Check Engine Light On problems of the 2005 Subaru Legacy

Car has been very slow to reduce rpms when shifting gears or when stopped (and in neutral) for the past few weeks. Today, when pulling into a starbucks, the car surged forward. Luckily I have a stick shift and just pushed the clutch in. After surging, the check engine light came on. Using a diagnostic tool, I found that the car is throwing error code p2138. This indicates that the accelerator pedal position (app) sensor is either bad or has a poor connection. The detail on the error stats "the ecm has detected that the app sensor 1 and app sensor 2 disagree more than 4. 5% for less than 1 second. " essentially, one or both throttle-by-wire circuits isn't functioning properly. I went online and found that this is an all too common problem and some folks have found that their cars are surging forward, threatening safety.

Check engine light came on, pulled over immediately and checked oil on the side of the road also looked through owners manual. The oil was a quart low, turbo making suction noises, pick up from a stop or quick throttle to pass on high way was gone. Added a quart of oil and had an oil change & check engine light diag done the next day ( drove maybe 60 mile with light on). After the oil change metallic noise from passenger side of engine could be heard and exhaust was pouring out thick smoke. The code was p011 timing issue, turbo banjo (oil line filter) clogged. Car has 64k on it oil changed every 4000. Found this is a very common issue that is a very hot topic on many Subaru forums. Subaru will not cover under this issue warranty sighting that consumer maintenance caused sludge to build up on the banjo bolt filter. Yet Subaru has no mention of cleaning or maintenance of the turbo banjo bolt filter in the owners manual. This issue caused my car and others to have engine damage requiring the customer to fit a 4 to 11 thousand dollar bill to fix. Subaru should issue a recall and refund customers that had to pay out of pocket.

The turbo in my 2005 Subaru Legacy gt split in half when I was driving home from work. It made a squealing noise, with no warning lights prior to the turbo going, however exactly when it happened the check engine light came on with the cruise light blinking. I was told by a certified Subaru technician that the turbos in these cars do not just split in half and rarely have problems. However, I was told about the banjo bolt oil filter located under the turbo, unseeable when getting a routine oil change, however this filter needs to be cleaned otherwise it clogs and starves the turbo of any oil. I was never aware when purchasing this car of that problem, and nowhere in my vehicles manual does it say anything about the banjo bolt oil filter and how it needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. The turbo in my car is the only part that needs to be replaced, however finding a turbo for the 05 Legacy gt is pretty expensive, and the used turbos are even harder to locate than any of the other 05 Subaru models. I am currently still without a car and I believe the turbos in the 05 Legacy gt's are defective due to the banjo bolt oil filter clogging excessively.

The letter I sent to Subaru of America (edited): I am the owner of a 2005 Legacy gt. On August 5th, 2008 my family and I were headed to boise, idaho from bend, oregon. About an hour and a half from home I noticed that the engine was revving abnormally high to maintain speed. I called the shop back in bend (thomas sales and service) and they recommended that I have the car towed back to them. When we arrived back in bend the tech at the dealer inspected the car and determined that it was a turbo issue, as I had suspected. The service manager at the dealer who informed me the issue would be covered under warranty. Parts were ordered and service was scheduled. Several days later I was contacted again by the service manager who informed me that since my car was at 74k miles (but still inside the 5 year warranty period) it would not be covered and that the repair costs would be right around $2000. Naturally I was upset with this news. I am a member of the website Legacygt. Com and started looking around for information regarding my problem and found a service bulletin regarding the banjo bolt screen in the turbo getting clogged. At no time was I ever contacted by Subaru or my dealer regarding this potential problem or I would have had it checked out. I am also a member of mysubaru. Com and was not informed there either. I have had regular oil changes performed and have performed several myself (I have no record of this in the form of receipts, see attached copies) and the night before we left for boise I checked all the fluids and the air pressure in the tires and found everything was good. I was planning on having the oil changed again in boise. I have always used high quality synthetic oil since after the first couple of changes. What is really troubling is that at no time did I ever get a warning from a check engine light or error code, yet I seemed to have had a catastrophic failure.

At different throttle inputs there is an engine stutter/stumble. This failure is dangerous because it happens often when accelerating. Subaru denies this is a global problem for early production vehicle as does the dealer. . Read more...