I accelerated from a stop to merge with traffic. When I stepped on the gas pedal to accelerate, the gas pedal stuck & I continued to accelerate despite taking my foot off the gas & trying to firmly apply my brakes- I could hear the engine revving . My brakes did not stop the car & even in neutral with my brakes on I continued to go forward until eventually the car coasted to a stop in the breakdown lane & I was able to put it in park & turn off engine. It smelled like burned rubber after I stopped. Of note, it was a rainy day. I plan to bring it to the subaru dealership tomorrow. I did read some blogs today with a few people complaining of the same problem but one person commented that the car was brought to the dealership & no problem was found. This was a very scary & unsafe problem. I did an internet search for subaru forester recalls & could not find one for this particular problem.
2006 Subaru Forester acceleration complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 20 of 20, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 subaru forester. On february 20, 2009, while attempting to pull into the driveway at less than 6 MPH, the hydraulic brakes failed. The brake pedal extended to the floor board and the vehicle began to jerk and accelerate on its own. The vehicle crashed into a tree and the frontal air bags deployed. The contact sustained major injuries and was transported to the hospital in an ambulance. A police report was filed. Her sternum was broken and she suffered major lacerations and bruises to her knees and legs. The VIN was unknown. The current and failure mileages were less than 25,400. Updated 8/3/09 *cn the consumer stated no police report was filed. Updated 08/05/09.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 subaru forester. The air bag control module fails to activate at least once per week. On each occasion, the passenger side air bag off light illuminates. The occupant detection sensor does not recognize a passenger sitting in the front passenger seat. The passenger side air bag also does not activate when the vehicle is started approximately once out of 20-30 starts. The contact's wife weighs 120 lbs and is 5'5 inches tall. She sits erectly with the seat back nearly vertical. The failures have been reported and investigated by the dealer and manufacturer. The manufacturer stated that the "occupant protection system is working as its designed intent and as such we are unable to recommend a repair or modification". The current mileage was 28,000 and failure mileage was 13,421. Updated 01/03/08 *bf oil was leaking onto the exhaust system, the engine would surge and sag during slight downgrades with the throttle held just off idle and speed held constant, the speed control over and under shoots on slight grades, it would not go to full throttle, or to closed throttle when speed control was activated. Updated
Experienced sudden unintended acceleration twice. , once when accelerating on the highway to pass and the gas pedal appeared to stick., and once when pulling up to a curbside as the brake was appiled and the vechicle suddenly lurched forward colliding into a parked car and pushing it forward. I had to jam hard on the brake to stop the acceleration.
I was driving slowly down the street, made a left turn into a parking lot. Perhaps I turned a little too sharply. There was a sudden surge and acceleration and the brakes were unresponsive. The car "ran away" while I tried unsuccessfully to brake it. Hit the building. I backed away and it surged backward and hit a tree. Then I was able to get it into park and turn it off.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 subaru forester. The contact stated that the vehicle suddenly accelerated to more than 30 MPH when gently depressing the accelerator pedal. The vehicle failed to stop when the brakes were depressed. After maneuvering the vehicle around a building three times the ignition was able to be shut off. The vehicle was towed to the dealer , first team auto mall, and no failure could be found. The current and failure mileages were 4,000.
On cold start the engine races uncontrollaby up to approximately 3500 rpms after clutch was depressed. It raced up and down until it warmed fully up. It sometimes races like this after high speed driving when you come to a stop.
This is a repeatable event that could lead to an injury: purchased a new 2006 subaru forester 2.5x end of october 2005. After approx. Two weeks car began to experience unexpected engine RPM increases immediately after a "cold start." when car is first started, engine rpms are at around 1500. Put car into reverse and back out of parking space. When the clutch is depressed, engine rpms shoot up to 3000+. Then, after putting car in 1st gear, and releasing clutch, engine rpms drop to about 1500 but slowly increase to around 2500-3000 RPM and vehicle speed increases without foot even being on the accelerator. Problem usually clears up after driving a few minutes except on one occasion when car had been operating for around 15 minutes... When I came home for lunch and pulled into our drive and put in the clutch, the rpms shot up to around 3000. Turning the vehicle off and restarting will "reset" the rpms to around 1500 until it is put in gear once again and the clutch depressed. A couple of times this happened: after the rpms shot up to 3000+, I kept the clutch pressed to see how long the rpms would stay around 3000. The rpms did a decaying sinusoidal oscillation of about 6 cycles over a period of about 30-45 seconds, finally leveling out arount 1500 RPM.
Apparently, subaru has gone to a ??drive by wire?? For at least 2006. The 2006 forester I have has the surging problem. It is worst driving downhill and trying to maintain a constant speed in either manual or cruise control. The steeper the hill the worse the surge. I live in the colorado mountains and if there were snow or ice this surge would cause the vehicle to loose traction and go out of control. Actively accelerating or decelerating is not a problem. The surge occurs only when a constant speed is attempted. This problem has been reviewed by a subaru dealer service department and reproduced on another 2006 forester. Subaru said that this is not a problem and is expected with the drive by wire system. I feel that this is a safety problem as a driver could loose control with the severe surge problem.
Dt: the contact stated vehicle is hesitated and surged. This happened more often when traveling down a mountain. The vehicle has been taken to a certified dealership for diagnosis, and the problem was duplicated. However, the manufacturer concluded there was actually no problem with the vehicle. In addition, the manufacturer offered $1,000 gift certificate as incentive to have no further contact with them.
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