Subaru Forester Woes - Keep or Sell? Advice from Subaru Owners

2006 Subaru Forester - original owner , 320k on it. It refuses to die and is still awesome for the kids heading to the ski hill or bad weather.
No CVt.


Head gaskets Subaru, rusty frames Toyota, most manufacturers have had problems in the past

 

Does it need to be AWD?
There's the Rav4 and Highlander lol I would opt those over a subaru any day

 

My advice: Run away. I’ve had many including ones with CVTs. They’re unpredictable when it comes to reliability. I traded my 3.6r outback after the CVT started having symptoms. They extended the CVT warranty to 100k, which may sound good, but it ultimately means they know there’s severe issues with their transmissions. I’d stay away from any CVTs at this point unless it’s a Toyota hybrid CVTs. Those are bulletproof. Subaru QC has gone drastically downhill. Also they don’t even repair CVTs. They just replace them. They’re going to have a huge lawsuit on their hand soon.

 

cause they don't know how to repair them lol, same with mitsus sst trannys, if it starts having problems they just replace the whole thing, sad really.

 

$140 to "diagnose" a wheel bearing? That's just your dealer bending you over and giving you a "stimulus package". Same with the CVT. If yours fail after warranty, you wouldn't go to the dealer, you go to a transmission shop like Aamco and get a rebuilt unit swapped in for $3k.

FYI wheel bearing replacements on 2nd/3rd gen Tacos at 60k is fairly common. My old truck had one go at 75k and I don't off-road often. Not a reliability thing, just a wear item that happens to wear fast on our trucks.

 

Frankly coming from a manufacturing background, I don't like the idea of using a dozen or more suppliers for one automobile.
Whereas toyota you're getting 2 maybe 3 suppliers for the vehicle

It would be a logistical nightmare 'managing' 12 suppliers - imagine how much crap would slip through the cracks. And the "oh well it's not our problem" mind set.
Another reason why I choose to stay away from GM and Ford.

Toyota really set the bar in terms of Quality and logistics next level in the 80's 90's. Other companies I'm sure are getting there but still

Kaizen continuous improvement - really hope toyota hasn't lost this mindset in their newer vehicles.. But different markets, different regions, different teams so who knows. time will tell!

 

A normal transmission shop will avoid the CVT like a plague and won’t know how to work on them. Even Subaru techs don’t know how. That’s why so many dealerships won’t even do fluid exchanges on them. This isn’t like other transmissions out there.

 

aren't the wheel bearings a common issue on lifted Tacos with oversized tires and added unsprung weight, ive had 4 Toyota trucks that remained stock height with basically stock sized rubber never had a wheel bearing go and clocked well over 200k miles on all 4 trucks.

 

OP, not sure why you are soliciting advice about Subaru on a Toyota forum.

However, as an owner of both and given my 20+ year history with Subaru I would not hesitate to buy another. The head gasket issue was resolved many years ago. Wheel bearings is part of car maintenance imo and simple to do. My wife drives the Forester and seems to find every pothole in the state of Maine. Me, I would drive for another 100k. I certainly would not take advice from those whom have never owned a Subaru.
Goodluck!

 

never owned a Suburu but at 100k miles and having those kind of pricey repairs keep popping up might be a good time to put it up for sale before a major incident happens without warranty. getting a RAV4 or Toyota product would be a good idea if you want a small all wheel drive SUV that's economical to drive and hitting 100k miles on a Toyota its just getting broken in. I got a SR5 Tacoma 4 cylinder I use as a daily driver this thing is a reliable easy to work on and not bad MPGs and don't see any major flaws or possible failures in the future with it, my vote is get a Toyota.

 

I posted in the Off Topic > General Automotive section of this forum. This is the only forum that I actively use. I chose not to post in a Subaru forum because I figured they would be friendly to Subaru and tell me: "its a freak transmission issue, subarus are the most reliable vehicles ever, keep it forever."

I assume that most people in here have other cars than just their Tacomas and many of them might have Subaru's or have had experience with them. Specifically looking for people who have had experience with Subarus CVT's and turbocharged cars as it is relevant to me. So far I have already had some good responses.

I'm glad that you have had good luck with yours. Someone above posted that they have 325k miles on an outback/regular auto trans with no problems. Thats awesome and its stories like that are the reason we bought it in the first place. I'm just trying to get a feel if people are finding their modern Subarus reliable so that I can make a responsible financial decision.

 

Wow! Really? The sky is fallen... May I offer balance here.

Takes 1-3 hours to replace the bearing. A bit longer for the hub to freeze to get the new race and bearing on. Around a $100 for a universal puller set, $40 for a slide hammer. Satisfaction of doing it yourself, priceless!
Lots of folk on here willing to spend your money on a different vehicle.

 

just took a dump and have a Consumer reports buying guide book and I looked up Suburu forrester years 2013-17 all showed zero trouble spots in fact they are all rated above average on all segments of the vehicle.

 

Which is why I sprayed the crap out of the hub with penetrating oil and will do so again tonight and tomorrow so when I replace it this weekend it has a chance of comin out. Like I said.... wheel bearings arent really the issue here, just an annoyance and seemingly a point of failure more common on Subaru's. Do frequent bearing and CV joint Failures allude to poor reliability elsewhere? idk.. maybe, maybe not. Its powertrain failures Im nervous about.

 

pick up the fallen sky ive never replaced a wheel bearing in any Toyota product ive owned starting in 1983 to 2014 fixing a wheel bearing?

 

Thats interesting information. Also I hope you had a successful movement. Was it specific at all to the Forester turbo?

 

Actually, I never noticed we were in an off topic, my apologies. This is our 13th Subaru. I owned one in Scotland that had over 280,000 miles when I sold in 1995. Never once have we had an issue outside of regular maintenance. We are buying our son an Outback and the end of the month for his first car. That's the level of confidence my wife and I have in the brand.

That's my 2 pence.
Best of luck to you!

 

Agreed. This is the first wheelbearing failure on any vehicle of any make i've owned. All with high miles. If it shit wheel bearings every 50K miles but the powertrain was proven to be solid for 250k miles then i'd never have posted.

 

Oh wow a car made in 2013 - 2017 got good reviews? That's the ultimate test of reliability right there. no questions asked, case closed.
How many early 2000's subarus do you still see on the road? how many early 2000 toyota do you see? Personally I see tons of early Toyota, even more from the 90s..
Anyone seen a 90's subaru? What do those even look like? Let me check my history book