general problems of the 2012 Subaru Outback - part 1

Vehicle stalls when stopping. This is a huge safety issue because stalling at intersections can cause accidents. Dealership diagnosed a faulty torque converter. This torque converter (it should be part number 31100ab170) issue is widely known in this production series of the Subaru Outback. After hundreds of complaints were filed with the NHTSA, Subaru extended the warranty on all their automatic transmissions to avoid a recall around 2017, but closed the extended warranty in 2022. Subaru now tries to convince their customers that these vehicles are too old for the issue to be attributable to them, despite knowing that they equipped these vehicles with defective parts. See the following: [xxx] [xxx] [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

When coming to a stop, the car shudders and often stalls just like if you didn't press in the clutch on a manual transmission. No warning lights or messages. See details in TSB- 16-90-13r. Subaru knows about this issue and it has been reported in many vehicles. My car was at a Subaru dealership at least half a dozen times during 2017-2018 when this issue came to light and no one notified us to have it checked. Fast forward to now and for the last year my car has been shuddering when coming to a stop, and about 2-3 months ago, it started stalling. This is an absolute safety issue and should be a recall. I've been in many situations where it stalls and I am vulnerable to getting rear-ended because it takes time to restart the car and get moving again. This is particularly true in traffic or situations where you need to stop suddenly and others behind you are not anticipating you being stopped in the roadway.

While driving on the highway, we were forced to brake swiftly. As a result, the known issue of the torque converter in this model of car caused the engine to stall in the middle lane of the highway and almost causing our deaths as multiple tractor-trailers had to swerve to avoid our immobilized vehicle until it could be restarted. This could've led to to the deaths of me, my family and many other road-users. I can't believe this isn't a recall when it's such a wide-spread and known problem with this model.

The car stalls out at stops. It shutters and them stalls like a 5 speed car. I have almost been rear-ended on a couple occasions. It is now in the shop for a torque converter replacement.

The contact owns a 2012 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving 65 mph, the vehicle lost motive power and decelerated, prompting the contact to quickly exit the roadway, where the failure persisted. Several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed a failure with the continuously variable transmission (cvt). The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 125,000.

Couple weeks back while driving on the highway my check engine light came on along with different lights and transmission oil warning and car immediately lost power. I was able to pull over without incident. Then I took it to my local mechanic, they changed the transmission fluid and changed some fuses. It seemed fine after the repair and I started to drive home, but again the same warning lights came on and the repair shop advised me to take it to the nearest Subaru dealer which is an hour away from my home. I paid for the diagnostics and the dealer concluded the problem as follows "transmission valve body: faulty causing check engine light and at oil temp light, will need to sit overnight for sealant to dry before fluid can be added. ". I did some research and found that this is a known problem for the 2012 Outback and Subaru had a 10 year/100k extended warranty for the exact problem and didn't do any recall even though so many vehicles were affected and are being affected every day. There are numerous complaints regarding this. Though as being 2nd owner and have driven just 9k miles in 2 years while performing regular maintenance this is very unfortunate and dangerous. I emailed the manufacturer to cover this since 100k was up and it should have been recalled. This was their response" dear nusrat epsi : thank you for contacting Subaru. Your vehicle did have a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty for extended transmission coverage. Regrettably, it is far outside of warranty and Subaru of America would not be in a position to consider financial assistance towards your repair. I will notate your feedback in the case for product development to consider when designing future models. Sincerely, david Subaru of America, inc. Customer advocacy department 1-800-subaru3 (1-800-782-2783) case number: 231230-1800310" they should recall the vehicle for this problem or offer free repair.

When coming to a quick or hard stop, car will rumble then stall out. To confirm that the issue is transmission based I shift the car into neutral then brake quickly and the issue does not arise.

The torque converter is failing at 113,00. It has happened at red lights, but more recently while on a texas freeway that I had to come to a hard stop which cause the engine to stall out at 40 mph. My child was in the car and on a fast paced highway my safety was placed in jeopardy. It is going to the shop to be repaired because is this. I will have proof of repair service and faulty part. .

I own a 2012 Subaru Outback 2. 5i premium. The vehicle has approximately 161k miles. Recently, I have noticed the car beginning to stutter when approaching an abrupt stop. There have since been several instances where the car will stall when coming to a quick stop. This happened to me in the middle of traffic one day and I had my family in the car with me. In my opinion, this issue jeopardized the safety of my family. Stalling in the middle of the road and having to restart the car each time is a huge concern for me. My wife and I are now terrified to drive the car due to the looming safety concern. Upon further research, the problem stems from a faulty torque converter on the car, confirmed by TSB 16-90-13r. Subaru has not made this a recall unfortunately, but I don't feel I should be the one to pay the cost for a repair that is in my opinion very serious. Please take action to make this needed repair a more serious concern.

Vehicle has always stuttered coming to stops but has began to start stalling. The problem was never diagnosed previously. Now that it is have found to be the torque converter I actually know what is happening. I don’t think being unable to rely on you vehicle to continue running in an emergency stop or break pump is a safety issue Subaru should take lightly. I have been faced with two Subaru known problem repairs recently that I didn’t know of at the time of purchase. The head gasket which left me stranded on a trip and a torque converter. The first was close to a 4k$ repair and the second is coming close to 2k$ repair. I am growing frustrated with Subaru ignoring how dangerous this and also how they are ignoring customer concerns. Both these issues are well documented by owners experiencing the same things I am. I would like to express this has happened since the vehicle was new but has gotten worse and is now stalling. Thank you, joni.

I own a 2012 Outback 2. 5 limited, which I purchased new from a Subaru dealer in evanston IL in June 2012. It currently has about 76000 miles on it. In the last 6 months my car started to shudder when coming to a stop at a traffic signal, or sometimes while being stopped at the signal. The shudder is significant but typically momentary and happens randomly. From the last 2-3 weeks, the car has started to stall and the engine shuts down abruptly when coming to a stop. This is very stressful, but fortunately, so far I have been able to put the car in p and start it again every time. However, this is very dangerous and puts me and my family at grave risk of a serious accident from cars coming from behind as my car stalls abruptly. Again, this happens randomly which makes it even more dangerous and impossible to mitigate as a driver. This has now happened multiple times and I called a local Subaru dealership. They gave an estimate of over $8000 to repair this issue. They also said they will repair the car only if they are able to recreate the problem. I am afraid that they will not be able to recreate the problem as it happens randomly as mentioned earlier. As far as I know no warning lights on my dash are on and the car otherwise runs normally.

I experienced issues with the engine of my 2012 Subaru Outback shutting down at times when coming to a stop, and also stalling/idling when accelerating (such as when entering freeway). My engine light and brake light also turned on at the same time. Very concerned, I took it in to the local Subaru service center at around 112,000 miles. They inspected the car and replaced 2 spark plugs, and must have restart the computer to turn the warning lights off. Recently at 117,000 after entering the freeway at night , my car roughly idled and the stalled and would not properly accelerate, almost causing me to crash as it happened suddenly while driving on freeway. The engine light was flashing and brake light came on as well. I immediately pulled over. After the Subaru inspection the next day, I was told that this was being caused by the torque converter and is a known issue on this model. This is a very dangerous issue, I believe that if this incident would have happened the next morning while on my commute instead of at the less busy hour at night, a crash would have occurred. I believe a recall is warranted on this dangerous issue as it is known by Subaru that this issue affects certain models and they will not provide much help to customers if they are past the extended warranty. The issue can occur past the 100,000 mile mark on an otherwise good condition and well cared for vehicle. This puts the customer and other drivers at great risk. I am very concerned and upset about the danger this put myself and others in. I was personally left on the side of the freeway at night at 7 months pregnant, but the situation could have been much worse. Since Subaru is not required to let customers know of this issue, customers may experience this issue without proper remediation until a serious issue happens.

Torque converter issue consistent with Subaru service bulletin 16-90-13. Although Subaru issued a service bulletin with extended warranty rather than a recall, I want to document this as an ongoing problem with the model year and still a dangerous one. 08/09/2021 the vehicle shuddered while coming to a stop at a light, like the rpms were dropping too low. At the next light, the vehicle shuddered and stalled while coming to a stop at the light. I was able to restart the vehicle after I realized the engine was dead and I needed to put the vehicle back into park before it would turnover. I couldn't immediately identify what I needed to do to restart, since the car won't turnover in drive, so I was stalled for a cycle of the stoplight. A few days later, the vehicle again shuddered and stalled while coming to a stop at a light. I had been driving for maybe 3 minutes from a cold start. I was again able to restart the vehicle. The second stall definitely felt like a transmission issue, and matched the description of a bad torque converter (technical service bulletin 16-90-13) for this model year. I had the issue diagnosed at my local Subaru dealership, and they identified it as being consistent with a bad torque converter, possibly requiring replacement of the valve body assembly if torque converter replacement was ineffective. I had the torque converter replaced by a Subaru dealership on 09/15/2021. My vehicle is outside the extended warranty period. I've made several stops without issue since the repair. With this issue, I was concerned what would happen if I was on the freeway and needed to suddenly decelerate, or what would have happened if my first time experiencing the issue, where I was stalled for almost a minute and was unable to restart the vehicle immediately, would have occurred during a freeway slowdown. I would have been a sitting duck. Even being stalled at a busy light could have been dangerous for me.

Concerns of the torque converter - there is very low engine rpm when coming to a stop. Thrust washer wear inside the torque converter causing restriction of the oil passage used to bleed off lock-up clutch application pressure. This has resulted in low engine rom and stalling of my vehicle on dangerous intersections. My car stalled in an intersection several times due to this issue almost causing sever injuries or death. The problem has been reproduced and confirmed by an independent service center. Yes, has been inspected by independent service center. No warning lamps or other symptoms prior to the failure. They first appeared at/around 125,000 miles.

The vehicle stalls when coming to a stop. If the accelerator is pushed you can avoid the stall but this is not always feasible. The sudden stall out is very unsafe as it takes putting the vehicle in park, restarting, putting in drive to mobilize the vehicle again.

Transmission jerks. Then the instrument panel lights are flashing. Trac control,brake loight and cruise light flashing. Check engine light on and will not pass inspection!checked internet and many years and models have same problem. Repair cost of parts alone over $900 happens while accelerating.

The contact owns a 2012 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle hesitated while depressing the accelerator pedal, without warning. The contact initially took the vehicle to two separate independent mechanics who informed him that the transmission was defective and needed to be replaced. The contact then called Subaru of spokane (423 w 3rd Ave, spokane, wa 99201) and rairdon's Subaru of auburn (3025 auburn way n, auburn, wa 98002) and was provided estimates for a new transmission. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 130,000.

Intermittent dash lights flashing on my Subaru 2012 Outback, prompted me to take the car in for diagnosis. Subaru is notorious for dash lights flashing when there might be an issue. Brought car in but they could not find issue in about 3 instances. I did the flashing lights reset, but came back on. When lights flash, many other car functions cease, such as cruise control, manual gear function goes inop, etc. Plus flashing lights disguise other issues that may be going on as well (such as brakes), plus very scary in itself. Historically, I am tracking that Subaru has had many issues with this and no time or reason of what could cause these problems or even a solution from them. Subaru finally said I have cvt issue with the torque piece it cause this to slow down in the car and concerned that the whole transmission will go out decide to give them a call trying to get the issue resolve but was told I was out of the warranty!. There was a leter send to me that extended from 60k miles to 100k just recently, but Subaru said my car just missed the warrant work/recall by 4k miles which I think is quite concerning since it has been identified as an issue (recall). Does the issue stop at 100k?.

~tl- the contact owns a 2011 Subaru Outback. The vehicle when slowing down and when stopped the vehicle would suddenly stall without any indication that something could be wrong with the vehicle. The vehicle would immediately restart and the contact would be able to opperate the vehicle as normal. The contact contacted the dealership (hanania Subaru of orange park 6400 blanding blvd, jacksonville, FL 32244; (855) 851-7200) who stated tthat the transmission needed replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and opened a case regarding the matter. The approximate failure mileage was 166,000. Gl.

2012 Subaru Outback with approx. 122,000 miles. The cvt transmission began rasping while under acceleration. Randomly, and over a period of several days, the vehicle stalled, particularly when rapidly decelerating under braking conditions. This required the vehicle to be shifted into park or neutral and restarted. Online, I discovered that there is a rather lengthy history of problems with this Subaru transmission, and that Subaru, apparently to avoid a recall, extended its warranty on the 2012 Outback to July 31, 2018 or 100,000 miles, whichever came first. I was never notified of the warranty extension, a fact that Subaru USA on July 29, 2019 tacitly acknowledge (they said they had no record that I had been notified), but Subaru USA said, despite this, that the warranty date and mileage had now expired and they could do nothing for me. Subaru USA also acknowledged that the estimated repair cost of $9500 was "quite high" and told me that as a "good will" gesture they were prepared to offer me $1500 credit toward the purchase of a new Subaru.

My Outback stalls when coming to a stop. It would do it randomly but now it does it all the time. Subaru won't do anything for me except tell me how much it will cost to fix the torch converter without even checking it on their computer. I have heard of several issues with the cvt and I want to know for sure.

While getting on an off ramp vehicle stalled going 45mph due to the valve body in transmission locking up. Subaru has knowledge of this issue and released a bulletin: 16-90-13r, but only will fix if the issue arises and not before. This issue does not gradually show up but rather happens all at once.

Cvt failure causing random engine shut offs when stopping.

Vehicle stalls when coming to a stop. Almost felt like if I was coming to a stop without engaging the clutch on a standard transmission. This has happened 4 times in the last three days and I do not feel safe letting my family drive it!.

My 2012 Subaru Outback cvt transmission shutters and stalls the engine when coming to a stop in traffic. This is a known problem and I have contacted Subaru od America and they are of no help.

About month ago I bought a car. It's a Subaru Outback 2012 with 156 000 miles. At the beginning everything was fine. Nothing seemed to be happening. December 10 we drove around santa fe, nm. At first I had stopped in some stores, spent time about 2 hours and after that decided to go to another place. And when I was driving my car again in 5 minutes it suddenly started having a strange sound and couldn't move normally, was just sharply braking on a city road. We were very close to the accident, because everyone was driving with the speed 45-50 miles. While I was driving the car kept to have the strange sound and slowed down more and more. I was lucky to find a parking space next to me on somebody's tires weels shop. I took a little break about 40 minutes to find out what happened. After that when I turned the car on it stopped having the strange sound but it couldn't move anymore! I pushed on a gas pedal many times but the car just stayed in on place and didn't move to the front or back. My vehicle was towed to the Subaru service center. The next day I was calling to the Subaru service center several times, and when somebody answered I was replied that "the car had an inspection but we don't know what exactly happened yet" and it should take one more day. I did one more call the next day I received an answer from Subaru service center that the vehicle have a broken transmission and to fix it costs $7600. In those days I found out that the cars 2010-2015 Subaru Outback have recalls or extended warranty. My friend from florida have a Subaru Outback 2012 with 168 000 miles and he also had the same problem with a car like me on October 2018. The Subaru dealership in florida fixed that power train for free. But when I told with a Subaru headquarter about my affected vehicle they gave me an answer that I have on my car more than 100 000 miles and they can't help me at all.

Vehicle shutters and stalls when braking on a city street, especially in colder weather (I first noticed this in the winter of 2018). On sept. 13, 2020, the vehicle violently lurched forward as I pulled out on a city street at lower speeds. After this occurred, the check engine light, oil temp, traction control light, and brake light came on on the dash. Diagnostic showed a p0700 and p2764 error codes indicating a need for a valve body replacement. Service bulletin 16-107-17r indicated that when replacing the valve body a newly designed part should be used because the old part does not work as well. When I called subraru, they discouraged me from replacing the valve body with the originally designed part even if it was brand new. I do not feel safe driving this vehicle without this repair and I feel that because subraru has a newly designed valve body part to address this issue, that this issue is not the result of normal wear and tear but should be a considered a recall instead.

I was taking it for an oil change and lube. After driving on the freeway at 60-70 mph, I came off the freeway, went 2 blocks to a stoplight. As soon as I stopped, many warning lights started flashing, and became alarmed, went 3 blocks to the lube service center and some steam started coming from under the hood. The service men immediately took it in to check it out. They replaced some coolant, completed the service and told me to have it checked by a mechanic. I drove it about a mile to the nearest auto shop, a place I've taken my last 2 cars, and left it. The next day they said it was fixed, and that they had to replace the radiator and it was ready to pick up. From there I picked up the car and drove it to a friend's in a city about 100 miles away. I drove it the entire way on the freeway, came off the freeway, drove it about 4 blocks to my friend's house. I wen up her driveway, and as I pulled into a parking place, the warning lights again started flashing. I pulled into a parking slot and stopped it. My friend's son later went out to look under the hood with me. There was evidence of some spray under the hood, but not much. I called the dealer where I'd bought the car a month before, and he told me to have the car towed to their shop, where I'd left it with them for about 2-3 weeks. When I called about the progress, they said they didn't want to release it back to me until to was repaired. In the meantime, my friend where I was staying when I had it towed, told me she had an identical problem with her 2011 Subaru Outback and after replacing hoses, thermostat, water pump, tjey finally replaced her head gasket. My daughter then reminded me the same happened to her 1999 Subaru Outback, so I started researching the internet for similar issues. Many sites, some well known said this is common with the 2. 5l engine. This is a defect Subaru should recall.

When driving on freeway, at about 60mph, there is a noise in the engine, the speed slips for a second, the rpm screen bumps little bit and comes back. About 3 years ago, the vehicle stopped dead at the stop signal. Took it to the dealer, they did not find any code and said, bring it back if it happens again. It did not happen again, but this slipping happened end of October 2018, just 2-1/2 months after their extended warranty ended on July 31,2018 for Subaru's cvt issue recall. Subaru says, they will replace cvt, but I need to pay large amount,they will write off only 2500$. This is a known issue in Subaru Outback 2012 and Subaru is not fixing my vehicle.

In August 2018 the car began stalling randomly when coming to a stop. When we brought it to the dealer it was diagnosed with the cvt problem that prompted the extended warranty. However, the extended warranty for our 200,000 mile car had expired 7/31. The fix is almost $5,000 and Subaru will not apply the extended warranty. Even through they admit it is a safety concern and that the extended warranty would have applied two weeks earlier (had the problem started then), they have refused to help.

Vehicle stalls unexpectedly when stopping. Local mechanic states it is a transmission issue and has been reported by many owners of this model. I am just outside the extended warranty and over 110,000 miles. It started earlier when my warranty would have covered it but Subaru did not make us aware of the potential problem and we didn't know what was causing this. It has caused some close calls when we suddenly have to stop in traffic. Have almost been hit from behind several times. Should be a safety recall on this problem. Has been an ongoing issue since about the middle of June and has happened almost every time we use the car lately. We are elderly and can not afford the expensive repair job.

At times, I have been experiencing the engine shutting off when I come to a complete stop. It kind of shudders first and then just dies. If I'm able to roll through the stop, it doesn't die, but when I come to a complete stop, sometimes it just dies. I have to quickly put it in park or neutral and start it again. This could be very dangerous with people behind me not expecting that long of a stop! I do a lot of driving in town and this happens when stopping at stop signs. It is unknown to me at this point as to what is causing the problem.

Coming to a stop at stop sign, car stalled. No warning. Very dangerous in busy city. Vehicle was breaking from 20mph to stop when stalled.

Subaru Outback (2012), when stopped for 1-2 minutes, with the engine and ignition off, and the gear shift in park, on a slight incline (to check a potential safety hazard) suddenly rolled backwards as I was leaning in to retrieve my bag. I was dragged across the normally busy road, barely able to hang on (by both hands grabbing anything I could inside the car). My legs scraped on the ground violently burning though my sneaker then ankle flesh and grazed the bone badly. My legs on the road turned the 1. 5 ton vehicle a few degrees as it careened under rapid acceleration reaching an estimated 8-10 mph bumping over 2 kerbs pulled me even further out of the car, but still hanging on. Luckily the open driver's door engaged with a hedge which ripped the door almost off the car and turned the car another 35 degrees or so, avoiding a violent crash into the neighbor's house. Instead the car grazed a wooden post (further slowing it) then hit a second post which brought the car to a hard stop. This pushed me out of the car onto a patch of grass, back to the car. An engineering assessment later revealed the shift-interlock had failed (involving a couple of parts) so that the gear may be shifted (or shift itself) when the engine and ignition are off with the keys still in. My injuries include ankle (on a leg with a hip replacement), ptsd (diagnosed as caused 100% by the crash) and exacerbation of multiple-sclerosis causing debilitating bouts of trigeminal neuralgia and with additional brain damage (proven by increased lesion load on mri scan). Therefore the vehicle failure on this model is also potentially dangerous to other owners of the same model car. We also researched and found one almost identical case with the same model, the same roll-in-park but far more serious injury as the driver was knocked down by the door, apparently as the car rolled over.

The contact owns a 2012 Subaru Outback. While the vehicle was placed in park on an incline, the contact suddenly heard a scraping noise and noticed that the vehicle independently rolled away while in reverse. The contact's wife was leaning on the rear of the vehicle and was pulled in reverse along with the vehicle. The vehicle crashed into a curb and the front driver's door struck the ledge, which slowed the vehicle down. The vehicle then crashed into a tree hedge. The contact's wife sustained an injury to the right side of her hip that required medical attention. A police report was filed. The dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was towed to an auto shop where all of the panels were repaired; however, the manufacturer was notified of the failure. An inspector was sent to inspect the vehicle, but no diagnostic failure codes were found and the failure could not be duplicated. The approximate failure mileage was 47,000.