Our first Subaru, a 2017 3.6r Outback, made us realize why people speak so highly of the brand. The car never gave us any issues, tore thru mountain passes, snow banks, and would perform like a champ off road. So when the time came to replace a second vehicle we wasted no time shopping other brands and purchased a 2021 Ascent Touring back in December of 2020. Once we took ownership of the vehicle we installed a 1.5" lift kit from Anderson Design Fabrication, changed wheels and tires, added primitive skid plates underneath the vehicle, as well as a rally light bar along with rally lights.
Our first indication our Ascent was experiencing transmission issues was back in May. We live in Los Angeles and own a small teardrop trailer that we had been pulling with the ascent. On several occasions, all of which occurred when climbing mountain passes, the cvt fluid overheating light had come on requiring us to pull off to the side of the highway in order for the fluid to cool prior to resuming our travels. Upon returning to town I brought the vehicle in for service and advised the Subaru service department of the issue and asked that they look in to the cause. Service department informed me that everything checked out and they did not see an issue with the vehicle.
Wednesday a week ago, myself, wife and five year old had the ascent packed with camping gear and headed north for a weekend up in Big Sur. It was mid afternoon on a relatively cool day as we started climbing the grapevine, a notoriously steep climb out of Los Angeles that takes you up central California. As the vehicle was climbing the pass I felt the transmission slip as it aggressively shifted gears (another complaint I have of the vehicle due to its small engine). Within two minutes of that slip all three of us hear a loud boom, my eyes immediately look thru rear view mirror to see a cloud of smoke and debris bouncing across the freeway that clearly came from our vehicle. We lost complete control over the vehicle and coasted while making our way to the shoulder.
Subaru road side assistance was unable to get us a tow truck in a reasonable time frame so I used my AAA membership to have us towed back to our house so I could transfer our gear to the outback and get us out of town for the weekend. Once we returned home I had the Ascent towed in to our Subaru dealer who now has the vehicle and awaiting an engineer from NA Subaru to inspect the, as the service manager classified it as a, catastrophic transmission failure. From what they informed me after inspecting the vehicle was the CVT chain broke off and literally blew a hole thru the transmission casing (photos attached). He also stated that after all his years in service he has never seen anything like this occur.
The first thing my wife asked was, did you tell him we want a new car?
Now I know the service manager is not the person to make that decision, but wondering if there have been any other cases where this has occurred in a vehicle less than a year old with less than 12k miles. Do I really want to have our vehicle repaired? We no longer want the vehicle and plan to sell it regardless once the repairs are made.
UPDATE 11/3: Dealer was instructed to wait on repairs for an engineer from SOA to visit and inspect vehicle. This afternoon SOA authorized the replacement of entire Transmission, and the Transmission Control Module.
Our first indication our Ascent was experiencing transmission issues was back in May. We live in Los Angeles and own a small teardrop trailer that we had been pulling with the ascent. On several occasions, all of which occurred when climbing mountain passes, the cvt fluid overheating light had come on requiring us to pull off to the side of the highway in order for the fluid to cool prior to resuming our travels. Upon returning to town I brought the vehicle in for service and advised the Subaru service department of the issue and asked that they look in to the cause. Service department informed me that everything checked out and they did not see an issue with the vehicle.
Wednesday a week ago, myself, wife and five year old had the ascent packed with camping gear and headed north for a weekend up in Big Sur. It was mid afternoon on a relatively cool day as we started climbing the grapevine, a notoriously steep climb out of Los Angeles that takes you up central California. As the vehicle was climbing the pass I felt the transmission slip as it aggressively shifted gears (another complaint I have of the vehicle due to its small engine). Within two minutes of that slip all three of us hear a loud boom, my eyes immediately look thru rear view mirror to see a cloud of smoke and debris bouncing across the freeway that clearly came from our vehicle. We lost complete control over the vehicle and coasted while making our way to the shoulder.
Subaru road side assistance was unable to get us a tow truck in a reasonable time frame so I used my AAA membership to have us towed back to our house so I could transfer our gear to the outback and get us out of town for the weekend. Once we returned home I had the Ascent towed in to our Subaru dealer who now has the vehicle and awaiting an engineer from NA Subaru to inspect the, as the service manager classified it as a, catastrophic transmission failure. From what they informed me after inspecting the vehicle was the CVT chain broke off and literally blew a hole thru the transmission casing (photos attached). He also stated that after all his years in service he has never seen anything like this occur.
The first thing my wife asked was, did you tell him we want a new car?
Now I know the service manager is not the person to make that decision, but wondering if there have been any other cases where this has occurred in a vehicle less than a year old with less than 12k miles. Do I really want to have our vehicle repaired? We no longer want the vehicle and plan to sell it regardless once the repairs are made.
UPDATE 11/3: Dealer was instructed to wait on repairs for an engineer from SOA to visit and inspect vehicle. This afternoon SOA authorized the replacement of entire Transmission, and the Transmission Control Module.