54 of the
368 complaints filed about the Subaru XV Crosstrek
are about the other systems —
15% of everything owners reported.
The worst model year for it is 2015.
Brake light switch failure. Triggering traction control warning light, hill assist warning light, and abs warning light, and disables cruise control. There was previously a recall (NUMBER: WUE-90 NHTSA ID: 19V-149) for the brake light switch for Subaru models with my production date included, but because Hybrid Crosstrek models were not included, it will not be replaced under recall. I am still experiencing the same issues and cause, but it is not covered.
NHTSA complaint #11747006 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Within 10 days of purchasing this vehicle a certified Subaru dealership documented the following safety defects. Both front CV axles failing and clicking on turns creating loss of vehicle control risk. EPS electronic power steering fault codes creating safety critical steering concern. CAN bus communication fault U0073 affecting multiple vehicle safety systems simultaneously. CVT transmission fluid critically low at 1 to 2 quarts. These defects were professionally documented by Subaru of Portland certified technicians on [XXX] at 113,494 miles. Repair quote for safety related defects totals $7,516.51. Vehicle was sold by Overland Automotive LLC 2900 SE Cornelius Pass Rd Ste 105 Hillsboro OR 97123 with these defects undisclosed. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11723030 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Sunroof exploded for no reason Comments: My son was driving on freeway in Durham North Carolina last night, our 2015 Subaru Crosstrek XV Touring’s sunroof just exploded for no reason at [XXX] in [XXX]. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11679610 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
When attempting to put the car in park, the key will not release and is stuck. Incident happens often in recent past days. Key will not release from ignition.
NHTSA complaint #11658836 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Pressing the horn button on the steering wheel does not sound the horn. However, pushing the “lock” or “panic” button on the key fob still makes the horn beep. So the horn itself works, but pressing on the steering wheel does absolutely nothing. Other buttons on the steering column still work (cruise control, radio controls, etc). Only pressing the horn button doesn’t work thus making me unable to alert other drivers of my presence if they are drifting toward me. This has not been evaluated by a mechanic or dealer yet as I do not have the money to do so. However, a simple search on Reddit will show you that many others are experiencing this with their Subaru Crosstreks. There were no symptoms or issues that led to this. It simply stopped working one day. And I am not someone who hits their horn very often so this is not an overuse issue. Once the horn button stopped working on the steering wheel, it has not worked since. I have not had the ability to alert drivers with my horn for over a month.
NHTSA complaint #11653762 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I have been getting my 2014 Subaru Crosstrek serviced at Continental Subaru in Anchorage, Alaska for the last 4.5 years. I initially thought that they were an honest dealer/mechanic. I originally bought my Subaru in California and drove it up to Anchorage and it has been here ever since. My car burns oil very quickly. I mentioned this several times and the dealer always said it wasn't that big of an issue. Between oil changes I frequently had to add a couple of quarts of oil in addition to what they added during the oil changes because the car was burning so much oil. Recently in the last year, Continental Subaru told me my spark plugs were bad. I brought the car in because my cylinders were misfiring. They replaced the spark plugs. However a month later the issue still persisted. I called Subaru and had them replace the spark plugs again. At this point they said it was just the spark plugs. The issue persisted. I took my Subaru to a local mechanic this time since I felt like Continental was not being honest in their inspection of my car. Turns out the problem is much worse than Subaru was letting on for so many years. My car burns a lot of oil. which is a manufacturing issue. They continually told me it wasn't an issue. Probably because my car was still under warranty. Now that my car is not under warranty they finally admit that there are a lot of underlying issues. Except now I have to pay out of pocket because the car is now out of warranty. Since the car burns oil at such a fast rate, the head gaskets have warped. The valve cover gaskets need to be replaced and are leaking oil into my spark plugs and my coils. So now that my car is out of warranty suddenly I have to pay out of pocket almost $9000 to get the valve cover gaskets, head gaskets, spark plugs, coils, engine harness, all replaced. The variable valve timing is leaking. And there is internal mixing of oil and coolant in the motor. They have been extremely dishonest with me for years. I want a recall.
NHTSA complaint #11641173 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Key was stuck in the ignition and left me stranded unable to leave my car. I took the car to the Subaru dealership for them to assess and repair the issue. During this time the service desk confirmed it was a known issue with the CVT park range switch. They advised me that Subaru of America had done a warranty extension but that I was now outside of the time window for it to be covered. Upon further research this was an issue that was all over the Subaru forum boards with similar issues. I contacted Subaru of America in order to be reimbursed and was offer a $100 as a goodwill gesture and they kept referring to the warranty being extended to cover the issue. Subaru of America failed to issue a recall and instead did the "secret warranty extension" to avoid having to inform their customers and impact their reliability numbers. This is extremely concerning that a brand that is known for reliability would knowingly behave in this way and has me questioning what other items have they done this "secret warranty extension" on instead of following the recall process.
NHTSA complaint #11630054 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
A piece of the sunroof assembly punctured through the headliner into the passenger seat area of the vehicle. The piece is a sharp 10 inch spike with a spring wrapped around it. Had the piece come into the driver side or if there had been a passenger. It would have gone into there head, either causing an accident or severe injury to the driver or passenger.
NHTSA complaint #11625488 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Horn does not work. No warning indicating malfunctioned horn. Unable to signal other vehicles to prevent car crash. The broken horn has been inspected by mechanic.
NHTSA complaint #11619128 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The key will not come out of the ignition when turned off and in park. The battery runs with no way to turn it off. This is a known issue with a defective part. Subaru will not cover the repair.
NHTSA complaint #11617167 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I started having issues with my car when I could not turn it off -- the key was stuck in the ignition and I was unable to turn the car fully off. This continued to happen and the only fix I found to get the car off was to turn the car back on, shift the gear into drive, then try to turn it off again. Sometimes it would take repeated tries of turning the car on and trying to turn it off. The problems then got worse when I started to have issues starting the car as well; the car would struggle to start and I lost confidence in the vehicle. Every workday I have to drive my car to a location where I have to turn off my vehicle while a security check is performed -- one day I got stuck at this checkpoint when I could not start my car. I was afraid to drive my car, thinking I could get stuck somewhere with it running or with it unable to start. A certified Subaru repair shop confirmed the issue is a known problem with Subaru parts described in a Technical Service Bulletin [XXX] ). There were no warning lights before these problems began and the Subaru dealer told me when they initially ran a diagnostic on the car it came back as having no issues. Since having the part in the gear shifter replaced at personal expense all problems have been resolved. Since Subaru knew of the faulty part in their vehicles, I think they should have issued a recall or at minimum warned their drivers. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11568348 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Car involved in accident 10/2020( remember this was DURING the COVID “shut down”) Was rear ended … tried to get car fixed. Insurance only wanted to do “cosmetics” nothing underlying ( mechanical… the car started to show signs of the damage …running lights stopped working on rear end ONLY. Breaks started to cease up…. I was afraid to drive this way… The “eyesight” prevented my vehicle from hitting truck in front of me ( during the accident on 10/2020). I have since had breaks worked on, I have replace light bulbs, I have had turn signal arm replaced, according to Subaru can will not start now. They keep coming up with more for me to pay for and my vehicle is still not running?!? It had always started before going into the shop (even after sitting in a personal garage for over a year) Accident deemed American family insurance insured fault. I have been charged with “at fault”. I was not at fault and have proof from AM FAM insurance indicating they accept 100percent fault. Car currently at Ramsey Subaru.according to them will not start
NHTSA complaint #11514775 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I was driving to a job sight from Houston to Corpus Christi. About 10 min from the job sight I here a loud pop on top of my roof. I opened up my sunroof viser to see what had happened. The glass broke. Nothing hit the glass. It just broke! Luckly I had the roof viser closed when it happened.There are thousands of forums stating the same exact thing. For reference, https://www.subaruxvforum.com/
NHTSA complaint #11505157 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Driving on the freeway my car lost power i pulled off to the side and tried to restart it. As I have the ignition turned over for 30 to 40 seconds the starter sounded erratic and the oil temperature light was flashing. I sat there for about ten minutes and tried again and it did the same thing but it started. This power loss has happened twice. The erratic noise coming from the ignition, and the hesitation of starting is a regular ongoing issue along with the oil temperature light. Since the first stall at about 117000 miles on the odometer the car has been burning oil at a rate of a full quart about every 3000 miles. #2 Around 120000 miles my key wouldn't come out of the ignition. This happened first on a late night in a high crime area. I actually had to leave my keys in my ignition while going into a gas station to pay for fuel. Since then this happens every time I turn off my vehicle and put it into the park position. Usually I have to wait around ten minutes to be able to remove the keys. Both of these issues cause a great deal of anxiety on the freeway or having to leave the key in the ignition.
NHTSA complaint #11498204 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
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.
NHTSA complaint #11455221 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Intermittently, when I go to shut off the engine, I can not remove my key from the ignition. If I put the car back into park a few times, it seems to release the key. This does not happen often, but it has occurred a few times in the past few months.
NHTSA complaint #11450538 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
My battery was dead and I was locked inside my car. I tried unlocking my car using the mechanical knob but it was not working. I was locked inside my car in a 28 degree weather at 6am until my roadside assistance came. This could happen in a summer day in Texas and can do the worst possible thing to myself.
NHTSA complaint #11445963 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The key will not come out of the ignition when the vehicle is in park. Sometimes it has to sit a few minutes before I can remove it. Sometimes it has to sit for many hours before I can remove it. I've been dealing with it for 10 months.
NHTSA complaint #11420201 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.