Electrical System Problems of Subaru Impreza - part 1

Head on collision/hit the side of another car head, 2024 Subaru Impreza was smoking before vehicle stopped moving after impact (was slung in the opposite direction), not even five minutes after exiting vehicle it caught flames starting a the front of the engine that spread to the hood.

See all problems of the 2024 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

The fan controls in the center of the dash failed. Fan speed 1&2 work, but 3&4 do not. After pulling the center dash controls out, I found that the plug connecting the fan speed controls to the wiring harness was burnt. This is a concern cause it could have burned other components or caused a fire.

See all problems of the 2012 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Description of the problem: on or about [xxx], my 2019 Subaru Impreza experienced a sudden engine failure. The check engine light illuminated, and the engine shut off. Specifically, the check engine light came on approximately two minutes into the drive, and the engine shut off within 30 seconds of the light appearing. The vehicle was taken to albany Subaru in albany, CA, where a technician diagnosed the issue as a blown 15 amp ignition fuse and a damaged ignition coil (#4). Albany Subaru is recommending replacement of the spark plugs, coil packs, and the fuse. Albany Subaru has stated that "Subaru sent the recall out due to defective coil packs, and had the new updated coil packs installed. My tech is recommending to replace the coil packs due to the fuse blowing out and shorting out the current coil packs. The #4 coil was found damaged during the inspection. " connection to recall: I am concerned that this current failure is related to the original defect addressed by recall 21v264000. My vehicle had the recall service performed on November 14, 2019, to replace the ignition coils. It appears that the replacement coils, or an issue related to the recall repair, may have failed, leading to the blown fuse and further coil damage. I have asked the service technician at albany Subaru to specifically determine if the current failure is in any way related to the original defect or the replacement parts installed under the recall. Safety concern: this sudden engine failure poses a significant safety risk. A loss of engine power while driving can lead to a crash, especially at higher speeds or in traffic. In my experience owning many vehicles, I have never encountered issues with ignition coils, nor have I experienced this frequency of recalls. Vehicle information: • year: 2019 • make: Subaru • model: Impreza • VIN: [xxx] • mileage: 59,784 miles recall information: • NHTSA recall number: 21v264000, service date: Nov 14, 2019 information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia),.

See all problems of the 2019 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

On [xxx], my 2022 Subaru Impreza caught fire in lincolnwood, IL. My sister in-law and nephew escaped the vehicle just before it was consumed by the fire. The lincolnwood fire department fire inspector said the fire was caused by a defected car battery. The car was declared a total loss. Subaru America only offered $2,000. 00 credit towards the purchase of a new Subaru. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

See all problems of the 2022 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

When I put my vehicle into park and try to remove the key, it becomes stuck in the vehicle every time due to a failing park position switch. This is a known issue to Subaru and should warrant a recall.

See all problems of the 2014 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

The contact owns a 2012 Subaru Impreza. The contact stated that while driving approximately 30-40 mph, the vehicle lost power steering functionality and was driven with manual steering. The failure occurred while driving at various speeds. The contact stated that approximately four days after the first failure, the steering wheel failed to move. Additionally, the vehicle was losing oil and one quart of oil had to be added every month. The contact stated that the power steering, abs, tpms, transmission automatic transmission fluid (atf), and 4-wd failure warning lights were illuminated. The passenger occupant sensor chimed for the passenger to secure the seat belt consistently even though the occupant was seated with the seat belt buckled securely. The contact who is a certified mechanic had replaced the rack and pinion. The contact noticed that the threads on the tie rods were close in proximately risking the chance of damaging the tie rods. The abs module had been replaced. The contact believed that the engine needed to be replaced but the engine was not replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and opened a case. The manufacturer confirmed there was no recall for the failure. The manufacturer referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was 164,964.

Three engine check lights due to rodent damage within two weeks, even when I first bought the car in south florida it had damage due to rodents and that when I first found out they use soy for the wires, I had thought the dealership I got it from had replaced it all but no. Fast forward 2-3 years later in a different state I had gotten the first engine check light and thought it was due to bad repairs from the place I bought it from, I had thought after the first repair they got rid of the soy wiring since it was expensive but then I happened a second time 140 miles after I fixed the first one. It was then on that I realized these were recent damage and not old so I decided to buy some things to deter rodents since it’s cold now. And now comes to the third time it gets damaged after snowing and melting a little. I haven’t even driven more than 10 miles and I already have to spend more on repairs. I might even have to get rid of the car altogether if this keeps happening. This damage means cruise control is off due to the car now being in a safe mode and also it cannot tell how hot or cold it is so overall running of the car is gonna be worse off. I’ve put noise/ light devices in the engine bay and also mint pouches made to deter mice and such and still had issues.

Car braked suddenly and violently while driving slowly (5-10 mph) in traffic. Foot was on the gas pressing lightly - not on the brake. Braking occurred independently with such force that I thought I had been hit by another vehicle going 30-40 mph. Hyman bros. Subaru has not yet returned my calls regarding this incident.

The ac unit suddenly shutoff and there was a burning smell while I was driving. It turns out that the connector on the back of the climate control unit had either drawn too much current, or the resistance was too high, and the connector had started burning. Fortunately, the melted plastic interrupted the electrical connection, and the fire had went out on its own. It looks like this is not an isolated incident, and several others have dealt with similar when looking online.

Parked at a store. Car caught on fire while in store. Car had been parked approximately 10 minutes. Left side headlight spontaneously ignited.

See all problems of the 2017 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

In the morning of 7-11-2024, I started the engine to go to work as usual. I found the engine light on and noticed strange symptoms from the hood, such as unusual loud noise. Thereafter, I lifted the hood and confirmed loud noise coming from somewhere. Then, I immediately shut down the engine (no key in ignition), but still, the secondary air pump kept running. I thought it may be blowing up, so I immediately disconnected the battery. I touched the pump and almost burnt my hand. I did do this immediate action because I have some experience/knowledge on car maintenance, but I feel terrible if this happened to someone else, such as young drivers. Then, I googled for the similar symptoms, and found something matching my symptoms in the recall notification letter (NHTSA recall no. 16v738), in which the relay in fuse box can cause the issue. The letter appeared to be revised in 7-11-17, and it was supposed to be sent to me, but I did not receive this important letter at all. I think that this letter should be re-sent to all the owners again to avoid possible terrible incidents related to overheating of the secondary air pump.

See all problems of the 2013 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Key won't completely shut off car of come out of ignition.

On 3 separate occasions since I've had my car, it has powered off completely without warning while driving. This is very dangerous could cause a severe accident or death. I called a tow truck on 3 separate occasions (1/27/23; 2/26/24; 2/28/24) to take it to the dealer or car repair business. Then after 20 - 30 minutes, it starts up again like normal. This make of cars made in 2020 have recalls for this same problem except for the model I have. The maker of these cars are not responding to keep their customers safe and continue to lie about the problems these cars are having. They are poorly made and extremely unsafe.

See all problems of the 2020 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Head unit constantly rebooting. Completely unable to use the head unit. No longer functional. Unable to power the screen off. Very distracting while driving especially at night. Power button no longer works. Started about a year ago, then randomly seemed to of temporarily resolved itself until a couple of months ago. Head unit is now 100% nonfunctional and constantly reboots. No warnings when first occurred. Issue has been confirmed by independent service center. Puts myself and others at risk due to the screen rebooting on repeat and no way to turn the screen off. Extremely distracting and unsafe.

2018 Impreza, beginning around 2020, has had three dead or damaged batteries (2x oem and 1x aftermarket) and the car is now on its fourth battery (aftermarket). Vehicle couldn't sit for more than a few days without needing jump started. Dealership performed parasitic draw test and concluded the data communications module (dcm) was the source of the parasitic draw and pulled the dcm fuse while I await back ordered parts (the dcm and dcm battery). From my research, older dcm units rely on 3g cell service that's no longer available and the dcm keeps attempting to phone home telemetry data, but can't, and drains the battery. Thankfully I have an extended warranty to cover this replacement but feel like Subaru needs to be more proactive in solving this issue for its customers by declaring a recall.

See all problems of the 2018 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

This is my first car and im completely disappointed I purchased it bc of safety. My car battery keeps dying I purchased my car in 2019 and since then I have changed it 4 times. I keep taking it to the dealer and telling them is a parasitic drainage and nothing yet. On top of that the recall for the headlights over a year and nothing. Im never buying a Subaru again!.

I was driving to work and the car was running funny after a few blocks when I saw smoke pouring out of the car I pulled over ad got out and watched the car burn to the ground. I cant get to work and the car contained my personal. Belongings.

See all problems of the 2008 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

During humid days, when a passenger sits in the passenger seat for more than a minute, the airbags will turn off for both the driver and passenger seat. With some further research, this is a somewhat common problem with 2013 Subaru Imprezas. This is a massive safety risk.

Both rear doors will intermittently not open when unlocked from both the inside or the outside. I am unsure if this is electrical or related to the door components itself. This is a hazard because passengers have been locked in the back of the car, and needed to climb out from the front or needed me to open the door from the outside if it will open—which could be a deadly amount of extra time in an emergency situation where passengers need to quickly exit the vehicle. This issue has been going on over a year, but I did not take it in until two months ago because I rarely had back passengers. That has changed, so I took it in. I have brought the car to the dealership three times for this issue, which is as of now still unresolved, with the following results: 1st visit: they told me child lock was on and turned it off. (I do not believe this, as the doors would occasionally open correctly from the inside—so that would mean child lock is also faulty) 2nd visit: they found weak actuators in both doors and replaced them. 3rd visit: currently still in the shop for other unrelated issues, but they are having a hard time diagnosing the cause since the doors will open for them—but the lady who checked me in experienced the door sticking with me, and she said she could tell something was wrong.

Hvac plug pigtail blower motor resistor heater control harness is available for inspection hvac electrical plugin was badly burned and melted causing risk of fire summer months created dangerous interior temperatures winter months & inclement weather created physical distress- & created dangerous vision restrictions/blockage because unable to use defroster dangerous cab temperatures, limited or blocked vision through windshield created physical distress and distraction for me thus others and property were at elevated risk yes confirmed by garage. No inspection performed. No warnings available. There are 2 separate incidents: July 2023/August 2023 September 2024/April 2025.

Key will not remove from the ignition. This is a known issue by Subaru but they refuse to correct it.

The wires that connect to the climate control have started an electrical fire and burned out my climate control twice. Upon reporting this to Subaru they advised the climate control randomly not working is a very common problem as it can melt due to high heat outside (90-100+ temperature). Now upon replacing the climate control unit, the wire connected was burned as there was an active electrical fire that was the cause of the climate control not working because it could not connect to the wire pack properly due to the fire. Fire started and went out on its own but without my knowledge as it’s internal behind the radio portion of the car. I would not have known about the fire unless I replaced the part, which is what I did.

Failure of the starter motor, should be able to get the faulty part from mechanic. This rendered me unable to start my car and required a tow, thankfully not from the side of the highway. Confirmed faulty with tow driver and mechanic. The part has only been inspected by mechanic who mentioned this was the third starter motor failure he has seen on Subaru Imprezas. No warnings, though the car struggled to turn over earlier in the day.

One day my blower motor wouldn't turn on and my switch was actually stuck, unable to adjust at all. After checking all fuses and relays I pulled out the control panel and noticed significant electrical damage to both the switch itself and the wiring harness. This is a very dangerous fire hazard to myself and my family. I've done research and this is not an isolated issue. There have actually been very many cases of the exact nature. There is even a service bulletin out for "hvac blower fan inoperative" which includes my year make and model of vehicle. I feel if this isn't resolved on a large scale lives could be affected greatly or even lost. It is my recommendation this issue be moved to a national recall. I have included pictures of my own and also pictures from others with same issue as proof.

When the car is turned on, all of the lights flicker nonstop to the point of moderately reducing line of sight. I am terrified the headlights are going to just quit altogether. The car also “shimmys” in time with the flickering lights. It appears to get worse when accelerating as well. Also it has been over 2 years since the headlight recall for this model. The dealership keeps saying, we don’t have the parts or just ignoring my requests altogether.

The blower assembly in my car stopped working suddenly- when I looked into it, a short/electrical failure had happened that caused the wire harness and other components to melt inside the system. This appears to be a common failure similar Subaru cars, but the fact that the system can fail so significantly to burn/melt the connectors seems like a dangerous failure mode.

Car does not accelerate from a full stop. Hesitates to react to gas pedal for a few seconds.

See all problems of the 2023 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Battery drain when plugging into the usb port: this is second battery that had to be replaced since purchase of the vehicle.

See all problems of the 2015 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Brake lamp switch failed in 2018 - we diagnosed the issue, based partly on information from other Subaru owners who had the same problem, and replaced the switch. Since that time, the brake lights have worked fine. We reported this in a letter to Subaru after their recall for the brake lamp switch replacement in 2019. They refused to pay for the part as we no longer have the receipt (not having a crystal ball, we couldn't see any reason to keep it for more than a year in 2018). We did not contest this - in fact, I had merely asked, in my letter, that they note that the part had already failed and been repaired in their records - however, they continue to flag the car as an open safety recall and insist that we bring the car in to replace a switch that no longer needs replacing. I am filing this complaint in the hope that an official record of the incident will fix the records on our car, as their constant recall notices are becoming increasingly more insistent and annoying, and they have also inaccurately noted it as an open recall at the dmv.

The starlink head unit, produced by hk, is having the same issues that the wua86 update should have fixed. It was reprogrammed in 2019, and less than 1 year later when my wife bought it, it was having the same reported glitches. I. E. Randomly turning off and on, not connecting to bluetooth/usb music interface, backup camera taking extended time to come up on head unit screen, turning the headhunt off with the power button doesn't work because it just randomly turns itself back on again. The bluetooth will also randomly disconnect when it does happen to connect in the first place. This is a recall that was performed, and the same exact issues are happening. It's a big danger to whomever is driving the car as it takes attention away from driving. I am very unhappy with this danger as it was supposed to have been repaired already. Since the 2018 Subaru impresa premium is out of the extended warranty even, it seems there's nothing we can do. But subara put out this software update and said it would work. It didn't!.

There was a brake light switch failure which was under recall. The failure caused a short in my electrical system and wires in my bulk head wiring harness melted and fused together causing a ultimate failure of the vehicle being able to start. The vehicle was towed to Subaru, the brake light switch was fixed per the recall but the wiring harness is no longer made by Subaru so my vehicle could not be repaired. Ultimately my vehicle was ruined. The brake switch failure is the cause of the short that ruined this vehicle valued at 4800$ and Subaru wont fix it because they cant find the parts needed.

See all problems of the 2009 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

Ignition key can not always be removed. If I turn the ignition back on it will usually release the key.

The contact owns a 2011 Subaru Impreza. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The VIN was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 16v738000 (electrical system). The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the VIN was not included in the recall. The failure mileage was 84,000.

See all problems of the 2011 Subaru Impreza 🔎.

I purchased a Subaru for reliability and safety reasons. This car has placed my family in some dangerous situations. Every time the outside temp is 90+ degrees f and it is driven on a road trip of 200+ miles, the car's acceleration shuts off. There is never any warning or check engine/trans lights until after this happens. Nate wade Subaru in salt lake city cannot find any codes and does not know how to help. The car will not restart after being turned off, even after waiting up to an hour. We have had to tow it. The last incident taking place 7/30/2022 with our 19 year old son driving. The worst part is that twice it happened in the far left lane with no option to get over to the right side of the highway safely due to traffic. Cars/trucks from behind have narrowly missed hitting us because there was not enough shoulder to pull out of the way. This has happened both in ut and id where posted speed limits were 70-80 mph and put us in real danger. I don't know what to do other than sell the car. But I don't feel right doing that without sharing this problem -which would then "kill" the sale. It is unacceptable to not have a fix for this issue or at least a warning light so we know when it might happen. ?.

Upon placing the vehicle in park, the key will not be released from the ignition. This has happened intermittently for months. The vehicle has not yet been inspected, but I do believe this is a known issue with this model/year, along with other Subaru models/years. I have had to leave me key in the ignition with the vehicle unlocked, on city streets, due to having to make work appointments on time and not having the time to play with the shifter, steering wheel and/or ignition until it decides to work. When my vehicle is stolen, will Subaru replace it? this is a problem for which Subaru should beheld responsible.