Body Problems of Subaru Impreza - part 2

We were broadsided (t-boned) in an intersection with traffic lights. We were eastbound going 25mph & had just left home. Two blocks from my home as I proceeded through the green light and bam she hit my driver side. Recessing my front tire 3 or more inches in towards my engine. She was traveling southbound on the intersecting road. She must have been traveling 25 mph or more because damage continued all the way down the driver side (both doors) finishing on my rear tire where it bent it inwards as if it was a steering tire making a turn. The rear tire has a large gash in the side wall. The following where my wife's injuries as she was driving: acute cervical myofascial strain, cervical strain, closed head injury, dysarthria, elbow contusion, headache, muscle tension headache, post concussion syndrome, and shoulder contusion. She received all these injuries because the side impact airbags did not deploy which has to be a major manufacturing flaw of some type. Please explain to me why this happened. The insurance adjuster has totaled my wife's car. It is a 2012 Subaru Impreza premium. I have included some documents/photos.

See all problems of the 2012 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

08-14 manual Subarus have an issue where the firewall welds break and causes a significant safety risk as the pedal assembly either sags or eventually completely breaks off. It starts creaking and popping and there is excessive movement of the clutch master cylinder when the pedal is pushed. The brake pedal also noticeably moves to the left when pressing the clutch. After the creaking starts it's essentially a ticking time bomb and is scary to think about happening mid shift or in traffic.

See all problems of the 2009 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

My wife was driving the car to a friend's house. As she entered the parking area, the car accelerated and crashed into the house. The front and side airbags came out. The only injury to her was a badly scraped right leg and chest pain. The house suffered damage.

Rear automatic door locks will not lock/unlock using key fob or automatic door lock/unlock feature on interior of car. It seems to be more affected during hot or cold days. The only way to lock/unlock is to manually do it. The vehicle has never been in an accident, no water damage or has had any other issue.

See all problems of the 2016 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Hello, it has come time where my loyal Subaru has had it's firewall spot welds snap off and my firewall moves about 3 inches everytime I engaged the clutch or brakes. I reached out to Subaru of America where they had me get an estimate of 1750 dollars. When I sent them the invoice the best they would cover is 750 dollars of it. This issue is a severe safety concern on behalf of my life and the company acted in bad faith towards it's customer. The car had never been beat on or abused and from just simply driving the car on a normal basis created this issue. At the time this happened I wasn't aware of the what was at stake. I researched the numerous people filing class action lawsuits since more than a third of the production third gen wrxs were probed to this faulty firewall welds. Subaru has been well aware of this and knew that this could happen or when I emailed they would have argued against it but just instantly offered a portion of it. In the best interest of my safety I feel it's necessary for Subaru to pay the entire portion of the bill to ensure my life will be safe in their car. If there's anything that you could do to help me that would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time, jeremy.

See all problems of the 2013 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

At oil change, I was called to look at hole rusted into front subframe--shocking and frightening!!!.

See all problems of the 2002 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

The firewall welds have failed and broken, resulting in structural failure of the clutch and brake pedal mounts. This leads to the clutch not being able to be fully and properly depressed, resulting in hard gear shifts, grinding, excess transmission wear, as well as the brake pedal and clutch pedal moving when depressed, which is obviously a safety hazard if the pedals move where they shouldn't without being purposefully adjusted. When the clutch is depressed, the brake pedal moves to the left, toward the clutch pedal at least an inch. This is an incredible safety hazard because in an emergency situation, if the brake needs to be applied while the clutch is depressed, the brake pedal is not where it should be and can be missed by my foot while trying to apply the brake quickly. There is also an incredibly distracting and annoying squeaking sound every time the clutch is depressed. Subaru is well aware of this problem as it is relatively common. However, they quoted me $900 to fix it. This is a manufacture defect and something that should be taken care of by the manufacturer. My car has approximately 105,xxx miles with the problem starting at 90,xxx miles.

2002 Subaru with rotted sub frame with only 129,000 miles. Unsafe to drive.

Due to the firewall flexing every time the clutch pedal is depressed, over time the spot welds connecting the clutch pedal mounting bracket to the firewall fail. This allows for play in the entire clutch/brake pedal assembly. Given enough of the welds break, the vehicle can no longer by put into gear. I became unable to put the car into reverse or first gear from a dead stop. It took about 5 minutes of trying to get it into 1st to get home. Luckily this did not occur while at speed.

Firewall. Firewall broken, do not have the full range of motion that my clutch needs in order for the gears to go in.

See all problems of the 2008 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Structural defect of the spot weld of the clutch brake pedal assembly to the firewall. Assembly shift left when clutch pedal is depressed. Now it is very hard to put the car in reverse.

Sun visor droop. . . Causes visibility issues. Has been pretty well documented in various Subaru forums. Mine is in the driver side, but I have seen both sides droop being an issue.

Takata air bag did not deploy. Side impact sensor did not work. The car traveled sideways into a large oak tree in excess of 35 mph . The point of impact was where the side impact sensor was located . None of the airbags deployed . Subaru has been very uncooperative with answers as to why the airbags did not deploy . This happened upon a rural road in the fog . No other vehicles were involved .

See all problems of the 2003 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Https://services. Neframework. Com/imageretrieval. Aspx?id=974f272d-0461-4ff2-97a8-b175c14ec539 that describes how the crash happened. Airbags did not deploy. I suffered broken left elbow, fracture in my skull,ribs and shoulder. Also severe brain trauma. I have a lot of pictures, but it will only let me attach one. There is frontal damage from a smaller tree, but the majority is on the drivers side(my side) from slamming into a large tree.

The 2008-2014 Subaru Impreza wrx and sti have a design flaw where the pedal mounting box is spot-welded to the firewall using only a handful of tiny spot welds. The firewall itself is of a weak design and inherently has quite a bit of flex and over time and normal use these spot welds fail from too much stress and the pedals will begin to squeak, creak, pop and eventually the pedals will move away from the firewall when depressed. Once this happens the clutch will no longer properly engage or disengage and the car will no longer be drivable.

See all problems of the 2011 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

The clutch pedal on my 2009 wrx constantly requires adjustment to enable the release of the clamp pressure on the driven plate of the clutch assembly when the clutch foot pedal is depressed. Upon investigating a creaking noise, I noticed that the entire clutch pedal bracket assembly (attached to the forward firewall) shifts approx 1/4 inch to the left and down each time the clutch pedal is activated. This clutch pedal bracket assembly has three broken spot welds securing the clutch pedal bracket to the forward firewall. From the outside of the firewall, underneath the driver's side windshield wiper, I confirmed the manufacturer's spot welds are pulling away from the firewall each time the clutch pedal is depressed. This weld defect stemming from the manufacturer allows the entire clutch pedal bracket assembly to move unsecured, ultimately preventing the transmission to engage the vehicle into 1st, 2nd, or reverse gear. I have been able to make clutch pedal adjustments to temporarily engage the gears, however if the bracket completely separates from the firewall, the clutch may become inoperative. This notorious defect is well known among Subaru car owners and is indeed a safety issue that can directly cause a vehicle collision.

Vehicle was not stationary, it was being tuned and the fire wall got to hot and started to smoke. In addition the third cylinder in the motor went bad as well and the motor was replaced due to a rod knock and the 3rd cylinder going bad. The vehicle has 80000 miles on the vehicle.

Excessive body flex when turning right, can feel air coming in. I recently noticed that my windshield was cracked. The weird thing about this crack is that the cracks started at the very top of the windshield, dead center where the roof meets the windshield. When I inspected the crack to see if a rock had hit it, the crack is absolutely smooth with no chip in it. I immediately thought of the excessive body flex as being the cause. I also have the same clutch issues of getting the car into reverse. My clutch also makes a popping noise when shifting and releasing the clutch. I noticed this immediately after purchasing it and informed the service department and was told that they couldn't any issue and inferred that I wasn't driving the car properly. I am a former us navy seabee heavy equipment operator and have operated numerous types of construction equipment and I had never had a clutch make this sound. On the next service appointment, I again informed the service department that the clutch was making a popping sound when it released. They again told me that they could not reproduce the issue. After reading all of these complaint, I finally feel justified and I will be immediately getting rid of my car before having the clutch firewall issue. I have also had to have to replace the head gasket, which is a known common issue with Subaru. Thankfully, I had bought a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty and the $1800 repair was covered at 98000 miles.

Sunday morning, June 21, 2015. Rained overnight and was still raining moderately hard when we left for our first overnight trip in our new (1300 miles) 2015 Impreza. About 1/4 mile from our home, on a paved, well traveled street, traveling slightly under the posted 30 mph speed limit, we ran thru some standing water on the road. It might have been a couple of inches deep. After the initial whoosh, there was a continuing roar, as if water was splashing up on the car underside. Although the road was wet there was no reason to believe this was happening. After about 300 yards of this noise we made a left turn into a side street. The noise immediately stopped and we circled around and proceeded on our trip. After about 50 miles of interstate 65 mph travel, we began to notice thumping noises like we were riding on an old concrete road with tarred joints (we were not). We pulled into the break down lane and I got out and looked under car and under the hood. Noise sounded like it was coming from front drivers side at that point. Finding no issues, we continued another 80 miles to our destination on wet and dry roads. Upon arriving, made a side trip of 20 more miles of interstate driving. We heard what sounded like roaring noises from time to time and which reduced when we slowed to around 50 mph. Next day, on the return trip home we heard more roaring noises, which got substantially worse after a few miles. It was warm and dry at that time. Finally, it got to making loud popping and slapping noises. This time it was clearly coming from the drivers side more to the rear. We slowed to 50 mph and took the first exit with services, I pulled into a parking lot, laid on the hot tarmac and looked underneath the car. I found a flimsy plastic shield had split lengthwise about 3 feet and was beat up from road contact on the front end.

See all problems of the 2015 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Car unexpectedly accelerated in a remote area of a parking lot in a mall. Went over a curb, crossed a grassy area and struck a tree. Driver indicates that brakes were applied to no avail. Rear driving wheels were depressed into the ground after the car was stopped by the tree, indicating the possibility that the car was still accelerating after it was stopped by the tree.

See all problems of the 2014 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Chassis fatigue and cracking resulting in damage/potential compromise of driver controls. Welds for clutch bracket have failed resulting in cracking of firewall.

Car used as daily driver to commute less than 14 miles round trip for work. Clutch began to develop a pop noise which then turned into a loud squeak followed by more than a 1/2" of movement to the left that the brake pedal would start to move when the clutch would be depressed. After further investigation of reading local owners threads and asking around I have found that the welds that hold my brake and clutch together have broken and are continuing to break which could lead to my clutch pedal assembly falling down to the floor board which could potentially render me from using my brake pedal. This is a common issue with all Subaru Impreza wrx and sti owners which can be found on multiple local owners club websites and could affect bodily harm to drivers of the cars and other drivers on the road! Subaru refuses to acknowledge that this is a problem and in most cases will not cover repair costs!.

On October 10, 2014 at 6:13 am I drove home from the gym. As I approached my house I opened the garage door and the light came on. I slowed down and applied the brake before entering the garage, but the car became uncontrollable. It revved and accelerated hitting the wall between the garage and laundry room. It felt like I was in an airplane taking off a runway. The car came to rest approximately 4 feet inside the laundry room. My foot was not on the gas; floor mat was anchored to the floor and was not involved the only thing that stopped me from going through the back wall of my house was the washing machine. The car pushed it into the wall. I was in shock and dazed, but managed to get out of the car and go seek help from a neighbor across. He had heard the impact from the accident and came immediately. I have a home alarm system so the accident immediately alerted the alarm company, my call list people, and neighbors. I did report accident to Subaru, in writing.

See all problems of the 2005 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

When I applied the brake and slowed down while entering the garage, the car became uncontrollable. It revved and accelerated hitting the wall between the garage and laundry room. The car came to rest approximately 4 feet inside the laundry room. My foot was not on the gas; floor mat was anchored to the floor and was not involved.

Driver was parking vehicle in a parking lot when it suddenly accelerated forward, crossing parking barrier, bushes in planting at edge of lot, and sidewalk hitting a parked car. Driver states that brake was depressed at time of incident.

Door latching mechanism became detached from front driver door. Door partially opened unexpectedly. Once the door opened without initiation, it could no long be closed. Upon inspecting the latch mechanism attachment to the door frame, two of the three connection bolts (phillips head) were completely missing and the third remaining bolt was hanging by a single thread. This was an oem factory attachment that had never been modified or removed since the vehicle was first purchased.

See all problems of the 2004 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

My brake pedal / clutch assembly is separating from my firewall on my 2008 wrx sedan at the spot welds. I can see this through my cowl support under the windshield washer motor. I heard lots of squealing and popping and now the assembly moves under light braking and clutch depression. It is now past a noise issue, and now is safety issue. My car only has 42,5000 miles.

I am experiencing issues with the firewall where everytime I depress the clutch the firewall flexes and it is making it difficult to shift gears under normal operation of the vehicle.

The sunroof glass exploded as I was driving down the road in my 2012 Subaru Impreza wrx. No impact, calm weather (no debris flying around), no other vehicles nearby (that could have thrown a rock or something).

This car was purchased by myself brand new with a few miles on the odometer. The clutch pedal was always stiff and squeaky and two local dealerships reassured me this is normal and nothing to worry about. Since about 50k miles my clutch pedal has been unresponsive and requires constant lubrication and bleeding of clutch master and slave cylinder. When pressing either clutch or brake pedal, the other would also move which causes loss of rod travel thus reduced fluid volume to necessary hydraulics. With clutch pedal fully depressed and in gear, the car will roll as if clutch is dragging. With clutch depressed and in gear, the car would lurch forward when turned on. While shifting normally the gears would grind and I'm certain this has worn my synchromesh gears. Dealer continued blaming one part, another part, and my driving habits. They charged me out of pocket for repairs and replacement with no actual progress fixing the issues. Today I stopped by the closest dealership requesting more information on this common clutch pedal assembly to firewall problems. They acknowledged this is an issue and gave me a verbal estimate of at least $900 to fix the broken welds. In my neighborhood I am leaving a stop sign as usual and go to shift into second gear. The clutch pedal linkage broke completely with pedal stuck on the floor. Clutch is now 100% inoperable, luckily I was on a quiet street and this did not break while on the highway. This is a very real safety issue and the manufacturer should fix this without charging we the customers. There were numerous symptoms for years on this exact problem, each getting progressively worse until this final breakage.

The contact owns a 2008 Subaru Impreza. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 mph, the hood flew open and damaged the windshield. The contact stated that the hood was destroyed. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, who was unable to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the problem. The contact was informed by the manufacturer that there were no recalls and the vehicle was outside of warranty. The approximate failure mileage was 109,000.

The 2002 Subaru Impreza is subject to a recall on its control arms (NHTSA campaign number: 11v464000). Our car's passenger side control arm corroded to the point of failure about 1. 5 years ago. Now we have discovered the same level of corrosion on a nearby part, also on the front passenger side. We discovered that the engine cradle (aka k-frame, aka front crossmember) is showing severe corrosion, similar to that shown by the control arm that previously corroded through and broke on our car. Our understanding is that it is hard to predict what would happen should this part fail, but would pose a significant danger particularly if it happened at high speed. The similarity between the corrosion of our control arms and now our engine cradle exceeds that of normal wear and tear. This was the reason that the control arms were previously recalled.

This 2008 Subaru Impreza has been plagued as have many others by a manufacturer chassis defect. The firewall/bulkhead between the driver and engine has 5 spot welds broken which initially are meant to secure the clutch and brake assembly. These weld breaks are a serious safety issue as they are causing difficulty in engaging clutch and brakes, as well as a squeak noise every time the clutch is depressed. As this is not an insignificant wear item but part of the chassis/frame which is a dangerous defect as complete failure during operation of the vehicle can cause catastrophic accidents, further investigation and action on this matter should be taken by the NHTSA. This is certainly a recall issue.

2002 Impreza was taken to two Subaru dealerships, both of which found that the subframe was seriously rotted, as was the lower support for the radiator. Both conditions were deemed by the dealerships to make the car's safety to drive questionable. Subaru of America was contacted by this writer about this, and about a failing head gasket which was also discovered by the two dealerships at about the same time, and a Subaru customer service representative replied that they could do nothing about the situation due to the car's age.

The rear wheel bearings on my car had to be replaced after less than 50k miles. This is not typical wear and tear, the part was defective. The car was outside the manufactures warranty period so I had to pay for the defective part repairs myself.

See all problems of the 2007 Subaru Impreza 🔎.