Our Subaru Forester is slow to respond on acceleration and then surges quickly. This problem just started to surface. Our concern is when stepping down on the accelerator the car is very slow to react and then surges forward quickly, creating a serious concern over a potential accident. On August 17, 2022 I was reversing up my driveway to the garage and as I depressed the accelerator the car failed to respond. I was reluctant to depress the pedal further over concern it might suddenly surge backward too fast. What was concerning is that the accelerator did not respond as normal. August 18th, I started the car, drove out of the garage and onto the street. When I stepped onto the accelerator the car showed no response, then suddenly without warning surged forward at high speed, catching me off guard. I stepped on the brake and the car immediately stopped. I carefully tried to drive forward, again the car surged forward. I drove back into the garage. Our neighbor’s nephew took it for a drive and experience the same unexpected surge of acceleration. It was towed to the Subaru Dealership. The Dealership has consistently maintained our Forester since purchased. I asked if the car had surged and the Service Advisor shared that the technician had noticed an irregularity in acceleration. However, Diagnostic tests found nothing. The shop manager said he put almost 40 miles on it but found nothing. The service adviser called and suggested we come in and ride with the shop manager, which we did. He test drove it for a few miles and the acceleration appeared normal. He did say after the test drive that he sensed something irregular about the acceleration when leaving a stop sign. We asked they keep the car and test the car after sitting over the weekend. I asked service advisor and the shop manager if he had ever heard of a Subaru with this issue of being slow to respond on acceleration and then surging quickly. They both said they had never heard of this issue
2016 Subaru Forester acceleration complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 37 of 37, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The accident with my 2016 Subaru Forester happened on 07-07-2022. It happened in daylight on our farm. I was the only person in the car and was wearing my seatbelt. I had slowly pulled into a parking spot, had my foot on the brake and had essentially stopped at the 6x6 piece of lumber that was marking the spot. As I was stopping the car accelerated out of control and sped down a very narrow path on a hill diagonally to the right of the parking spot. I struggled to control the car as I sped down the hill toward the gravel driveway. I was able to avoid hitting a large spruce tree and avoid turning over in the deep ditch on the hill. I was going so fast, I ran over a sapling and ran into a large apple tree, tipping it over, damaging my right front passenger side, pushing the wheel back into the wheel well. My brakes were not responding. When I reached the gravel driveway at the bottom of the hill, I lifted my foot slightly and stomped on the brake, skidding to a stop just before going down another steep hill which leads to a creek. I was parallel to a road/driveway which often has many cars driving on it that time of the day. It is also used as a walking path. Luckily I did not hit anyone. I was able to barely turn the wheel and move the car out of the road/driveway. Since it was on our farm there was no police report necessary. I hurt my ribs, shoulder, back and neck. The accident had potential for injuring me much more severely if I had rolled over, hit a tree head on or been unable to stop, continuing down another hill toward a creek. I could have hit another car or people walking on the road No warning lights, it surged slightly when slowing to turn a corner the day before. Unknown component failed The car is presently at Masters Auto Body in Charlottesville VA. They are completing the repairs and will take it to the Subaru dealer in Staunton, VA to have them check for the cause of the unintended acceleration.
The contact owns a 2016 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while attempting to park in a driveway, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated causing the contact to crash into a building wall. There were no injuries sustained. The contact took the vehicle to an independent mechanic. The vehicle was repaired but the failure continued to proceed to accelerate. several times after the repairs. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 600.
Was Backing up and car started excelling and the throttle stuck hitting 2 cars It was out of control I got it in drive and it took off forward running full throttle up over the pavers around a tree and ran up on the side of a BMW which was sitting on the side of The hostess paved driveway coming down the side of the car My car was on 2 wheels . Came off the BMW and slammed into a tree trunk which stopped it. I got out of my car in disbelief . It happened on private property and We did call the police. But since it happened on private property They did not come but told us to get each others info for insurance Purposes
Car accelerated while I was parking in a parking spot and hit fence and unoccupied storefront.
Subaru accelerates occaisionally when one hits the break and the motor races until one puts car in neutral .
'several times over the last 3 months the vehicle randomly accelerates usually when I brake to slow down the car. I have to put the car in neutral to stop the racing of the engine. It happens at various speeds, 5,10,20, 60. It is scary and I have to allow extra room while driving.
Tl* the contact owned a 2016 subaru forester . The contact stated that while driving at low speeds 25 MPH, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration. The contact stated that the vehicle went through her neighbor garage and crashed into other vehicles that was in the garage, the vehicle then exited on the other side of the garage and crashed into a snowblower, and a tractor trailer. The contact stated that she did not sustained injuries but seek medical attention. No warning lights illuminated. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an auto body shop. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer. The vehicle was destroyed. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure . The failure mileage approximately 30,000.
I was preparing to park my car ,in the parking lot of the giant parking lot my foot was on the brake and the car was almost at a complete stop when the car suddenly accelerated . Upon acceleration, the car hit the steel construction unit that is built to store the customer shopping carts and dragged this forward before crashing into the side of a vehicle that was in the next aisle
My 2016 forester will accelerates with no warning .the very first time it happened I cannot remember exact date , I would guess it was around oct. Or nov. Of 2015. I bought the car may 2015. To the best of my recollection, I was parking space car and as I put the car in park the car lunged forward , barely missed hitting the fence in front of me. At that time I blamed ugg boots .never wore them again. The second time do not remember when but it had to be sometime after march 2017 because I had was purchased a puppy and went to petco and I was in that parking lot when it happened. I was pulling out of a parking space and as I put car in it jetted backward with such force and I hit a cement pole that was directly behind me . The pole was designated for a handicapped space .and car . Luckily there were no pedestrians there or I could have hurt or killed them. No damage to car . I didn't know what happen. I checked mats to make sure they were not under gas because I've heard that could happen but no all was good . Going forward just kept watch and see if it happens again cause then I would know there is a problem with the car. One, two, three times, no definitely something wrong with car. The most recent sept. 8, 2020, I was on side street stopped at light. Took foot off brake to inch up to make turn all of sudden car lunged forward to intersection I quickly made turn. Luckily avoiding accident. When I took car in to be checked was told by representative at the dealership she never heard of such a thing. When this happens it's usually due to human error and they're not aware of any acceleration issues with their cars. She then preceded to ask if I had air conditioner on when this happened. I said I don't remember but I'm assuming I did. Left car to be checked.r dealership said the mechanic drove car for 3 mile , could not duplicate my complaint.
My forester accelerates without my knowledge. There have been instances when I stop at light and advance it sometimes accelerates more than I have pressed on gas.
2016 subaru forester xt with 57000 miles. The cel came on during a 5 minute drive and started to stall. After stopping and starting the car, the engine continuously sputtered. Cel came on, stability control disabled, traction control disabled, cruise control disabled. To keep the car from dying, driver had to rev engine. Driver took it to the dealership because the car was unsafe to drive (stalled in the middle of intersections). Cel was reset after dealership changed the o2 sensor. Car ran fine for 50 miles. Cel came on, stability control, traction control and cruise control were all disabled. Car would skid on wet surfaces. Car would stall. Car would lag on the throttle response and then accelerate at a very high-rate, resulting in near miss accidents. Returned to the dealership. Brake-light sensor was replaced first and cel reset. Issue appeared immediately afterwords and all fuel injectors had to replaced. Drove car from dealership and 1 day later, same problem appeared. Dealership replaced egr valve. Did not resolve the problem. As of august 20, 2018, the car is undriveable and with the dealership undergoing diagnostics. All incidents occurred while the vehicle was in motion driving on both a highway, city street, and making turns. The fault has not been successfully identified but all attempts at resolution have been on the fuel, throttle, and exhaust systems.
On five different occurrences while the cruise control was on and we were driving at around 70 miles an hour on an interstate, our car would electronically put itself in neutral, the automatic gear shifter would physically remain in drive, the RPM's would go up to about 5500 rpms, because the car was slowing down and the cruise control was on. We would pull over to the side of the interstate and the engine will shut off after about 30 seconds. Three of the five times, the car would start after sitting for about 15 minutes. The third time the battery died after trying to start it a few times while it was cold out. The fifth time the car left us stranded on the interstate for two hours while we waited for a tow truck. We have notified subaru every time that the car would do this. On the third time it happened, subaru had us remove the remote starter we had purchased and installed at best buy. After having best buy remove the remote started, I installed a dashcam behind the driver to record the driver, dashboard and the shifter because subaru could not find any evidence of this issue happening. The fourth and fifth time happened while we were on a family vacation out of state. The car was left at a dealership out of state and four weeks after the incident they determined it was a faulty fuel pump. I was told on the phone that they were unable to test if the fuel pump they removed was in fact faulty. Subaru told me they had a technician drive it for 500 miles and they didn't experience the same issue. Incidents were at the following mileages - dates: 31190 - may 27th, 2017 34383 - august 27th, 2017 approximately 42300 - february 2nd, 2018 51778 - august 9th, 2018 52129 - august 14th, 2018
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 subaru forester. While attempting to park the vehicle, it suddenly accelerated without the accelerator pedal being depressed. As a result, the vehicle crashed into a fence and a pole. There were no injuries and a police report was not filed. There was extensive damage to the bumper. The vehicle was towed to an independent body shop and then to subaru of englewood (135 south dean street, englewood, nj 07631, (201) 816-6000). The dealer stated that they could not find any failures. The contact researched and learned of many similar occurrences, which were due to electrical failures. The manufacturer stated that there was an event data recorder that the dealers did not have and they were investigating the matter. The manufacturer further stated that they would call the contact if they decide to send the equipment to the dealer for diagnostic testing. The failure mileage was 20,000. The consumer stated the vehicle has had to incidents of sudden acceleration that caused the vehicle to crash into other vehicles causing damage.
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 subaru forester. The contact stated that the vehicle accelerated unexpectedly and crashed into a fence on october 24, 2017. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. The local dealer was not contacted the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. There were no injuries. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was unknown. On july 18, 2018, while driving at an unknown speed, the vehicle accelerated again and crashed into a security pole. There were no warning indicators illuminated. A police report was filed and there were no injuries. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified and referred the contact to the local dealer. The failure mileage was 20,000.
During periods of heavy rain, the vehicle appears to suffer major electrical issues. Since february of 2018, my vehicle has reported problems after a major storm with the eyesight camera system, ABS, hill assist, and fuel gauge. Fyi-eyesight includes the dynamic cruise control, crash avoidance, and lane monitoring system. The issue has been reported to our subaru dealer/maintenance team but they have not been able to discover the source of the issue.
I was parking my car. I had the brake applied and put it in park. The car accelerated on its own over a parking barrier, over a 1.5' stone barrier, up a small grade and into and partially thru a concrete patio wall. The car's gearshift was in park. I had to move it back to reverse to get it back into the parking space. And even though the impact was substantial the airbag did not deploy.
Driver was parking front first into a parking spot, traveling straight forward at less than 5 MPH. When the 2016 subaru forester reached the proper parking location, the driver, with his foot on the brake, attempted to move the gear shifter from d to p. Suddenly the engine rev'd and the car lurched forward, over the parking concrete block, over a small bush and into the window wall of the adjacent condo. Damage was sustained to the wall, and right hand side front of vehicle. Driver stated that he could not do anything else because his foot was already on the brake. Neither airbag deployed.
I've had the same issue happen on 2 separate occasions (october and november 2016) - while driving the car I bought brand new, and going appx. 75 MPH down the interstate, driving approximately 2 hours straight on flat interstate, the RPM's all of a sudden shoot up and it feels like my car falls out of gear. The car essentially shuts down and fails to accelerate and slows down quickly, while totally unresponsive. We have to quickly pull off the road to avoid being hit. Several lights show on the dash (have photo) and the vehicle does not respond to acceleration. We had to shut the car off completely and turn it back on - no response to acceleration or anything. It did not respond until the 2nd time turning it off and back on. Upon bringing to dealership, they have not been able to pull any codes or duplicate the error (either time). They also had a subaru field engineer look at it and found nothing. I am continuously sent away without a solution other than to "call roadside assistance" if it happens again, which puts myself and others in serious danger. The most recent time they put 300 miles on it and found that it "fell out of cruise control", but aren't offering to fix it and didn't actually duplicate the same error as I had. I'm afraid I'm going to get into a serious car accident and hurt myself or someone else the next time this happens. It feels like subaru (or dealer) isn't owning up to this problem or possibly trying to cover it up to keep their good safety ratings. The dealership has told me that I'm "the only person in the whole united states reporting this issue", which I find very difficult to believe.
At low speed (under 15 MPH) a hesitation occurs causing the vehicle to loose acceleration power for as long as 3 or 4 seconds. It is an intermittent problem occurring only 8 times in three months. Problem almost caused a collision while turning left before oncoming traffic. Later recurrences produced the same problem during right turns also. We returned the car to the dealer and purchased a 2017 of the same model hoping this problem will be solved.
"takata recall" vehicle accellerated, brakes did not stop vehicle, accident took place injuring my wife, physically, emotionally & psychologically. Air bags did not deploy. Wife was trying to park, when vehicle sped up and her braking had no effect and she crashed into a parked vehicle.
Eyesight system did not pick up vehicle in fromt of car and proceed to drive straight toward at 70mph, I had to brake the car. This happened twice in one day. Dealer said they tested car and system was working fine. The system did not detect the large vehicle in front.
In a closed parking lot, I was getting ready to park in a space. With my foot on the brake, I cut the wheel to the right and then eased my foot off the brake to maneuver into the parking spot. I pushed the brake again in preparation to straighten the wheels and finish parking, no speed registering on the gauge. With my foot on the brake the vehicle began to accelerate and jumped. I lifted my foot off the brake, and slammed it back down on the brake attempting to halt the vehicle. Instead, with my foot still firmly on the brake, the vehicle accelerated again, and faster, right into a wall. I had been unable to straighten the wheels, so the impact was not head-on, but rather continuing the right-turn's angle, and impact occurred on the driver's side, front-end. 2 airbags deployed with a slight delay, causing severe bruising to my legs which affect my walking, and muscle tears causing severe neck and spine pain. Though I was wearing my seatbelt during the collision, it retracted when I opened the door, and we were unable to dislodge it when we had to move the vehicle for towing. To reiterate, while attempting to park the vehicle at minimal speed, the vehicle accelerated on its own, with my foot firmly pressing the brake.
Vehicle begins to accelerate from parking lot into traffic, but then gas pedal hits a "dead spot". Gas pedal is non-responsive. Unable to accelerate until continually depressing gas pedal 3/4 way to floor board. Then it surges ahead! Problem is repeatable and in my opinion very dangerous. 1. Pulling into traffic and unable to accelerate to traffic speed. 2. Sudden, uncontrolled acceleration. I contacted the original dealership service department and they said it's normal. Have contacted another dealership and they will revisit my complaint.
Car has 11,000 miles, automatic transmission. While driving straight on a highway using the cruise control set at 65 MPH with the adaptive cruise control on (feet not touching the gas pedal or brake) the car engine RPM's began increasing till it reached the rev limiter. At the same time the engine RPM began revving high, the car began to coast as if it was in neutral. But the gear shift remained in drive. After a few seconds of the engine revving as high as it could, the engine shut off and I was able to get the car stopped. I had to put my hazards on and steer off to the shoulder to avoid getting hit from behind. This has happened to me twice. First time 10/8/15 the car would not start after I coasted to a stop and had to have it towed to the subaru dealer. They hooked the car up to their computer for a diagnostic test and found no error codes. Second time this happened to me on 1/2/16 after stopping on the shoulder I was able to restart the car and drive home without using cruise control. The car is going back to the dealer for another test this friday 1/8/16. This whole process probably takes about 30 second or so. But its very dangerous. Its almost as if the transmission is some how not engaged. Since the cruise is set at 65 MPH it tries to increases engine RPM to maintain 65 MPH speed but the transmission is not engaged so car does not accelerate. Cruise sees car slowing down so speeds up the engine to compensate. Cars still doesn't speed up. Eventually engine RPM maxes out for a few seconds and turns itself off. I feel like the problem lies with the transmission most likely or possibly the cruise control. I also notice when pulling out of a parking space going from reverse to drive it takes about 5 seconds for the transmission to engage. To the point that I roll back a few feet.
Eyesight and cruise control intermittent shutdown and restart. On an increasingly frequent basis, when the cruise control and eyesight are engaged, both will disable and can be a few seconds to minutes before the eyesight re-enables and the cruise control can manually be re-engaged. When this happens, vehicle goes from auto-drive to manual-drive. Also, an e1 error appeared on the odometer display.
The car was being driven in a residential area. The driver stopped to make a u-turn then slowly started to take her foot off the brake while moving the steering wheel to the left when the car suddenly accelerated to the right (opposite direction). The driver lost control of the vehicle and the vehicle stopped only after colliding into a street pole.
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