I have a 2004 non-turbo Forester with 123,000 miles on it. It's a manual 5-speed transmission. Lately, I have had issues with the CEL coming on. The last time I took it to the shop after the CEL came on, they said it was the P0519 code that came on, and they said that the IACV was very dirty and needed to be cleaned, so they cleaned it. The CEL was no longer on, and I was good to go. They told me that if it ever came on again in the near future, they were almost certain that it would be the Park and Neutral switch that would need to be replaced.
About two weeks later, I was getting on the freeway, and the CEL came on. About 5 miles later, suddenly, all the lights on the dashboard came on and the engine just shut off spontaneously. It acted as if I had turned off the ignition when driving 60 MPH. So I coasted to the shoulder to pull over, and then I started it right back up again and drove it to another repair shop, who told me that it was the P0519 code that displayed. They cleared the code and sent me on my way. They had no explanation as to why this would happen. I then called the first repair shop and asked if this is symptomatic of a bad park and neutral switch, and they said no it's not. But I'm not so sure. Does anyone else think that a spontaneous engine shut-off can be related to a bad park and neutral switch?
