Handling issue..Any real fix yet? Update?

The handling on the highway is horrible. Subaru fixed the issue by 2017. Anyone know what they changed? My 2015 Legacy is the worst handing car at d ad center at highway speeds that I have owned. It's almost as bad as a Toyota Camry! Could there be an update for the firmware of the steering module? Could a newer one be swapped in ? The ability for the car to track straight is almost impossible. This should be a recall issue , it makes the car exhausting to drive a long distance. Something isn't right up front. I want to get my his issue corrected. I want to enjoy driving again. The steering is unpredictable. Does what it wants requiring micro adjustments, and could cause an accident if over corrected. At times it feels like I'm playing ping pong with the lane departure going off. Please anyone have insight? I'm m not interested in any sarcastic comments or claiming user error. My sister has. A 2016 forester and that drives normal. It doesn't randomly bunny hop into the next lane or have that numb drifting on center feel. I really think it might be the column having a defect. Similar to the recall they had when the wheels didn't turn when the steering wheel was turned. Seriously.

The handling on the highway is horrible. Subaru fixed the issue by 2017. Anyone know what they changed? My 2015 Legacy is the worst handing car at d ad center at highway speeds that I have owned. It's almost as bad as a Toyota Camry! Could there be an update for the firmware of the steering module? Could a newer one be swapped in ? The ability for the car to track straight is almost impossible. This should be a recall issue , it makes the car exhausting to drive a long distance. Something isn't right up front. I want to get my his issue corrected. I want to enjoy driving again. The steering is unpredictable. Does what it wants requiring micro adjustments, and could cause an accident if over corrected. At times it feels like I'm playing ping pong with the lane departure going off. Please anyone have insight? I'm m not interested in any sarcastic comments or claiming user error. My sister has. A 2016 forester and that drives normal. It doesn't randomly bunny hop into the next lane or have that numb drifting on center feel. I really think it might be the column having a defect. Similar to the recall they had when the wheels didn't turn when the steering wheel was turned. Seriously.

 

find another Subaru dealer other than where you have been, and let them take it on the highway with you as a passenger and see if they can duplicate the issue.

The handling on the highway is horrible. Subaru fixed the issue by 2017. Anyone know what they changed? My 2015 Legacy is the worst handing car at d ad center at highway speeds that I have owned. This should be a recall issue , it makes the car exhausting to drive a long distance. Something isn't right up front. I want to get my his issue corrected. I want to enjoy driving again. The steering is unpredictable. Please anyone have insight? I'm m not interested in any sarcastic comments Seriously.

 

This is not sarcasm, but my opinion. They must have "fixed the issue" (if there was one) by 2016 because mine runs straight as an arrow. This is also not intended as sarcasm, but do you really think if all (or at least a significant amount thereof) 2015 cars acted as horrendously as yours, that Subaru would ignore the fault? I'm not saying you are making this up, so you obviously have a problem, but I don't hear the support for your "recall" from all the other 2015 legacy owners.

 

Have you done what Upstater has suggested in his post? .... because that is the logical first step.

Sounds like your particular vehicle has something wrong with it. If Subaru service will not verify the issue in an extended test drive then you really have no choice but to either put up with it or sell the car and move on. This isn't sarcasm. I can't think of anything else you can do if you can't even get the problem acknowledged, much less fixed.

the fix for my 5th gen was to install the 20mm RSB... no wandering since then. Also do not let them jack your tire pressure up to 35/6 psi that will make the problem worse. 32PSI is where I keep it at.

I have steer damper lock,20mm RSB and have my tire psi @34 and no issues of wandering

Mine was stock and went 73k miles with no issues before I traded it in. It did drive better once I got rid of the Goodyears.

You probably checked already but how are your tires wearing?

I had issues with the 5th gen I had that was from the first year of the 5th gen. The way I resolved it was to go up to 2.7 bar (39 psi). It actually changed the car from "scary" to "normal".

I appreciate the replies. My 2015 was manufactured in 11/2014. To give some history, I didn't buy this car new. I purchased it used; advertised as a Subaru executive vehicle. -whatever that means...I should have ordered a new one, waiting 6 weeks for delivery ruins the whole instant gratification I was going for, especially being that it was the 3.6 R trim. 2 weeks after buying it the front left wheel bearing needed replacement. After a year the rear differential was grinding itself to pieces making it unsafe to drive, literally. Fought with SOA for the 3 months they had the car while the differential was remanufactured. They gave me the gold bla bla extended warranty or $3500 to put towards another car at the time.

Now the blower motor is failing.. The a/c compressor has been replaced.... its sad when I say to myself my 1976 VW RABBIT/ 70/73 VW beetles 89 CRX and many newer cars all drove as they should. I should have kept my 2006 Legacy 2.5 limited.. But that had the common head gasket defect, @ 59k miles. paid 4500 for a rebuild.... Then that car caught on fire... They fixed it again and I got rid of it before it killed me. Subaru knows the headgaskets in non gt 2005-2009 Legacy are going to fail, no recall has ever been issued.

Pardon my ramble. The RSB upgrade is retarded, I did it. Body roll has nothing to do with a dead spot on center for handling. Doing the perin steering dampener lockdown upgrade.

Really looks like that will fix my problem. And at somepoint I will stiffin up the suspension. Wish me luck...

This is not sarcasm, but my opinion. They must have "fixed the issue" (if there was one) by 2016 because mine runs straight as an arrow. This is also not intended as sarcasm, but do you really think if all (or at least a significant amount thereof) 2015 cars acted as horrendously as yours, that Subaru would ignore the fault? I'm not saying you are making this up, so you obviously have a problem, but I don't hear the support for your "recall" from all the other 2015 legacy owners.

 

Have you done what Upstater has suggested in his post? .... because that is the logical first step.

 

 

Try another dealership? I needed a good laugh. I'm on a first name basis with several department at Subaru of America.

If the problem is as you describe, and not "I want a BMW but drive a Subaru" then it will be easily duplicatable by any mechanic, and you can sit beside him/her and watch them duplicate it, and then they can figure out how to fix it.

 

If they take it on the highway, with you in the passenger seat, and cannot duplicate your problem, then it means Subaru handling is not up to your expectations, and really, you are going to have to believe them that your car is not defective.

 

You have been here a while, saying the same spiel, so my guess is there is something mechanically wrong. At this point, you have no idea, so take it to ANY COMPETENT MECHANIC, Subaru mechanic or otherwise, and have them drive it on the highway with you sitting beside them (sounds like it could be out of warranty anyway?)

 

Get back to us when you confirm whether the car operates normally, or was seriously a death trap as confirmed by your mechanic.

take it to ANY COMPETENT MECHANIC, Subaru mechanic or otherwise, and have them drive it on the highway with you sitting beside them Get back to us when you confirm whether the car operates normally, or was seriously a death trap as confirmed by your mechanic.

 

ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON !!!!!

 

And maybe not a dealership, but a Subaru qualified independent COMPETENT mechanic is the way to go, because the OP obviously doesn't seem to have much confidence in the official "Subaru system."

Nope needs to be a Subaru tech, us general auto techs just aint smart enough for something like his problem.

What's your alignment? What's your tire pressures? What's your tire wear? How many miles are on the car? Has your car ever been in an accident? Are you using non-stock wheels on the car?

 

Is the Legacy bad? Not specifically. Is it great? Nope. It's..ok. It does require more steering inputs than I'd like. It's not the worst Subaru I've driven. My bro's 3rd gen Forester is twice as bad and requires a LOT of steering corrections.

 

Where does the problem come from? Well, it could be from alignment issues. A poor alignment, even one that's just off dealership parking lot, will not track well. Alignment is kind of a big deal. A second problem is a byproduct of soft bushings/mounts. The added slop means added wiggle and worse perception of the car's movements. Any way you can reduce slop will improve handling. This is why many people upgrade the rear sway bar and see likeable results. It's also why people lock out the steering damper for improved precision and feel. The better you sense the car, the more natural you control the car. With good feedback, you actually make much smaller corrections much sooner, and most correction work is done with little to no awareness.

22mm Rear Sway Bar upgrade with good tires.

 

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... They must have "fixed the issue" (if there was one) by 2016 because mine runs straight as an arrow. ...

 

Yes there were suspension changes to the Australian spec 2016 Liberty over the 2015 model. I can’t remember exactly what they all were but this review mentions for the Australian spec 2016 Liberty;

“There are revised suspension settings for all MY16 models; spring and damper revisions coming as a result of engineers' visits to Australia last year. And the hard work shows.”.

 

And this Subaru Australia news article mentions for the Australian spec 2016 Liberty;

“Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) is further reduced in Liberty through fine-tuning of the shock absorbers, with less impact harshness on sharp bumps.

While Liberty retains its excellent smooth tarmac stability, handling is enhanced on coarse, rough surfaces and floor vibrations are reduced.

This is reflected in improved roll, pitch, dive and float control – Liberty feels flatter through corners, with the suspension settling and resolving more quickly.”.

 

And this Subaru US Media Centre article mentions for the US 2016 Outback & Legacy;

“Subaru retuned the electric power-assist steering for all Legacy and Outback models to provide an even more linear and natural feel.”.

 

I also remember reading about rear suspension changes to the 2018 model Outback (not sure about the 2018 US Legacy), but I can’t find it. From memory it was rear suspension bushings & damper changes as well as rear total toe change from toe-in to 0 total toe on the rear.

Oh another thread by this guy.

 

You can buy my fully custom 1 of 1 suspension set up for the 6 gen (credit to GTeaser for fabricating).

 

Fully adjustable front and rear koni yellows (wrx spec) paired with eibach springs. For you, special price of $2000 shipped.

My 2015 Legacy experience was the same as Beamercub. I had the car 4 times to the dealer for this issue and twice to the dealer checked alignment as okay. I finally took the car to the car to a wheel alignment shop and they found 2 of the 4 wheels outside of the allowable alignment range. By the time I had the alignment corrected the tires were probably cornered and the problem continued although the correct alignment helped. New tires made an improvement in highway stability, however highway driving with a crosswind is constant work to stay in your lane. I made the mistake of waiting too long and had too much patience with the original dealer. I also listened to too many self appointed "experts" on this site saying their car is perfect and I must be imagining things or I was not accustomed to the sensitivity of the electric steering. My advice to you is the get it fixed or sell it. There is a car defect and the dealer does not care. It's should not be required to modify the suspension with different sway bars or other devices to solve a Subaru design defect - my opinion.

My 2015 Legacy experience was the same as Beamercub. I had the car 4 times to the dealer for this issue and twice to the dealer checked alignment as okay. I finally took the car to the car to a wheel alignment shop and they found 2 of the 4 wheels outside of the allowable alignment range. By the time I had the alignment corrected the tires were probably cornered and the problem continued although the correct alignment helped. New tires made an improvement in highway stability, however highway driving with a crosswind is constant work to stay in your lane. I made the mistake of waiting too long and had too much patience with the original dealer. I also listened to too many self appointed "experts" on this site saying their car is perfect and I must be imagining things or I was not accustomed to the sensitivity of the electric steering. My advice to you is the get it fixed or sell it. There is a car defect and the dealer does not care. It's should not be required to modify the suspension with different sway bars or other devices to solve a Subaru design defect - my opinion.

Speaking only from my personal point of view, I have never claimed to be an "expert" .... but I have admittedly claimed that my 2016 Legacy has no similar problems as experienced by the OP, or yourself. Does that mean that the 2015 model was built with inherent stability problems? ... or does it mean that you and the OP are part of an "unlucky few" who either purchased sub standard vehicles ... or maybe unfortunately you have both have dealt with sub standard dealerships when trying to get the problems fixed?

I am not denying your claims, but I simply ask, is there more evidence out there from a lot more 2015 owners? Perhaps there is, but a basic Google search asking "Problems with 2015 Subaru Legacy" doesn't appear to reveal much. There are certainly a few, .... and one I looked at does in fact mention 3 steering problems.

 

https://www.carcomplaints.com/Subaru/Legacy/2015/

 

I'm certainly not suggesting that this means that there has only ever been 3 problems with the vehicle, and it's possible that there are many more "silent sufferers" out there ... but I can only say if the problems that you and the original OP are sufferering were really widespread, then I would have expected a bigger reaction to my limited Google search. If you can enlighten me in regards to the level of complaints then I am more than happy to concede.

 

I do think that your comments about "waiting too long" and being " too patient" are very relevant ..... (and I am not being critical here) because trusting the dealer to fix the problem is a natural reaction for most of us ..... but as you have sadly learn't, there comes a time when patience runs out. I'm not sure I would have waited 4 times before finding a new dealer or demanding SOA step in

 

Finally, I agree entirely with your comment that in regards to any car from any manufacturer "It should not be required to modify the suspension with different sway bars or other devices to solve a design defect."

It sounds like something has gone wrong with Beamercub’s Legacy since this post in January 2017. In that post I assumed that the previous issues were resolved, but I may have assumed wrong.

 

If something has gone wrong in between then & now, what was it or what has changed? Having re-read that topic again plus this one, I don’t doubt Beamercub’s claims & can understand his frustration. He has previously owned an earlier Subaru & compared his current one to another Subaru so it isn’t a case of not being used to the way Subarus steer.

 

That particular rather long ‘Steering-squirelly-50-mph-and-above’ topic has a lot of discussion about gen6 steering issues with at least one (n2oiroc) being almost fully resolved by a couple of re-alignments & adjustment of the rear sub frame to improve the rear cross camber.

 

Getting someone who is competent & keen enough to do a decent wheel alignment is half the battle, especially to get both sides the same, not just within the rather broad tolerance. It can be very time consuming.

 

With the Subarus I’ve owned, two things have been common; (1) they need a good accurate wheel alignment & (2) they are particular about tyre pressures.

 

The wheel alignment on my current Liberty wasn’t correct from the factory & I had to correct the front (I would still like to improve the rear). A 19mm STi rear bar helped a touch by taking away some of the independence of the rear suspension, but the biggest improvement was the Perrin steering dampener lockdown which took away most of the vague on-centre steering. With a normal load the steering is acceptable but put a load in the back & the steering isn’t 100% due to the rear toe changing with load on the wishbone rear suspension.

Oh another thread by this guy.

 

You can buy my fully custom 1 of 1 suspension set up for the 6 gen (credit to GTeaser for fabricating).

 

Fully adjustable front and rear koni yellows (wrx spec) paired with eibach springs. For you, special price of $2000 shipped.

 

 

Seriously? Do you get off on this type of stuff? Totally on topic. Grow up.

It's should not be required to modify the suspension with different sway bars or other devices to solve a Subaru design defect - my opinion.

 

Pretty broad and inaccurate assumption. You Legacy may have an issue, but to assume a design flaw is just silly and sky is failing type.

 

If there was a design flaw I guarantee you there would be a few threads 100s of post long about it. Owners with these flawed Legacys would be googling the problem and piling on in a thread or two.

 

How do I know? I had a 05.5 Jetta TDI. The Dual Mass Flywheels were actually defective. There were several huge posts about it for months before VW admitted a problem.

 

When were looking to replace that one with a new CR Jetta, oh surprise huge threads about the HPFPs failing- again for months before VW admitted a problem.

 

So now as my son as inheriting the Legacy, so I was looking at a new Jeep JL- suprise suprise tons of long threads all over the internet about steering issues.

 

It's 2018- if there was a design defect as you claim- it's be easy to find tons of threads about it.

 

So there might be something wrong with yours or not. No way for us to know. I don't know you but I was a tech for over 10 years and yes there were those people that came in and insisted something was a problem while it was working as intended.

My apologies for not mentioning I am a trained auto technician myself, and have worked and managed a repair/ tire shop. So, no I am not ignorant to any of the issues I have raised. Moreover I am dumbfounded about these new posts about people doing google searches as validation. I have ordered the dampener despite every seller saying it's not compatible. At this point I'm tempted to weld it making it a completely solid link. Lol.

One would suspect its probably been in an accident. They are never the same even after a relatively minor crash, especially if you smash up the wheels/suspension you end up twisting the chassis or pushing in the strut towers.

 

I'm still driving an old 2000 Outback that has most definitely been in a smash as they cannot even get the front wheel alignment right. It still drives fine at speed but it eats the front tyres faster than it should.

 

If the alignment checks out I would just be dialing in a bit more toe in in the front than factory. This has to sort out the problem.

Installing the TS dampener today. Wish me luck!