Got a letter in the mail yesterday about a my 2017 Limited possibly being one of the cars affected by a bad pitching stopper brace. Had to Google it to find out exactly what it is and what it does. Apparently the issue is mostly with bad welds holding the brace bracket to the firewall, allowing it to completely break off or something. According to the letter from SoA, I would hear or feel a clunk and/or squeaking while shifting gears. Has anyone here had this issue? According to the letter, only a small number of cars are affected, but I'm sure it is just SoA trying to downplay the problem. Is it something that will inevitably happen over time or is it more likely to affect a car that is driven more aggressively? I see a number of aftermarket braces available, but if the bracket welds to the firewall are what's really the problem, I don't see how any aftermarket part would rectify the issue - perhaps even hasten the failure.
I received the same letter and am having my car (2015 premium - early production) inspected this week. I have noticed a clunk when starting from a dead stop. I'll post the results.
Dealer (Mtka Subaru) inspected it today and found no issues. I will continue with regular inspections and share the results if there are issues.
I have seen a couple posts on other subaru forums where people had the welds of the pitch mount bracket break off. Im not sure how subaru will fix this with bolt on parts besides maybe putting another weld over it? Generally speaking though the posts I have seen did not fail with the OEM rubber dog bone. It was only people that put solid pitch stops on there car without changing the OEM transmission and/or motor mounts. Given how squishy the motor and trans mounts are if you just throw on a solid dog bone which would be the only ridged component holding the motor and drive tran to the chassis..... that welded bracket would I assume take a beating
I'll probably be keeping the drivetrain stock so hopefully the brackets never break. Might go with a j-pipe and a tune later, but I doubt that would have an effect on the bracket.
