Subaru - Forester :: 2009 - Intermittent Power Steering Assist Failure During Low Speed Maneuvering
Jun 30, 2014
I just took my 2009 Subaru Forester (80,000 miles) in to a mechanic because it was having an intermittent power steering assist failure during low speed maneuvering (i.e., parking lot). This is always accompanied by a loud rhythmic whining form under the hood (kind of like a whaawhaawhaawhaa). By intermittent, I mean maybe 50% chance of it happening when I am maneuvering in a parking lot. By failure, I mean I can still turn the wheel but it's much harder. The mechanic diagnosed it as the following:
dry rot in drive belts, recommended replacement
leaky rack and pinion, recommended replacement
2 leaky front struts
I checked my power steering fluid before I brought it in and the level/color looks great. The mechanic said in addition to the leak that there's a little bit of a catch in the steering at a certain steering position when going faster, but I haven't noticed it myself. I have trusted this shop in the past and had good experiences, but there has been a lot of turnover lately, so I'm unsure of what to do. I went ahead and had them change the belts, but decided to wait on the rack/struts until I did more research/got a second opinion.
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Some of you might remember I've pondered here before about the strange pulsing that occurs on my steering (on the V10) when maneuvering at low speed. It's always done it. Well, for the 18 months and 15k miles I've had the car.
Nobody (including Phaeton technicians) who have heard it/felt it have had any useful advice or insight (save offering to take the engine out to check on various bits).
I had always assumed that it was something like the load when the car is being parked etc was sufficient such that some relief valve was lifting momentarily and repeatedly. However I've come to realize that it is not just the slow vehicle speed, but engine speed too. Of course, nearly all parking maneuvering is done at tick over. But if I raise the revs just a little, the phenomenon seems to go away. Not easy to isolate maneuvering speed from engine speed... which is why I'd not really noticed before.
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2010 Manual GTI (still barely under warranty)
I swapped to my winter wheels on Sunday, then the car sat garaged for two and half days. Went to start it this morning and just got a fast clicking, then the power steering light came on and went from yellow to red. Tried a couple of times and then it seems like the car lost power; clock reset, trip odometer reset, etc.
I'm going to check the fuses, but what the problem might be? I'd like to go to work today and in the weather we're having there's no way VW is sending a tow truck today.
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35,000 miles... I don't know which I noticed first, getting my head snapped back after rounding a corner and accelerating or starting to free wheel at about 15 mph approaching a stop. I am embarrassed to say it took me a while to figure out it was the same problem only worse when rounding a corner.
Briefly. The transmission is not down shifting all the way on deceleration. My local mechanic told me to try overfilling the xmission. I did (1qt) and now it only does it when cold. Subaru knows all about it except that part about how to fix it.
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Twice in the past two months, the power steering in my 1999 Toyota Camry has temporarily stopped working. The first time, I was making a turn out of a parking lot, and the wheel froze up (or at least became very difficult to turn). The problem completely disappeared after about 30 seconds. Two months later, the problem happened again while making a turn onto a busy street. This time, it lasted only about 10 seconds before recovering. Both times, the wheel seemed to lock after I had already turned it some amount - i.e., halfway through the turn. And both times, it was raining. I did not hear any unusual noises - e.g., belts slipping.
I have taken the car to two different mechanics (one of them the local Toyota dealer), and neither could find anything wrong with the power steering. From their visual inspection, the power steering fluid looks good, there are no obvious leaks in the system, and the power steering belt looks fine. And they were unable to replicate the problem, since it occurs so infrequently.
The mechanics have said that there are two most likely culprits - a faulty rack and pinion ($1800), or a bad power steering pump ($800). I am hesitant to spend this kind of money without believing that the problem would be fixed, but I'm also very uncomfortable driving the car when the steering could give out at any time.
What the problem might be, or how I should proceed? The car has about 100,000 miles on it and is otherwise in great shape, so I'd like to keep driving it for years to come...
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I have a 2002 subaru forester that will stutter and backfire without throwing a code, but not all the time. i have had it hooked up to a computer to check the O2 sensors and they are fine, it has a new Throttle position sensor, knock sensor, plugs, and catalytic converters (all put on in the last month). I have called a dealership and they have not heard of this happening, so this is my last resort.
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I have a 2003 Subaru Forester. It will cool just fine while not moving. It will also cool just fine if I'm coasting down a hill with my foot off the gas. However, on the highway I have intermittent cooling. It cools for 10-15 seconds and then it blows what feels like straight vent for 10-15 seconds. It has a new compressor, receiver/dryer, and expansion valve and is fully charged.
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Wife driving R with around 1,800 miles. Car build date 10/12; engine build date 10/19/12.
Car shuts off at highway speed; red steering wheel indicator is illuminated (not flashing) indicating power steering failure. No gauges, radio, other electrics work. I know about the "electromechanical" power steering set up, but is this the cause or the result of a possible water pump failure?
Car was just towed to dealer; dealer said they will diagnose in the morning.
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I have a 2003 Subaru Forester, bought it this past January. Got 163,000 miles on it, and we've driven it mostly around town. Over the last month, it has developed an intermittent problem with stalling and rough "putt-putt" running, and will only keep running if the gas pedal gets pumped. This seems to happen about every other time we turn it on, but without a pattern. It can be running fine, and then switch mode, as it were, to running rough and tending to stall. I've gotten ignition codes (check engine light came on and I had my guy check it out on the computer) twice. My mechanic (a long-term Subaru mechanic) has checked out the injectors, and replaced the head gasket, but the problem has not changed. I'm thinking that this may be an electronics issue or possibly something in the gas tank/line.
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I bought my outback a few months ago from a dealer/mechanic who had fixed the car after it was totaled. So it has a reconstructed title, but it was hit in the back, so all the engine parts were unaffected by the crash. Since I have had the car I have experienced intermittent loss of power steering ability. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to parallel park or turn a corner gracefully, and other times, within the same short trip, the steering will be completely fine and smooth. I have had the issue looked at about three times now by different mechanics. Each time they have either replaced or tightened the belt, which temporarily fixes the problem. But within a few weeks it always comes back. Is there something not keeping the belt tight, or could the issue actually be in the power steering pump?
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Sometimes when the AC is on automatic control it will kick out of auto control into manual control and the fan will speed up. All this happens without touching anything. Dealer said it's working fine.
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The head gaskets are less than 2 years old, radiator only almost 3 years old, I've constantly had oil leak issue. Now the problem is my temperature gauge rises after driving for 20-30 minutes when I'm going at a lower speed or in stop and go traffic. Both fans are working, no leaks, new thermostat, and new radiator cap.
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I have a '03 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport thing with the 2.5L boxer engine, standard, with 160,000 miles.There is an intermittent starting and idling failure that i thought started because of the colder weather rolling in(25 at night 35 during the day). When I turned the ignition to start it, there was a huff, it sounded like it would start, but it would simply shut down after about one second. If I depressed the throttle it would run at 1.5k rpm but only with my foot on the pedal. If i took it off it would die. Here's where it gets odd. The other night I had been getting rid of some rust on the undercarriage and so i kept the car indoors overnight. In the morning it started fine, and ran fine for an hour. I parked it and went to run an errand. 20 minutes later when i got back into my car to start it, still warm, it was 49 degrees outside, i started it and it went dead again. The same happened two days later after I had driven it out of the garage, I drove it for about 20 minutes, got out for less than five minutes, and when i got back in, it did the same thing twice. My uncle says it could be a hose leak.
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2003 Subaru Forester with 130,000 miles. We put new tires on two months ago and when I started hearing the wah, wah, wah noise coming from the back of the car (rhythmic - increases with speed of car) I assumed on of the new tires was bad. It isn't. Also pulled the brake drums and cleaned everything there up.... What this might be?
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I brought my car to a dealership for its 120,000mi check-up, and they told me that the front axle boots were torn. They replaced the right axle, and on the ride home, I noticed a burning smell. Short story is four return trips, and the right axle replaced three times (including the initial replacement), and the smell has finally gone away. The weird part is not that I went back to the same place four times instead of giving up, it's that they told me this last time that they moved the replacement #2 right axle to the left when they installed replacement #3.
Why would they do that? Why would the smell go away if the issue was with that axle? I looked it up, and the same part is used on the driver's side and passenger side, so it wasn't as though they installed a left axle on the right the first two times. Does this mean the "new" axles were just new-to-me and had been reconditioned? If reconditioned, would it matter if a previously left axle was mounted on the right?
Meanwhile, about six weeks after replacement #2, the car started making a thumping noise when the accelerator was depressed at a speed over 35mph (but not when coasting above 35mph or with the gas on below 30-35). I was wondering if it was misfiring or something, but lo and behold! That noise went away with the axle switching. Way back at replacement #1, they replaced the boot on the left but not the entire axle until #3.
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I have a new 2015 Subaru Forester and I noticed the following problem: When driving at a constant low speed, in the 20-30 MPH range, the car bucks/hesitates slightly off and on, while driving. At first I thought the engine was missing, but I noticed the RPM was at about 1000 RPM, very low. And a missing engine would cause a "check engine" warning.
So I think this is a combination of the CVT and the engine lugging. The CVT should move down a notch to a lower "gear" but it doesn't, so the engine is forced to operate at a problem speed. A normal transmission would downshift, I would think.
Can I do anything to solve this, other than manually shift to the low range?
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I bought the car brand new in May of 2009. All was good until February of last year when the battery died. I kind of wrote it off as one of those things that's part of life in AK. But then the same thing happened in November - yes, it was cold again, but it died after I'd successfully started it and drove it to my husband's work. He was inside for maybe thirty minutes. Not wanting to waste gas, it turned the car off and listened to the radio. When hubby came back, I tried to start the car and ... nothing. We had to get it jumped. Hubby said I shouldn't have been listening to the radio with the engine off. Anyway, I had a service appointment at the dealership a few days later and mentioned that the battery died again. They checked it and said it was weak so they replaced it.
Now, of course, I'm super-paranoid about everything that could be draining the battery. I turn the lights off whenever I turn off the engine (even though that's supposed to be something the car does automatically), and only listen to the radio when I'm driving. I've made sure that there's nothing plugged in any of the power outlets, and I don't have anything that's aftermarket. Oh, and middle of last year the radio/CD player died too, and that had to be replaced. Don't know if it's linked, but it's still odd.
The only advice the dealership had was to drive it more. I guess I'm pretty severe on the car - work's maybe a fifteen minute drive (20 if it's snowing) and a fair few of my journeys are short ones, for a variety of reasons. Plus, it's Anchorage, AK. Severe driving's standard here. But I never had these issues with my other cars, and my driving patterns haven't changed at all. Could there be something that's draining the battery that I haven't thought of, or am I really stuck with driving around Anchorage aimlessly for at least 20 minutes each time I get in the car?
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First & main issue: I throttle on, the RPMs jump, speed drops. I think I dealt w/ this before in my old Toyota pickup by replacing the clutch master cylinder. Is that right?
Secondly, I don't know if the engine of this lil car has been rebuilt, but the smoke from under the hood has been alarming. It smells of oil, and I've seen some spots that appear to have leaking oil dropping onto the exhaust, but the smoke keeps coming from various spots.
I really enjoy driving this lil car, it's my first Subaru and my first wagon, but if the trouble is just now starting for me, at over 210,000 miles... I've replaced a few things, but I've never owned a newer(ish) vehicle (except a Harley), and come to expect to do work every once in awhile. I'm fairly regular w/ preventative maintenance, but not strict about when to change fluids or flush things (i.e. transmission or radiator). Maybe I should just sell this one and move on.
I also hit a deer the other day going pretty fast and fortunately only busted out the passenger side head light, fog light, and blinker. The other day being over a month ago. I just don't drive at night and try to avoid right turns. Any thoughts on where to get cheap replacement parts? I can't seem to find anywhere that'll sell me those plastic bits for under a few hundred dollars.. strange considering a necessary part like a master cylinder is only $40..
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I have a 09 Subaru Forester (automatic) with 56,300 miles on it. Within the last 100 miles, the transmission has started 'hiccuping' as it changes gears. Also, when the car is cold and first started up, as I drive the rpms rise to around 3k when switching gears; sometimes holding there for anywhere from 3 seconds to 12 seconds before finally changing gears. As the car warms up, this problem disappears, but the 'hiccuping' continues. I took it to the dealer and they flushed out the transmission fluid, but problem still persists. I called the dealership asking for a new transmission because it is still under warranty, but they refused. They are going to check pan for metal shavings, and if they're present then they'll replace trans. If not, then they will replace other parts until problem is fixed.
Also, another important question: If I had the transmission fluid replaced, would it be possible that they may have cleaned out any metal shavings, and when they check 100 miles later, there wouldn't be any? I'm worried that I'm going to get screwed because they eliminated any metal shavings and when they go to look again none will be there because there hasn't been enough mileage put on the car to make them appear again. I do not know enough about cars to know if this is even a possibility. They refuse to honor the warranty until they go through a checklist of possible repairs, and I'm nervous that list will run out when I hit 61,000 miles and warranty runs out.
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I've never replaced a car stereo and have no clue what to look for as far as compatibility goes. My '09 Forester has a am/fm/sat. radio hookup/ 6 cd changer. Do I have to look for a specific stereo head other than it being a 2-DIN?
I'd like to be able to continue using the aux port that is in my center console, and I would like a USB port that I can plug a Galaxy S4 into.
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I have a 2009 Subaru forester and the rear suspension really sags when I have my Bike rack on it. It's a hitch mounted Yakima rack that weighs around 50 pounds unloaded and maybe up to 100 lbs loaded.in either case the back end sags and occasionally if I go over a speed bump the suspension will bottom out.I have heard that some foresters have something called "saggy but" due to the suspension just being soft in general....
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