Subaru Forester

""Bushings broke and had to be replaced, even though vehicle had low mileage""

""Light bushing noise started around 98700km, reported it to dealer when i had summer tires put on. It became stedily louder and by 100000km i had to have a fromt bushing replaced for over $400. I spoke to dealer service about possible warranty claim,and i followed it up,they never did get back to me with an answer. Finding service somewhere else, now that car is not under warranty.""

""During my servicing last fall at the dealer, the mechanic reported cracking on the lower control arms front bushings. During the servicing this Spring the mechanic reported the control arms were moving around due to worn bushing. The service department replaced the bushings. After replacement I noticed a smoother ride. Internet searches indicate premature wear on these bushings is a common problem with Subarus.""

"114888 Left and right lower control arms very worn and needed replacing"

""Control arm bushes were badly split & torn & cracked includes sway links & wheel alignment was necessary. As a correction action Subaru delaer replaced front lower, big & transverse, control arm bushes, sway bar links & performed wheel alignment.""

"The car would vibrate and shake when at higher speed. The cause was from bad bushing which had to be relaced"

"Front control arm bushings are worn and will need replacement soon. We were told this is a common problem in these cars. Cost to replace is around $1200"

"minor crack in control arm affecting alignment at 80000miles. Fixed by independent shop"

"multiple wheel studs have broken. Took all the wheels off the car to maintain brakes and 5-6 bolts were seized and broke."

""First had to replace the front right control arm after owning the vehicle for about 7 years. The steering would knock and jiggle while traveling at freeway speeds and making slight right turns. Within 18 months, the control arm needed to be replaced again.""

"Struts leaked and needed to be replaced."

"I'm not a mechanic so I expect when I have the dealer almost exclusively maintain my vehicle that they do a thorough job when diagnosis is needed. Having a manual trans im not one to overly use braking yet the parts have such a short life it is ridiculous. Same with wheel bearings.I am very unhappy with the high maintenance on a vehicle with such relatively low mileage."

"Steering to all the way right would lock and not return"

"The left side rack failed and had to be replaced."

"Had to replace control arm"

"Many 2014-2016 subaru forester are known to have front control arm bushings. The practice it to replace the entire control arm as a kit rather than just the bushing because of the labor. This was going to cost me $950.00"

"Ball joint worn. Probably due to control arm issue and vibration"

"front wheel bearings needed replacement at 70000"

"Rear wheel bearing noise. Had to replace."

""basically, they were just wearing out...quiet whirring sound when driving, no danger, took care of problem relatively quickly""

""Both rear wheel bearings failed at 86000 miles. Considering that they are not a maintenance item, they should have lasted longer.""

"Noise started about 6 months ago and got progressively louder. Finally had left rear wheel bearing replaced. Found out this is fairly common on this model year but no factory recall."

"Both rear wheel bearings failed and had to be replaced within 12 months"

"Dealer informed at routine services"

"Second wheel bearings changed on this car. Loud droning noise while driving"

"Simply wheel bearing(s) wore out. Had replaced 1 front at 170000kms and two rear at 198000km. Probably didn't need to replace both but tech thought the second rear bearing was "starting" to make noise so I decided to replace. Will likely need to replace the last bearing within the next 12 months but let's see! I consider this a wear item at these kms."

"Right rear wheel bearing replaced"

"Again wheel bearings failed on one side after around 70k on the car."

"The ac compressor had to be replaced. The ac compressor did not activate the ac clutch when the ac was in use"

"Great car for the northeast, not a warm climate car. Living in Arizona, this car has in the last few years has struggled with the heat. O rings leaking, unable to hold charge, $1800.00 to replace"

""No cold air coming through vents, scheduled service at Subaru dealership within following 2 weeks, $1,000 to repair""

"A/C Compressor failed and needed to be replaced"

"compressor failed. Dealer covered it even though it was out of warranty"

"AC dies after about 2 hours in hot weather. Several summers now"

"A/c was only blowing warm air; compressor repair was needed"

"not a lot to say. AC stopped blowing cold air."

"The A/C coil needed repacment due to a leak."

""The air conditioner compressor required replacement at 191,000 km.""

"The A/C unit worked flawlessly since 2016, then failed in 2025. Replace at a cost of $1600. Not sure of the details but the clutch quit working"

"only blows cold for 15 minutes"

"blower was replaced and it still made noises."

"The air conditioning has never been great on this car. Had to replace the condenser recently cause it stopped blowing cold air."

"the fan control had to be replaced and the highest level fan speed didnt work."

"A/C failed due to malfunction of the control panel. Compressor may have to be replaced in future"

"AC struggles in very hot weather. I didnt investigate why"

"The air is out and we are not trying to get it fixed do to the price and down time involved"

"Its still being looked into. We just had this problem surface in past week"

"My A/C had become ineffective. The dealer's service department found leakage from the A/C expansion valve. They replaced four O-Rings and refilled with refrigerant. This is the second A/C failure for this vehicle. In 2022 it was loosing refrigerant due to cracks on the condenser. I was surprised this component had failed so soon. I had the condenser replaced at that time."

""As I was feeling Freeon smell from the vents, the dealer tested the vehicle to verify my concerns and found expansion valve leaking. As a correction action dealer replaced expansion valve, vaccuumed A/C system, charged A/C system with refirgerant & tested the vehincle to be ok after the repair.""

"The air conditioner was simply not as cold as usual at the beginning of this summer. My husband bought refrigerant and put it in himself. It has been nice and cool since then. No major repairs."

"Refrigerant had to be flush and recharged twice within 12 months. Need to return to service station to have it checked for dye leak."

""The display screen freezes and you can't do anything! Radio volume then won't adjust, high or lower.""

""The infotainment system suffers issues that appear to be widespread for Subarus. The navigation system intermittently freezes, which will cause the entire system to freeze. The system will occasionally have problems pairing with a known phone, which will cause a freeze. The system is just not as reliable as we would wish.""

"Electrical problems traced to Sears installing the wrong battery."

""Almost impossible to reset time, particularly minutes""

""Sirius XM service goes in/out. Sirius claims it is a known Subaru defect, Subaru refers me to Sirius""

"Head unit had to be replaced by Subaru."

"Infotainment head stopped working correctly. Navigation system stopped working and the touchscreen stopped working."

"Display is weak and often difficult to read. electrical problems traced to Sears installing the wrong battery."

"The GPS freezes the entire Starlink Touch Screen system if utilized. Radio and other items do not work if GPS is used. A software update was available for the system, but the dealership would not issue it to me if they could not replicate the problem with immediacy (they did not drive the vehicle after activating the GPS, so the issues did not arise again immediately). As a result, the software update they were holding hostage would cost me $300. I declined and will not do business with this dealership again. I no longer use the GPS in my car and use the one on my phone when needed. To my knowledge the problem has not resolved itself. I refuse to use the in-car system for anything besides radio because I do not want to risk it happening again."

""The navigation system is proprietary, expensive to update, and is prone to glitches and freezes.""

"I have two issues I think are related to detection of the shifter state. First, starting this past winter, sometimes it doesn't detect when I shift to reverse, so the backup camera doesn't come on. When it IS working, it still leaves the camera on an extended period of time when moving forward. Not super long, but long enough to clearly be a departure from the original behavior. It mostly occurs in cold weather. I'm not fully convinced, but according to the dealer, this is an issue with the head unit. Software updates may have mildly improved but did not fix things (could have been coincidence with the weather warning up too). Second, about a month ago, it seems like it doesn't always detect park state, and won't let me remove the key from the ignition. I have to cycle the electronics on and run the shifter out and back into park before it will let the key turn back past the safety catch. It happens pretty frequently, I'd guess around 25% of the time I park it. It still drives fine with these issues, but they are major annoyances. I consider the backup camera a safety issue too, since it makes it much harder to see pedestrians when backing out of parking spaces in crowded lots."

""The audio does not work every time I use my iPhone gps. Sometimes,I hear the directions. Other times, I have to read the info on the iPhone.""

"The radio/entertainment touch screen stops responding to touching the screen. We can do rudimentary changes/controls with the knobs and steering wheel buttons, but it is very challenging and makes the radio system pretty inconvenient. This has happened with two systems. Subaru replaced the first one. We have not asked about the second."

"About 9 months ago the touch screen stopped working. It no longer responds to touch. We can operate the radio using the controls on the steering wheel but no other functions work."

"Doesn't work"

"System just failed to pair with my Android phone repeatedly."

"When using satellite radio, advertised display and playback functions do not work. They work fine with AM/FM radio. This has been an issue since I bought the vehicle and at this point will never be resolved."

"Station choice doesn't work"

""Speakers have lately been working intermittently (went out twice) then suddenly went back on again. Likely an electronics glitch. Sometimes, when i get a text message, the front speakers go out""