general problems of the 2006 Subaru Outback

The vehicle becomes uncontrollable on light ice. The rear end will "ghost walk" (seems to steer on its own). I have driven in snow my entire life and have never experienced this issue in any other vehicle. I am also an ase certified master technician. It only happens if I have passengers in the rear seat or groceries in the cargo area. The car is not even close to its cargo limit. The tires have been replaced and an alignment performed and the issue remains. I found that this is a commonly reported problem in the forums. The car is absolutely unsafe in this condition. I was being passed by every other car on the road. The rear end will float back and forth over 35 mph regardless of any driver input (acceleration, deceleration, steering input etc).

I experienced my gas pedal no longer working while driving, car was driving well, on a residential street going about 25 mph, then there was suddenly no gas/acceleration, had to coast to a stop. The check engine light came on, cruise control light was flashing. About 2 hours later the car was running normal again. The diagnosis code given was p2138 throttle/pedal position sensor/switch d/e voltage correlation. It is very scary and unsafe to suddenly not have power while driving, will be driving on the outside lane until the problem is fixed to I can get out of traffic safely.

I'm driving along & suddenly all the lights go on & the accelerator pedal does nothing, the car just loses power. I have to pull over, not always in a safe spot, because it won't do anything! turn the car off & wait 5 minutes. Then it will start back up, with the check engine light & cruise control light blinking. After about 3 restarts those lights turn off. I've had theerror code read & its p2138. When a car just stops driving in the middle of traffic, it's very dangerous & I've been reading online that it's common in this year Subaru & it needs to be addressed!! it's been happening more frequently & last time on the freeway!!!.

Takata recall letter dated 13 Dec 2017 received 28 Dec 2017 please update your records. I reported that this vehicle had been written off in October 2016 - more than a year ago. The licence plates were returned to wa transport. (please correct the form below - it applies to the us).

The fuel door release cable rusted through and came attached from the lever on the floor of the drivers side footwell.

Flashing, cruise control, and check engine light, no control and car surge and died on the interstate. From what I have read why is this not a recall. Lives can be lost due to this being a major problem.

While driving vehicle in snow covered, slush covered roads conditions varied during day. The vehicle kept feeling like it was washing out side to side. I had 5 passengers in vehicle and they all could feel it and it scared them and I had to slow down to a dangerously slow speed on interstate, that was causing disruption to traffic flow. On way home took secondary roads so as to not disrupt traffic. This was my first experience in taking this vehicle for drive in snow conditions since it is new to me. We purposely took Subaru for legendary handling in snow, it downright shook me up and wished we had our front wheel drive pontiac vibe. I inspected vehicle, made some changes to front suspension, ball joints, sway bar links, control arm bushings, only two control arm bushings were notably bad all other parts changed because I was there. Both tie rods were good. I have since experienced same issue when encountering patches of black ice, snow covered roads as well as driving on gravel roads. I have never experienced a car handling like this in my 35 years of driving! this vehicle is downright dangerous!!! and too think I bought this to be my winter vehicle.

Vehicle suddenly lost power, would not accelerate when accelerator pedal was depressed. When car was turned off and ignition turned, the vehicle was idling at a high rpm. When placed into drive vehicle would move forward at 15 mph, but there was no response from the accelerator pedal. Engine light went on, as did the cruise control light. Depressing the cruise control on/off button did not change cruise control indicator. Took into the dealership and they cleared the code and returned the vehicle back to me. The same thing occurred several days later. When I took it into the dealership, they told me the accelerator pedal assembly was malfunctioning and they charged me $403. 88 as a replacement. I see now on the web that others have had this problem. This is a very dangerous fail and could have caused a serious incident. It is also very frustrating because it all occurred within a few days of having $2400 of service already on the vehicle (engine head gaskets replaced, timing belt, trans fluid flush, tire rotate), and I had to take it back to the dealership 3 times in order to get issues dealt with (twice with the accelerator issue, once because they had failed to properly tighten the power steering belt).

I noticed a glare in the windshield above the dashboard making it difficult/annoying to see. This appears to be due to the dashboard melting and losing the "grainy" effect which reduced the glare. The dash is sticky and very reflective in the windshield.

Subaru Outback/legacy 2006 - intermittent issue over a few months. The check engine light comes on, cruise control flashes and car goes limp, gas pedal stops working. After car goes limp, engine needs to be turned off, but once car is put in park for it to be turned off, the engine revs to approx. 2000 rpms on its own. The car then has to sit for a few minutes to attempt to turn the car on and the gas pedal to work again. This problem has thrown the code p2138. This is a serious safety issue, even more so as it has happened while on the freeway, where the car will lose speed due to the accelerator pedal not working and the car has essentially become a roadblock in the middle of fast oncoming traffic. This could have potentially caused serious accidents. After researching this particular problem online, it appears that many others with this exact car make/year have had the same issue and it is prevalent to this particular car. Subaru needs to conduct an investigation and offer a safety recall of this vehicle - at the very least, the cost of repairs to fix this known and prevalent issue with this car needs to be covered by the manufacturer.

Fall of 2011 I started to notice a film, which was all over the dashboard, this film was of sticky substance and it was mainly or more noticeable on the parts of the dashboard that were most directly affected by the sun. This film was of such stickiness that hair, dust particles, paper, or anything that would come in contact with it would get trapped as if it was fly paper. I did everything that could had been done in order to if not eliminated, to make it acceptable and not so sticky and glue like. I went to the Subaru dealer, where the car was purchased, in order to get some re-dress to this problem, in several occasions I was told this film, this stickiness came from using armor all, that it must come from some product I must have used on it. Well, nothing ever came out of my many visits and conversations with the service manager, as the last resort the last time of my visit to the dealership, I insisted on them opening a case so Subaru headquarter would be aware of it, after I called and obtain a complaint #, the Subaru dealer in sanford was notified and then they made the appt to take the pictures, this was sometime this year March or April, about a week or so later, I was contacted by the Subaru regional office and the representative went on to educate me by telling me that my car was out of warranty,they had no complaint of sticky dashboards on record, and 3rd that no matter how many time I went to the dealer or headquarters, I was not going to get my dashboard fixed or replaced. . Read more...