general problems of the 2009 Subaru Outback

The contact owned a 2009 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at 50 mph, the vehicle had failed to accelerate above 60 mph without warning. The contact soon began to notice heavy white smoke in her rear-view mirror as the smoke quickly spread to the front end of the vehicle. The contact immediately pulled over, grabbed vital items, and exited the vehicle. The contact called 911 as flames quickly engulfed the vehicle, and a deputy who witnessed the fire pulled over to assist the contact. The fire department arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire. The contact sustained emotional distress as a result of the accident but did not seek medical attention. The contact was not given a police or fire report. The vehicle was initially towed to an independent tow yard before the contact's insurance had the vehicle towed to another location. The insurance company later deemed the vehicle a total loss. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 200,000.

The contact owns a 2009 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle shut-off with the check engine, traction control and cruise control warning lights illuminated. On several occasions the vehicle would not immediately restart. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer for service. No further information was available. The manufacturer was also notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 81,000. The VIN was not available.

Both the head gasket and valve cover gasket are leaking oil. The head gasket started leaking at 52k miles and the valve cover at 65k miles. Both need to be replaced. Subaru has had issues with these gaskets for decades. There should be a recall for these issues.

Catalytic converter replaced once back in 2013. This week had to replace front and rear catalytic converter again due to problem with catalytic converter. Mileage at 105,000.

The head gaskets on my vehicle have developed leaks at just over 80,000 miles. This is a frequent (and known) problem with the head gaskets on this vehicle. All Subaru-specific mechanics, many owners of this model and even Subaru dealership employees have expressed knowledge of high failure rates for this head gasket at approximately 80-100k mile intervals. This is way shorter life than should occur and results in a $2000 or greater cost of repair (in my case, $3200!). Subaru has been aware of this defect on previous models and even had class action suits resulting in recalls for previous generation Outbacks yet have not addressed the defect.

While driving the engine suddenly died. Luckily we were on a lightly traveled road and were able to pull off to the side. The engine would start, run for about one second, then die. While waiting on a tow truck, a gearhead-type friend that I had called to take my wife home arrived, thought about the problem a bit, and unplugged the maf sensor. The engine ran great. It turned out that a defective air filter had allowed debris to clog the sensor. My complaint is that an invalid reading from a non-critical sensor should not be allowed to pull the engine fuel/air/timing parameters so far off that the engine will not run. Obviously the engine computer knows approximately what those values should be since it ran great with the sensor disconnected. Sensor readings beyond what would reasonably be expected should be ignored. We were lucky that we were on a country road when this occurred. Had we been in the middle lane of a busy freeway, or darting across four lanes of busy traffic, this could have been a disaster.

Car turns over but will not start.

Air bags have become disabled due to either the switch in the seat or in the overhead console. The engine also consumes an enormous amount of oil (has since new) about 2 quarts every oil change or 3000 miles sometimes more.