2014 Subaru Xv Crosstrek

Battery drains excessively and frequently. Will not hold a charge. Frequently replacing battery only to have it fail. The personal safety issue here is being stranded with a dead battery in an unsafe environment with no way to escape, or needing the vehicle for an immediate personal health emergency and having the vehicle not start. I don't know if there is a safety related issue with operating the car with this electrical system issue. There are scores of web searches that depict this issue of parasitic draining of the battery by the vehicle's controller area network. Several class action lawsuits are referenced. I don't find any information that the lawsuits have resolved in a recall of any sort. Thank you for your interest in it this issue.

The problem occurs during a yaw under all the following conditions: * Slippery surface (snow/ice/heavy rain) * highway speeds (>45mph) * CEL lit for P000A and/or P000C (camshaft position sensor slow response) When the car yaws in these conditions, Vehicle Dynamic Control applies the brakes on the inside of the yaw (rightward yaw = brakes on right side, leftward yaw = brakes on left side), worsening the yaw and causing the vehicle to pendulum back and forth. This occurred several times while both my wife and I were driving, and caused lane departures on interstate highways twice while I was driving. The unintended yaws at high speed were slight and very controllable. I had applied a gentle countersteer without changing pedal inputs when the VDC began inside braking. When the yaw swapped sides, VDC braked on the other side. I wound up fighting VDC via steering to keep the nose straight, twice starting at about 55mph and winding up in a different lane at 30. Subaru states that the trouble codes disable traction and stability control, and the traction control disabled light was lit. However, I confirmed that even with the codes and the TC lamp lit, if I induce a large yaw in a snowy parking lot at low speeds (< 30mph) VDC does engage and straightens the car correctly whether I countersteer or not. I have years of FWD rallycross (dirt) experience and I still race on pavement, so I'm pretty familiar VDC trying to straighten a yawing car when I forget to turn it off. As this is my wife's car and not mine, I didn't know how to disable TC and she didn't either. My wife described the problem as heavy swaying back and forth in slippery conditions, but not bad enough to put her out of her lane. She has almost no experience with controlling a sliding vehicle. The problem was likely worse for me because I was already countersteering when VDC engaged. Subaru has inspected the car and found no problems other than the codes. Subaru case 220121-38086.

The vehicle had 51666 miles on it when I last serviced it for an oil change in Oct. of 2021. The owner puts very few miles on the vehicle. The vehicle would be available for inspection by your agency. At this time, no specific component has been identified in the intermittent failure. 2016 and newer Subaru's have recalls on similar symptoms. Owner complaint is that the power steering intermittently stops working and the steering wheel is very hard to turn if it can be turned at all due to the fact the owner is 80+ years old. Subaru vehicles from 2016 and up have had this issue and recalls have been issued on them, but not on this model year. Owner stated today that the problem has only occurred so far on initial start-up, and one time, once the key was cycled start, then off and back to start again then the power steering worked. She said the p/s warning light came on, and then went off, but I cannot verify that at this point. Warning lamps on IP's do come on during the key on to start on the ignition switch start process, so this may be part of normal IP function. I am an auto repair shop owner and have grave concerns that this failure may happen while the customer is driving down the road, and if approaching a turn and the power steering locks up, they could die due to the inability to safely maneuver out of traffic and get off the road or miss a bend in the highway. The customer brought the car in once, and I could not re-create the problem cold or warm. I am currently waiting for the dealer in Green Bay to call me back with more information as the nearest dealer from the customer's residence is a 170 mile round trip. At this point, it has not been back to the dealer for inspection for the p/s system, and I am awaiting call back today from Bergstrom Subaru in Green Bay. Bergstrom did confirm the recall for a brake light switch was completed previously by them, and there were no other campaigns or recalls listed in their computer records.

The contact owns a 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the "Check Hybrid System" message was displayed on the instrument panel before the hybrid system shut off. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and diagnosed with high voltage battery failure due to the battery being filled with water. The vehicle was not repaired and remained at the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 77,800.

Rolling into a stop sign, the brakes did not work and was stuck- extremely difficult to step on. It eventually loosened after about 7 seconds and I was able to stop, but had to run the stop sign and almost hit a car. This occurred when the temperature was about 25 degrees F outside. Upon reading on forums and in a Subaru bulletin (# 06-79-20), it seems like this is a common occurrence for many Subaru owners when the temperature drops.

On June 11, 2021, my wife and I were driving our 2014 Subaru Crosstrek (120,000 miles) from Milwaukee to Manitowish Waters, WI. About 20 miles north of Milwaukee on I-41 Northbound, my wife was driving at 70 mph when suddenly we both noticed a strong lurching from the CVT transmission. This was followed a few seconds later by a complete lockup of all four wheels on our car. Fortunately this did not happen in the left lane or we would've been in a terrible accident. My wife managed to steer the skidding car onto the highway shoulder until it came to a rest. The engine was still running. The transmission was completely dead. We called a towing company to tow the car to Sommers Subaru in Mequon WI. They diagnosed the problem as sudden catastrophic transmission failure and told us that the 2014 Crosstrek had tons of problems with the CVT. We told the service department that we could have been seriously injured or killed had my wife not been driving in the right lane of the interstate. We paid $7,800 for a remanufactured CVT as the power train was out of warranty. I have seen one other report of catastrophic CVT failure on your website involving a 2014 Crosstrek (Danbury CT). I'm sure there are others out in the world who have also suffered this, and God knows how many may have resulted in accidents with injuries or death. Perhaps they did not know to contact NHTSA with their experiences. I pray that you will initiate an investigation into this issue and force Subaru USA to issue a recall on their 2014 Crosstreks to replace the transmissions that are the source of these frightening incidents. Thank you.