Surging Forester

Hey Skylandia, did you see my final post in 'Hesitation and Surging in

2006 Forester'? I have (had!) about decided to keep mine, since the only options I have are trading it in for an automatic or for a Legacy Outback, neither of which do I like/want. What are these "downloads from a sister site"?

It sounds like my surging isn't as bad as yours, I don't have the issue when cruising in a parking lot as you describe. (I only have it going downhill, at a constant speed, between 2500 & 3500, in 2nd and higher gears.) Still it is clearly exactly what you have.

Someone tell me, how in the world can Subaru expect that people who buy this car won't complain? How can they call this normal operation? What's the mindset that makes Subaru think buyers will accept this?

Just to add a postscript...this past weekend I drove the car to a ski resort, where it was parked for 2 nights / 3 days in a parking garage. We loaded up the car on the morning of departure and it was fine. After 3-4 hours of skiing, we arrive back to the car to find the battery dead!! We've wracked our brains for something we may have done, but can think of absolutely no way we were responsible. So much for my idea of "oh well, it surges but at least it's reliable!"

Now I have to go back to the dealer with this car for yet another problem. sigh.

Just as a wild-@ss-guess . There can be some odd behavior from most modern cars should you start the car with the accelerator pedla depressed. This is less of a problem nowadays than in the late 80s/early

90s because so many people are now accsutomed to vehicles with ECUs. Some of us 'old timers' would start our cars with the gas pedal partly depressed. The problem nowadays with that, is some ECUs take a 'reading' from the TPS as a zero point baseline and, starting with the gas pedal even slightly depressed can 'confuse' the system. I'm proposing there is a possibility (remote) this could be a problem. Can you confirm that, on initial starting of the car, the gas pedal is not being depressed?

just a WAG !

Carl

Hey Carl, can't speak for Skylandia but I'm pretty sure I do *not* do this when I start the car. That said, I have noticed that sometimes when I'm changing gears, my gas pedal foot rests lightly enough on the accelerator to perhaps have some response. I do not think it is at all correlated with this issue though

As I said in my thread on this subject "hesitation & surging in 06 Forester", I test-drove another 06 Forester and it had the same issue, albeit somewhat less. I also test-drove an 06 Outback and it had it too, though much much less noticeable.

This sounded interesting, and might be tied to the "drive by wire" throttle system, since by "retraining" I would think it's being reset somehow. Other makes have similar problems, such as Hyundai. The following was copied from an automotive help site. Other similar occurances if you google on "drive by wire" surge. Not exactly the same, but quite similar...

"Anyone know how to deal with this problem: Engine surges when trying to maintain a constant speed (try to hold 60 mph, it will surge to 62, drop back to 60, then repeat the surge again every minute or so). Dealer had no luck locating a solution. 2004 Sante Fe LX 3.5L with auto climate control, 500 miles, only does it with A/C on, doesn't do it with cruise control on. Dealer says it might just be the "normal" cycling of the A/C compressor, but it is very noticeable and annoying, too noticeable in my opinon to be "normal". Does anyone here think this sounds "normal" (I'm afraid that I won't be able to get used to it, I've never had a vehicle act like this simply because of the A/C). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Rob. have them to initialize the ETS system and then reset the adaptive learnt numbers on the APS and TPS...since this 3.5 is drive-by-wire it is possible that the ETS motor initialization was never performed....you are very observant in the surge speed....60 to 62....!!!! Also there is a TSB that tells the Tech to do the Re-learn procedure...tell them to use the XG350 TSB for that as it applies to this SM also..."

What? 06 Forester has Drive by wire???

Throttle by wire, same as 2005 Forester.

Blair

So the gas pedal is electric? There is no cable running from the pedal to the throttle underhood?

Just have to ask since that one must have slipped by me!

I will bet your Forester problems are related to the ones I am experiencing....

With that aside, let me tell you a little more about the (mechanical/electrical/software?) problems we are having with the vehicle. The 2006 Forester 2.5X (manual transmission) that we purchased in October '05 has developed a problem. After starting the vehicle and putting it into

1st gear, the engine RPM climbs from about 1500 RPM to around 3000 RPM without even pressing on the accelerator. It stays there anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. If you put the car it first gear, it happily accelerates to about 20 MPH without your foot on the accelerator. This "usually" happens at start-up, but once or twice, the RPMs shot up after the car had been driven for 10 minutes as soon as I had put the clutch in and took my foot off of the accelerator while slowing down to stop. One of those times, it just oscillated back and forth between 1500 and 3000 RPM for about 15 seconds. With this unpredictable increase in engine RPM, I see this as a real "Safety Issue" so I filed a complaint with the Office of Defects Investigation at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The last time I was driving out of the parking garage, my '06 Forester 5-speed did its normal engine-revving thing but then I tried an experiment. I kept the clutch depressed while I coasted downhill through the garage. I moved the shifter back and forth between neutral and other gears while keeping the clutch depressed. Whenever the shifter was put into a position other than neutral the rpms increased (to 2500-3000) but as soon as I put the shifter in neutral the rpms dropped back down to around 1200-1500. As soon as I place the shifter anywhere other that neutral, the rpms went back up.

Now, the clutch was depressed all this time, so why did the rpms change based on the position of the shifter? The engine was not being put under load at any point in time since the clutch was always being pressed.

bivo

Same on my '06 WRX - throttle by wire.

Carl

Okay, guys-- I have these exact problems on my manual 2006 Forester! The slight bucking/surging thing in 3rd gear going downhill or after letting off the throttle (but also to a lesser degree at low speed in parking lots)-- but of greater concern, the revving up to nearly 3000 rpm when started cold. This morning it raced backwards out of the garage, in snow, aiming for my oak tree-- fortunately, this bad behavior was expected, and I was quick on the brake. I, too, have noticed that I can stop the revving by putting the car into neutral-- strange. I took it to the dealer last week and they were going to contact Subaru to see if they are familiar with this problem.... I suspect that they were being coy-- I can't believe they haven't heard of this problem with other 2006 sticks!