accident was my fault and I was looking to blame them. Despite minor damage, the car was still drivable, yet I had it towed to the dealer because I was scared of driving it ever again. I was lucky I only hit another car's bumper-- it could've been a bicyclist or pedestrian who was struck! my insurance company is investigating the claim at this point, but I refuse to drive that car unless someone finds the exact cause of the out of control surging and fixes it. I am appalled Subaru is denying this problem even exists.

The vehicle was parked and idling before the consumer got in the vehicle and shifts it into reverse while the foot were on the brake pedal. The vehicle commences to accelerate and lurch backward and ran into the entrance of the drug store. Consumer shift the vehicle into drive and the vehicle took off again and hit a metal pole. No injuries was reported and both the driver and the passenger were restrained in their seat belts. The vehicle was tow to a repair shop. The dealer was notified and pick up the vehicle from the repair shop.

Car "hesitates" occasionally, 1-2 second delay after you press the gas pedal until the car responds. Also, the car shifts inappropriately. Mostly this occurs on hills. You will attempt to accelerate, and the car downshifts; or you attempt to pass someone on highway and car will hesitate, then begin to accelerate, then will suddenly downshift. I have had car to dealer, first I was told there was no problem. Then, they realized there was a problem, and had the computer reset. This seemed to improve handling for only about a week. The car is now hesitating and downshifting on a regular basis.

Transmission hesitates from a dead stop. You depress the accelerator and nothing happens for 2 seconds or so, then the car lurches forward.

When applying brakes vehicle continues to accelerate until consumer pushes the brake pedal to the floor, causing extended stopping distance. Dealer notified.

When the vehicle came to a stop, it accelerated forward and the only way to slow it down was to put the vehicle into neutral. Scc.

When parking and brakes applied vehicle surged forward. This has happened 3 times. On 27 June 2002 while parking vehicle surged forward, brakes were applied, and vehicle hit a post, consumer suffered minor injury. Vehicle at dealer at this time.

The engine intermittently stalls during acceleration often in fast moving cross traffic causing our hearts to stop as we fear of getting hit broadside. The engine intermittently accelerates at high speeds causing the driver to brake. I had one incident.

Consumer stated the engine started hesitating during acceleration from a complete stop, hesitation occurs one second to a few seconds after acceleration and can lat approximately three seconds. Since the problems have been happening with the hesitation, the transmission now shifts with a slight thump to a loud bang, during acceleration the automatic transmission misses a shift and goes into neutral causing the engine to instantly over speed to 2,000 rpm's the transmission searches for different gears while gently accelerating, on 2 occasions the dealer has reprogrammed the computer modifications which has made the problems less intense, but still exists.

No summary listed for above vehicle.