mikem

Is your mother in law anywhere near the car?

Curious if they "fixed it" or gave it back with no action. I've been down this trail with an 04 H6. Get hold of your district rep. NOW. It is not important what the dealer does or whether he/she says the problem exist, doesn't exist, or that they think they have fixed it. The only thing that matters legally is if you have a paper trail and have followed the soa dispute resolution procedures.

are all the keys provided with new 06's transponder keys? I got three with an 06 outback and two look similar, the other does not have a sube emblem on it, just black plastic. My key shop said the one I showed him was available only at the dealer for about $125. Anybody know different? thanks.

Not to further confuse the issue, but, I had a 2004 3.0H6 35th anniv. edition that was not a LL Bean and did not have vdc and required the fuse.I now have a 2006 3.0R that does not have vdc and does not require the fuse. Doesn't even mention it in the manual and does not have a fuse holder for the FWD slot like the 2004.

thanks for the pics. The hours, money, and enthusiasm that goes into that hobby is awsome. Thanks for sharing.

3.0h6 is also available in a 06 outback wagon 3.0R version. Got one last week.

thanks for the info about the new system on the 05 and 06 models. Having a flat is bad enough ( though a very seldom occurence) but then having to put tires in a particular spot and install a fuse just adds more frustration to a "bad day".

trying to wade through a new 2006 Outback 3.0 r wagon owners manual. If i read it correctly the 3.0 models are exempt from putting in a fwd fuse when a spare is installed. Also it say nothing about where the spare should be if one of the fronts is flat. Seems like the 04 model said to put the spare on the back and put a regular tire on the front plus put in the fwd fuse before continuing. anybody know how or why the 06 is different? Or do i need to read it a fifth time to reassure myself it is true.

we averaged 25 in town and 25 on the highway running 70 to 75. High twenties would not suprise me if you drove it 55 to 60 on the highway. That is what we saw in a 2004 3.0H6.

Actually, I am not sure they have anything to share. They are unable to fix the problem ( search under Mikem) and will probably wholesale the car off. I work for a Fortune 100 company and am used to that type of behavior, non disclosure statements, having your email read, corporatate BS. BIG paranoias, little brains. But is real to them.

Thanks to all that offered advice and or an opinion, and to everyone that contributes to this board. Settled yesterday with SOA. Mutually acceptable to both parties. As they say in tinseltown, it was "amicable" but spirited. Without a doubt the most satisfying corporate problem resolution process I have ever encountered. Our district rep, Kelly Snow, and SOA should be proud of their performance. Things to do: 1) Follow the procedures 2) Have a paper trail. 3) Negotiate. Negotiate. Negotiate. 4) Don't Blink 5) Sign the non disclosure form.

It's not in my garage yet. But we are very close. thanks for the thought and the info.

anybody know if a 2005 outback wagon hitch will fit a 2006 outback 3.0 R wagon? And how do you get to the wiring harness in the rear light area? thanks

I just ran those numbers against a Consumer Report Price report and they look very good at the bottom line for a 2005 Outback 2.5i (model 5DA). I think you will love the car. I bought a 2004 3.0H6 wagon 18 months ago and the interior and overall quality is outstanding. Go for it!

I have a 2004 H6 3.0 and we get about 25 in the city and about 25 on the highway doing 65 to 75 mph. Those are over a period of 25,000 miles. Very impressed with the quality of the car and the comfort. Am probably getting a 2006 3.0R wagon soon. Anybody got any experience with one? I drove a 2006 LL Bean but the sunroof looked way too complicated for its purpose. The salesman had a heck of a time getting it to close.

Any idea of the cost to SOA to build a particular unit? I purchased a 2004 H6 3.0 35th edition new in March or 2004. I paid 4.8% above their cost of 24,400 according to Consumer Reports. My cost was about 25,500 just for the car. What did it costs SOA to build that and make some profit?

I have an 04 3.0 H6. Love the car, very good quality for the money. However, it is sitting at the dealer, again, (fifth time) for an unknown electrical problem affecting the throttle position sensor. The symptoms vary from very erratic running and erratic shifting to uncommanded operation of the throttle so that the car will maintain 65mph with no input from the driver and the cruise control never having been engaged. I have found five other cases similiar to this on the National Highway Safety Admin. web site. My car has been out of service for almost twenty days for this in the last 16 months. It has 27k on it. SOA rep shows up next monday for meeting. It already meets requirements for North Carolina lemon law. Having said that, I would buy another in a heartbeat. I think this problem is somewhat isolated but it doesn't seem that way when it is yours!

Yea, I have a paper trail from the beginning and will continue to do so. I look forward to having SOA solve their problem.

last year with 6000 miles the car started "skipping" like a plug wire was bad. took it in,no codes = no problem as far as they were concerned. The "skipping turned into a very bad "stuttering" and hestitation at about 45 and 65mph.Then it progressed into a "knocking" like two plug wires were shorting. At about three hours on a trip this would occur. At 12000 miles it turned into a racket like the plug wires were hooked to the wrong plug and the car would buck and jump as if it were going to self destruct. I stopped the car off the road and called a local dealer. Car was off for about twenty minutes. I honestly did not think I could get another ten miles out of it. It cranked and ran flawlessly back home for 150 miles. Dealer got it, no codes=no problem!.Took off the next day on the same trip, same thing at about the three hour mark. With the cruise control off the car would maintain whatever speed i was at if I took my foot off the aaccelerator. In order to stop I had to shift to neutral and apply brakes. The motor would continue to maintain the rpm at which i had shifted into neutral. I filed a complaint to NHTSA on that basis and there are several others posted with the same complaint. A local dealer in Raliegh said they had replaced six throttle position sensors with the same symptoms and it cured the problem. They also saw no codes on those six. Back to my dealer and they replaced the TPS on the basis of the other dealers experience. That cured the problem. Fifteen thousand miles later the same symptoms are back. No Check Eng. Lite=no codes=noproblem. They drove the car a short distance and did not experience the skipping. They passed this to the district rep and informed us to contact SOA and deal with them. My dealer has apparently reached their level of competency and caring they feel is appropriate for this situation and have decided to hand it back to me to deal with SOA and live with the car. That is where it stands right now.

have a 2005 outback with recurring problem which dealer can not fix. They suggested calling subaru and dealing with their problem resolution staff. The dealer has also already contacted the dirtrict rep and informer them they are unable to solve the problem. If anyone has gone thru this process and would care to share their insight and suggestions I would be grateful. I like the car and do not want to invest time and funds into an attorney for the purpose of a "lemon law" action. Thanks or any help.

went back to the dealer this morn to have a quiet conversation about this recurring problem. They are going to measure the tps voltage and see if it matches the problem last time. Had .48volts at 12% opening . I think the problem is solveable since we know the symptoms and have seen a pattern. Do you know of any way to take a freeze frame thru bypassing the MIL so I can get some data for them? Seems like if i can trigger the circuit that the MIL triggers I can gather some data. Anyway thanks for the input.

thanks for the input. yea the tps is under warranty but dealers are not prone to replacing items that have not triggered a MIL , generated a code and given them a freeze frame. the failures the tps are suffeing are not tripping the MIL because it is not a monitored failure pattern apparently. Dealer logic is no code equals no problem. There is no financial incentive to troubleshoot and therefore it is not done. The trick, from my perspective as a customer, is to find a technican that has the imagination to look for the cause and not hunt for a code producer. If it is not a monitored value then you are not going to get notified by the diagnostic system. I have found four reports of similiar troubles on the NHTSA web site. I figure maybe 1% of people will take the trouble to file a report for something like this. That is a lot of unreported (400) TPS troubles By the way, does your racecar have a carb or is it injected with a tps?

just got a call from my wife in our 04 h6 3.0 outback. Car is stuttering at around 45 and at about 65mph. Had a similiar problem back last october. No CEL's, and so no codes. Another dealer finally diagnosed it as faulty TPS as he had replaced six of them for similiar symptons. Problems went away. I just drove it on a thousand mile trip and of course saw no problems. Yes, my wife did some of the driving so it should have showed up if it were somehting peculiar to her style. Seems to show up at the same point, about three hours of driving at highway speed. Have seen a post about "worn spots" in the TPS in the normal driving speed range. This seems plausible, most of the city driving is about 45, most of the highway is 65. Anyone else seeing this type of problem. First occurred at 6700 miles, then again at 12,000. There may have been no extended trips in the interim. The current TPS has about 12k- 15k on it, about 9 months of use. Last time it deteriorated to the point where the throttle would stick and I filed a complaint on the NHTSA board. Saw one comment that a tech bulletin was out on this. Anyone know of its location? happy trails.

I've had my 04 outback out on the outer banks seveal times. used 16psi after several higher pressures. Got more sand in the upper engine compartment than i thought would happen. Had to use several deep tracks and the low clearance scraped up the sand.

Neighbors car got hit in the driveway. Blew some tires and totally destroyed the electrical components. Insurance totalled it out. As far as cars not being struck by lightning because they are supposedly insulated by four tires that wont conduct very well, that does not protect trees which are wood and is not a very good conductor either. Actually the distance the bolt would have to travel on a car to the ground is only a couple of inches from the bottom of the rim to the ground. That should not be a big impedance at the voltage present. I have had jet aircraft I was piloting hit in flight when ten to fifteen miles from the source. Air is not know to be a great conductor either. The size of the charge can vary the distance covered.