We Just bought a 2022 OB Touring in December. In less than a month’s time, it is now in the dealer for almost two weeks with no resolution. The engine sort of shutters at various speeds. Started out happening every now and then, but after a longer trip of about 60+ miles it was happening every minute or so at various higher speeds 40-50 MPH, no warning lights are showing up. Dealer can’t seem to find out what why, although they have been able to duplicate the problem. Now they supposedly have a Subaru engineer coming out to take a look. Has anyone had a similar experience or resolution of a problem after having Subaru send out an engineer. We are really disgusted with this situation, otherwise we like the car, but don’t have much confidence in the car for the future.
What you’re describing sounds similar to a problem I had with our 19 2.5. There was a known issue on that generation of engines where a very small percentage would retard the timing for pre-ignition in situations where that normally wouldn’t and shouldn’t happen. The solution was to use premium fuel. If it’s the same problem, yours is the first I have heard of with this generation of engine.
An engineer came out and looked at ours twice but was not helpful at all. The service manager was great and went driving around with a laptop hooked up to the obd port recording the car’s parameters and verified the spark was retarding when it shouldn’t. SOA was very helpful in ultimately finding a mutually acceptable resolution.
It’s difficult finding the cause when there are no codes, and it’s often hard to distinguish between an engine and transmission issue depending on the symptoms. Originally with mine they replaced the transmission because they thought it was the cause of the stutter, but when the issue persisted the exact same way with the new transmission they looked further and discovered it was really the engine all along.
So yours acted up in the first month, but initially when you drove it home it was fine? Could it be something as simple as a bad tank of gas? If it is the gas, a couple tanks of premium might solve the problem, worst case would be totally draining the tank and starting from scratch.
Sometimes a battery disconnect reset will solve weird things that can happen with the engine or transmission computers or both. We did this several times when troubleshooting my 19 and it would initially help, but then the problem would return and we eventually tracked it down to being one of the small percentage of Subaru engines that had this particular problem.
With yours I would look really close at what might have transpired in the few weeks you owned the car. If it is something as simple as a bad tank of gas you’ll be fine in the long run. SOA at 800-Subarue is well known for being helpful, they certainly always have been with me. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
