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.

The accelerator pedal position sensor is faulty. It is prone to wear in these vehicles based on my research. This caused my car to go into limp-mode on the highway, rapidly cutting my speed in half. The accelerator provides no response until vehicle was restarted. The ecu put out the code p2138 for loss of voltage in throttle system.

Three times the engine rpm's speed up and the throttle peddle fails to work, the only way to reset this is pull to the side turn car off and it usually but not always resets. This has happened twice while car was in motion and once while car was in park. Luckily I was in a 40 mph zone when this happened and not on the highway. I have had the car looked at and it has a engine code that says there is a problem with the throttle system. It's only a matter of time that this happens when the car is in motion and throttle peddle is unresponsive and unable to pull to side of roadway.

P2138 check engine code. Vehicle lost all power while traveling 55mph in 4 lanes of traffic. Gas pedal didn't work and the engine was racing. Thankfully I was able to coast over into the left turn lane. The vehicle would only move forward while in drive and at a slow crawl. I was able to get a large enough window to crawl across the other 2 lanes and crawl into a parking lot. I ended up getting towed from there. When checking for repairs I had a smaller �Subaru only� repair shop tell me this is a very common problem and I am lucky no one was injured. They said they repair 1 to 2 of these each month. My local Subaru dealer says they've never heard of the error code or my specific problem. They don't even stock the part I need. The internet has many reports of my specific scenario. This seems like a serious safety concern to me. Something is not right here but no by seems to be doing anything about it.

Repeated pedal slip codes �p2138� happens about once a day now and happens from stop to start positions at random times.

The cruise and check engine lights flash. Car looses power and stalls while driving.

No gas pedal response.

Accelerator pedal goes limp and unresponsive at random moments including highway driving. It has happens more and more often and other Subaru owners have said the same. It seems to happen the most during colder weather and the cars gas pedal becomes completely unresponsive and requires the car to be pulled over over and turned off to sit for a some time. When putting the car into park the rpms jump up and rev higher to around 4000, unsure of what's causing it.

Upon pushing the accelerator to enter traffic, there was no response from the throttle. The engine remained running and the car idled into the street and driver was able to avoid an accident and coast to a stop. Vehicle was towed to dealership where the dealer service department diagnosed the cause as failure of the accelerator position sensor component of the throttle by wire system.

On two different occasions in the last two weeks, I was driving my Outback, when it went "limp". The engine was running but there was no response when I pressed the accelerator. My car continued to move forward at the speed I was driving. When I pressed the brake, it slowed but, when I let up on the brake, the engine continued to rev and my car continued in forward motion before totally dying out from under me. Fortunately, I was on a side street near my house. On the first occasion, after a period of time, the engine stopped revving and I coasted to a stop. On the second occasion, I was pulling in my drive, after a two mile trip, when the same thing happened. The motor continued revving with the car moving forward and I had no control of the accelerator. When I tried to brake, the car would slow down but immediately pick up when I let up on the brake. I nearly hit a 6' bank of firewood at the end of our drive.

While the vehicle was in operation both in park, and in motion, and while both turning and going straight, the throttle intermittently stopped responding to all input, and the vehicle only ran the engine at over idle rpms (about 2100rpm in neutral). The problem would usually persist through several restarts. Eventually the car would restart at normal idle, and the throttle would be responding again. The vehicle code indicated to my mechanic that the throttle position sensor needed replaced, however after replacing it, the problem has persisted. I have read many accounts of this issue online over the past few years, and any issue regarding vehicle acceleration while driving should be considered a serious problem. Subaru needs to issue a response and acknowledge this problem.

The contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. While depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to respond. While driving various speeds, the vehicle stalled and the check engine warning indicator illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact mentioned that the failure occurred intermittently. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 118,341.

Just received "takata recall" letter stating there are now sufficient parts available. At the same time my check engine light came on and cruise light started flashing. I made an appointment for the recall work and to have the car checked out. I googled this and found that a code p2138 is found with this occurrence and it seems to be happening with many of these vehicles. My wife called me on her way home from work and said the car would not accelerate. She pulled off of the highway into a parking lot. I drove to her location. She started the car and gas pedal seemed to be operating as it should. I followed her home and was thankful there were no problems getting back. I will determine whether to drive vehicle or have it towed to dealer for scheduled appt. Next wed. Kind of makes sense now because when I drove the car the day before to get gas, there was hesitation when accelerating, which I found unusual, as the car runs great with plenty of power.

Driving in busy traffic on freeway, highways, and streets, cruise and engine lights came on, no response when applying gas pedal, car coasted into slow cruise, eventually down to about 15 mph. Again, no response to applying gas pedal. That happened sporadically. Had near fatal accidents a couple times then it stopped and two or three weeks later throttle turned on revving up to 500 in idle, over 300 when driving. Trying to stop at intersections, brake malfunctioned, nearly hit several people trying to get home. Engine racing out of control. This stopped briefly, drove errand, and withno foot on gas pedal, car was speeding up on highway uphill and still accelerating at 78 mph. Brakes did not work consistently, jumped a curb, when trying to pull over and turn off engine. Had to have car towed. Repair of throttle senior $365 at local dealership in portland, or. I asked them to review all the documentation I found here and elsewhere showing this was a known problem and they ignored me entirely. This was very dangerous and scary. I feel Subaru should pay this repair. It easily could have killed me and others here, and others in the future. Park your Subaru if this happens and you cannot afford repair. File a complaint with Subaru. Don't do what I did out of desperation and drive it, because it could really could kill you. Find another way to get to work. Trucks on roadways cannot avoid you if no engine power with no notice and nowhere safe to pull off, which happened to me.

Accelerator randomly stops working. Once you stop the vehicle and wait about 10-15 seconds then restart I seems to work fine. Also check engine and cruise lights flash when this occurs. So far this has only happened right after starting the vehicle while leaving a driveway or parking lot so at slow speeds. If this happens on a 6 lane freeway system, it could be very dangerous!!!!!!!.

Loss of power, no acceleration while driving at highway speeds. Trouble code p2138 faulty throttle position sensor in the gas pedal leading to no acceleration. This happened while driving on the freeway at highway speeds (70 mph or so). Suddenly there was no power when pushing the gas pedal and we had to make it to the shoulder on a busy freeway with no acceleration what so ever. This should be a recall! people can die with loss of power and acceleration on the freeway, or being stuck on a blind curve on a mountain road. Very dangerous situation with this system!.

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.

While driving my Subaru yesterday, I suddenly lost the ability to accelerate. The car speed dropped to 10 mph. I pulled off the road and restarted car twice. Barely enough acceleration to get car to 18 mph. The check engine light remained on and the cruise light blinked continously. Took car to dealer today. Error code is p2138. Dealer cannot find what is wrong with car. I am concerned about going onto highways and having this happen.

Sudden loss of acceleration while driving; connection between gas pedal and engine control is faulty. Forces driver to coast to a stop and turn off car. No ability to use gas to get out of the way faster.

Was driving at approx 55 mph when all of a sudden check engine light came on, cruise light was flashing, and sport light was flashing, car slowed down to 10 mph and could not go any faster. It was revved up to redline and there was no response with the gas pedal. I was only 2 miles from my destination, so I limped it there and shut it off. I had it scanned with a code scanner and code "p2138" (throttle position sensor) came up. After much research I found it usually is related to gas pedal assy. It has not yet happened since clearing the code and making sure the plug on the pedal was tight.

I was traveling on a 3-lane highway at the posted mileage (60 mph). Simultaneously the check engine light came on and the gas pedal lost all power. The cruise light was also flashing. I tried flooring the gas pedal, but the vehicle continued to lose power and the speed rapidly decreased to less than 20 mph. This happened with absolutely no warning and no time to get off a busy thoroughfare. This occurred at approximately 3:00 pm, so fortunately the traffic was not extremely heavy. I was able to cut across 2 lanes of traffic that was going 60 mph +, exit on an off-ramp, and get to a safe location to call for a tow truck to take the vehicle to dealership for repair. The outcome was code p2138 (accelerator sensor). The sensor was replaced at a cost of $340. I purchased this vehicle new in 2006, and have kept it well maintained at the dealership per their service schedule. However, until this problem occurs, there’s no doubt it would have ever been caught by the dealer to repair. This is extremely dangerous because it could have caused a serious injury to me and other drivers. If it had been at another time, I could have been rear-ended by drivers going the posted speed limit.

While driving on the highway, the check engine light came on and I immediately had no throttle response. Thankfully it was 10:30pm and there was a lower volume of traffic. I coasted off to the shoulder. Turned the vehicle off, restarted, and still no throttle response. Turned off again for about 15 minutes. This time there was throttle response, but cel was still on. The following day, the cel light was off and vehicle running fine. Now, a week later, it happened again. It is a very dangerous situation to all of a sudden have no power while driving. Especially when there is traffic around. The fear is being run into from behind, or being stuck on the side of the road and become prey for the unsavory. This situation needs to be remedied before someone dies.

While driving down I-25 the car lost all power and had no accelleration. The car would only idle, I noticed a check engine light on. I had the car towed to a repair shop and when the code was read a p2138 that had to do with the accellerator the mechanic said it happens alot with this year Subaru. He told me by just shutting the car off and waiting a few minutes it would have driven normal,when he started it again it did drive normal. He sends them to a Subaru dealer and tells the people that if enough of us complain or fill in a report then something may be done. This is a very unsafe car if it loses all power driving down the highway!.

Drive-by-wire throttle receives signal error (p2138) and ecu cuts off throttle function. This presents a serious and dangerous condition as the driver is then entirely unable to modulate speed. This error has occured three times with no warning on the same vehicle, and at various speeds and situations. The latest one occured on a highway at approximately 60mph where collisions due to disabled throttle were narrowly avoided. This error and the vehicle's ecu response could kill someone.

Vehicle lost throttle response suddenly. Was able to coast at about 20mph off of an interstate to a safe location code check indicated p2138 throttle position sensor fault.

Same symptom happened twice: once just after starting from a service area on the interstate, the second on suburban roads I describe here. During a normal 30 mile suburban trip, after about 20 miles the vehicle suddenly lost power and the check engine light came on. The engine continued running but the accelerator pedal seemed to have no control over the engine speed or power. After coasting to a stop and turning the engine off for a minute the car started and ran normally, though the check engine light stayed on for a day or so. When we took the vehicle to the dealer after the first incident they were not able to interpret the check engine codes; after the second incident they found a p2138 code -- "accelerator position sensor" failure. They replaced the accelerator assembly and the vehicle seems to be running correctly again. As I understand it the issue is a failure in the accelerator position sensor: there are dual sensors in the assembly and if their readings differ the accelerator pedal is effectively "disconnected" and the driver loses all power. I believe this is a serious safety issue: the failure could just as well have taken place at high speed on the interstate without the possibility of a safe stop, and having the first indication of trouble being "losing all power" is not acceptable.

Happened twice in one week. All of sudden, accelerator not responsive and lost of power. Check engine light comes on and cruise flashing. After turning on and off or stay off for a night, lights went out themselves. Error code p2138 accelerator position sensor. Check sensor no obvious loose on connector. Press connect on and no issue so far. It seems the connector too close to the floor and easy to kicked or touched by foot. \ car was bought in buffalo west herr Subaru and used in toronto.

The contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. The contact was driving 60 mph when the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection and repair. The dealer replaced the accelerator pedal assembly. The manufacturer was not notified of the incident. The approximate failure mileage was 45,000.

Incident initially started in February, went to accelerate after starting car in the am, did not respond, cel and flashing cruise button came on, engine seemed to idle and wouldn't respond to trying to accelerate again. Turned engine off, tried to turn back on, would not start. Repeated process with starting 2-3 times until started again. Cel and flashing cruise remained on for a couple days, took to repair garage and they said that they couldn't find anything wrong on the diagnostic run. This has continued to occur off and on for the last several months. I have taken it to 2 different shops who could never find anything wrong with the car or get it to reproduce when they drove it, and then to dealer 2 weeks ago, they replaced throttle body and did a fuel injector service. Again, this morning, accelerating at 30-40 mph in start/stop traffic, could not accelerate at 30 mph, engine started to rev, pulled over to side, shut off engine, repeated 2 more times, again cel and flashing cruise. These lights are still on but car drove normally. Very frustrated as I cannot get it to reproduce for shop or for dealership because it happens so erratically.

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.

First occurrence 12/5/11. I was driving through a parking lot and check engine light came on as I lost the ability accelerate. I coasted to a parking space, shut my car off and was waiting for a tow truck. After and hour I turned my car back on and all seemed fine. I took it straight to the dealership where they found problem p2138, accelerator pedal assembly problem. They replaced the accelerator pedal. All seemed to be working fine. Second occurrence 1/21/12. I was driving along a side road, check engine light came on as I once again lost the ability to accelerate. Shut the car off, sat for a few minutes and turned it back on. I was able to drive but the check engine light was still on. I got my car home and hooked up the diagnostic computer to it and got the same p2138 code. I readjusted the wires connecting the accelerator and check engine light went off. My concern is that this problem is going to occur when I am driving on the highway. Obviously the replacement of the accelerator pedal is not the solution to this problem.

Tl- the contact owns a 2006 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds the vehicle would suddenly decelerated. The contact indicated that during the incident the check engine light would illuminate. The vehicle was taken to several independent mechanics who was unable to diagnose the defect. The manufacturer was not notified of the defect. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 45,000. Jft.

2006 Subaru Outback. Hi, problem (1) head rest is so big that between the seat belt strap and the head rest there is no view to see vehicles about to pass in the left hand lane. Can result in side swiping when changing lanes. All the safety features in the world won't help if the end result of the feature is to cause injury or fatality. Safety problem (2) the speedometer. In order to make the instrument panel look "cute" you have destroy the ability to see what speed the vehicle is moving. No need to go to 140 mph to start with. The jumps between markings make it just about impossible to quickly determine the speeds 50, 60, and 70 mph and forget trying for 55,65,75. What do you intend to do about these two very serious safety problems on my 2006 Subaru Outback?????? I am "dead" serious about this and will search all possibilities for a remedy.