2019 Subaru Forester

I got in my vehicle after getting gas. I was on my way to Neosho, MO, hundreds of miles from home. Thes lights were all on and I couldn't get them to go off. I figured it was because my windshield was dirty. I turned my wipers on to find out one needed replaced. I paid $30 for 1 since I have an odd type of wipers and I had been to 3 auto stores to find it. The Eye Sight, brake, check engine, air bag, and lane assist lights never went off. Now they come on randomly and go off randomly. This causes all safety features to not work. No adaptive cruise control, nothing. I finally got them to go off somehow the day I came back home. I live nowhere near a Subaru dealer. It had no other effect on my vehicle as far as I could tell. Now when they come on. I pull over until they come back on or have to drive it home to sit.

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.

The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH, there was an alarm heard before several unknown warning lights illuminated and the vehicle lost motive power and decelerated to 35 MPH. The contact shifted to neutral to restart the vehicle. The contact pulled over to the side of the road and waited for a while before continuing to drive. The eyesight, brake light, automatic transmission, oil temp, and several other warning lights illuminated intermittently. The failure occurred a second time on the same day. The dealer was contacted and advised the contact to take the vehicle to the dealer whenever the lights were illuminated. The vehicle had not been taken to the dealer to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the dealer for assistance. The failure mileage was 119,000.

The issue started last year over a period of several months when my car kept stalling at a traffic light. After stopping on a red light my car stalled. I had to shut off the car then restart to get it going. Had the battery replaced and problem was gone until this week. Car stalled at the traffic light again (in the middle of busy downtown and being the 1st car at the intersection), but this time it wouldn't restart and battery light turned on when attemped to restart. Called Subaru road assist and requested jumpstart service. While waiting for road assist to arrive, attempted to jumpstarts with a manual jump starter, but didn't work. Attempted with the jumpstart cables, but still didn't work. Subaru assist arrived and was able to successfully jumpstart my car. The Subaru tech assessed my battery and showed 75% battery life. Drove home on the freeway for about 25 miles. The next day drove to and home from work (25 miles reach way) with no issues. The following day, my car wouldn't start from my home. Jumpstarted with the manual one and brought it to the shop a few miles away. Got to the shop and turned off the engine. When turning on again, it wouldn't start.

[XXX], driving home, dark at [XXX] in Airway Heights WA. About 10 mins to home, lights in dashboard suddenly lit (brake, check engine, battery icon, water temp icon, 2 yellow colored pictures that had the word “off”, park, ABS, exclamation point next to a circle that had a symbol in circle like a Mercedes Benz, and another symbol colored yellow). I kept driving with very little power in the car and it was hard turning the wheels to left or right turns. I was so scared thinking I would be stranded in the middle of the street! Made it to my carport and drove it in. Turned off car; attempted to restart but didn’t, and during the times I started the car, it would make a stuttering noise. The lights that lit up remained, wouldn’t turn off until attempt to start again when the lights all turned off. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

As I was driving, every warning light came on, my car emitted a high pitched alarm and the car stopped working. This happened twice. I had to put my car in park. Turn off the car and turn it back on to make it driveable. I took it to the dealer and was informed that the battery and starter required replacement. The battery was covered by an extended warranty (I paid $100 or 20% of the cost), but the starter was not covered by any warranty since my car has 41K miles and is 5 yrs old. I contacted Subaru and they agreed to pay $800 towards the $1209.13 repair. My Subaru Case # 241016-1801159. I believe my starter failed because of the automatic start/stop engine feature. I asked the dealer if the starter failure could have been detected during a regular maintenance and they said no.

The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving at 65 MPH, the accelerator pedal was depressed and became inoperable. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to accelerate as intended. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or independent mechanic for diagnosis or repair. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 12,000.