Steering Wheel Problems of Subaru Outback

Road conditions: poor, icy. Vehicle: 2009 Subaru Outback wagon loaded with 4 passengers (2 adult, 2 teen, plus "light" luggage). When the vehicle passed over an icy patch, the car swayed from side to side violently. On Subaru forum websites, this type of loss of control is termed "ghost walking" which is an odd but accurate term for the feel of the situation. I have seen multiple entries on the owners' forum websites describing this phenomena, and it apparently affects several model years. My dealer offers to re-align the back tires which may fix the instability problem (which is attributed to "load") but which will cause another problem: excessive tire wear. This is a dangerous situation. As Subaru markets the car for the winter driving market, it needs to fix this dangerous design flaw before someone is killed over compensating for the system-driven fishtailing. Please note: although Subaru attributes this to "loading" of the vehicle, the car was not loaded beyond strictly normal use for a station wagon. This is as dangerous as "sudden acceleration" in Toyota.

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I own a 2006 Subaru Outback 2. 5 with a manual transmission. This vehicle is an early warning indicator for black ice on the road surface. The Outback vehicle has a stability control problem in certain conditions. While driving at constant speed (constant and low throttle position) on a flat road, the back end of the vehicle tends to oscillate from side to side in icy conditions. The vehicle feels like it is going to spin out, although that hasn't happened to me yet. Other vehicles on the road at the same time seem to have adequate traction (2wd, awd, 4wd). The problem is not traction while: 1) cornering under slippery conditions, 2) hard acceleration on ice, or 3) braking on ice. Road conditions that I have experienced the oscillation on are very thin ice (black ice). I suspect there is something wrong with the rear suspension design on my Outback. The problem is more prevalent and pronounced when the vehicle has occupants in the rear seats. The stability of this vehicle seems to be marginal and it only takes certain conditions (road and vehicle parameters) to be on the edge of disaster. Subaru released technical service bulletin 05-36-07 which eliminated the positive side of the original toe tolerance for rear tire alignment. I think the vehicle experiences large rear tire toe in when weight is added. I suspect this large rear tire toe in when weight is added contributes to the stability problem in icy conditions I have brand new (Jan 2010) hankook ipike w409 studless winter tires. Its not the tires. Those who have not experienced this situation naturally respond by saying it is ice, what are your expecting, just slow down. I have lived in colorado since 1981 and consider myself a competent driver in all weather conditions. Please respond as I would like to get this problem fixed if possible. . . The car just turned 50,000 miles.

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When driving on poor traction roads (ice or compacted snow), the rear of the car is very unstable and shifts left to right by as much as 2-3 feet - while going in a straight line, straight road - maintaining a constant speed (no acceleration or braking). This happened several times, over a 3400 mile road trip this winter - sometimes lasting for hours, making for very difficult and unsafe driving, almost going out of control on several occasions - even at very slow speeds (20-30 mph)! there were two people in the car, but a lot of luggage - probably exceeding 400 lbs of weight in the rear, but nothing excessive, and well within the specified limits for this car. I had my alignment adjusted 3 months ago to factory specs. It however appears that when the car has any weight in the rear, the toe-in adjustment changes significantly to cause "rear steering" which leads to the unstable behavior on slippery roads, and uneven wear of tires (that I have also noticed). There appears to be no way to keep the alignment stable - different loads should not affect the geometry in this way. I really hope Subaru can help us solve this problem, it is very unsafe and this car is advertised as an awd snow vehicle! I would be happy to provide more information.

2006 Subaru Outback auto trans. On many occasions the vehicle's rear-end side-steps, fishtails or oscillates on icy road conditions. This has also been described as "ghost-walking" where it feels like the awd system in the rear is over compensating, leading to the vehicle being uncontrollable. The behavior seems to happen in the 40-60mph range. You must slow down to unsafe speeds, even for the weather, to maintain control. Other non-awd vehicles driving on the same roads are not having this problem and are able to maintain safe control at higher speeds. It is frightening when other 2wd cars and trucks are passing you going 20mph faster and it's difficult to keep your car on the road or in a straight line. This happens when driving on straight flat roads without braking, accelerating or turning with fairly new all season tires - no more than 15,000 miles on them (regularly rotated).

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No summary listed for abov evehicle. (tiresize: 225/60/16)( dot number: tire size: 225/60/16 ).