Engine Shut Off Without Warning problems of the 2012 Subaru Outback

Two problems related to engine shut off without warning have been reported for the 2012 Subaru Outback. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2012 Subaru Outback based on all problems reported for the 2012 Outback.

1 Engine Shut Off Without Warning problem

Failure Date: 01/24/2019

Vehicle shudders and stalls when braking/decelerating. Engine shuts off completely and abruptly with little time to react. I have 128,000 miles on the vehicle. Mechanics do not know what exaclt is causing the problem.

2 Engine Shut Off Without Warning problem

Failure Date: 04/15/2016

When the brakes are applied and the car comes to a stop light or stop sign, the engine shuts off ('stalls when idling or slowing down'). The vehicle then must be put into 'park' mode in order to re-start. This occurs nearly everyday of the week, and has created many, many dangerous situations for us and the drivers around us. We took the vehicle to the dealership in may concerning this issue, and they stated that they had not heard of this problem, and that nothing was wrong with the vehicle. We took the vehicle in for service again this week, and the dealership mentioned that a technical service bulletin had been issued for this problem. The TSB was apparently issued in Jan 2014, but customers were not notified in spite of the fact that the defect poses dire saftey risks. We are bewildered given that this item is clearly a recall-worthy defect that places the vehicle owner, and the cars around them, in foreseeable and considerable danger. We are very concerned that other customers are also being told by the dealership and manufacturer that there is 'nothing wrong with their vehicle' in spite of the TSB issued in Jan '14. A cynical person might conclude that an effort is being made to obfuscate this safety defect until customer's warranties run out. Similarly, the manufacturers TSB language appears to obfuscate the defect with euphemistic language. To be clear --- the vehicle shuts off in the middle of the road when slowing down for a stop light or stop sign. It would appear that an effort is being made to avoid a recall. According to the TSB, Subaru modified production in October 2013 to account for and cure this safety issue. Again, customers ho were sold vehicles with the safety defect hav not been notified.




Safety Ratings of Outback Cars
Fuel Economy of Outback Vehicles
Outback Service Bulletins
Outback Safety Recalls
Outback Defect Investigations