Figured I'd put this oddball in here to help anyone with a similar issue going forward.

 

2012 outback AT

Customer complaint: won't shift out of park

 

Another mechanic here at work did the following:

 

The brake lights weren't coming on and the safety switch on the shifter wasn't disengaging. This was due to a blown fuse. Replaced the fuse and everything was good to go for a bit until fuse blew again. Suspected short but wiring looked good so suspected faulty brake switch. Replaced switch and fuse and all was good. For a few days anyway.

 

Customer came back today. My turn with the car. Replaced blown fuse and heard "clicking" in the back of the car when I pressed the brakes. Wasn't sure if associated with hill assist or whatever so opened hatch. Repeated, no more clicking.

 

Wiring harness going through the boot to the hatch was damaged (4 wires)causing a short. Just the right combination of wires did it. Lol

Number one place to look for a wire problem. If you have a brake light fuse blowing out kinda randomly it's either wire damage at the hatch hinge or a corroded or melted brake light socket.

I've had to repair a few hatch harnesses, first time I've had this particular symptom but it was easy enough to find. Was odd to see it happen on one this new but they may just use the hatch a lot. Hopefully this will help someone that doesn't know where to look/start. Because what my boss says goes, the other mechanic was following his instructions. I had to make him listen to the clicking before he would let me "waste time" pulling the boot. Otherwise he would have had me chasing a ghost. Dumb I know, but I'm just a trained monkey. "You got it boss" lmao

Not out of place at all, it's pretty common on Subarus in general. The newer ones seem to be especially bad, have seen several posts here and other places for the same problem on 10+ models.

 

Had a couple bosses that were like that and they just had to figure out the hard way that usually my gut feeling was right. You find a couple things like that and save some time on a few diags and he'll cut you some slack.