| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 002039286 | Incident Date: Sep, 24 2002 |
| Consumer's City: DANVILLE | Consumer's State: CA |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN | Manufacturers Name: Subaru of America, Inc. |
| Model Name: WRX | Model Year: 2003 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Service brakes, hydraulic:antilock/traction control/electronic limited slip |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: JF1GD29623G | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Sep, 18 2005 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: Sep, 06 2002 |
| Was Original Owner: Yes | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 4 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: The braking system in the vehicle malfunctions under the following conditions. when the vehicle is crossing over a sharp transition (break in pavement, train tracks or choppy rough pavement) in the road and undergoing light to moderate braking, the vehicle stops decelerating for about 1/2 to 1 second and the brake pedal drops very close to the firewall. this is very difficult to reproduce, but does happen about once every couple of weeks. when it happens, it scares the hell out of the driver. the amount of time that braking force goes to zero varies. on one occasion, i came very close to rear ending a car in front of me because of the problem. i also drive a non abs equipped vehicle (87 ford mustang) over the same roads. the wrx stopping distance over this part of roadway, where the failure occurs at 25 mph, is at least one car length greater than the mustang over the same part of road. on smooth roads, the wrx will easily stop in less distance than the mustang. there are two things that make this behavior so dangerous. 1) that it scares the driver so badly when it happens. 2) that the braking capability of the car varies unpredictably. apparently nhtsa has already closed their investigation into this issue. i found it on your website under ea03024. there is only a brief description on your website of the outcome, but basically it looks like "no problem found". this problem may be difficult to reproduce, but i assure you that it is very real. drivers are not imagining the problem. the subaru dealership and soa (subaru of america) have denied that there is any problem. one of the mechanics at the dealership commented to me that wrxs have this problem, but since the dealership doesn't have any control over the abs system they are forced to deny that there is a problem. since subaru won't admit to the problem, the only solution to it has been to disable the abs by removing its power fuse in the car. at least now i know what the car is going to do. *jb |
