Assist Problems of Subaru Forester

Eyesight camera randomly turns off and on while driving. Has been consistent over several months pierced to be an ongoing issue that was previously recorded from 20 14–20 21 super forrester. Very similar issue now with my 2023.

See all problems of the 2023 Subaru Forester 🔎.

I was going down a highway using the lane keeping assistance feature. Suddenly the vehicle stopped following the road and ran me into a ditch. I was able to steer back onto the road, but if the ditch had been deeper I believe there would have been a rollover accident. The root cause is that when the audio system is turned up in the vehicle, the warning chimes do not interrupt the music or sound loudly enough to be heard over it. When the vehicle needs manual intervention assistance staying on the road, the driver may not hear the warning sound in time before the system disengages. The warning chime sounds need to be able to be heard over the audio system. This exact thing has happened to me 2-3 times in the last year.

See all problems of the 2021 Subaru Forester 🔎.

I was stopped at a red light and the engine stalled. It read "for safety, auto restart disabled". All warning lights on the dashboard lit up. I had to put the car in park and restart it in order to drive. I was honked at and put in a dangerous position. This has happened at least twice now.

See all problems of the 2020 Subaru Forester 🔎.

I was driving on a two lane highway in the mountains and came around a small right-veering turn in the road. I straightened out the wheel to resume traveling straight, and my car’s auto-steer kicked in and pulled left into the center divider, and then right across two lanes and crashed into the side of the mountain. The auto-steer has pulled me out of lanes prior to this incident as well.

While driving on a highway, one lane in each direction, my lane was going to end. In front of me were painted yellow highway lines directing me to head right to the new lane on the right side of the steel railings. My adaptive cruise control with lane keeping assistance still had me heading straight instead of to the right. I had to strongly turn my steering wheel to the right to avoid hitting the railing. Also I was following a car into a rotary with my adaptive cruise control on. Thankfully I wasn't going fast and the car started to speed up a little as the car in front of me turned around the rotary. I was able to steer it in the right direction. My point is, some of the new technology is showing commercials with drivers with their hands off the steering wheel, relying on the technology. I was glad I had complete control of the car, but these features aren't perfect.

I was driving to work and many of my warning lights suddenly came on. This includes my check engine light, my lane assist light, my auto collision braking, my eye sight disabled and my cool engine light keeps going on and off. My cabin heating also isn’t working. There is no reason for this happening other than my thermo control valve failing.

Thermo control valve failure, p26a3 code, eyesight safety assistance warning light ,check engine light, pre collision braking light, lane assist light.

See all problems of the 2019 Subaru Forester 🔎.

On Friday, December 15, 2023 I started my car, Subaru Forester touring 2019. After starting these lights came on the dashboard: check engine, flashing s drive, no eyesight, rab off. I was reading online that there have been complaints to NHTSA similar to my problem ( NHTSA id # 11490232, 12479843, 11511658, 11490977, 11479843, 11499756, 11480952, 11491752, 11474804) to name a few reports. This has never happenedbefore. The mileage on my car is about 54,400 miles at time of incident. It seems to me that there is a pattern here that needs to be resolved and the owners informed so they can get if fixed before it happens and causes safety problems for Subaru Forester owners. I am kindly asking your office to seriously look into this specific problem and help us, the consumers, to inform Subaru to fix these issues. I thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

There are two problems: 1 after the car turns off after stopping to save fuel it will fail to restart automatically and must be put into park to manually restart; 2 the car will try to change lanes indicating that the safety related lane change is malfunctioning. I have to fight the car to maintain my lane.

The thermo control valve malfunctioned causing the check engine light to come on which shut down all the safety features in the vehicle including the front eye sight camera, blind spot warning, the rear automatic braking, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and lane keeping assistance. The check engine computer readout diagnostic trouble code was p26a5 "engine coolant bypass valve "a" position sensor circuit range/performance". The vehicle was taken to a Subaru dealer who found the thermo valve performance was out of spec. This vehicle has not been recalled although the manufacturer replaced the part in 2021 vehicles acknowledging the valve was faulty. Because of the mileage on my vehicle, it was not covered under the warranty although many have been replaced under the manufacturer's warranty due to the failure of this valve under the 60,000 mile warranty. I believe this should be a recall item for others who experience this issue.

While I was traveling I stopped at a rest area and when I restarted my car, my panel lit up like a christmas tree. All my safety assist systems were disabled and my check engine light came on. When I got home I had my mechanic run the codes and it came back to the thermo control valve. This happened on 8-29-2023. I researched the problem and Subaru put out a service bulletin in February 2022 but never notified me. My car is out of warranty now and am forced to drive without my safety systems because, 1- they don’t carry the part in stock and 2- the cost to repair is over $1400. 00. Subaru was aware of the problem but kept it quiet. I feel this is a scam and Subaru should recall this part. I was warned that my car could die at any time. I bought it for those very safety systems as I am a senior citizen and rely on them now.

Error code (p26a3?)for - engine coolant bypass valve. Causes the "check engine" light to come on and automatically disables all of the safety and collision mitigation systems. The engine coolant bypass valve failure is common and a known issue and Subaru has already updated the part on newer vehicle models. The common failure of the coolant bypass valve should not be disabling the safety features and the collision avoidance systems.

Steering wheel locking intermittently, without warning. White car symbol appears between lanes, followed by green car symbol as the wheel locks. Took the car to liberty Subaru, my dealer, emerson, NJ. First two times garage unable to replicate the problem, no repairs done. Third time this happened to me, the car started rocking from side to side on the road as the wheel remained locked, terrifying. I called the dealer, they told me to turn off the safety system (lane assist) which I did. Back to the same garage, same outcome. Could not replicate the problem. 4th time this happened to me, I had not reset the lane assist and the same warning symbols appeared as the wheel locked. Back to garage, told me they were not going to give me a loaner car as they cannot replicate the problem. Reported to Subaru of America, no response to first email. Second email acknowledged receipt and gave me a case number: case#?230306-0200125. Car remains at liberty Subaru, it is dangerous to drive. I will end up in an accident as I cannot control the car when the wheel is locked, and I will endanger others on the road at the same time. Dates are approx, occurred 4 different days over two weeks approx. Speed ranged from 41 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour when it occurred,.

See all problems of the 2018 Subaru Forester 🔎.

Incident on highway 80 on may 30, 2020. Entered highway 80 (east) from donner sumit roadside rest, accelerated in the slow land and passed a truck and accelerated in the fast lane to 65-70 mph. Began feeling a severe/violent shaking of the steering wheel, a couple of inches or so, side to side. Pulled over and steering wheel was still shaking and brought the vehicle to a full stop. Shaking stopped. Inspected wheels for looseness and nothing appeared abnormal. Lane keeping system was not engaged at the time. Could be new automatic emergency steering but activated falsely. Felt very unsafe and had to hold steering wheel tight to retain control took vehicle to dealer who could not find anything wrong with car, no codes in diagnostic. No warning lamps or messages appeared.

See all problems of the 2022 Subaru Forester 🔎.

Battery dead not even 2 years old. Known problem they won't fix. Lane assist was pulling us into other traffic lanes when wasn't supposed to almost causing accidents and now won't turn on.

When operating the vehicle at low and high speeds, the eyesight system intermittently turns off with a "check owner's manual" message and the system remains off until at least the next vehicle restart. Additionally, after the eyesight system disengages, when making turns at low speeds (turning corners), the steering shudders (quick violent turns to the left and right), the eyesight warning light disappears and then re-appears after the vehicle turn is completed. At the same time the vehicle steering shudders, some portion of the internal electrical system appears to be reset (any radio / music system turns off temporarily, and the user-selected display in the main instrument panel resets to its default setting. This puts the vehicle occupant(s) at risk as it introduces an unsafe driving condition due to the vehicle shudder, which may result in a driver panic-reacting, or the vehicle failing to remain in the intended lane.

See all problems of the 2017 Subaru Forester 🔎.

I drive this v little, but the steering wheel has repeatedly tried to jerk me into the left lane when tuning right and right when turning left! I stopped using cruise, but it still does it. I am an advanced driver, but don't low, if I could overcome this if it acted like some other 2020 Foresters I've read owners state have gone off the road and rolled over! also the auto stop - start often shuts engine off when power is needed - is totally unpredictable! this is my wife's car, but she got it as the seat works with my v bad back! had I known the eyesight system would malfunction (I did not trust it, but hoped it would be ok!), I'd have insisted on getting a good older car without unproven so called driver aids! we really don't have the $ to replace the car!.

Lane keep assist feature the lane keep assist feature seems, in general, to over steer causing sway back and forth across the lane. While I find this bothersome, most recently, at highway speed, the lane keep assist pulled the car (suddenly and somewhat violently) onto an exit ramp rather than holding the right lane. No one was hurt. No damage occurred. I was able to yank the wheel back to the lane with the entire incident over in less and a second. Safety at risk? highway speed with unanticipated veer of intended path. It was good that traffic was quite light. I have not reported this to the dealer. No special warnings other than that the system "worked".

Encountering 2 issues: windshield was cracked and front wheel alignment caused uneven wear and tear on front tires.

I noticed a serious safety issue with Subaru's lane keep assist safety feature: when driving on a busy highway over an area where the dotted line had been painted over with dark paint (by road workers to cover it up for a new lane to be painted) lane keep assist registered it as a line that still exists and forcefully steered me into the lane on my left. To avoid hitting the car in that lane, I forcefully turned to the wheel in the opposite direction. Luckily I am a healthy man who was able to steer myself back into my lane, but it turned my wheel with about three times the force of regular lane assist: I think many people including younger people and the elderly are at an even higher risk levels if they are unable to turn the wheel like I did. It was a much more forceful turn than Subaru's regular 'non-urgent' lane keep assist. There were no visual obstructions present that the eyesight camera was picking it was registering the old line that had been painted over. This is extremely important because not only is this a safety risk for any type of road work that paints over lines during construction or repainting, but this also poses an immediate danger to life and health to people driving on roads with lines that have been painted over and left in that condition. The computer registered the dark line, meant to visually cover up the old paint, as a white line! I confirmed that this is a systemic issue and not just incidental with me. I found a post on a Subaru forum where two people describe the same situation I had. I will link that below. . Read more...