NHTSA Complaint #11552720 — 2014 SUBARU OUTBACK

My 2014 Subaru Outback, with only 42,000 miles on it, is unfortunately among the 3% (per Consumer Reports) with undiagnosable, therefore, unrepairable, brake failure issues. The brake failures began in April 2023 as I pulled out of my driveway in the Tucson Mountains, headed into town. On the downhill, I pressed my brakes to slow down. My foot went to the floor - no brakes. Terror! I pumped the brakes and gradually they came back. Luckily, no one was ahead of me. The brake fluid was down a very slight bit, so I brought it back up. No problem for two weeks, until the exact same thing happened again. Tucson Subaru has an excellent Service Center. I've kept the service on my Subaru up, so I booked in for a regular tuneup, plus advised them of the brake issue. The shop mechanic flushed the brake cylinder along with the usual tuneup: brake pads, etc. There was no problem for about two more weeks when brakes failed again.  Took back to Subaru on a Friday. They kept over the weekend, but by Monday afternoon, brakes were still working "fine". They Ubered me to test, but I didn't need to even pull out of parking lot, everything seemed okay.  Took my Outback home and all okay until brakes failed again. Took on AAA's and my friends' recommendations to Tucson's Primarily Japanese auto shop. The brakes failed once more in the interim, but worked fine at the shop. The owner thought possible a failing ABS unit. However, both Tucson Subaru/Primarily Japanese were reluctant to try replacing either the brake cylinder or the ABS unit as both are expensive fixes and they were unable to duplicate the failure. In the meantime, I went online and found that other owners of Outbacks across a range of years/mileage had the same problem - and the same results, none of fixes reliably worked. That included flushing/replacing the brake cylinder, the ABS unit, cleaning/replacing brake pads, etcs. Some owners were not as "lucky" as I was. The car is parked.