[Steve A]

We took delivery of our Ascent Touring about a month ago and have had an issue with the steering since the beginning. Took it into the dealer 2.5 weeks ago and it was pronounced healthy and normal. So we went on a road trip from Wisconsin to Florida and back. My wife and I could not believe how badly the car drove at highway speeds, causing us extreme fatigue after short drive times. We had all the symptoms seen in other treads, touchy steering, hard to drive straight, nerve wracking etc etc.....

So upon returning we went straight back to service. The tech drove the car and, surprise, he agreed!

After spending an hour or so with it they had me test drive it. Wow, what a difference. All they did was a full alignment to fix it. The tech was a bit surprised as well as the numbers were not that far off.

If you have any issues with your steering I suggest you try this first. I was expecting much worse with it driving so bad.

 

[MAGNUMB]

Mine was also pretty far off and is now a lot better after the alignment. Much easier to drive for long hauls. I'll see if I can post my printout.

 

[Mark B]

Just purchased 2020 Ascent Touring and drove to Colorado and back to Kansas. Experienced excessive roll and sway with side wind gusts on top of the normal loose feel keeping between the lines. Followed a newer Honda Pilot that was not experiencing the swaying coming from my Subaru behind them... on top of this, the hood bounced... and you could see the skin wave via reflection. Being a loyal Subaru Owner over 15 years did not expect this to occur. I have a service appointment tomorrow and plan to express my dismay.

 

[Robert.Mauro]

Just purchased 2020 Ascent Touring and drove to Colorado and back to Kansas. Experienced excessive roll and sway with side wind gusts on top of the normal loose feel keeping between the lines. Followed a newer Honda Pilot that was not experiencing the swaying coming from my Subaru behind them... on top of this, the hood bounced... and you could see the skin wave via reflection. Being a loyal Subaru Owner over 15 years did not expect this to occur. I have a service appointment tomorrow and plan to express my dismay.

Check your tire pressure.

 

[Luis Padilla]

Beat me to that one Robert

 

[smart_alec]

I know this is an old thread but my wife just called and said that her car is doing the same thing but oddly at not only highway speeds but in town driving as well. I am in Northern California at the moment and she is in Michigan so I’m not able to do much from a distance.
Any thoughts please?

 

[smart_alec]

As a follow-up: a shot in the dark was my suggestion that she find a safe place to pull over and turn off the car and restart it. She did so and said it felt “a bit better” and has now made it to work without incident. What is odd is that she first noticed it yesterday and since the car was parked overnight I would have thought that if there was to be any “rebooting” then that would have been enough. How much computing is involved in the power-steering?
She has claimed not to have hit any big potholes and i am asking her to put the lug wrench on the wheel nuts just to make sure before she goes home...

 

[Robert.Mauro]

There is a decent amount of computing going on in the power steering. Rebooting it shouldn't have had an effect. I'd have it checked out.

 

[smart_alec]

Thanks Robert. Will do...

 

[Trey T]

As a follow-up: a shot in the dark was my suggestion that she find a safe place to pull over and turn off the car and restart it. She did so and said it felt “a bit better” and has now made it to work without incident. What is odd is that she first noticed it yesterday and since the car was parked overnight I would have thought that if there was to be any “rebooting” then that would have been enough. How much computing is involved in the power-steering?
She has claimed not to have hit any big potholes and i am asking her to put the lug wrench on the wheel nuts just to make sure before she goes home...

The system has two modes: normal and cruise. Normally, the power-steering control is limited to the rotation of the steering wheel. If it's doing something weird - and you know when it's weird - then you need to take it in. When in cruise, significant amount of power-steering control can be taken over by the robot (i.e. EyeSight) and this is where the computation is at its widest latitude.

 

[Robert.Mauro]

Only Lane Keep Assist and Lane Centering control steering. No other current Eyesight functions do. And, neither of them change power steering Assist for the human when the system is not actively steering.

 

[smart_alec]

Ok, this morning my wife and I spoke as she drove to work and we surmised that she was experiencing the Lane Keep Assist. This is the first vehicle that she has ever driven that is equipped with such a feature and when I told her how to disable it the car was then behaving normally. However, I didn’t expect it to be active at lower speeds as she described. She is a good driver but working full time in a fairly labour intensive job that involves a commute then dealing with two young kids in virtual school and their homework at night while I travel for work had perhaps amplified the sensitivity to possible issues. Really though, she is tough as an old boot so all is good now. Thanks all!

 

[NotThePainter]

I initially found Lane Keeping Assist very annoying but I eventually came around to thinking that I, myself, as the driver, was not doing as good a job as I could be. As I see it, whenever it is steering for me, that means I was starting to stray. That's was a real eye opening. I have multiple trophies in automobile racing, I should have been able to do better. It was truly humbling.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

I think that a lot of folks, if they would be patient with the feature, would find that as many of us have that their driving is what makes the feature annoying. With all the multitasking that goes on while driving a vehicle, it can be easy to be a little lax with steering.

 

[Robert.Mauro]

I initially found Lane Keeping Assist very annoying but I eventually came around to thinking that I, myself, as the driver, was not doing as good a job as I could be. As I see it, whenever it is steering for me, that means I was starting to stray. That's was a real eye opening. I have multiple trophies in automobile racing, I should have been able to do better. It was truly humbling.

I know how you feel. I was so proud of my driving record, through 30 cars of my own and about as many work vehicles... but to start watching myself on the Touring's front camera when it was beeping at me, opened my eyes. I'd like to think that LKA helped make me a better driver - LDW rarely beeps at me except when I am intentionally doing anything, and I've learned to use LKA synergistically to get it to smoothly help me take a turn without hitting a line.

 

[packout]

I know how you feel. I was so proud of my driving record, through 30 cars of my own and about as many work vehicles... but to start watching myself on the Touring's front camera when it was beeping at me, opened my eyes. I'd like to think that LKA helped make me a better driver - LDW rarely beeps at me except when I am intentionally doing anything, and I've learned to use LKA synergistically to get it to smoothly help me take a turn without hitting a line.

Any multiple Ascent owners want to try this with their two Ascents?

 

[smart_alec]

Nope...

 

[Gsubaru]

If sometimes find the lane keep annoying too. I’m used to taking certain angles through turns, roundabouts and on ramps etc. to keep speed up. The Ascent doesn’t agree, lol! But it also seems so well planted that I don’t need to do it so I’m adjusting.
Around town the streets here in Winnipeg are terrible, the assist can’t decide to stay on or deactivate. The lines are often degraded or repainted so poorly that there are traces of three or more that confuse the system. Potholes, missing sections of curbs, you name it. Going to be interesting to see what it thinks of winter conditions...