kdpeters

Hey everyone, I've got 2010 Subaru Outback 2.5i with a CVT that apparently needs to be replaced. Just a little history- bought the car 5 months ago from the original owner, a coworker of mine. She put 65,000 miles on the car over 5 years driving what I'd say was roughly 70% in town and 30% highway with NO towing. This woman brought the car to a subaru dealership for every bit of recommended maintenance and service and paid top dollar to have her slightest concerns checked out. No issues with the car over this time. I've put close to 5000 (mostly highway) miles on since buying the car. I recently towed a 5 x 8 (900 lb) Uhaul trailer 350 highway miles when the issue arose. Had a CEL, flashing parking brake light, flashing oil temp light, and jumping RPMs while driving along the highway. The transmission felt like it was jumping around a lot. I took the first exit about an eighth of a mile away and made it to a stop sign when a fail safe cut power to my transmission. Ended up pushing the car with the trailer into a parking lot and had to tow it to a local dealer. Before towing I read P0700, P0841, P0965 with my OBII scanner. Just talked to the technician and he had drained the train fluid and described it as "burnt". The transmission made a grinding noise when they tried to move it before draining the fluid. So it sounds as if the CVT overheated and burnt up. I don't understand how this could be possible with such a clean history and only 70k on the car. Checked my owners manual and my max tow capacity is listed as 2700 lbs. 900 lbs is a hell of a lot less than the max. It sounds like my CVT is one of the extreme few that has failed for problem that has been neglected by Subaru, and the dealer is saying I still need to pay for a new CVT and labor >