10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 7 / 7
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 5,069 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
Engine lost power and was misfiring while many warning symbols appeared on the dash. There was a divider separating the lanes. The car coasted to almost to a stop, but the engine chugged enough to slowly turn left at the first opening in the divider and just barely made it off the main road. The engine stopped. I restarted it several times. The engine was misfiring barely running. The electric brake was applied on its own. The car did not respond to moving the shift selector out of park, so the car was immobilized. I put the 4-way flashers on and called AAA. There seemed to be no way for me to move it out of park or release the electronic parking brake. AAA could not respond quickly and suggested I call the police to divert traffic around my car for safety which I did. The tow truck operator was able to disengage the wheels and was able to flatbed it to the nearest repair shop. This being Saturday 1/3/26 it wasn't until Tuesday the repair shop determined the car would not run long enough to provide a reliable diagnosis due to the multiple trouble codes coming up on the computer analysis. I had the car towed to the nearest Subaru dealership who replaced the thermos control valve under their warranty extension. The dealership said usually when this part fails it just triggers a check engine light and not the dangerous situation I experienced. I believe a recall to replace this part should be issued on all cars with this defective part as its failure can cause a dangerous situation without warning.
- Fishersville - Va, VA, USA
I have reported this before but it never went anywhere. When at a red light or in a traffic slowdown, the car will activate the auto start/stop system. Three times in the past 2 days, the car would not turn back on and required me to turn the car off and back on again. You can imagine that this leaves me in a dangerous situation because the cars behind me see a green light and get ready to move, or they see traffic clearing up and they get ready to move. I am forced to turn my car off and back on again in the middle of a 4 lane highway or on a busy city street. I get cursed at and nearly rear ended each time this happens. I did an internet search and there are entire threads dedicated to this exact problem with this subaru model and year. There should be a recall. It is very unsafe
- Brooklyn, NY, USA
About a month ago while approaching a stop light turning green at a busy intersection, I was slowing into the left turning lane when my car just stopped. No avoidance, no alerts. I had a semi behind me who started pulling out around me in heavy traffic. I could use my flashers. I turned the car off, then on and it finally restarted. This is a 2019 Subaru Forester, original owner, only one incident - but it was definitely weird, and unsafe!
- Tully, NY, USA
Car has died 10+ times in the last 2 weeks. Will not hold a charge and it-??s getting to the point that my car is dying in the middle of the road, during heavy traffic. That or the car will just not start unless jumped
- Eagle, ID, USA
At a stop light, auto stop engaged. When foot put on gas, engine died and every warning light the car has appeared on the dash board. It took several tries, but I did get the car started again. Took to dealer who confirmed the incident and replaced the starter at 38, 126 miles. The fuel pump relay was also replaced. After this incident, the cancel auto stop/start button was used most of the time when driving the car. 10 months later, forgetting to engage the cancel button, and the auto stop/start working, the car once again died at an intersection. We were able to get it restarted and it went back to the dealer. They again confirmed that the starter was faulty and once again replaced it and the fuel pump relay. This occurred at 44,770 miles. Thankfully, In both incidents, we were stopped at intersections with traffic lights. The first was in a left turn lane surrounded by cars on a hill. I was able to engage the parking brake before I rolled back into anyone. The second incident was at a flat intersection. Others were stopped around us and no one was approaching us with speed. My concern is that this will occur when waiting to make a left turn at an intersection and the car would roll forward into traffic. Another concern is if highway traffic is stopped and then starts moving again. If the car stalls and won't restart, traffic around you would go forward and traffic behind them would approach your stalled car at speed. Someone is going to be killed from this problem if they haven't been already.
- Montgomery Village, MD, USA
My Subaru smelled like gas and caught on fire while I was driving to work less than 72 hours after it left the service department at the local Subaru dealership. Earlier that week I dropped the car off for service due to a check engine light and multiple other warning lights on the dashboard. The check engine light was determined to be due to a faulty thermo control valve (a known issue on several models of 2019-2021 Subarus). During that service appointment, the thermo control valve was replaced under warranty, the 60000 mile service, state inspection, and an oil change/tire rotation were completed. The morning of the incident, the car smelled like gas, but there were no warning lights on the dashboard and the temperature and gas gauges were all in range. While looking for a safe place to pull over on the side of the road, the gas smell worsened, I heard a pop, the check engine light and every single other light on the dashboard lit up, it smelled like burning jet fuel, and the front of the car was smoking and there were flames, and all mechanical and electrical control of the vehicle was compromised. The car coasted to the side of the right lane. I was unable to operate the gear shift to put the car in park. I opened the driver-??s side door, removed my seatbelt, grabbed my backpack, lunch bag, and phone, and exited the vehicle while it was still rolling. I ran around the back of the car to get onto the side walk. Flaming, melting pieces of plastic were coming off the bottom of the car. Flames and smoke were visible on the front hood of the car. I called 911 while the car continued to roll across several lanes onto the other side of the road. The burning car rolled and hit a guardrail on the opposite side of the road and continued to burn until the local Fire Department arrived on scene. Local police and the fire inspector wrote reports. My insurance declared the car a total loss. I have informed the local dealership and worked to get them access to the vehicle.
- Carrboro, NC, USA
During severe stop/go, thick, holiday traffic on I-495 (DC Beltway), during daylight hours, once AGAIN (this has happened several times before), the auto engine shutoff feature catastrophically malfunctioned, turning the car off, and simultaneously, activated the entirety of the dashboard to flash on/off, causing nearly every indicator light to come on, and then had difficulty restarting. This has been brought to Subaru's attention multiple times and they essentially have washed their hands of it and stating since they can't duplicate it, it essentially must not be occurring and they cannot repair it.
- Carlisle, PA, USA
My car is a 2019 suaru forester 54,268mi I was driving from Houston to Dallas on the freeway during a thunderstorm on [XXX] [XXX]. I got off the freeway and was almost on the road near my house when my car engine suddenly died, I had no control of my car, my car engine would not start anymore. I had no problems with my car before. I towed it home the next day and had it checked with a scanner and it came up with about 25 check engine codes. 5/14/2025 Subaru dealer (ewing of plano) had it checked and had the thermo control valve replaced because it was bad. They had no previous notices or recalls. If my car had stopped in the middle of the freeway it could have been a major accident..other people's lives are important..please look into this issue INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
- Coppell, TX, USA
Auto start/stop shut off engine at drive thru line. Locked up brakes and could not get it to unlock and restart car. It has happened on a number of occasions. After multiple attempts trying and letting it sit for a couple of hours, somehow got it to unlock and start. Thank goodness we haven-??t gotten into an accident
- Chino Hills, CA, USA
When I first noticed that my car wasn-??t heating properly, it was in May 20 24 when I purchased the car and Carvana dropped it off to my place of residency. When I notified someone of this issue, they told me it probably just needed coolant. I did as instructed and noticed that I was adding in coolant frequently. On February 19, 2025 I returned home one evening and noticed that smoke coming from my car and coolant was leaking from underneath. I called roadside assistance in order to get my car towed and into service at the Subaru dealership. After inspection, the mechanic noticed that there was oil inside the coolant suggesting that there may be an issue with the head gaskets then warned me not to drive my car because there could be further issue with the engine as a result of the head gasket being blown.
- Roxbury, MA, USA
When I break and stop the car power is reduced, at times it stalls out and be hard to start again when starting back up in traffic. This is also starting to happen in my other Forrester of the same year.
- Newark, CA, USA
While driving, the engine stalled and many dash lights came on. The thermo control valve was the cause. There was no warning and fortunately I was able to park off of the roadway. The car was towed to the nearest Subaru dealership at a cost of $223. The car was repaired under the extended warranty, but I am out the towing fee. Had the defective part been recalled, I would not have experienced this engine failure.
- Silver Spring , MD, USA
On [XXX], while driving back home in the evening, the car started to make noises, that became quite loud very fast. I was able to drive to my home, less than 3 miles away, but I could not restart the car anymore. No warning lights were on. It was around [XXX] pm and I was afraid of what might have happened it the car became disabled. The next morning, the car was towed to the MileOne Herb Gordon Subaru Dealer in Silver Spring, MD. I was informed that the rod crankshaft bearing had failed. The engine short block had to be replaced. It is unbelievable to me that a car that had less than 58,000 miles and have been properly maintained will have such a catastrophic failure. The cost to fix this failure: $10676.39 since it is out of warranty for time. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
- Laurel, MD, USA
My SUBARU has a Start-Stop feature which automatically stops and restarts the engine when the vehicle is stationary for a short time, such as at a stop sign or red light. Several times within the last month I was stopped for a light or stop sign and the vehicle shut down completely. Engine turned off. I have attached a file showing the display on the dash. This was very unsafe as cars behind me were getting impatient while I had to figure out how to restart the car. It was very scary. After researching the problem online and taking the car to my mechanic it turns out that the battery was low. The battery was replaced and auto restart is working correctly now. It seems that with all the warning messages that are displayed (windshield washer fluid is low) that some indicator that the battery is low should display rather than this unsafe scenario.
- Newington, CT, USA
Cracked exhaust manifold for no apparent reason. I live in Florida, which does not have extreme temperature fluctuations. It caused toxic fumes to leak into the cabin, confirmed by Subaru tech and handheld carbon monoxide detector.
- Gainesville, FL, USA
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 55 MPH, the vehicle started hesitating while depressing the accelerator pedal with the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact activated the hazard lights and coasted the vehicle off to the shoulder. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to a local dealer where the vehicle was diagnosed with a defective thermal control valve. The contact was informed that the thermal valve was covered under an Extended Warranty by the manufacturer. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was filed. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000.
- Baltimore, MD, USA
The auto stop/start function is erratic. Many times the function fails to start the car after a stop. The car stalls. It requires car to put in park and have to restart the car. This causes delay for traffic to move. When this happens, it creates a safety issue. The car behind may start to move and cause accident because the rest of the traffic has started to move. Sometimes the car driver behind you honks the horn as the rest of the traffic starts to move. The 2019 Subaru Forester has only 31000 miles. This has been happening once a week since June 2023. It is becoming a safety concern for me. This started to happen around 25000 miles on the car.
- Kent, WA, USA
I have had multiple issues with my car for the past month. First, my rear right wheel has been making a fan-like sound when going above 35mph and it gets louder until 70mph. It is most likely the wheel bearings going out but, I only have around 50,000 miles on the car. This seems to be a common issue with Foresters. Secondly, my rear Harman Kardon speakers have stopped working. This also appears to be a recurring issue with Forester's, with both their standard and premium sound systems. Lastly, my engine check light turned on and shut off my adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, emergency braking, and rear automatic braking. I'm surprised that these issues are still happening to Subaru since they have been complained about by consumers for years.
- Detroit, MI, USA
most of the safety quiet. motor cut out, eyesight quiet working, check engine light came on service person said the diagnostic showed a code p2682 engine coolant bypass valve control low. steering light came on. No prior warnings. happened while driving at speed limit on interstate.
- Nokomis, IL, USA
- Hilo , HI, USA