2016 Subaru Outback: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Oct 27, 2025 · Driver assistance, Engine · AL

Steering wheel controls frequently fail to work properly on the cruise control system specially the speed control. Also the exhaust system bellow has cracked. The moonroof leaks into the cabin and floor area of the passenger side. Also leaking into the A pillar on the passenger side. I only have a picture of the engine valve cover that is leaking and had to be replaced. I have video of the exhaust leak coming from the crack in the bellow pipe. Do not have video of the cruise control speed issues as I can’t take a video while driving.

Filed Sep 25, 2024 · OH

The catalytic converter on my vehicle has an air leak causing my engine light to come on and almost all features such as cruise control become disabled. There is a recall that was issued in 2020 for the exact same problem my vehicle is having and the recall covers the same year, make and model of my vehicle. I was told that my vehicle isn’t under the recall but the representative was unable to specify why. I am trying to get the part replaced as the vehicle is polluting the air and causing my vehicle to not perform as expected.

Filed Jul 10, 2024 · Driver assistance, Electrical · VA

My 2016 Subaru Outback has gone through 5 batteries since purchase in 4/2016. The reason for my contact with you is that the Navigation function “eyesight” has been problematic for at least two years and began with the third of five batteries. The function stops working randomly at any hour of the day and in all conditions. This year it went off and on in excess of 300-400 times. Each time it stops, cruise control, lane warnings, etc. are off. This can be harrowing with highway driving. On the three occasions I took it to the dealer the past two years they could not find a cause. After I replaced the battery again recently, they reset a DCM whose warranty had been extended by Subaru and that I brought in myself. There have been a number of parasitic drain tests, some finding a drain, others not on the batteries When the car was returned to me, the navigation system went off only once that same day but I presume it will go off in the future. I do not find the car or system reliable. The problem appears to be exceedingly hard to diagnose. Since these are the types of systems used with automatic and self driving car functions, I thought it important that you be made aware of the hazards these systems present.

Filed Mar 30, 2019 · Engine · 111,500 miles · IN

Coming to a stop at curbside. Applying light pressure to the brake. Vehicle started to pull forward. Was able to stop by increasing pressure on the brake. Engine speed increased quickly after I shifted to park. Engine sound was loud enough to be noticed by people in the area. I responded by turning off the engine. Cruise control was enabled at the time.

Filed Nov 24, 2018 · Steering · 35,000 miles · AR · crash · 1 injury

I was traveling on i49 at ~60 MPH, in light rain, and non freezing temperature. I was on a straight stretch of road with cruise control off. The tires were in good condition. I was approaching brush creek bridge and holding the steering wheel steady and straight. The car started to drift left and steering was not responding. The rear of the car started to get ahead of the front and the car was going sideways. As soon as the car stared to drift, I took my foot off the gas and tried to regain steering. When sliding sideways on the bridge, I cut the steering wheel in the direction the car was sliding. At that time, the car regained some steering capability and oversteered to the right side of the bridge, traveling sideways against a cement barrier until stopped. The air bags never deployed. There was extensive front end damage amounting in ~$10000 in repairs. The car started and was driven home after the incident. Although it was raining, there was no indication that the accident was related to any traction loss and the traction light was not activated. I think the existing steering recall may have impacted more vechicles than previously thought. I suspect that the steering is defective and the existing sterling recall did not catch all of the affected vehicles. I also found it surprising that no air bags deploys, even though this was a high impact crash. I had bruising in my sternum, knees, elbows and along the seat belt path.

Filed Jan 7, 2017 · Steering · 9,500 miles · MT

Interstate driving. 65 MPH. Nighttime driving. Cruise control off. Subaru eyesight steering correction off. Three adult passengers. No luggage. No extra weight. Thule roof cargo container secured to the roof racks. Sudden encounter of ice on road. Significantly degraded steering capability. We were driving on interstate 1-90 and encountered an unexpected long patch of ice on a straight section of road. It was very smooth ice without snow cover. The car felt like the rear end wanted to come around and I had to counter steer to keep the car straight. I immediately let off the accelerator and did not touch the break. The car then became extremely difficult to steer. It felt like the car was caught in deep ice ruts, bouncing back and forth from left to right. There were no ice ruts; the ice was smooth. The motion of the car was severe enough that the motion woke passengers. I lost all confidence that I could steer the car. I did not touch either the accelerator nor the gas. I was only trying to regain steering. I eventually coasted to 40 MPH before I could regain control. I have driven on ice for 25+ years and have never encountered a car like this. It felt like the car was trying to steer itself and then trying to correct itself for an over steer. This LED to another correction by the vehicle. This back and forth "micro" auto correction made steering extremely difficult. This is a very dangerous car. Car has < 10,000 miles. No wrecks. Good condition. Tires in excellent condition. All tires at recommended tire pressure (40 psi) the morning before in incident. There is something fundamentally wrong with this car. It is a serious and dangerous problem.

Filed Nov 17, 2016 · Acceleration, Brakes · 9,000 miles · NV

The subaru eyesight system is dangerous. I've had two instances where the vehicle activated the forward-collision warning and started to break for reasons unknown to me. Once was in the middle of an intersection. Fortunately, the cars behind me were not too close to rear end me. This happened around 2 p.m. In the middle of summer with the sun behind the vehicle. I brought the vehicle in for recall work to the local subaru dealership several months later and asked them to pull any relevant data for the two incidents. By then, the system cleared those two events. The dealer said I should purchase a video camera and run it in the car while driving to capture any false alarms in order to help them troubleshoot it as according to them the system does not capture any video/image data when it records an event. This is absolutely outrageous. Subaru has cameras in the eyesight system and flash memory to store data in - storing an image snapshot is not overly storage intensive, and yet I am supposed to invest several hundred dollars in an independent video camera to help subaru debug their system. The dealership suggested not using eyesight on sunny days where the camera could be blinded by the sun. Hello - I live in nevada, it's sunny here over 300 days per year. This would make the eyesight system practically useless and I'll lose cruise control. How am I supposed to know when it's too sunny for the system that it will malfunction?

Filed Jun 24, 2016 · Acceleration, Steering · 1,400 miles · OH

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 subaru outback. While driving 60 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle veered to the left without warning. The failure recurred on numerous occasions. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 1,400.

Filed Dec 11, 2015 · Steering · 3,400 miles · MN

Driving in the center of my lane on a wet highway. Cruise control on at 65 MPH. Lane sway on. The car acted as if the lane sway activated and gave a strong steering wheel bump like it does if you are close to the side road stripe. I was dead center in my lane, and there was no reason for it to bump the steering. It did this to me three times within a ten mile drive. After the third time I turned the lane sway off and was soon driving in town and it did not do it again. My wife says sometimes while coming to a stop at a light, the car will pull very hard and abruptly to the left. The car has 3400 miles on it, so there should be nothing wrong with brake pads or rotors.