general problems of the 2014 Subaru Forester

On 5/15/2024 and 5/21/2024 I had sudden uninteded acceleration. I had a auto shop try to solve the problem by replacing the air fuel ratio sensor and the mass air flow sensor. This seem to fix the issue until 11/27/2025 & 12/7/2025 when the sudden uninteded acceleration returned.

I was driving my 2014 Subaru Forester (about 148,000 miles) behind a minivan at a safe distance and speed. Without warning, my vehicle accelerated uncontrollably. Despite applying the brakes, shifting into low gear, and using the emergency brake, I was unable to slow it down. After impact, the car then hit a telephone pole, spun me around and rolled the car over. There is major damage to the car and we looked at it at the tow yard but the salvage adjuster is moving it shortly.

This morning 2/20/2024 I was driving up a main commercial street in traffic, going about 10 -15 mph. I did not have my foot in the accelerator or brake as I was on a very slight incline. Suddenly, the car accelerated, made a roaring sound as if the accelerator had been stepped on strongly and started to jerk forward. I jammed on the brake and stopped the car. I did not hit the car in front of me. This happened once before, several years ago, but not to the extent of this time. The car has 45, 400 miles on it and was just serviced at the Subaru dealer 2 weeks ago. There were no problems noted at that time. There were no warning lights, messages, or other symptoms of the problem prior to this incident. It was probably the accelerator and fuel systems that failed. I have made an appointment with the Subaru dealer, but can't get in for a week. It was a dangerous and frightening incident. Fortunately, I was quick to respond and had a safe distance from the car in front of me. It could have been a very serious event had I not been quick to respond and had read in the past about this problem with the Subaru Forester. I tend to be a very alert, focused, and aware driver.

At/about 1230 central time on 31 oct 2019, my wife (rebecca hines) experienced an uncommanded acceleration event in our 2014 Subaru Forester and narrowly escaped being killed. Context: my wife was taking the car through an automated carwash at the caseys gas station at 9911 s. 71st st in papillion ne. When she reached the end of the conveyor belt and when signalled by the attendant to move forward, she stepped on the brake and attempted to move the automatic transmission from n (neutral) to d (drive). She encountered resistance moving the gear lever but was able to move it to d. Upon doing so, the car abruptly accelerated and lurched forward despite her foot remaining on the brake. The car rapidly accelerated and tore through the closed garage door at the end of the carwash and continued outside, across an access road and up a small hill, before losing power and rolling backwards down the hill to stop in the access road. No other vehicles or persons were involved or injured. My wife was uninjured other than being sprayed by glass fragments from the windshield as it was punctured by the garage door as the car tore through it. Our insurance company (usaa) declared the car a total loss. Neither my wife nor I had ever experienced anything like this incident before; we both have excellent driving records. Weather at the time of this incident was clear, dry and sunny. The car to the best of our knowledge was in excellent mechanical condition. The papillion ne police dept responded and filed a report, and we filed a drivers motor vehicle accident report. Both are on file with the papillion ne police dept. There were also several witnesses to this incident per the police report.

2014 Subaru Forester stopped running while driving down the freeway at 70 miles an hour. Engine just quite running. Lost power. Had to pull over in median. Very scary. This is second time this has happened. Did not throw a code message. Dealership can not detect problem. First time was 4 years ago when driving at 35 mph on city street coming into town. Did not throw error message at that time was told to drive it until it did it again.

This is one of the emails I sent to Subaru. I had just paid 425 to replace a tail light when the seal failed, the same time the wiper motor went bad 600+ to fix that. This car was in such bad shape they did not even recommend repairing. I had to buy a used car which was a financial hardship. I believe Subaru should reimburse me the cost of the transmission and tail light assembly gentlemen, I'm writing to you to express my extreme regret in buying a Subaru. If I went into all the repair details, it would take forever. My new case number is 2303131700678. I m requesting that this repair be covered and paid for completely by Subaru, as well as the money I paid towards the new transmission be refunded to me. Once you review all the repair records, you will understand my frustration. This whole car is an example of poor engineering and quality control. I held up my end of the deal, I paid off the loan, I maintained the car thru scheduled maintenance at the dealership. Subaru has failed me. Have your team pull all my repair records and read them thoroughly. Note the bad bushings, note the failed back up camera, note how the entire under the hood has failed at only at 120,000 miles. Where is my 200,000 miles that you claim the car should last? Subaru sold a defective car, Subaru knows darn well that this model has transmission and oil issues. I don't care that my systems failed after the 100,000 extended warranty. If you did your job right, you would not have to have extended it. I look forward to my transmission reimbursement and the complete repairs the car requires at no cost to me. It is your turn to uphold your part of the bargain.

I was on an on ramp onto the highway when the computer in the center of the dash started alerting that several systems needed check. All the dashboard indicators went off and the vehicle lost power even when I pressed the gas pedal. After turning the car off and then back on again it was idling hard and it several warning lights remained on. The car was towed under warranty to the nearest dealership. Upon investigation the dealer said there was a bad coil. After replacing the coil the vehicle still didn't work. Now they claimed there was a bad fuel injector. After replacing that the car continued not to work. The problem they kept seeing was a misfire in cylinder 4. They changed o-rings, they cleaned the engine, they even ordered a new engine and replaced the engine and it still suffers from the misfire. The car has now been in the shop for 34 days and they have no idea what is wrong or how to fix it.

While driving vehicle on highway speeds in temperatures around 85-90 (or greater) degrees vehicle will not allow acceleration. Vehicle stumbles, detonates and will not allow the driver to apply power without hesitation and engine stumbles. This problem can be recreated at will and yet the vehicle will not throw a cel unless a larger failure happens, which typically is the #3 cylinder burns off the spark plug electrode and damages the engine. Subaru is aware of the issue but considers this condition normal. The vehicle is not appropriately mapped for the Subaru suggested fuel octane level, has turbo boost piping leaks according to numerous individuals.

Sudden unintended acceleration. The vehicle rapidly accelerated as though the accelerator pedal had been floored. This occurred immediately after I shifted from reverse to drive to leave my driveway without my the accelerator. The vehicle wouldn't respond to braking. I had to immediately turn the wheel to avoid going into the culvert directly across from my driveway. The road then is an immediate right-hand turn but the car was already going too fast for me to successfully stay on the road. The car went into the culvert across that road, deploying all the airbags, and essentially demolishing the car (>$20k to repair). My wife and I were taken to the hospital via ambulance for various tests and CT scans; fortunately, not too much damage beyond what the seat belts and airbags did to us.

In October of 2013, I purchased by way of lease, a brand new 2014 Subaru Forester. Right after purchasing a 2014 Subaru Forester I began to have issues with the oil consumption in my vehicle. In example, before my first oil change of 3,000 miles, I had to have my car assessed by the oil technicians as the oil light kept coming on. The oil technicians would “top” off my fluids and along I went. Sadly, after having my 3,000 mile oil change, I continued to have issues with oil consumption. I think I paid a visit to the oil technicians at least once every 6 weeks or so; so much so that the oil technicians were tired of seeing my vehicle. I practically developed a personal relationship with the oil technicians. If they did not know me by name, they were at least familiar with my vehicle. To make a long story longer, this month (September) or better stated less than a year of having a 2014 in my possession, while still being in the year 2014 with 3 months left to go in this year, I had some major work done to my vehicle. Up to and including a replacement of the engine. Please see the attached invoice to see all the items that were replaced. Now you are problem asking well how many miles are on the car? there are only 7,600 miles on the vehicle. In other words I put maybe 760 miles on my vehicle per month in less than a year. Opportunity: clearly, I was sold a high priced lemon; a dud. In order to improve on customer satisfaction, it is in my opinion that Subaru should provide me with a 2014 Subaru Forester that is not defective or one that does not have design flaws. No vehicle with less than 8,000 miles and less than a year old should require an engine replacement. Please be advised that after the work was done now the car has a vibration and feels as if it is going to shut off.

This problem has been getting progressively worst. The car has been having troubles turning over on cold starts, and has experienced a loss of propulsion and stall going up hill including a loss of brakes since I bought it a year ago. On 9/6/2014 the car was started and was idling high (approximately 4000rpm), check engine light was on, speed control light was on, incline alert light on, sport mode light was on and check emissions system light was on. Had to move the car out of the garage and it barely made it up the incline in the underground garage as it was not responding to the accelerator, called for a tow which never arrived and tried to restart out of frustration all lights were off and car I made it to the dealer which was not far away. Have already had the dealer inspect the car once to get to the bottom of the problem and they reported their diagnostics showed nothing was wrong and that car electrical\computer problems cannot be fixed until they break completely (or someone is hurt or injured perhaps). There was one more report similar to this on carcomplaints. Com that occurred at high speed. Seems to me that car is not safe at this point.

Vehicle hesitates upon acceleration from a stop with slight shuttering. Car now has 6,600 mile and still has the problem. Dealer acknowledges the problem but claims this is the way the car was designed.

This vehicle is a Forester xt turbo. I was operating on cruise control at 78 mph, approximately 900 miles from home, when a sudden loss of propulsion occurred. Dashboard had multiple warning lights. Engine was still operating, though at very low rpm so I was able to maintain steering and braking control. After maneuvering to the side of the road, I noticed the tachometer was fluctuating between 500-800 rpm. I turned off the engine and was able to restart. The following warning lights were still illuminated: check engine, hill control, cruise control, and operating mode. Operating mode was stuck in "sport" mode. I was able to drive vehicle at normal speed to nearest dealer approximately 10 miles away. The service technician stated I had an error code of p0606. This is a voltage issue on the engine control module, (ecm). The corrective action is to re-flash the ecm computer chip. This is a restricted action, requiring a field service engineer to come to the dealer to do the procedure. The technician stated they had already experienced this with a vehicle they sold but the problem with the module usually occurs on engine start. The technician cleared the error codes and I continued on my trip. Upon returning to my home, I took the vehicle to my dealer to be serviced. My dealer stated they were one of the first to experience this issue. I am wondering why there has been no recall/notice to owners of this problem since it has been known for a while. It is frightening to lose power when cruising at highway speed.

While driving our 2014 Forester xt 2. 0 uphill on the highway at about 50 mph, the cel, hill-assist, eyesight-disabled and another warning light all came on. I pulled off the road, stopped and called the dealer, who said the car could be safely driven in for inspection as the cel was not blinking. Apparently the cel light sets off a bunch more to get your attention. The obd codes the dealer pulled said the catalytic converter had failed (no further explanation was offered). They said a new one would be ordered and installed under warranty. So the dealer put in the new catalytic converter yesterday, and now the engine performs extremely poorly compared to before service. The electronic turbo boost gauge now shows negative boost (I. E. , no activation) until over 20% throttle position in I mode (before, turbo boost was obtainable at 8% throttle). There is a humming sound (rather like the alternator belt noise Ford vans make) that drowns out the engine purr when gently revving the engine in park and, when driving, the cvt shifts very irregularly and at much higher rpms in I mode (e. G. , staying in one gear until tach hits 2000 before shifting where before the tach never went above 1500 at any speed unless we were in s/I or s# mode and shifting manually with the paddles). I have notified Subaru of America of the situation and this car is going back to the shop first thing Monday morning.

At cold starting, approximately one time out of 20, the car is very difficult to start. It cranks for up to 10 seconds before starting. I don't know if it's a fuel delivery or an ignition problem. It has happened at ambient temperatures from 35 to 65 degrees. If I didn't continue cranking the engine to an extent that I think is harmful to it, it wouldn't start. I consider that a safety issue, if I needed to get the car going quickly.

I was turning right to park at a state park. The parking area is sandy and full of pot holes. I was almost stopped when the car accelerated violently. My car mounted a flat boulder, one of many in the parking area. I still don't feel like I could have stepped or stomped on the gas pedal vs the brake pedal, but it is a possibility. I am a very cautious driver. Could this be a defect in this car? I feel that it should be reported and noted in case others have the same experience.