general problems of the 2017 Subaru Outback - part 1

Vehicle lost engine power twice while on the road between 8/12/23 and ~9/25/23. Took to Subaru santa monica service on 9/26, left it overnight, and was unable to replicate the problem. I cleaned the k&n drop in filter after 8/12 incident since I haven't cleaned it in a while. Subaru santa monica service said that there's oil contamination from the filter into throttle body and I need cleaning and new air box. I don't think that's the problem and this is a major safety issue. Although I have a 7 year warranty that's still active, I paid $219 for diagnostic. Not covered under warranty because can't replicate issue. My plan is to sell this car as it's a personal and public safety danger. Don't have time to keep going to the dealer and paying out of pocket.

The contact owns a 2017 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 mph, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated towards a truck in front. The contact used excessive force to depress the brake pedal to stop the vehicle. The contact stated that the braking distance was extended due to the failure. Additionally, there was an abnormal thumping sound heard while the vehicle was coming to an abrupt stop. The contact pulled to the side of the road and inspected the vehicle but found no cause for the failure. After waiting momentarily, the contact proceeded to drive, and the vehicle operated as needed. The vehicle had been taken to the dealer but was not diagnosed. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 32,000.

I purchased a used 2017 Subaru Outback in December 2020 from a friend whose mother had owned the car before her death in Nov. 2019. That owner purchased it used from dealer in sevierville TN in 2019 and had to replace a battery at least once according to records. The battery has failed three times since Dec. 2020, totally drained and would not recharge so a replacement was needed. I replaced the first battery then took it to dealer for other two replacements. The previous owner had a garage under her mountain house. She was found dead in her den chair. After her burial the family later found the 2017 Subaru Outback parked in her garage underneath the house was totally empty of gas. I believe from reading issues other Subaru owners have had that this car did not turn off and this lady died from carbon monoxcide poisoning. This is an issue well documented over many years and it is way past due for a recall by the manufacturer. Since it continues even to 2020 models there should at least be a stop production order until this issue is corrected. It is not just an inconvenience but a very real danger for owners who park in a home garage. As the government agency trusted to oversight of manufacturing defects presenting a danger to the safety of the public it is way past time for you to act.

Unable to remove key from ignition when vehicle placed in ‘park’ and vehicle easily changes to ‘reverse’ when unable to remove key, potential safety hazard to driver and anyone standing behind vehicle. Started around 40,000 miles, repair facility thought replacing the key cylinder would fix the problem but it recurred in less than 1,000 additional miles. Subaru forums cite many, many owners with the same issue on multiple vehicle types resulting in replacement of the shifter mechanism due to a malfunctioning ‘park’ sensor.

My car had it's third transmission installed in October 2021 at 42,730 miles. The car currently has just under 52,000 miles. The current transmission is exhibiting symptoms of slipping and delayed gear engagement. The slipping is most concerning due to the unpredictable and non-linear acceleration when I press the accelerator. I don't know if a light accelerator application will give the expected acceleration or a 1-2 second delay followed by either weaker than expected acceleration or a surge in engine rpms (up to 3,000 at times) with significantly more acceleration than expected. I also don't know if the acceleration will decrease or increase if I keep the accelerator position the same. This is especially problematic in stop and go city driving where light on/off pedal application is required. The more I'm on/off the accelerator, the less predictable the acceleration becomes. My fuel economy is also down from ~25. 5 mpg lifetime average to less than 20 mpg the last few tanks. Subaru dealers have not been helpful or receptive to my concerns. All the loaners I've driven behaved as expected and had smooth, linear acceleration.

It was a few days ago, the vehicle suddenly have shuttering or sputtering type of noise when accelerating from a stop. During the drive, I also started to hear a creaking type of noise. This became worse when accelerating uphill. I took the car to a Subaru dealership, and the service technician reproduced these problems. He then detected an transmission related error code p0841. He replaced the sensor related to this error code, but found he couldn’t get rid of the initial problems. In fact, when he checked the error code, p0841 came back again. Check engine light come out during his examination. Even he could get rid of the warning, check engine light came back when I drove the vehicle back home. The technician found internal transmission failure and recommended to replace transmission assembly. The cost quoted at $10996, so no further repairs was made. Subaru recalled transmission of its Outback vehicle in the past for the same type of problems, and I am wondering if my vehicle has a similar faulty transmission. I reported the problem to Subaru us customer service online, but didn’t hear back from them.

The contact owns a 2017 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that the electric parking brake was stuck intermittently. The contact stated while shifting to drive(d) or reverse(r), the vehicle failed to respond. The contact stated that failure occurred after reversing several times. The message "park" was displayed. The contact stated that upon jiggling the electric parking brake knob several times, the vehicle responded as needed. The vehicle was taken the dealer, where the failure could not be duplicated. The Subaru dealer was contacted and advised the contact to tow the vehicle to their location for a diagnostic test. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 24,000.

Rear bearing/hub assembly failure. Appears to be a known problem per information readily available online. Failure occurred at 40,746 miles. Replaced at dealership at my personal cost, out of warranty period. Hubs and bearings should not be failing at such low mileage. Could have caused other driveline or suspension problems and poses a safety issue as wheels would be unable to spin freely.

The contact owns a 2017 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while reversing the vehicle accelerated backwards. The contact pumped brake pedal was depressed aggressively several times however the brakes failed to respond. The vehicle collided into a pillar of bricks causing the vehicle to stop. No airbag deployed and no one was injured. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a collision center where the insurance redeemed the vehicle total loss. The manufacturer was contacted and a complaint was filed. The failure mileage was 41,806.

System does not recognize the car is in park mode correctly. The side effect of this is ignition key gets locked in the key hole and cannot be pulled out. Repeated problem in all weather situation once the failure started to show symptom. This issue is common enough across multiple product line of Subaru vehicles with a service bulletin reference 16-112-18r with google search. Plenty of website postings and you tube videos showed different work around to resolve the issue. Dealer charges parts and labor cost to repair each vehicle request for service that could possible is a design or sensor defect issue from production quality issue. The trigger point of my vehicle having this problem could be due to recent cold weather, but this issue does not go away even after the temperature gets warmer. Trying to fix the car key situation with a young child in the back seat wanting to get out daily makes this a repeated challenge. Reference link below to share and please consider this is a case for possible safety and manufactuer defects problem that impacts a good group of Subaru fans. . Read more...

While driving transmission begins making a squeaking noise. . Rpms climb and car does not increase speed rpm climb with no movement. Until rpms climb higher than normal. The car then launches forward. The hesitation caused by the transmission will lead to an accident very quickly, especially if turning into a business with on coming traffic. . Merging on the highway is severely dangerous. This car has 86,000 miles. There are no warning lights associated with this issue.

When I put the car into park, it does not recognize that the car is in park and will not release the key.

As I am slowing down by pushing the brake pedal, the vehicle will attempt to accelerate. It will increase speed by about 2 miles per hour and the rpm increases when this happens.

My new battery was drained to a point the vehicle would not start. I messaged some bible study friends and one was going to come over and jump my vehicle. While waiting I put the car in neutral and pushed it out of my garage into the driveway. The driveway is on a steep slope. Once in the driveway I tried putting the car into park, it would not go into park. In fact it would only go into drive which did not stop the vehicle from rolling backwards. I tried the emergency brake but it is electrically operated and did not work. The brakes were very hard to hold since the hydraulics were not kicking in, same with the power steering. I am a big strong guy so I wrestled the car to turn it diagonally in the driveway as it rolled backwards, trying to prevent it from going into the street and flying into someone's house or vehicle. Once diagonal in the driveway I threw a padlock under the front tire from the drivers seat with my foot on the brake to prevent it from rolling back. At this point it was barely held but stationary so I got out, chalked the wheels with 2x4's until by bible study friends came over and jumped my car. I did not have my cell phone and no one else was around to help me. I litterally thought I was going to have to just let my car roll down into the street and let it go because I had no other options. I called Subaru of America and they directed me to a youtube video that shows once the battery completely dies, there is a special tool you need in order to get the car in and out of park. But it doesn't tell you that if the car won't start and there is enough power to get it into reverse, don't do it without the tool. What if this happened in the mountains or san francisco or any hilly or mountainous location? I believe this is a high potential for life threating injury or loss of property. E-brakes should not be electric in my opinion.

Numerous times over past two months, when at slow speeds, the automatic transmission stalls causing the car to stop. At least once, when entering traffic, a car behind had to do an emergency slowdown to avoid a rear end collision. Two Subaru dealers have checked the vehicle being unable to find a problem. Yet, on searching the web, this common conditionis is clearly described in NHTSA files.

While traveling through michigan's upper peninsula and northern wisconsin during snow fall with a fully packed car on the highway I experienced the rear end "ghost walking" or "steering" or "pulling" to the left and to the right. I had to drive 40mph while two-wheeled drive camrys, civics, vans, etc. Passed us by. Growing up in northern michigan, I'm no stranger to winter conditions and all wheel drive vehicles. I don't think all-wheeled drive vehicles make me invincible, but they do make driving in wintery conditions better. After our trip, I took the car into the Subaru dealer and they said at 37k miles, the suspension looked great, alignment looked great, and that they would recommend new tires (tires are at 4/32 and have even wear and tear). I asked to speak directly to the tech working on my car and he said that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and that although they were recommending new tires, the current tire condition would not cause what I was describing. My wife and I then researched and came across several online forums with other driver's experiencing the similar issues, but with prior year models. I called Subaru's main customer service line to see if they could help and they said that they would make note of my complaint, but that if the Subaru dealer tech said the vehicle was fine other than suggesting new tires, I should get new tires and the vehicle would be fine. Subaru also said there were no "campaigns" open with respect to this problem and that they were sorry I "felt like I had this experience" and there was nothing they could do. . Read more...

Cvt transmission at 35326 miles started distributing power indiscriminately to any of the 4 wheel causing instability and shaking when driving. Very difficult to control when driving. Transmission requires replacement.

Transmission periodically puts extra power to wheels during braking resulting in many near misses.

When the vehicle is placed in park it is not possible to remove the key. This leaves me stranded as I can not leave the vehicle. I was left stranded in mexico.

The keys could not be removed from the ignition after shifting the car into park and turning the car off. The problem first appeared around September 2019 (approximately 42,000 miles). Over the next few weeks the problem progressively got worse, and required shifting from neutral to park multiple times until the keys could be removed. The select lever assembly (part 35111al00b) was replaced with the newer version (part 35111al00c) which fixed the issue. The original select lever assembly (35111al00b) was tested and it had a problem with the "p" range switch. Resistance across select lever assembly pins 1 and 2 showed a resistance of 2-3 ohms when the select lever was in the park position. The service manual states that the "p" range switch resistance should be less than 1 ohm when in the park position. This high resistance likely caused the ignition to fail to recognize that the car was in park and prevented the keys from being removed.

Cannot remove key from ignition when in park. Many others have reported this online, and the dealership is charging me to check what the issue is. When in park, steering wheel is straight, not on a slope, the key is stuck in the ignition. Can turn it off, but can't remove the key. Sometimes jiggling, sometimes starting and turning back off, and sometimes starting, putting in drive, and slamming the shifter into park again solves the issue, but sometimes not. Spent over 20 minutes today trying to get it out, drove to the dealer, and it came out without an issue. No consistency to the issue.

In two separate events the car lost power while accellorating at highway speeds to merge into traffic from a stand still. The gas pedal became unresponsive and the tranmission stopped shifting. In the first incident the engine stalled, and in the second it sputtered and almost died during a heavy merge on an on ramp. No diagnostic codes were thrown, so the manufacturer claims there is nothing wrong with the car. In the first incident the car was leaving the toll plaze on the dulles greenway head toward leesburg, va. Under full acelleration leaving the toll plaza and effectively driving straight, the car started shufting erratically, and eventually lost power and stalled. In the second incident, about two months later, the car was on a decline on-ramp merging into heavy traffic on rt-270n heading toward frederick, MD. The car again started to shift erratically, then began to stall, but I was abke to use the paddle shifters to shift the �gear� of the cvt and prevent stalling. Afger about 30 seconds the car was operating as normal. Again, the dealer has not found any diagnostic codes, and indicates there is nithing wrong with the vehicle.

2 yo 2017 Subaru Outback was left untouched for 2 weeks. When trying to start, it had a dead battery. 2 years later, 2017 Subaru Outback was left untouched for 1 week. When trying to start, it had a dead battery. 2017 Subaru Outback was left untouched for 2 days. When trying to start, it had a dead battery with a 1 - and 8 month old battery. Basically, when this 2017 Subaru Outback hasn't been started every day, it will have a dead battery.

Having problem to remove key from the ignition when the can was only driven for year and half and has less than 10000 miles on.

Outback accelerates by itself randomly. I notice most when approaching stop sign and switch foot from gas pedal to brake.

We live in la. We bought our car new on 5/31/17 from Subaru of santa monica. At around 6,000 miles we had its oil changed privately in durango, CO, where we spend summers. Back in la on 12/17/17 we went to Subaru of sm for any required additional service. They decided to perform the 12,000 service with 10,107 miles on the car. When service was completed, I drove the car off. It stalled for maybe 5-10 seconds (but didn't shut down) about 100 yards from the service area. Initially, it just wouldn't go when I depressed the accelerator. I then repeatedly depressed it and finally the transmission seemed to �catch� and the car moved forward normally. Later, at my request, my wife met with the service writer (a lady) telling her about the stalling. Her response: this happens on all Subarus�they occasionally stall for about 5 seconds. Subsequently our car has stalled on several occasions with my wife driving. And it also happened to me again, this time after its 24,000 service by the durango Subaru dealer on 10/10/18 (see service write-up). As I was driving away, I stopped on a driveway before turning onto a city street. That's when the car stalled. [I had previously told the service writer about the stalling, but the dealer's mechanic couldn't get it to stall. ] the two described stallings occurred when the car was stopped and I was about to turn onto a city street. We just received a cvt transmission warranty extension letter (see enclosed) applicable only to 2016 and 2017 Subarus (most models) which tells me Subaru knows all about this problem and has fixed it on its 2018 and 2019 models. I respectfully request that there be a recall of all 2016 and 2017 Subaru vehicles described in the enclosed warranty extension letter so that this very frightening problem can fixed. Thank god our Outback didn't stall at a time when oncoming traffic would have plowed into it.

I turned the car on while it was stationary, and switched to reverse but it would not accelerate. I switched it to drive and pressed the acceleration pedal but the engine would only rev; the tires would not move. I switched the car to neutral and called bob wade's Subaru dealership to tow the car to their dealership.

I turned the car on while it was stationary, and switched to reverse but it would not accelerate. I switched it to drive and pressed the acceleration pedal but the engine would only rev; the tires would not move. I switched the car to neutral and called brown's manassas to tow the car to their dealership.

Tl the contact owns a 2017 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while attempting to accelerate the vehicle forward after or during a maneuvering the vehicle in a sense where the contact would have to decelerate the vehicle first. The contact took the vehicle to the dealership a total of 2 times Subaru of jacksonville (10800 atlantic blvd, jacksonville, FL 32225, (904) 641-6455) who informed the contact that the transmission was a dino flow transmission and needed to be operated in a certain manner that the contact may not have done. The contact made the necessary adjustments operating the vehicle however, the failure persisted. The contact returned the vehicle to the dealer who provided the contact a loaner vehicle. The dealer was not able to identify the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 3,000.

First braking issue (also power train): the brake pedal is only slightly higher than the height of the gas pedal. Consequently, several times while driving, my right foot has hit both the brake pedal and the gas pedal simultaneously, especially in an emergency situation. In such instance, the result is a power surge while braking, potentially extending the stopping distance of the car. Other cars (non-Subaru) have the brake pedal higher, so this simultaneous application of brakes and power is less likely to happen. The dealer's service manager says the height of the brake pedal is not adjustable, and refers owners to Subaru's customer retail services. Subaru's customer retail services claims there is no way to adjust the height of the brake pedal to avoid this problem. Second braking issue: unlike other cars, there is no emergency hand brake or foot brake on the Subaru, so the risk of an accident is high if the regular brakes fail. The brakes have not yet failed, but there should be redundancy for this critical braking function.

New type transmission -happens all the time, more so when car is cool. Back out on a downhill slope hold brake, put in drive. It takes 1 to 3 seconds for drive to engage but nothing shows when it is engaged. You can however hear the ping of the engagement with window down. If you remove foot from brake and press gas the car will roll backwards 6-10 feet towards oncoming traffic. This occurs with or without the hill assist on. Subaru says this is normal nature for the car.

Subaru 2017 push button start allows the driver to turn off the engine with car gear selector still in drive. When I did this, the car began to roll as I exited. Fortunately, I had one foot still in the car and was able to press the brake pedal.

Car attempted to accelerate without input from driver. While approaching a stop sign I was slowing down with my foot on the brake car engine suddenly raved up to 4000 k, when I shifted to neutral engine revved to 7000k. I put car back in gear and drove car approximately a quarter mile back to my home using the brakes to control speed of car and called the dealer. Had car towed to dealer where it remains.

When shifting from reverse to forward there is a considerable hesitation and then the vehicle lurches forward. I have taken it into team Subaru in nampa idaho and they cannot determine any problem. I was told that the hesitation is normal. I do not agree. Because not only does it hesitate, but the lurch when the transmission finally engages is considerable. I did not notice this until the vehicle had approximately 1000 miles on it. I have just over 7100 miles on it now.

Driving back to michigan from florida, my 2017 Subaru Outback (6000 miles) stalled twice unexpectedly in heavy traffic conditions on i75. The vehicle was in stop and go traffic when it stalled. I coasted to the median, placed the car in park and restarted the engine. (both times) the condition has not repeated itself since, now has (7800 miles). Subaru dealership could not replicate the problem and Subaru customer service cannot resolve the issue.