2017 Subaru Outback Steering problems

electronic power-steering assistance stopped functioning, making the vehicle extremely difficult to steer. I was able to exit the roundabout and pull into a parking lot without a collision. I turned the vehicle off, waited approximately five minutes, and restarted it. The warning lights were no longer illuminated. Diagnostic information later reviewed by Grand Junction Subaru documented that the vehicle's electrical voltage had dropped to 8.6 volts during the incident. The dealership could not reproduce the event or conclusively identify its cause. Although the original alternator reportedly tested normal, the dealership reprogrammed the ECU/ECM, disabled the DCM, and replaced the alternator. Because the root cause remains unconfirmed, I am concerned that the sudden low-voltage condition and loss of steering assistance could recur at highway speed. Because [[redacted]] and the two-lane roundabout are very busy, I felt that my life was in danger. As I continued through the roundabout, there was a Ford Platinum 3/4 ton truck next to me. If he would not have been paying attention, I feel like there would have been a collision and possibly personal injury to myself. I'm glad that this incident happened at a lower rate of speed but I am concerned that it will happen again and maybe the next time while I'm on the highway traveling at highway speeds. It could be fatal to and others. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

toolkit with me. The voltmeter measured the battery voltage at 9.3V. Thinking maybe cleaning the battery terminals would allow the car to be restarted, I managed to get the cables off and cleaned everything with a wire brush. But still no power. After a while a state trooper passed by and hung on while I contacted a towing service. After another 1.5 hours, the tow truck arrived and towed the car the 60 miles or so to the dealership in Denver with my wife and I in the cab of the tow truck. Dealer repair invoice indicated Data Control Module (DCM) "causing excessive draw on electrical system." More significantly, the battery had drained below the the operating threshold voltage required for vehicle drivability (understood to be 10-10.5V). There was no mention of this by the dealer service adviser. Although dealer diagnostic was carried out, no computer codes were provided. Vehicle mileage at time of incident 73,456. I have owned the car since new and have all service records. Car was repaired and picked up from dealership on 06/10/26 with a replacement DCM. Battery was charged up but not replaced and left in corroded state. Battery will probably have been weakened by such a total discharge with reduced life expectancy. I have uploaded the dealer repair invoice. I have reported this incident to Subaru of America. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

way. They confirmed that eyesight/lane assist was turned off when this issue happened. They reset the system and said they couldn't guarantee the vehicle was safe to drive and suggested bringing it in if it happened again. I asked them to document everything they said over phone calls and voicemail. They agreed, but it took them weeks to provide a repair order. When they wrote up the repair order it included none of the information that was previously given and they said the car was, and always had been in perfect working order. I opened a case with Subaru of America and they were unable to get the information they needed from the dealership to proceed with the investigation. Upon further research, I found many similar accounts of this happening with Subarus of the same and similar year(s) and model(s). There is a class action lawsuit open for this but currently there are so many plaintiffs they cannot accept more. I refuse to drive this car as I feel that this malfunction is of life and limb consequence. I do not feel it would be ethical to sell this car without full disclosure and then would be out 30k on the car I purchased just three years ago. Reliable Subaru and Subaru of America refuse to offer a solution or help me in any way.

malfunctions of the car. AAA -- claim number 015641968 Subaru --case 230128-1800367 AAA claimed the total lost but refused to do further investigation. Subaru took my request in March. Early this month, Subaru said their finished the comprehensive inspection and simply claimed the car was running normal when the accident happened. They don't want to share any further information about what they've found and they also don't want the inspect technician to talk to me about the results. I would like ask NHTSA, as the regulatory authority, to look into the their inspection report to make sure this vehicle does not have any abnormalities as their claimed. Thanks!

cost $2,223.86 (plus tax). Evidence of the cost is a copy of the detailed invoice and proof of payment is available upon request. At the time when the steering components were replaced, I was not aware of the Subaru Outback recall which involved steering components, nor did the Subaru dealership bring it to my attention, perhaps because they were also not aware of this specific recall. The recall I'm referring to is described under NHTSA Campaign Number 16V292000 (dated May 11th, 2016). As I paid for the steering rack replacement out of my own pocket, on November 29th, 2022, I contacted Subaru of America to seek reimbursement because this should've been covered under the steering components recall mentioned above. On December 15th, 2022, I received a message from Subaru of America stating that my particular Subaru's VIN was not included in the recall. In my mind, this may have been an unintentional oversight on the part of the Subaru dealership by not including my Subaru's VIN in the recall, when clearly other SAME Year Make and Model as my car (2017 Subaru Outback) were included in the recall.

my vehicle steering, which resulted in collision with a bus stop/stand and a citation for failure to stay within my driving lane. The coat was a bit longer since it was fairly cold that morning. The zipper mechanism was made of a plastic material. The zipper was fully zipped, not half zipped and half unzipped. If the paddle shift levers were more round in shape/design, then the risk of the lever "hooking" onto clothing decreases significantly. I found examples of where other Subaru Outback drivers expressed concerns about the positioning and shape of the levers posing as a safety hazard, too.

inspection at my residence upon request. The safety of owner and others is compromised as follows: Because of living in a semi-rural area, I rely on this vehicle to safely transport me and my family members everywhere (grocery store, doctor appointments, emergency room visits, etc.); Failure of the vehicle to operate property could expose operator and/or passengers to extremely cold weather, such as that recently experienced in December 2022. This is the second occurrence of the same malfunction. First was in July 2022. Vehicle was serviced by Subaru of Georgetown who informed me that the problem (car would not start because steering wheel lock was not engaged) was "fixed", but that they could not duplicate. No other entity, other than the dealer, has examined the vehicle. No warning lights, messages or symptoms prior to either occurrence. Driving was normal, engine shutdown appeared normal, but subsequent restarts were not possible due to the steering wheel lock not engaging (which is what the dealer informed me was the problem at the first occurrence).

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. https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/key-stuck-in-ignition.495265/

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. Here's a link to a forum, where the people seem to know what is going on: https://www.Subaruoutback.Org/threads/2005-2009-ghostwalking-abnormal-winter-handling-fixes.30747/Page-2. We plan to buy new tires, but are willing to offer our car up for test driving to see what is going on.

condition and no error codes are logged. The dealer indicated that the first 4/5 failures left no codes. The next failure was delivered to dealer while running in a failed state. Dealer reported no codes found. Since the dealer did not report this to subaru I will be reporting this problem to subaru.

the exit. The first time there were two immediate jerks to the right. The last time a single jerk. Each time I had to forcibly jerk back the car back to the middle of the lane I was in, or we would have left the road at 65 mph. I have stopped using lane keep assist - this was very dangerous. The first time I asked the salesman at subaru of champaign about this, and he didn't know about it. After the second occurrence I decided it was a dangerous defect and had to report it. Thank you.

correct from left to right in order to keep the car on-track. At one time during one of these corrections, the vehicle crossed the lane divider and almost impacted the vehicle driving adjacent to me. 3. Steering wheel does not return to straight ahead. The vehicle does not "return to center" under any operating conditions. On most cars, if you turn the wheel left or right, the steering geometry tries to return the steering wheel to center position to keep the vehicle traveling in a straight line. The subaru outback does not exhibit this capability.