general problems of the 2006 Subaru Outback

The engine will randomly loose power. This has happened three times now. You must coast to a stop, turn the key off and try to restart the car. Sometime it will take several tries to restart. I see this as a real safety concern in heavy traffic. Especially so if heavy traffic makes it impossible to reach the side of the road safely. The service code points to the throttle peddle position sensor. Reading some of the internet forums it seems to be a fairly common issue. Of course internet forums must be considered carefully. However with the above said I see this issue as a real safety concern. Not only for my safety but those around me if this happens in heavy traffic. Thank you.

About 4 weeks ago, on late Saturday morning, driving down the interstate, from richmond, va my car caught on fire in hampton. The car jolted a little and would not accelerate. Pulled to the side of the road, smoke became visible, but the temperature gauge was not running high. A witness ran toward the car yelling to get out of the car because it was on fire. Even though 2 fire trucks were on the scene, it took a little while to extinguish the fire and everything under the hood was burnt to a crisp. Unfortunately, it was not recoverable. Are you aware of what may have possibly caused this to happen?.

My vehicle only has 40,000 miles on it. It is not shifting properly from 2ns-3rd gear while driving, it jerks pretty hard if cold, I have had numerous brake problems, takes a long time to stop at slow speeds, & I'm having numerous issues with suspension. Balljoints keep clicking while reversing, (control arms,balljoints, bushings, bearings, have all been replaced, etc. ) this car has been babied and has almost no miles. It is becoming a money-pitt and nobody wants to fix it.

Ringland issue once again another ringland issue this is with my 2006 Subaru Outback xt. Yes, this car is out of warranty but has been driven gently by a grandmother and serviced with the precision of a formula race car. Why has Subaru not just come out and said yes our vehicles from 2005-2006 were garbage and the ringlands were junk. I can't believe I am even thinking about replacing a stock ringland on a vechicle. . . No other car. . . . None has had as many issues with ringlands as Subaru. Car is now experiencing misfires, and some loss of oil as loss of power. . . Compression in cylinders is now down to 30% so this is not a catastrophic failure. . . This is a defect a manufactures defect or a metallurgical defect and they really need to take care of this and make it right for older customers. . . We are all just sitting on ticking bombs. Love ya guys and stay classy.

The contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. While driving various speeds, the check engine indicator illuminated and the cruise control warning indicator began to flash. As a result, the contact mentioned that the vehicle failed to accelerate. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the accelerator pedal failed and needed to be replaced. In addition, the accelerator position sensor and the epm were also replaced. The failure recurred. The manufacturer was made aware of the failures. The approximate failure mileage was 77,000.

While driving at speed - city street 45mph -- lost ability to throttle. No throttle, engine, or acceleration response when pressing gas pedal. Check engine and cruise lights blinking. After pulling over, turned off engine. Upon restarting after a minute, throttle capability returned. This has happened twice, unexpectedly.

I recently had p2138. . One time. No throttle response, stopped on a hill on a 2 lane road, on a curve, in big sur. . Not good. Rolled backwards down hill after the ones behind had all passed me. Turned off car, waited for 10 minutes, then it fixed itself after a restart. Jiggled the pedal connector and it has been gone for the last 2 weeks while waiting for my mechanic to have room in his schedule to replace my throttle pedal (which has a pedal position sensor), two days from now.

When driving on the highway at 75mph the engine light and cruise control light came on and the accelerator became unresponsive. After pulling over and restarting the car it worked fine. This has happened 7 times so far and after reading many posts on Outback forums it seems that this is a very common and dangerous problem that needs to be figured out by Subaru.

Tl- the contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at 40 mph, the engine rpms increased. In addition, the check engine and the cruise control warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the throttle pedal position sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 132,000. Djr.

Slowing at intersection to make a right turn when check-engine-light came on. Cruise control light started flashing (vehicle was not in cruise control at the time) accelerator pedal became unresponsive (could get no acceleration out of the car when pressing the pedal) and was barely able to get through intersection to turn. After a minute or so was able to get enough power to run at about 10mph tops with hazards on to get a location where I could pull over out of traffic. Car would not start immediately after (three cranks with no response) after a few minutes, though, it restarted and seemed to operate normally, no problems with speed. Diagnostic code was p2138 (throttle/pedal position sensor/switch "a"/"b" voltage correlation.

The contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. When the contact depressed the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to respond and the check engine indicator illuminated. The failure occurred multiple times. The dealer was unable to diagnose the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was notified. The approximate failure mileage was 68,000.

My 2006 Subaru Outback has had a code p2138 issue for over two months now. In many cases I am in the car with my 4 year old son and end up being in danger for no reason. Loosing 99% of power while going to school or to the store. All attempts to fix this issue have not worked and the car itself is thought of as a death trap in our house. Subaru disregards the code and offers no fix. Please issue a recall. Lives are at risk.

Our 2006 Subaru Outback needs the head gaskets and rear main seal replaced. The vehicle has been maintained to manufacturer recommendations. This seems to be a common issue for the 2. 5 engine and should be recalled.

In the summer of 2011 I was driving on the highway at approx 75mph. All of a sudden temp gage made a big jump into the red zone and the engine started making loud upsetting sounds. Pulled off the highway and right at the exit lost power steering and the car died. Car was diagnosed with blown head gaskets and cracked engine block. The entire engine was replaced under warranty (approx $8000 replacement). Fast forward to June 2014. The new engine did exactly the same thing. Temperature shot up on the highway, engine died, head gaskets once again have blown. This new engine was four years old and had only 30,000 miles on it. Car has had regular oil changes and service throughout its lifetime. I am currently having my situation reviewed by Subaru of America. I am hoping they will cover the repair costs.

The contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 25 mph, the vehicle failed to accelerate. The contact also stated that the check engine and the cruise control warning lights illuminated. The failure occurred on multiple occasions. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 96,000.

Four times in one month prior the above date, this vehicle stopped running in traffic. It would not restart. Most importantly, the automatic transmission could not be taken out of gear and put into park!! in addition, the emergency brake failed to properly keep the vehicle from rolling in traffic. The most recent time this happened, the driver was in heavy traffic on a hill and the emergency brake again did not properly hold the vehicle. The driver had to open her door, exit the vehicle in order to physically stop it from rolling downhill in traffic and was nearly ran over by a passing semi trailer truck. This is a well maintained vehicle, often through the dealer it was purchased from. During this time, the vehicle was towed twice to the dealer. They diagnosed the problem as being caused by electronic computer parts malfunction. After these expensive and possibly unnecessary repairs the problem still persisted. The vehicle continued to stop for no reason in traffic and would not restart. Each time this happened, the vehicle could not be taken out of gear and put into park!! I know of no other vehicle where this type of problem has happened. After the latest breakdown, upon inspection, the dealer located a section of wire loom that had worn bare and possibly had caused a short in the electrical system. This worn spot in the wire loom may have tripped up the logic in the vehicle computer and been the reason the driver could not put the vehicle in park after breaking down in traffic. If this electrical wire loom caused this "malfunction", it would put anyone in this vehicle in a position where there is great potential for serious injury, or death. This problem should be looked into by your department in order to make sure this does not happen again to someone else.

Turbo engine on Outback ceased to work- could have caused a car fire. Unable to accelerate above 30 mph.

There have been two incidents so far. One was traveling on the freeway at 65mph when the throttle completely stopped responding. The other incident occurred at much lower speeds when turning a corner and the throttle no longer responded. In both cases the car would not accelerate or maintain speed. Pressing on the accelerator did not have any effect at all. In both cases the car would "coast" along at whatever speed the engine idling would move it - roughly 15 mph.

While driving on interstate highway, vehicle lost engine power. Electric was still on. Gas pedal did not work. Cel and cruise control lights both blinking. Was able to maintain 15 mph on flat road, and barley any speed on incline. Got off highway near home and shut of engine. Waited and tried to start back up. 30 seconds of cranking, and nothing. Waited another minute and it started. Got home and pulled a p2138 code. Pulled wiring harness off gas pedal and reseated it. Reset the cel and everything has been fine since. Scary situation, especially at 65mph during thanksgiving eve rush-hour.

Engine lost power and had to pull to side of road. Retrieved error code p2138 (accelerator pedal position sensor) from (dlc) data link connector in car.