On flat surface with wheels turned @33 degrees, steering wheel locked up

movin_on_up

Ugh, folks. I knew our fourth Subaru was a middle-of-the-road rated car. The car had about 3k miles. Went to a store and stopped to load it (put about 320 lbs of weight - bagged dirt - in the trunk) on flat surface asphalt. My wheels were turned about 33 degrees to the left. I could not turn the steering wheel to unlock it w/out sweating a lot ... I spent 10-15 mins. fooling around with it. After about 5 more mins. I jimmied the wheel loose and could start the car. What's going on and any suggestions for unlocking the steering wheel faster?

We had this issue in with a GMC Sonoma in a snowstorm where we drove the car to the bottom of the driveway and turned the wheels. It locked up and it was at a large incline in the mountains of NC. That lockup, I understand. We eventually struggled long enough to get the wheels straightened out ... sounds like the Crosstrek issue but it was on a flat surface and w/3 prior Subarus, this never happened.

thecardoc3

That happens when you turn the car off with pressure against the steering wheel and it just happens to drop into the steering lock when you release the wheel. While the engine was running you had the assistance of the power steering and of course when you went to restart it you didn't have that so you had to manually unload the steering lock. Just try to be sure that you don't have any pressure on the steering before you turn the engine off and you should be able to avoid this situation.