general problems of the 2006 Subaru Forester

Front drivers side control arm broke at bracket point and lost control of vehicle steering. And car was damaged hitting a post. Vehicle per recall for control arm had already been “fixed” contacted Subaru if control arms were replaced under recall or the “rust proofing” applied.

Front control arm failed on car. Which snapped the front axle and sway bar link on right side. Found out it was a known issue that was taken care of by dealer. Waiting to see if they will cover repairs.

I was made a turn at roughly 15mph and the front passenger side control arm sheared in half causing me to lose control of the vehicle and then abruptly come to an immediate stop. My family was in the car and at a higher speed this could have been fatal. Had there been any vehicles behind me that could have caused an accident with unknown results. Had this been moments early I would have been in a head on collision. This is a known issue for this year, make, and model that was not properly resolved in the past by the manufacturer. The part should not fail in that manner. There were no warnings. The failure was inspected by the tow truck driver.

While the vehicle was in motion on a highway, I drove over a pothole on the passenger side and my lower control arm broke due to a known problem with corrosion in this model year. There was a noticeable problem with wheel alignment which was able to be felt in the steering wheel. Subaru recall wvx-34 was supposed to fix this safety issue. The 'repair' was completed on my vehicle in January of 2012. As you can see from the photos, the rust proofing did not help.

Control arm is rusted completely through. I need to fully replace the entire arm. It's urgent, as the entire wheel and mechanism could fall off at any time.

The front control arms on my 2006 Subaru Forester failed on may 15, 2015. There was no warning (no sound, no shimmying, no steering issues) to suggest that something was about to happen. The main safety issue is that in 2012, Subaru issued a recall for Foresters and imprezas, rustproofing the control arms. I brought my car in at that time, and have the paperwork that indicates that this service was performed. I therefore assumed the car was safe. There has been no other recall. My car had 118,000 miles on it, and is well taken care of. I am not an aggressive, poor or off-road driver. My husband is experienced with cars and car repairs, and he also heard and felt nothing to suggest my car might have a problem when he drove the car prior to the accident. Fortunately, I was exiting a rotary onto a highway, so hadn't yet reached full speed. The car glided across another lane as I hit the brake, and a raised divider kept the car from continuing into oncoming traffic. This failure could happen to anyone else with a similar car history. That person could be driving at full speed, and might not be as lucky as I was in being able to stop safely. A deputy sheriff called aaa for me, and I was towed to a local Subaru dealership. They replaced both control arms, sway bars, and the axle. Subaru paid for all the repairs, and offered to pay for the towing. In 2014, the rear control arms were replaced; I brought the car in because it was making a noise and the rear of the car was not responding correctly. Subaru didn't cover that expense, and I didn't realize that I should have insisted that they do so. The experience suggested to me, however, that I would have plenty of warning should something happen to the other control arms. This was not the case in my situation, and others should be made of aware of the extreme danger they face.