I’ve read that a class action lawsuit has now been filed against Subaru for knowingly ignoring a TCV design failure that caused premature rusting and roadside failures. For the longest time affected folks were told it was not a warranty part. Now it appears to be covered for five years. This affects all 2019-2021 Forester, Crosstrek, Legacy and Outback models. It seems like all engine types are affected.
Thermo Control Valve (TCV) Class Action Lawsuit now underway.
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Monsieurmaggot
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How many miles on your Outback?
2020 Premium Tungsten metallic w/ option pkg 15 and tow hitch, foot illumination lights, skid plates
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359 Posts
45,891 miles. Owned for 3 years 6 months. Sorry for the late reply, there is a lot going on here today.
2022 Impreza Sport-Tech, 2020 Legacy Premier GT & 2007 3.0R Outback LLBean
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So the turbo uses a standard thermostat? That's good to know I have one less thing to worry about.
For now till they bring the electronic thermal management to the turbo setup to try and improve it for better fuel millage. It's all for chasing the almighty litre per 100km (miles per gallon for my southern folk)
Thanks to all for posting and the information. Read about this yesterday, kind of disappointing to know at some point part will probably fail and potentially not covered depending on circumstances. Battery failed last year (out of warranty due to mileage) and was planning on purchasing an AGM battery. I do not get on this forum as much as I would like but quick search and read about the replacement/upgrade Subaru was doing. Called dealer next morning and no problem, dealership knew about it and took care of it. So hopefully Subaru will do what is right with this depending on how many complaints they get in the future for those past the 5 year mark etc.
I wonder if this TCV is the reason the XT gets the PTC that the early gen 6 2.5's didn't get. The TCV might allow for earlier flow of warm coolant to the heater core, allowing for faster heat in the cabin.
2020 Premium Tungsten metallic w/ option pkg 15 and tow hitch, foot illumination lights, skid plates
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359 Posts
Faster is relative. About 3 miles in mine before the heater blows hot air. Oil temperature hits 100F about then.
ALL parts ARE going to fail at some point. The maker promises that a part will last only so long, that's what warranties are for. Beyond that the maker holds no liability, and anything they do after warranty expires is purely good will. So expect parts to fail and expect to pay for them outside of warranty.
I'll be amazed if the class action goes anywhere. Under warranty? Covered. Outside of warranty? Not covered. It really is that easy.
The difference in this situation is that Subaru has revised the part to resolve the issue, so in this case, Subaru has determined that the part in question is more failure prone and decided to revise the part.
Subaru has also revised some other parts, like the window regulator, but a window regulator failure isn't catastrophic. I'm not sure how to characterize a TCV failure but it's definitely worse than a window regulator.
I'm not saying I'm on the side of the class action lawsuit or against it. Just saying that the TCV valve issue isn't just the normal "some parts wear out" or "every part has a certain failure rate"
Subaru has also revised some other parts, like the window regulator, but a window regulator failure isn't catastrophic. I'm not sure how to characterize a TCV failure but it's definitely worse than a window regulator.
I'm not saying I'm on the side of the class action lawsuit or against it. Just saying that the TCV valve issue isn't just the normal "some parts wear out" or "every part has a certain failure rate"
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Interesting thought. I certainly don't complain about having the PTC heat on winter mornings, but the turbo engines already warm up faster than the non-turbo engines so I suspect this is more of a "luxury" add-on.
It's also worth noting that the non turbo FB20D does not have the TCV, at least per the breakdown on parts.subaru.com, it looks like they're still running the mechanical thermostat. Very interesting that Subaru would design such a radical change to the cooling system of the FB25D, have it implemented for 5 years already, and apparently not propagate that change to the other engines in their lineup. Not that I'm complaining.
Good thoughts about the TCV issue and I think the non-turbo needs a TCV to heat the engine up faster, not for human heater core responsiveness, but to prevent fuel dilution of the oil. This change coincided with direct injection. A cold direct injection engine suffers from fuel dilution.
I'd guess it'll be a VIN list since it's an on-engine component vs on-vehicle; you're dealing with two asynchronous processes (part --> engine plant, then engine --> vehicle plant). Not a chance that the very first June 7, 2021 part ended up on one particular VIN and every 2.5L installed in any Outback (or other vehicle) after that included only a part produced on or after that date.
Right, it's no different than any other run-of-the-mill TSB. We went through at least three on our new model, very early production '14 Mazda3; a couple for front-end clunks (binding tie-rod ends and noisy springs) and one for the rear caliper mounting bracket (rusts, binds caliper, causes one pad to wear to nothing while the other's fine).
If the TCV fails open and doesn't cause stalling or catastrophic immediate failure, it's absolutely a TSB issue rather than a recall. Just sucks that it's an expensive fix for most people who aren't equipped to do it themselves out of warranty.
Since I have a 2021 2.5i, I'm understanding my car has the TCV. Should I have this replaced under warranty (I don't believe it has failed, but my car is getting fairly poor fuel mileage, unless I'm driving longer distances at highway speeds).
Yours may or may not have the new improved version; regardless, that's up to the dealer to decide. They're not going to change it because you want them to. If there are no associated fault codes, it's probably fine.
Thanks. I’ll ask them next time I’m there. . .
Unless it has thrown an efficiency code (pops a check engine light) or is physically leaking (smell of coolant in the engine bay when the engine is hot) it will not be changed. It will only effect fuel efficiency if it has thrown a check engine light.
If your hunting fuel efficiency issues I suggest (depending on mileage intake cleaning done around 60,000km(removes carbon from valves) have seen depending on owner driving habits and poor quality fuel being used this needing to be done way earlier. Plugs at 100,000km. Tire pressures can effect it too. Tons of stuff can effect fuel efficiency unfortunately.
Apparently you're not familiar with just in time ordering and the tight scheduling vehicle manufacturers do
I'm very familiar with how screwed up tier 2/3 suppliers are. There's zero chance it's a FIFO operation.
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