By Indy! April 5, 2025 8:21 am Category: Horror (0.0 from 0 votes)
Rules of the Post
Just a bit of serious posting here. My parents handed down their Suburu Forester to me last year - first non-Honda car I've had since 1984(?). The Forester had a lot of miles on it - about 110K - but it was in wonderful condition because my parents took care of it and garage-kept it the entire time. So it still looked brand new and everything worked fine. Couple weeks back I took it in to let my mechanic give it a tune-up, check the A/C which had stopped working and give it a once over to make sure there were no hidden issues. Well to say he found some problems would be the understatement of the year. It needed brakes (okay - standard maintenance), control arms, ball joints, a power steering flush and a radiator which was shooting water out of a hole in the top near the outlet hose. That's what it needed immediately - then there were other problems that could wait, but would need attention within a year... the rear (hydraulic) shocks were leaking, the transmission is a closed system (IOW - no dipstick to check it) that needed to be checked, the indicator dashboard lights had some issue, etc....
Okay - all well and good and quite expensive, however it gets worse. Knowing nothing about Suburus (because I'm a Honda guy) - I did a little research on the internet. The basic story is Suburus are great until they get to 100K miles or so - then basically everything goes. Yes, plenty of cars (especially in the past) have the same problem. But here's the kicker... As noted above, my radiator was blowing water out of a hole in the top. My mechanic said when he first looked at it, the radiator was almost bone dry (which is usually what happens with a hole in the radiator - duh). But I never got a warning light on the dash that the car was possibly overheating (which it probably was) and never saw smoke coming from under the hood or anything that would make me think there was a problem. Right - the mechanic said something about the dash indicator lights so maybe it's just my car? No, apparently it is a HUGE issue with Suburus. I found multiple stories from people who were driving along burned up their engines because they never got a warning light either.
Then there is the transmission issue. Because the transmission is a closed system, it's not easy to check it. I think my mechanic wanted $189 just to open it up and see what's up. He said I could probably wait on that since there didn't seem to be any issues when he test drove it. However - again - MULTIPLE people had stories about driving along and the transmission suddenly locking up on them. One guy was on the highway doing 60 and suddenly it was like he slammed on the brakes.
Just a heads-up since I see Curt is driving a 2005 Suburu and Old Dud says he has one too. My Suburu was a 2011 Forester given to me for nothing, so not the end of the world. I had planned on driving it for at least another 40K miles (it was great for moving large stuff around). But honestly - I did not feel safe driving it after that so I traded it in on a newer (non-Suburu) vehicle.
Comments Start Below
The views and claims expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of SelectSmart.com. Not every statement made here can be assumed to be a fact.
