Hesitation & surging in 2006 Forrester

Hello. About 3 weeks ago I purchased a 2006 Forrester. Right away, I
began having this problem with the car: when going downhill, the car
begins bucking and surging at about 3000 rpm (in second gear and
higher).

I took it back to the dealership and was able to immediately
demonstrate the problem to the technician. He said it was most likely
a load-balancing problem, and that the fix was probably a computer
download similar to one he knew about in the 2005 Outback. He said he
would contact Subaru America (or whatever the corporate parent is
called) to confirm that and would get back to me that day. I asked him
if he thought the car was safe to drive (I live in the foothills of the
rockies so I'm going downhill a LOT). He said yes. I drove the car
off the lot, reassured.

Later that day, the head of the service dept. (not the technician)
called me and said that Subaru America had indicated they did NOT have
a fix for this problem. In fact, they had never heard of the problem
in 2006 Forresters. They were going to send their technicians to the
dealership to hook up the car to their diagnostic computers, as the
first step of figuring out the problem. However, they wanted the
dealership to be sure and tell me that more than likely, they would NOT
have an immediate fix for the problem. They suspected the problem was
due to the engine/transmission being NEW, and that it would most likely
right itself over time. The dealership said that Subaru America would
probably like to follow my car "over time" to see how/if the problem
resolved.

I told them this was unacceptable; if they wanted to take this car back
to "follow the problem", that's fine, I would be happy to take another
2006 Forrester that did not demonstrate the problem.

You can imagine where that statement got me - nowhere! I have a case
opened with the dealership (a technical case) and a case opened with
Subaru America (a customer service case). I have an appt. to bring the
car into the dealership at the end of this month, for the "hook up"
with the Subaru technicians. I am reading up on lemon laws in my state
(colorado).

Any advice?

thanks in advance!

I had that on my '01. Never took it in for that particular problem but:

- had a bad O2 sensor shortly after
- had tranny fluid flush/fill that wasn't filled enough

Once both items were fixed, the problem went away and never came back. I
THINK it was the O2 sensor not knowing how to idle right and then confusing
the tranny. But there was a computer reprogram (not what they called it,
but that's what it is) done as part of a recall item. So your mechanic may
be right.

But I did mess around in detail with the tranny fluid level (all sorts of
angles and temps) and came to the conclusion there are LOTS of knooks and
crannies in there and that the guy filling the thing at the dealer could
very well underfill it while at the same time following the instructions to
the letter. It took about 3/4 quart before it started acting right again.
(Did an ounce or two at a time to not overfill.)

You wouldn't expect the 02 sensor to go, but mine is an '01 and this all
happened at the end of '03.

Just about the only thing you can do your self, see if the ECU is throwing
any codes, and check the fluid level repeatedly (follow instructions in the
manual). You might find one day its normal, but the next day it's low off
the scale... if it is.. you might just need fluid. Mine jumped around from
"overfull" to "none left" and back... once the fluid was topped off enough
though, it stablized and stayed steady at "full")

wrote in message

> Hello. About 3 weeks ago I purchased a 2006 Forrester. Right away, I
> began having this problem with the car: when going downhill, the car
> begins bucking and surging at about 3000 rpm (in second gear and
> higher).
>
> I took it back to the dealership and was able to immediately
> demonstrate the problem to the technician. He said it was most likely
> a load-balancing problem, and that the fix was probably a computer
> download similar to one he knew about in the 2005 Outback. He said he
> would contact Subaru America (or whatever the corporate parent is
> called) to confirm that and would get back to me that day. I asked him
> if he thought the car was safe to drive (I live in the foothills of the
> rockies so I'm going downhill a LOT). He said yes. I drove the car
> off the lot, reassured.
>
> Later that day, the head of the service dept. (not the technician)
> called me and said that Subaru America had indicated they did NOT have
> a fix for this problem. In fact, they had never heard of the problem
> in 2006 Forresters. They were going to send their technicians to the
> dealership to hook up the car to their diagnostic computers, as the
> first step of figuring out the problem. However, they wanted the
> dealership to be sure and tell me that more than likely, they would NOT
> have an immediate fix for the problem. They suspected the problem was
> due to the engine/transmission being NEW, and that it would most likely
> right itself over time. The dealership said that Subaru America would
> probably like to follow my car "over time" to see how/if the problem
> resolved.
>
> I told them this was unacceptable; if they wanted to take this car back
> to "follow the problem", that's fine, I would be happy to take another
> 2006 Forrester that did not demonstrate the problem.
>
> You can imagine where that statement got me - nowhere! I have a case
> opened with the dealership (a technical case) and a case opened with
> Subaru America (a customer service case). I have an appt. to bring the
> car into the dealership at the end of this month, for the "hook up"
> with the Subaru technicians. I am reading up on lemon laws in my state
> (colorado).
>
> Any advice?
>
> thanks in advance!
>