I have several times experienced what is known as ghost walking while driving my 2005 subaru outback 2.4i. I have driven under the same conditions with the car minimally loaded. Only on the times that the car was loaded with more than 2 passengers and their belongings did I experience ghost walk. On those times I was driving my outback on snow or ice covered road. I was driving at a steady rate of speed with consistent pressure on the gas. The rear of the vehicle would begin to pitch back and forth as if being blown by a heavy wind. There was no wind on those occasions, or not sufficient to cause the to sway the way it did. It felt as though the rear of the vehicle was attempting to pass the front. I slowed down each time, even though the road surface conditions did not dictate it. I was passed by 2 wheel drive vehicles, because my car felt unstable and unsafe to drive. I have never experienced this while the car was lightly loaded under the same road conditions.
2005 Subaru Outback suspension complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 56 of 56, newest first, as owners wrote them.
In december of 2008 I drove from idaho to montana over christmas. Road conditions were broken ice and compact snow. Whenever the car would hit a bump in the road, the rear end would tend to kick from side to side. I was forced to reduce my speed to around 30 MPH, even though all other vehicles could maintain higher speeds in a safe manner. I have experienced this problem on several later occasions, and it appears to occur only when the vehicle has been loaded down with passenger(s) or cargo. Subaruoutback.org has a gigantic thread on this topic. It appears I am not the only one with this problem. Http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=b16ba9fdce5398dec3b38124c6d0e1b9&threadid=11267&perpage=20&pagenumber=1 in march of 2009, I had an alignment done at a subaru dealership in boise. I have not experienced the problem to date, but this winter has been unseasonably warm, and I have not driven on much packed snow or ice. Moreover, I have not driven with extra cargo, which seems to exasperate the problem. However, I am not convinced the problem is gone, and judging by the continued amount of complaints on subaruoutback.com, I believe subaru needs to formally address the problem. This is a significant safety concern.
I'm a recent owner of a 2005 subaru outback xt with 58k miles and under certain adverse weather situations; the car's tracking/driving characteristics perform in a hazardous and potentially deadly manner. When traveling in snowy and or slushy conditions on paved roads, the car's rear tires move from side to side loosing directional stability (I.e. Oversteer) with no provocation from the driver or outside influence. This occurs regardless of the load in the car (passengers/cargo), and under all driving situations (accelerating & coasting). The car has snow tires on all four wheels (nokian 225-55-17) that have less than 10k miles of use and are correctly inflated as instructed by the car's manufacture (30f/32r). Initially, I thought the car might be out of rear alignment (toe), however after being inspected by the local subaru dealership and independent tire alignment shop, the car is within subaru's current specs for the model and tsb notice (5-36-07) from subaru of america. I drive 200 miles daily to and from work (pa/nj) for the last 11 years and in all weather conditions with zero accidents or mishaps. The purpose of buying a subaru was for the all weather capability advertised by the manufacturer. However, apparently I am not alone, as a recent search on line provided an outback forum dedicated to this car (2005-2009) which indicates this is an inherent problem with this group of cars by the numerous accounts from other owners with this particular characteristic. Soa needs to step up and correct the obvious 'engineered compromise' with a raised rear suspension, and modify the lower control arms in order to correct the rear end stepping out due to adverse road conditions and loads carried by owners under what would otherwise be normal operating parameters.
I drive a 2005 subaru outback xt limited and have experienced the rear sway, unstable conditions that many other people seem to be experiencing. I have done much research on the problem and have found that subaru's rear sway bar and alignment specs. To be unmatched for the longer wheel-base and the weight of the vehicle. After the replacement of the rear sway bar to a heavier duty one and a better alignment my outback now drives outstanding and handles like a dream. I am a spirited driver and I drive in all weather conditions including ice and snow and have had no problems since the upgrades.
2005 ob sw mt. Car is very unstable in slush or snow. Car weaves from side to side resulting in driving very slowly to minimize instability.
2005 subaru outback sedan driven on icy/snowy road conditions experiences extreme slippage in the rear of the car. Have experienced this on at least two other occasions with this vehicle in similar conditions. Awd does not appear to be keeping the rear of the car on the road or in line. Vehicle fishtails or ghostwalks on the road surface in these conditions. Each time this was experienced was while driving on highway at speeds between 30 and 70 MPH in icy/snowy conditions. I have a 1996 subaru legacy sedan as well that does not exhibit this type of unnerving wandering on the road when driven in exact same conditions. This wandering makes vehicle feel extremely unstable and the back of the car feels as though it wants to spin around or off the road.
While driving on icy roads at speeds of 40 MPH or more, the car sometimes "floats" to the side several inches. It feels different than fishtailing -- more like the car is being pushed by the wind. This occurs with no cross-wind, no acceleration, no cornering or braking, on flat straight icy roads while driving at a constant speed. The sideways slip is severe enough that you feel you may lose control and leave the road. The only fix is to slow down to 40 MPH or less, while other cars are passing at 60 MPH or more. After several occurrences, always on icy or slushy roads, I took the car to the subaru dealer, who performed an alignment. The report shows that the car had positive toe-in of 0.23 degrees (front left), 0.24 degrees (front right), 0.22 degrees (rear left) and 0.44 degrees (rear right). Too much toe-in, I'm told, can cause excessive tire wear and can also cause poor handling on icy roads. Please consider that complaints for both these issues may have a common cause. There are reports that toe-in increases over time with subaru outbacks, and that toe-in also increases when there is more weight in the back end of the car. The subaru outback dynamically shifts power to non-slipping wheels when one or more wheels loses traction, and apportions power 60/40 favoring the rear wheels. Could these factors, along with excessive toe-in, create the kind of dangerous floating on icy roads that many outback owners have experienced? Please, please investigate.
2005 subaru outback, 2.5l, 4eat, awd vehicle feels"loose" at speeds greater than ~35 on highways with patchy ice, slush, and or icy ruts. Rear end feels like it wants to come around. Has occurred with two passengers and approx 250 pounds in cargo area and with one passenger and ~250 pounds in cargo area.
On snowy/icy road, the handling on my 05 outback xt was worse than everything else on the road that day. The rear-end of the car was unstable and sliding side to side. I have put new tires on and had an alignment. This is unsafe, especially in a car that is thought to be good in winter.
Car is very unstable on snowy road surfaces and fishtails from side to side. Other vehicles on the road do not experience this problem. This incident has occurred many times during winter driving conditions. We have new snow tires and four wheel alignment yet the problem persists. Car instability is very dangerous and we are concerned for our safety. We have contacted the subaru dealer and subaru directly yet no one seems to know what the problem is.
Unstable car is extremely unstable on ice or slush cover roads. This has happened many times in the past 2 years. The rear fishtails from side to side. Had to slow down to very low speed to regain control. Other cars had no trouble and easily passed. Tires are good, alignment good. Car also floats from right to left on dry pavement if wheels hit pothole or large crack in pavement. Rear instability.
Car is extremely unstable on slick roads. Specifically the rear of the vehicle "fishtails".
My 2005 subaru outback xt limited does not handle well in snow/icy conditions. The rear end oscillates back and forth in a very uneasy, unsafe manor. I just had the rear end and front end aligned. The tires are only half way worn. I was traveling 45 MPH and every car on the road was not having issues with the road. I had to slow down to about 10 MPH in order to feel safe.
While driving on icy roads, the rear end of the car pitches left & right at an oscillation of about 1hz, 2-3" constantly trying to throw the car off the road. It does not matter if it's off throttle, off brakes - in a straight line at almost any speed it does it. New tires and 2 alignments did not correct the issue.
On an extended road trip (17000 mi), in our new 2005 outback, we went through two sets of tires. The dealership corrected the alignment, which was severely off the first time (after 5000 miles.) but then at about 16000 miles, the second set was severely worn out. We had the alignment redone at the dealership in whitehorse, canada but we did not replace the tires as the warranty was not honored at that dealership. The left rear tire blew out about 400 miles from anchorage. We purchased a used tire at a gas station and limped on to anchorage, where we had purchased the vehicle. The performed an alignment for the second time, this time with a loaded back seat. We have since put about 6000 more miles on the vehicle and it has not shown severe wear since that re-alignment.
Excessive rear tire wear, bridgestone potenza re92, 225/55/17 installed on 2005 subaru outback. Normal tire wear through 19k miles. Rear tires completly worn out after 2k road trip with moderate vehicle loading. No signs of mis-alignment or over/under inflation. Front tires remain serviceable.
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