Subaru Outback owners have reported 112 problems related to automatic emergency braking (under the forward collision avoidance category). The most recently reported issues are listed below. Also please check out the statistics and reliability analysis of Subaru Outback based on all problems reported for the Outback.
After an automatic software download update, the rab off light came on. The rab light comes on when the car is put in reverse and provides the option to turn that function off. After the update, the rab icon is no longer displayed. It is the only system so far that I noticed that malfunctioned after the software update.
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all problems of the 2020 Subaru Outback
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While driving in the fast lane on interstate 5 at a speed of approximately 70mph, with cruise control on, during clear dry conditions, my automatic emergency brake system engaged and made my vehicle come to an abrupt and complete stop in the fast lane. I lost complete control of my vehicle. I was unable to steer or accelerate. Once I stopped, I was able to use my accelerator, but very quickly my vehicle abruptly stopped again and I could not steer it. After I stopped for the second time, I was then able to then accelerate slowly and pull off the freeway into the wide left shoulder. When I turned the car off and then back on again to get out of danger, I disengaged the cruise control, and I was able to get back on the freeway and out of the fast lane. It was a clear day, no clouds, no shadows, no birds, no vehicles right in front of me or next to me. There was no warning lamp or alarms prior to the braking. There was no debris or excessive dirt on my windshield. My husband and I were certainly in danger of being rear ended at a high speed, but miraculously, the vehicles behind us were able to stop and/or pull into the left shoulder to avoid a collision. Not only were we at risk of serious injury or death, but there very easily could have been a multi-car pile up on the freeway with many people at risk of injury. My car is currently at my local Subaru dealership and they are investigating the problem. They have not been able to reproduce the issue yet, but are bringing in another specialist tomorrow. I felt this issue absolutely needed to be reported as it is a very serious safety issue. I do not trust my vehicle any more.
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all problems of the 2019 Subaru Outback
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On [xxx], I was driving east on [xxx] on the north side of toledo ohio close to the intersection with [xxx] . The "check engine" warning came on, all the vehicle "eyesight" functions were automatically turned off, and pre collision braking and pre collision throttle control features were activated. There was no danger of a collision at this time, but all of this left me stranded in the middle of this busy four lane highway. I was able to literally crawl to the shoulder of the road. I was not hit, but it was just good fortune that prevented that. This is where my safety was at greatest risk. After about 10 minutes during which I started and stopped the car numerous times, the pre collision braking and throttle were deactivated and I was able to drive the car. I located the nearest Subaru dealer (yark Subaru toledo, ohio) and drove there. The cause of the check engine light was diagnosed as a failure of the thermal control valve. I had received a letter from Subaru dated may 1, 2024 stating that this part might fail and extending the warranty for this part. That letter specifically stated that nothing needed to be done until the part failed. There was no mention of the fact that the car would be disabled when it happened. Part was eventually replace on July 1, 2024 two days later. Since then I have spoken to 3 people at Subaru of America seeking to understand why a check engine situation caused the vehicle to be disabled. I also asked the service advisor at yark Subaru to explain. They have all been friendly and attentive, but they cannot or will not give an explanation. My main concern is that a check engine situation may cause this pre collision shut down to happen again. Based on the danger I was in when this happed, I think that there should have been a recall and the thermal control valve replaced before failure. To be clear, the repairs were completed under warranty and Subaru has sent me a $350. 00 coupon for future service. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (f.
Several months ago Subaru updated the software in the above mentioned systems. Ever since the systems have become overly sensitive to the point of locking breaks up on the highway, at highway speed, for no obstruction. This has taken me from highway speed to a complete stop in the middle of the number 2 lane on several occasions.
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all problems of the 2022 Subaru Outback
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On April 25, 2024, around noon, my wife and I were driving south on interstate 95 (I 95) in our 2017 Subaru Outback, at approximately 70 mph. It was a clear and sunny day. We were just north of the tradition exit (in port st. Lucie, florida) in the far right-hand lane when our vehicle violently jolted. It felt like we were being dragged from behind, although we were still moving forward at a reduced speed. It was making a terrible sound (tires screeching), and you could smell rubber burning. This sensation felt similar to an airplane’s hard landing on the tarmac. My initial thought was that someone hit us from behind, while my wife thought we may have blown a tire. I glanced at the instrument panel and noticed that the word “eye sight” was displayed. As we were coming to complete stop, we realized cars were speeding to the left and right of our car to avoid hitting us. We both immediately realized that we were in a very dangerous situation and at risk of being hit from oncoming traffic. My wife put the hazard lights on while I was attempting to drive the car off the road. However, the car would not move forward even though the engine was running, and it was in gear (drive). Several good samaritans stopped to assist us in trying to move the car off I 95. However, the car would not move because all four wheels were locked. My wife called 911 and florida highway patrol (fhp) and road ranger arrived approximately twenty minutes later. They were unable to assist us with moving the car off the road. We called a tow truck company (apex towing) to move the car because all four tires were locked and had to be lifted off the road. Our car was towed to a safe location and we able to call aaa to have the car towed to dyer Subaru in vero beach, florida. As time has passed, we realize that our car was a stationary object on a heavily traveled interstate. If a car had hit us, the outcome could and most probable would have been catastrophic to everyone involved.
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all problems of the 2017 Subaru Outback
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The contact owns a 2024 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving 72 mph with no other vehicles nearby, the forward collision avoidance: automatic emergency braking system engaged inadvertently, and the vehicle came to a complete stop. The contact stated that he was able to continue driving; however, the vehicle started jerking and was hesitating while driving. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission had failed; however, the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure related to the forward collision avoidance: automatic emergency braking system. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure reoccurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a case was opened. The failure mileage was 100.
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all problems of the 2024 Subaru Outback
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While going 65-70 mph on the freeway the car began braking on its own with no cars nearby. It almost came to a complete stop but then started moving, then hesitated once more before releasing. I reported it to the dealership. They said they could try to recalibrate but otherwise I should contact Subaru of America because I no longer felt safe on busy California freeways.
My brakes failed as I was pulling up to a curb as I attempted to break to put my car into park my breaks failed to engage. My vehicle is also equipped with emergency braking system that did not engage my vehicle crashed into and through a 7/11 while I was breaking the entire time manuall! the vehicle would not stop and did not stop until it hit the back wall of the store inside.
The pre-collision braking system has engaged twice during normal traffic flows and came close to causing an accident.
My son was traveling at an appropriate highway speed when the truck in front of him stopped suddenly. He braked immediately and was able to slow down significantly, but not enough to avoid colliding with the back of the truck in front of him. He was going approximately 20 mph, still braking, when the collision occurred. His best recollection is that the vehicle's pre-collision system did not engage until after he collided with the truck. There was damage to the front end of the vehicle but it was not severe. My son moved the vehicle onto the shoulder of the highway and put it in park. The driver of the truck called the police. My sons got out of the vehicle. While they were talking with the other driver and the police, a fire started under the hood of the vehicle and within several minutes the entire vehicle was consumed. The wreckage was towed to 1022 shannon court, livermore CA 94550. In July 2023 we were involved in an accident that impacted the front bumper, left front quarter panel, and Subaru eyesight system of the same vehicle involved in this accident. Repairs after the July 2023 accident were performed by kraft body shop in santa clara, CA. Repair and calibration of the Subaru eyesight system were performed by santa cruz Subaru after that accident.
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all problems of the 2023 Subaru Outback
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My vehicle is equipped with eyesight. I was driving to my home after work at night and suddenly the infotainment system screen went blank; including braking assist, adaptive cruise control, lane assist, emergency braking etc including navigation, also the hvac shut off and eyesight that controls these as well, shut off. It was suffocating in the car due to no a/c and thusf I tried to pull over at a remote text-stop place and tried restarting the car but in vain. All screens were dark, no warm air, I couldn’t see what direction I was driving to, as well as I solely relied on navigation. I brought this car for it’s safety features and warmth in this cold temperature in upstate NY and this happened. I waited for 20 mins, charged my phone for only 4-5% with a fellow citizen who was waiting there as well and checked online just to see a lot of people reported the same issue with 2021 Subarus with eyesight. And there is no way one can fix it. I tried contacting the dealer but in vain. I am afraid that if this would happen again, I wouldn’t be in a situation to face this scary experience.
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all problems of the 2021 Subaru Outback
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On November 21th, 2023, we were driving on a 30 mph street at 8:00 pm with no traffic and our automatic emergency braking system deployed on our 2020 Outback, we jolted to a stop for no apparent reason. This could have been dangerous if a car was behind us. Just had our oil changed with free inspection at miller hill Subaru 1 week prior. First incident. Will have the dealership inspect ASAP. The "auto start /stop no activity detected" indicator message light came on afterward.
Automatic braking system has almost caused a rear-end collision 5 times, because it thinks a shadow is an object. We’ve brought the car to the dealership but they told us twice that they can’t replicate the problem. That doesn’t change the issue. I don’t want to wait until we have a collision and have to go through physical therapy and repairs to address this. Front headlights are blinding other drivers causing them to flash their brights at us regularly on the freeway and local roads which then blinds us and causing us to slow down and break. The dealership say that the lights can be adjusted but this is a serious risk to us and something that happens every night. It’s stressful to drive the car anticipating this all the time. We’ve replace the starter last year and having issues again. The car struggles to start. Last year they said this was a known issue and also replaced the battery. But it’s happening again. This indicates a more complicated issue in the electrical. I don’t want to have to replace the starter every year.
While pulling into a parking spot with my foot on the brake and preparing to stop, the car continued to move up over the curb and then began to accelerate even after I applied both of my feet pushing down on the brakes until I hit our condo building. The car and building received extensive damage, and although the car was not totaled it will cost over 7,000 dollars to repair. Personally I was not injured. The air bags did not imploy at impact. There were no warning messages or prior failures with the vehicle before this day. The car was taken to a body shop and not the dealer so we have not had the dealer look at the systems that broke down, but our insurance adjuster will be.
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all problems of the 2018 Subaru Outback
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A well-known failure of the thermal control valve (tcv) occurred, which disabled many or most of the safety features on the car in addition to crippling the heat output in the cabin. Additionally, depending on which way the valve sticks, it could overheat the car and ruin the engine, or worse. Car is under 4 years old and repair estimate is nearly $1900. There is a technical safety bulletin https://static. Nhtsa. Gov/odi/tsbs/2022/mc-10222348-0001. Pdf that outlines a redesigned tcv.
Traveling on I-75 sb just outside atlanta, was in lane 2 of about 7 lanes. One car in lane 1, bumper was near my driver door, another truck in lane 4 or 5 approx 200' in front of us. We were in the front of a pack of vehicles. I had the cruise control set about 70, weather was clear, about 3 in the afternoon. With nothing in front of us and no warning, the car began flashing the red dash lights, the cluster flashed the red warning about braking, and the brakes were automatically applied with enough force to set the seat belt pretensions and we unweighted the seats. The car drastically slowed, I am unsure the slowest speed, I was attempting to override the braking by pressing the accelerator. The system complied with my command and the car sped back up. We were nearly hit from behind when the following cars attempted to brake and go around us. No physical damage occurred in the incident. The Subaru dealership in kennesaw attempted to recreate the problem without success. The diagnostic computer found no error codes in the vehicle. We have disabled the advanced safety systems of the Subaru to prevent any further unwanted braking.
Eyesight driver assist went out rendering safety features inoperable. Touch screen also blanked out so unable to adjust a/c, navigation,radio etc. Car had been on long distance all hiway drive and at 7 hours systems failed. Weather was in the 60s, overcast and it was in the afternoon. Pulled into rest stop and turned engine off then restarted but still failed. Drove 2 more hours and next rest stop systems came back after letting car sit off for 10+ minutes.
The windshield has spontaneously cracked on 4 separate occasions. Subaru denies this is a defect and claims all have been caused by rock chips. This is not true. The cracked windshield has caused the vehicle on numerous occasions to slam on its breaks while traveling at 55 mph or greater as it “senses” a collision. This has nearly caused 3 accidents so far.
Driver experienced an unexpected uncommanded sudden acceleration upon application of the braking system in the driveway, which caused a collision with the garage/house. The safety of the driver and other were put at risk. Significant damage to the house/garage occurred. This is a first time occurrence. Owner has not yet had the opportunity to have the vehicle inspected by dealer, independent service center, manufacturer, police or insurance rep due to timing of the accident. No warning lights message were displayed. Driver slowed the vehicle in anticipation of putting the vehicle in park when uncommanded brake release occurred, vehicle accelerated and struck the house. Reason for incident is unknown. Vehicle remains parked pending further inspection.
Yet to be diagnosed but possibly the cockpit control computer. Dealer service department has not been able to diagnose. No components have been replaced yet except for a software update that did not correct the issue. Safety systems all report as not functioning, these include all "eyesight systems";the air bags, automatic emergency braking, lane departure and lane keeping. Additionally all center console functions are not functional, including hvac and radio. The vehicle has been to the dealer twice where the problem could not be reproduced. No other inspection has been performed. No warnings or other messages appear prior to the failure. The failure persists for approximately 10 minutes, after which normal operation resumes. I write this following the fourth occurrence of the failure.
Pulling into our home driveway at a slow rate of speed, the auto emergency braking engaged for no reason and came to an abrupt stop. This system now has be concerned that it will engage at random times while driving and potentially cause an accident. We are taking the car to the dealer for inspection.
While driving at a high rate of speed on a remote road, using cruise control, my vehicle suddenly braked/decelerated for no reason. Could have been the automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, or forward collision warning. The first time it happened, a warning bell sounded, red lights flashed, and the vehicle decelerated very rapidly. It happened again about 6 weeks later, but the second time there was no audio or visual warning, the vehicle just decelerated rapidly. If there had been a vehicle behind my vehicle I might have been rear-ended because there was nothing on the road in front of me to warrant rapid deceleration. Also, on both occasions, the deceleration was swift enough to cause items in the vehicle to dislodge.
Automatic emergency braking applied violently and unnecessarily when pulling into a parking space on two separate instances in the last week. I was pulling into the parking space this morning as normal. I was applying the brakes, and just before stopping, my car stabbed the brakes. It felt like a car crash, but my car was 3ft from hitting the other car. Immediately after, a message appeared indicating that automatic emergency braking was applied. The same thing happened to my wife last week. In both instances, we both got headaches from the jarring stop. We are taking the car to the dealership tomorrow.
Pulled into a parking space at the village green strip mall, applied brakes and immediately, the engine accelerated and lunged my vehicle into another car that was parked in the parking space in front of my car. When the car accelerated, the brakes did not work. I reversed the car since it continued to accelerate into the parked car in front of me and the car went back as fast as it was accelerating forward. I put the car into drive since I had parked cars behind me as well. The car accelerated forward at a very high rate, I did not have brakes, I guided the car between parked cars as best I could but could not make a left turn and the car drove into a brick building in the strip mall. I opened a claim with Subaru corp, case #230508-190-1112.
I purchased the vehicle about a month ago and almost on a daily basis the precollision breaking system would cause the car to break when there was nothing there. It has picked up parked cars on the side of the road as well as breaked for no apparent reason. I have been almost rear ended a number of times. The precollision breaking system takes several steps to turn off and needs to be turned off every time the car is started. I spoke to the dealership and brought the car in to be looked at. I thought maybe the cameras were too sensitive. I requested for the precollision breaking system to be disconnected since I felt like it was a safety concern. They were unable to reduce the sensitivity or disable the system. They said they could disable it but in doing so I would lose several other features on the car. They could not tell me which ones.
Car experienced unintended acceleration and the pre-collision safety system failed to engage. Car accelerated into a building and the driver stopped car's attempt to continue forward progress by taking the car out of drive mode. The pre-collision system failed completely. The electronic control units seemed to fail entirely. This happened while pulling into a parking space at a very low rate to speed (until the car "took off").
I was pulling into a space in a parking deck, foot on brake. Just as I was shifting into park, the car lunged forward and slammed into the guard rail. Popped the fender and did some paint damage. Thankfully no one was hurt, but frightening to think that this could have happened in an intersection.
The contact owns a 2023 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving 65 mph with the cruise control activated, the vehicle made a sudden stop without warning. The contact stated that several minutes later the vehicle operated normally. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 800.
The entire electronics system resets while driving, all driving metrics, speed, eye-sight/collision detection shows reboot screen, and infotainment system goes blank for several seconds. It would appear that none of this vehicles safety systems or speed indicators are online for several seconds up to 20 at times. I have tried to catch this on camera, but since I am the sole driver of this vehicle, I am rarely in a position to safely operate my phone. It has been going on since I purchased the vehicle, but I am seeing more and more posts with other drivers and the same issue.
About 8 months ago I was turning into a space in the parking lot of a large store (kohls) the car lunged forward on it's own when I took my foot off the accelerator. I was able to stop the car with the brake pedal before ramming a lamp post. I did not report it to a dealership. Nothing like it has happened in the 8 months/3000 miles of driving since. It took me completely by surprise without any indication of system failure.
On a reoccurring basis, my Subaru will randomly slam on the breaks, detecting an object that isn't there. Dealership has done nothing, and Subaru of America has ignored my complaints.
On multiple occasions my car has braked on its own when there was no reason to. It has happened on at least four (4) different times and has been taken to Subaru of kennesaw to be looked at. Unfortunately the dealership has been unable to duplicate the problem. When I took my car back to the dealership on September 28, 2022 for this I contacted Subaru of America and they had an engineer, kevin triplett come and get the data off the event data recorder in the vehicle. The engineer verbally said they have pictures from each time my car braked on its own and advised there was nothing in front of me. He said it is an eyesight issue but they cannot adjust the eyesight and they cannot fix the problem. The car just brakes without warning the engineer said this can happen if the eyesight sees a mailbox, cars to the right or left of me, trees, curbs and even a change in color in the roadway. This has continued to happen and now Subaru of America will not take my calls nor will they respond to my emails. I have asked for a copy of the pictures, a letter stating their findings and a letter stating my car is safe to drive but they will not issue this to me. This has been going on since April 2022. I am afraid I am going to be in accident one day when the car brakes on its own if someone is behind me and not paying attention.
The car set overnight (was fine) next am no electrical. Everything locked except driver's door and passenger door. No battery charge at all. Everything dead.
Car accelerated unexpectedly causing a front end collision. Sudden acceleration had occurred previously without collision. No warning lights or emergency braking engages before collision.
-the windshield has cracked in the same place for no apparent reason. -the cracked windshield can affect the use of the safety systems built into the windshield. -I'm not sure how this can be "reproduced" as we are talking about a broken windshield although the windshield has been fixed already once and now, the second break has occurred. -not inspected but replaced once. It is currently broken and can be inspected again if need be. -the first one appeared in August 2022, the second in may 2023.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Automatic Emergency Braking problems | |
| Warnings problems | |
| Adaptive Cruise Control problems | |
| Forward Collision Avoidance problems | |
| Sensing System Camera problems |