2017 Subaru Outback: jerking or lurching

Filed Feb 22, 2026 · NY

While driving, the car suddenly shut off while in motion. It came to a stop at the bottom of hill where we were able to put it in neutral, and push it into a parking lot. After that we attempted to start it 4 or 5 times, and the engine would turn over and shut off after a couple of seconds. After leaving it off for about 5 minutes, it was able to start. Additionally, it occasionally feels jerky while driving, usually at lower speeds.

Filed Dec 3, 2025 · Acceleration · MD

While in a parking lot moving at very slow rate speed the car suddenly accelerated on its own. I had just slowly turned within a parking lot in preparation to backing into a parking space. I had just removed my foot from the accelerator and the car was almost at a stop and I was about to brake and put the car into reverse when it suddenly and rapidly accelerated on its own. My foot was not touching the accelerator at the time (it was over, but not yet touching, the brake). The car felt as if someone had suddenly slammed on the accelerator, but my foot was not on the accelerator at the time. Luckily my foot was over the brake when the rapid unexpected acceleration occurred and also luckily there were no cars in front of me. I was able to immediately slam on the brake so that the car did not hit anything. Before I was able to brake, the car quickly lurched forward at a surprisingly rapid rate of speed for a short distance. Quick application of the brakes stopped the sudden and rapid forward movement of the car. I did not notice any warning lights or messages on the car. This could have been a very dangerous situation. If someone had been walking in front of the car, they would have been hit and potentially seriously injured. If there had been cars parked in front of the space I was about to back into, the car would have hit them and caused damage. This happened earlier today and I have not yet reported it to the dealer. No police or insurance personnel were involved as I managed to avoid an accident. The event occurred today, Wednesday December 3rd at about 11 am. There were no other witnesses. To my knowledge this is the first occurrence of this rapid unexpected acceleration for this car.

Filed Jun 23, 2023 · Driver assistance, Steering · MO

Had new tires installed and on the way home kept feeling wheel pulling to the right. Eyesight/lane assist feature was turned off. At one point the steering wheel dramatically jerked right and locked, completely immoveable. It jerked me into the other lane and almost into the median of the highway. I got to safety and had it towed to the dealership. I originally thought it was an issue with the tire alignment or the AWD system. They took it on a test drive and confirmed lane assist was malfunctioning in a dangerous 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.

Filed Apr 24, 2023 · Acceleration · MI

My vehicle accelerated when I was at a red light. My foot was on the brake. It also accelerated when I was backing out of our driveway. This resulted in a type of “ lurching” motion. The incident at the red light happened once. The incidents while backing out happened 3 times. No warning light were displayed. The vehicle has not been inspected yet. My safety was at risk because it accelerated once when my foot was on the brake and excessively when I was slowly backing up.

Filed Dec 25, 2018 · Steering · 27,500 miles · IL

When lane keep assist is on at night (uses eyesight to keep you in your lane) the car steering wheel has on two separate occasions suddenly jerked to the right. The first time there had been some road repairs with some parts of the road having new asphalt at some not, and the road was still wet from a previous rainstorm. The most recent time the road was dry and this happened when the car reached and exit where the painted stripe on the right side opened at the angle for cars to depart the interstate to allow for 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.

Filed Sep 2, 2017 · Transmission · ID

When shifting from reverse to forward there is a considerable hesitation and then the vehicle lurches forward. I have taken it into team subaru in nampa idaho and they cannot determine any problem. I was told that the hesitation is normal. I do not agree. Because not only does it hesitate, but the lurch when the transmission finally engages is considerable. I did not notice this until the vehicle had approximately 1000 miles on it. I have just over 7100 miles on it now.