Cruise control sometimes over-revs engine on 2005 Outback

It's an 05, take it back to dealership and get a write-up, ASAP.

It doesn't sound as if it's working correctly. My 2000 does not do this. I think if you run into dealer resistance you may suggest politely that it's a safety issue for people and not just the engine. What if this happened on wet or a sandy patch in the road??ed

My 2002 LLBean H-6 does this under the same circumstances, only it doesn't shift down past 3rd.

Since it wasn't a big issue, I never had it looked at since other cars I've owned tended to downshift the trans more during cruise control.

I have the same car. I don't encounter the problem tp the point that you encounter but the 05 is a lot better going up hills than an 00 I had previously. I also find the cruise somewhat sensitive to speed changes. If your driving habits are such that you are fairly aggressive even at low speeds the computer will, in a sense, learn your driving style and adjust the shift points accordingly.

When going up moderate hills I either go into manual and stay in 3rd, or switch off cruise entirely when going up steeper grades.

All that aside, it is a Subie engine and boxer engines are quite content at high revs.

Ron

You shouldn't be using cruise control on wet or slippery roads so the safety issue won't help you. The cruise control on Subarus is very agressive. However, if it is doing that on cruise, it usually means the car is down on power for some reason. I would take it back and have them look at it and why the car might not be at full power.

I wouldn't set CC on anthing else but freeways and similar roads in good condition.

The car has plenty of power - better than I had ever expected for an unblown 2.5L - so that's not the problem. It only happens at high speed on hills just steep enough to make it change down to 3rd.

I think the problem must be either in the software or settings but will be taking it to dealer next week anyway to see if they have any answers.

Incidentally, I've seen several mentions here that the auto tranny computer "learns" from the dirver's style but I haven't read anything about that in the manual or in Subaru ads, so where does that info (or Subaruan myth?) come from?

What I am implying is that you may have a little less power (paticularly, torque) than you should, and the aggressive cruise control is causing the transmission to drop two gears instead of one. If you are not on cruise control, you would tend to be a little less aggressive with the gas pedal. Generally, you don't see the cruise redlining the car; they aren't supposed to be that aggressive.

As for the learning, I am not sure what they mean with the automatic. All of them have adaptive ECUs and the ECU learns from the driver to optimize ignition timing etc.; and that happens on both manual and automatic. I'm not sure how the transmission would 'learn' anything; nor why it needs to.

IMO, one area that Subaru has never gotten a good handle on is the auto-trans programming. In any given year there seems to be glitches of one sort or another (i.e. shift-points, temperature-related anomalies, and occasional bizzarre behaviour, etc.). -Danny

The TCM does learn from your driving style. It is reflected in the shift points and speed of shifts. It is not immediately noticeable as it averages so it takes several tanks of gas to make noticeable changes. I you wish to reset the TMC & ECM to the default settings just disconnect the negative battery terminal for 30 minutes or so and press the brake peddle several times to assure all residual volter is bled off. Ed