Subaru Forester

"It started shortly after I bought the car in 2019. The battery kept dying. They gave me a new battery but the problem came back about 2 years later. I kept having to call roadside assistance to jump start my car. Finally last year they said the battery was inadequate to support all the electrical systems and I ended up having to purchase a larger battery and pan to the tune of $700. It appears to have solved the problem. We will see."

"It needs a battery. The dealer says it takes a very specific battery. The cost is $430.00. Yikes!"

"Replaced battery & thermo control valve all under extended warranty."

"The voice recognition in the installed navigation system doesn't work correctly. You can't use your voice to enter an address. Voice control on the phone works fine."

"Failure of heat control module"

"Thermostat device failed, replaced under warranty"

"Developed bad hip so find it uncomfortable getting in and out of the car. Opening and closing doors very stiff"

"Thermo Control Valve failed. Repaired under warranty"

"Had to change the battery"

"Battery failure several times at stop lights/stop signs. Car came to a dead stop and shut off completely. Turned out the original battery installed in vehicle was not adequate to handle all the demands of the various apps! It was scary. It seems that this oroblem was widespread, but I hadnt received any notice about it! My local Subaru dealer installed an upgraded battery at no charge, but new battery resulted in a choppier ride."

"Check engine light went on while driving. A gasket was needed. Brought to dealer, got a loaner car and was fixed for the next day."

"Battery failed - would not hold a charge, replaced free by dealer as they had a battery problem, although it's not a recall."

"battery has gone out twice in the past 12 months."

"Hose came loose after oil change and inspection, causing check engine light to come on and requiring appointment to diagnose and fix. mechanics error, not mechanical flaw in vehicle."

"the engine turning off at a light started to not work correctly, a few times it did not turn itself back on when I took my foot off the brake. It turned out to be a battery and software problem and the dealer replaced the battery and fixed the software free of charge."

"Recall for the 2019 occurred while driving which meant getting towed 250 miles to a Subaru dealer"

"Wheel bearings needed replacing in both front wheels. Certified car so dealer repair-no parts available for WEEKS-car noisy and sloppy driving until repaired."

"60K maintenance was outrageously expensive. $1800"

"The thermo control valve suddenly failed, multiple trouble lights alerted me to contact Subaru immediately, which I did. I had to travel quite a distance to have it serviced and it was a major inconvenience but they fit me in right away, provided me with a loaner vehicle, and replaced the failed part with a new one on the same day. Subaru service was exemplary and the car is once again driving beautifully..."

"Failure of Thermo Control Valve causing all safety features to shutdown. While replacing the valve, the mechanic caused a fuel leak. Subaru paid for both repairs."

"Dead battery in the morning. Occurs average once a week."

"The car occasionally stalls after a stop. I have brought it to the dealer but the problem while lessened, continues."

"themocontrol valve assembly"

"Rubber bushing on front supension"

"Serial battery failures. The battery would be found discharged if the car sat unused, garaged, for 2-3 days. The dealer replaced batteries with my extended warranty, sometimes a prorated copay, 3 or 4 times over half a year. Subaru was involved in a class action lawsuit over the failed design of the Starlink system that turned itself on and drained the battery at a high rate when the car was keyed off and locked up. The dealer wouldn't or couldn't discuss the problem in those terms, but after the third failure it seems some corrective updates or modifications have been done. The current battery has been stable for several months now."

"Engine warning light came on while driving, with several lights blinking. Called the dealer and they had me come out to check it. The problem did not present itself while I was there, so I went home. Experienced problem again, dealer tested it, said it's the Thermal Control Valve and would be replaced under a new Subaru extended warranty specifically for that problem. Technician replaced the valve and engine warning light came on again! Tech determined that the new part was defective and replaced it again. No cost to me other than time and whatever potential damage has been done from the failed valve. Car is OK so far..."

"Driver side window does not close properly. Must try multiple times to get it to fully close. Dealer unsuccessful repairing issue"

"I needed new wiring harness because an animal ate thru the insulation and caused a short. I needed a new ECU computer because somehow it worked it's way loose and caused a check engine conditioned that caused the entire car to shut down while traveling at 65 miles an hour on Interstate 81."

"Sometimes there is no sound coming from Carplay"

"The head unit occasionally fails to recognize a connected iPhone that is running Apple or Google maps, preventing navigation. There is no consistency in these random failures."

"subaru forrester AM/FM radio just goes out every 5 months or so."

"stops working"

"The display screen abruptly went blank one day. While not critical to operating the car, it did show the car's hvac controls and was annoying. It was fixed by a dealer by disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and letting the display reboot. It worked and has worked since."

"Occasionally Apple carplay, and sometimes the radio as well, will not function. This usually continues until the car (not just the head unit) is turned off and turned back on again."

"Sometimes iPhone music automatically pairs and pair.sometimes it is necessary to manually. Unpredictable from one car start to the next."

"The music infotainment system has not worked right since we bought the car in 2022, they finally solved the issue this year."

"the amp failed and was replaced, making audio fail"

"Many newer addresses not found"

"If you do not buy subscription for Starlink, their software blocks direction voice from your paired phone, stops Subaru app from fully functioning, and periodically has issues pairing usual phone device"

"Telemetry drained the battery. Problem seemed to begin almost three years after bought car. Killed the OEM battery. Wife bought NAPA battery ($150) while I was away on trip. It was drained, too. Got letter from Subaru about battery. Took car to Subaru. NAPA battery no good! Must have our battery and since battery not OEM must pay full price ($400). I did research on Internet. Problem was Telemetry, not the batteries. Finally, I prevailed, almost. Subaru Company gave me a $900 reduced price to replace the Telemetry unit. There is still a drain of 0.4 volts during 24 hours after engine turned off. With a 0.05 volt drain forever. I live in mountains. Agency is 70 miles from my house. Several round trips and my time that were not paid for."

"Many dash lights came on, replacing the Emission Check Valve solved the problem. Also, rust problem on frame below drivers door, Subaru refused to fix. Paid a body shop to fix it."

"After installation of new software began I received an error message. The installation stopped and I was left with a totally non-functioning Infotainment system, including music, navigation, backup camera, etc. I called Subaru customer service and they attempted to walk me through a fix, which didn't work. I ended up sitting at a dealership for 2 hours, after which functionality was restored."

"Phone will pair but only with specific apps. Not able to use Google maps. Reparing didn't solve problem. Only video screen display but no audio whatsoever. Same problem with some other apps."

"Volume of some incoming calls are way to loud"

"It worked with our iPhone for about 2 years then abruptly stopped in the last year or so."

"Hanging up from a phone call and the radio comes on BLARING which is not the setting from prior to the call."

"iPhone sometimes does not automatically pair and must be paired manually."

"On occasion, the radio does not turn on. Most of the times I can turn the car off and turn it back on and the radio now works"

"Volume very high and control does not work."

"stops working !!!"

"Does not keep preset radio stationsunclear when the presets are erased, but it probably erases everything every 1 to 3 trips (everything is gone when the car turns on). Also not possible to adjust the clock for daylight savings time (only adjusts when paired to certain phones)"

"Radio just stops, radio has been replaced twice under warranty. Still stops from time to time"

"had to have roadside assistance jump the battery about 5 times. then i brought a unit to jump it when home and used it 3 or more times."

"New car battery failed after only 2 years of use. Not enough electrical power for ignition. Battery was relaced.New battery failed after 3 years of use. Insufficient ignition power. Battery replaced again. Service tech advised me that Subaru had elected to replace batteries as needed rather than do a recall for electical problems."

"Battery wouldn't start car, despite trying to use a battery charger. Had previously had battery replaced under warranty for a similar reason. Persisted for many attempts over many days. However, dealer said it could not find a problem and it has worked reliably since. So there was a definite problem but it seems to have been some type of glitch that resolved itself (or perhaps was fixed during dealer diagnosis)."

"Parasitic battery drain from DCM"

"My 12v battery was replaced two times, because it was getting discharged. Was change after 3 years and 5 years, all under warranty"

"Low voltage, 2nd replacement"

"Design makes it hard to replace the battery and it is time consuming to take it into the shop"

"Will constantly receive "Eyes on the road" messages when laser focused on the road. Originally, car gave tire pressure in PSI, now only in metric. Will randomly receive 'Driver Monitoring System Disabled' for no reason."

"Horn stuck on. Cost $1200 to repair at dealer because airbag was replaced."

"Keyless entry can be programmed to open all doors or only front doors. We chose to open all doors, but option is executed only sometimes (sometimes all doors and sometimes only front doors)."

"This is the same rear gate problem. I wasnt sure how to report it on the survey. The gate would open with the remote, the switch on the gate or the switch in the drivers dash."

"Key fob was defective"

"The rear gate would not open and we had to take it to Subaru three times to fix the problem. We had to crawl thru the SUV to pop the trunk."

"I had never previously had problems with my car's battery. However, the original battery was 5 years old. It died when I was visiting out of town relatives, and I went to Costco and bought a new one. Everything seemed fine. 5 days later, the new one died. It would not start one morning and when I measured it with a voltmeter it was less than 2 volts. I charged it up to 13 volts and saw that it was slowly decaying. An hour later it was back to under 2 volts and I could not start the car. I had it towed to Subaru. Before they would look at it. They required me to go to Subarubatterysettlement.com and get an application number. I did this, and they replaced my battery free. They did two checks looking for parasitic loads and found them both negative. I am in an electrical engineer and I am very skeptical that it is not something in the car causing this problem. That was the issue with the battery settlement filing. I am monitoring the battery and trying to find out what could have killed both batteries. By the way, did you know about the Subaru battery settlement issue? It seems to be something Subaru doesn't want to tell anybody until something goes wrong with their battery. Under the settlement I guess I can have my battery replaced multiple times in the next 2 years. However, if I have further problems, I will undoubtedly sell this car and not get another one. I am hoping that's not the final result."

"The auto/start system became disabled. Required new hood latch for 375$"

"The rear hatch opener did not function properly or sometimes would not open at all."

"Automatic start-stop causes the car to fail once hot - fails completely, all dash warnings on, must turn off car in park gear and restart. Also had airbag sensor go off but was not in an accident, expensive repair to replace airbag unit."

"the rear door hatch is overly sensitive and failed to operate when closed causing the better to drain completely"

"Side mirrors stopped working. Had to have them replaced at the dealership. It happened more than once."