I’ve noticed now that it’s winter that my Legacy with 14k on it will shift somewhat hard into drive from reverse if I don’t let it idle and warm up for 2-5 minutes before setting off. After that one shift, the car is fine the rest of the day. I checked the transmission fluid and it appears full, I had a more mechanically inclined person check also and it looked full to them as well. It seems more pronounced if I parked on my hill with the front of the car facing up the hill - but i use the parking break to hold the car, and release it before starting out.
The issue is if I just go - sometimes it will jerk into drive - one time even though I’ve learned to back up, come to a complete stop, wait a second, hold the break down all the way and then shift into drive, it jerked forward some distance over the breaks, but then stopped. This only happened once - but it happened with my father in the car, so it was a bit disconcerting… It happens before I even touch the gas…
This is the 5 speed automatic with a manual mode and paddle shifters - I’m just using the fully automatic R and D.
Now, my family likes Subarus and has owned a number, and my last one, an 07 impreza with automatic sometimes jerked into drive also, and my relatives have sometimes had that happen with Autos. Is this just a Subaru traditional Automatic thing? I spent many hours with my 07 in the dealer for this, only to be told it was normal, so I’d rather not waste everyones time again with the 2012 Legacy if it’s just “a subaru thing”. I can certainly live with warming the car up when it’s cold, though that seems to not usually be a best practice with modern cars.