2014 Subaru Crosstrek lost power on the highway. Dealership unable to provide definitive reason. Car key code error is what the computer came up with. Anyone else experience this? Do not feel confident driving my new car any longer. Is it possible a second key inside the car could interfere?
Ask the dealership if they’ll give you loaner while they keep the car at their shop, maybe one of their techs can drive it home after work. Either that or you’ll have to tow it in each times it does this. They’ll need to have it at the shop in the failed condition in order to diagnose the problem.
“Is it possible a second key inside the car could interfere?”
Yes, that is a definite possibility.
Are you referring to a passenger who is carrying the spare key?
Or, do you have one of those after-market remote start systems that requires the presence of a key in the car in order for the remote start system to function?
All I can tell you is that aftermarket remote start and aftermarket security systems are both incredible sources of problems, and–unfortunately–these problems are not covered by the car manufacturer’s warranty.
Does this car have some sort of aftermarket system installed?
It did come with the remote starter, I will have to check if it was aftermarket. Yes, carrying a spare key in the vehicle is what I was referring to.
I guess the car could be confused on which key is registered as the “driver”. I will stick to one key in the car for now and see if the problem recurs. That is the cheapest fix because even though the car is under warranty, you are going to waste a lot of time at the dealership while they are working on it.
To all the usual crew of wonderful helpful posters I will point out that most women carry a spare car key, whether a chipped key or unchipped valet key, in our purses.
And I suspect that at least some men carry spare car keys in their pockets.
If the OP’s problem is indeed caused by the car’s computer being confused by the presence onboard of a spare key, how does she (or anyone with the same problem) solve the problem? Carry only an unchipped valet key as the spare?
If it is really picking up the wrong key (which I doubt), you can probably solve the problem by putting the other key(s) in the back seat somewhere. These proximity sensors are low powered and short range. I suspect the error code means something more than it appears to. Some cars allow you to program restrictions tied to a key, hours, speeds, a certain region. If your car has that feature make sure you’re not using a restricted key. Losing power is the sort of thing that can happen with those systems, if you’ve programmed in a max speed or you leave a programmed region. If I had a flaky teen I’d love a system like this. I don’t think my partner would appreciate me restricting him to 50 mph.
If a second key interferes, it would still be a failure of some sort, right? Why would a second key wait until you’re on the highway to disable the car?
So the car dies AGAIN on my way to work this morning… this time the problem was discovered by the dealership mechanics. A faulty wire harness for the auto starter. They guarantee this is the cause and are confident the car will run trouble free. Should I trust them???
good job VDC driver you were the most accurate even though the remote starter was added by Subaru directly
I had a similar problem. My 90’s Corolla had a security device installed by the dealership, the purpose I think was to prevent someone from getting the keys and driving the car off the lot to steal it. They couldn’t drive it away unless they also had the matching thing that unlocked the security device, and only the salesforce had those. That addition to the ignition key harness caused me no end of no-start problems until I finally discovered it by comparing factory service manual’s wiring harness schematic vs what was actually there.