general problems of the 2017 Subaru Forester - part 2

I had to get my catalytic converter replaced after discovering an exhaust leak. The shop that performed my work said he has seen numerous Subaru Foresters with the same exact problem. The vehicle has not sustained any damage or been in any accidents that might warrant this issue to have occurred.

I bought a certified pre-owned 2017 Subaru Forester on June 19 2020. I have had an intermittent safety issue with the vehicle not responding correctly when I try to accelerate since. When I press the gas pedal the car will begin to accelerate with my rpms rising normally. Then my rpms will start to drop when they would normally rise and my car stops or maintains the acceleration prior. Once they have dropped they will stay there for a little and then will shoot up suddenly and red line. I have tried a variety of things to prevent this from happening; I have taken my foot off the gas, kept the same or more pressure on the gas, and breaking. Regardless of what I do the vehicle red lines and my speed will either drop or stay the same. I have taken the vehicle to Subaru dealerships on 3 separate occasions and it was returned to me without diagnosing or repairing the problem. The last time I drove my vehicle it did this again and the rpms red lining causing my engine to fail. I was accelerated from a stop at a street light and the vehicle stopped accelerating even though I was pressing the accelerator. The rpms redlined and my engine began making a terrible noise that we later discovered was from unrepairable engine damage. The vehicle has now been at the dealership for over a month to replace my engine and try to fix this issue. Every week they tell me I will get it back the next week and then something else fails or causes a set back. I bought a Subaru Forester because of advertisements about how "safe" and �reliable� they are supposed to be. Instead I have had near misses when merging onto the interstate or turning across traffic in a busy denver intersection because the vehicle doesn't respond as expected. The dealership has ignored my concerns by either saying "that just happens with Foresters sometimes" or "we can't fix it unless we can replicate it. �.

When you shut the engine off you can't take the keys out off the ignition.

Periodically unable to remove key from the ignition. Has been happening more frequently over the past 2 months. Key is "locked" in ignition, unable to completely "turn off" key switch and therefore unable to remove the key. Only resolution has been to turn the vehicle back on and shift the gears and reattempt to turn car off and remove key. This is also, likely, affecting being able to use the remote start for my vehicle.

Key gets stuck in ignition when parked. Must constantly move shifter back and forth and slam into park. Subaru service bulletin 16-112-18r. Seems to be a popular problem as per forum. Constant problem at this time.

Car check engine light went on while driving. Safety features advertised with the Subaru Forester such as blind spot detection, cruise control, forward accident avoidance all stopped working. Once the code was cleared from the car, these safety features returned. The check engine light was caused by failure to secure gas cap tightly. I believe that safety features should not be disabled with check engine light going onb.

After parking and turning off the engine, the key can't be removed from the ignition. The key will only move to the accessory position and no further. Eventually by restarting the engine, driving back and forth and sometimes turning the wheels a little I've been able to remove the key from the ignition. I brought my car in to a Subaru service center and left it there for it to be checked tomorrow.

Have a 2017 Forester. At least a couple times a week, the key get stuck in the ignition. You can turn the car off, but you can't remove the key. If I start the car back up, and shift it into drive, and them slam it back into park, then I can turn the car off and remove the key.

After driving the car and placing it in "park", the key could not be extracted from the ignition. Putting the car into different gears was of no help, sometimes able to restart the car and then extract the key. Has happened multiple times in past month. Luckily, by shifting gears or straightening out the wheel, or driving a bit more I was able to remove key. By slowly removing key. I have been able to remove key. However, afraid that one time key wont be removed using these methods.

Smell of gasoline at startup. The car has only 30000 miles on it and seems to be a widely reported problem/issue with Subarus of all makes/models. This was not in cold weather. This is a major safety issue!.

After driving the car and placing it in "park", the key could not be extracted from the ignition. Putting the car into different gears was of no help. I was sometimes able to restart the car and then extract the key, but not every time. My choices were to return home or leave my car in the parking lot with the key in it while draining the battery while this may seem more an inconvenience than a safety issue, on some occasions this resulted in my battery becoming so weak that my car wouldn't crank leaving me stranded until I could find someone to help me jump off my car. After three of these incidents, I began disconnecting the battery cables when I couldn't remove the key. I looked online and found that many people were having the same issue with their Subarus of various models. They said that the guide plate in the shifter assembly was faulty. The dealership stated that this was a common problem and they kept those parts in stock. They did replace the guide plate which corrected the issue. My question if so many people have the same issue (with a correction cost of $500) why isn't there a recall? I personally have an extended warranty which covered all but $100 of the repair, but people who don't have the extended warranty will have to pay the full $500 just to get a key out of the ignition. It is my understanding that Subaru now uses a different guide plate in the latest models. Subaru knows this is a problem in the cars that are 2-3 years old. They need to be honest with consumers so that they don't risk being stranded due to a weakened battery because of faulty guide plates and they need to correct the problem free of charge as it is a safety concern.

I was driving straight at a speed of 35 mph in town. I was approaching a red light, as I went to break the car did not slow down but seemed to speed up. It took a lot of force on the break to stop completely.

When in motion coming to a stop on local street, hitting brakes, Forester makes sounds on both front wheels but more on front right wheel area needing to brake harder. Wife and son were on freeway in motion, hitting brakes made click click sound and having to brake harder coming to a full stop wife.

Black foam insulation keeps falling out of my windshield. They have already replaced my windshield previously and had the same problem. They previously put me in a loaner while windshield was on back order. It was a safety concern that the windshield might blow out. They are now telling me this time that this is a known problem problem with the Forester. The service advisor told me to just push it back in with a ruler or just pull it out. How can this be a safe solution. What if I have no insulation left ? is my windshield going to blow out ? is it loose now ? I have a brand new grandson, should I be putting him in my car with a fear of the windshield blowing out ? they keep telling me that some guy named liam from NJ will be calling me back. He hasn't called yet and it is almost a week now. Can you please get me some answers about the foam insulation falling out. The dealership keeps telling me to get a ruler and push back in or just pull it out.

The key keeps getting stuck in the ignition after you turn the car off.

My car stole in the middle off highway on a very busy traffic time,, I can hear the engine but the car did not move, finally it moved very slowly and stop again, I almost got hit many times since vehicles were speeding over 65miles and no one will allow me to move to the shoulder, finally after 10 minutes the car engine accelerated and I was able to drive away, very scary situaci�n.

Twice today when car was off, in park, with park brake applied, ignition would not allow key to release. �fix� was to restart car, put it in drive, then back to park one or more times until key could finally be removed.

Often I cannot initially remove the key from the ignition after I have put the transmission in park, after I have stopped the car and am ready to shut off the engine. I then have to move the automatic transmission to drive and then back to park at least one more time before the key will finally move to the far left and allow me to remove it and shut off the engine. This has started happening about 2 weeks ago (the car has 41k miles and most recently yesterday after parking it in my garage on level ground!.

Continuous battery drainage issues. Over the past half a year I've had 3 battery replacements. My car was under warranty when the first battery replacement happened but has since then lapsed. In all of the cases, the battery would die after 2-3 days of not starting the car. Dealership insists that this is normal.

While parking the car in a parking lot going at 10 mph, the car suddenly accelerated at top speed went over a curb and hit a tree. The car then went in reverse at full speed in a circle approximately six times until the key could finally be removed. The brakes were working but would not stop the car.

The key fob gets stuck in the ignition and can't be taken out. I have to play with the center console drive shifter to go in and out of park position until it finally turns and comes out. Please reference TSB 16-112-18r.

My 2017 Subaru Forester battery died in June 2019, leaving me stranded in a parking lot on a Sunday 50 miles from my home. The battery was still under warranty & was replaced by Subaru. I was told by the service manager that the batteries only last approximately 2 years. In early oct 2021, my car sat idle for 10 days in the airport parking garage at jfk int'l airport in nyc while I was away. When I returned home, the battery was dead, again stranding my approximately 50 miles from my home. I had to get a jump from a tow company who found that the red terminal on the battery was completely corroded. He advised that I would need to get a new battery when I returned home. I brought the car to Subaru the next day & was told by a tech in the service department that the battery was fine & was at 100% capacity but that the issue was a defective cable connected to the battery which they replaced. I had occasion to bring my Forester to Subaru for service yesterday (11/8/2021) and had the battery checked. This time a more thorough check was done & although the battery again tested at 100%, when it was checked for its capacity from a "cold start", it tested as weak. Again, Subaru replaced the battery.

Windshield cracked straight across. Looking to see if this is part of the class action lawsuit. We have replaced the windshield.

Steering wheel completely locked, unable to turn on vehicle, wheel straight, took me many tries and lots of turning and banging before I was able to turn the key to start vehicle. Also, on going problem with the bluetooth with late pick up connection. Connection will start after one is half way into conversation making the purpose of having a bluetooth useless.

Accident 9/24/2017, 2017 Subaru Forester, 11,000. Miles. Driving slowly in a shopping parking lot, on a dry sunny morning, around 10 am, after pushing on the brakes my car accelerated. My car ran on it's own when turned off, then I put it in park, it lunged over a cement planter, on off and put in park, it hit a tree a few times before it stopped itself. There was bumper damage. Geico my insurer advised me to take it to prestige auto, in mission viejo, CA the brakes and cause of car acceleration was not worked on, the insurance company acted unethically, they didn't care if I got into another accident, they withheld information and urged me to take the car. I had it towed to the dealership I bought it from, they checked and would not take responsibility, I contacted Subaru of America, and I am waiting on them to inspect the manufacturer defect.

A/c failed during the guarantee of the car - faulty condenser - first time they add freon - then car blow hot air again - then they tried to put died and finally determine that condenser was the proble, after that it works fine . I want to point that customer service is well aware of the problems of each model but they expect the guarantee to expire . . .

My 2017 Subaru Forester blows hot air from a/c. It is not acceptable for the new car like that. Checked with repair shop, the air compressor is bad. I have suffered this in the hot summer. Subaru needs recall this. This is the known issue for every Subaru user.

We have a 2017 Forester Subaru 2. 5i with 12,548 miles. The SUV will randomly jerk, jump and has stalled in hwy & city traffic twice. Other times it will hesitate and seem to shift out of gear for 30 or more seconds. It seems to occur within a couple of miles after driving. Mostly after making a turn. Also we can feel hesitations, transmission shifting when driving at speeds of 40 to 65 miles. This has been a minor problem the last four months until the SUV stopped twice in traffic. Until it stopped in traffic online research "problems with 2017 Subaru" (please check this out) indicates this is a cvs transmission problem. Numerous complaints verify that it is most likely a transmission glitch . I took the SUV to the dealer's service dept. Their tests did not indicate the problem. We drive our grandchildren to numerous activities. We will not do so as we do not want to risk their safety, having the car stop while driving in traffic could result in a serious accident. We no longer feel safe driving the car until this issue can be found. Please look into this as it may put others in harms way.

When I put my key in to start it wont turn over it takes 3-5 minutes with working it to turn over. This a year old car and it does 3 times a month.

After backing up, I removed my foot from the brake, put the car in drive and lightly touched the accelerator (I was in a small parking lot). The accelerator left my foot and fully depressed by itself which caused an accident.

07/03/17 first oil change. Several days after car hesitates upon acceleration. 07/14 car stalls while merging into roundabout. Restart car & it runs ok. 07/15 car stalls multiple times while entering intersection. Turn off eyesight & car runs. Do not drive car for several days. Bring car to dealer 07/20. 07/26 pick up car. No satisfactory resolution. Stalling perhaps due to mouse's nest or an oil overfill. 08/02 car stalls multiple times while pulling into traffic. Won't run with or without eyesight. Car towed to dealer. Problems reported to Subaru main office. 08/14 car still at dealer with no resolution yet. Unless a specific cause & fix to this problem is found I will not feel safe driving this car again. I have a word document with all the details but am unable to attach it to this form.

I have had to have my windshield replace 3 times in my 2017 Subaru Forester. Seems to me to be a lot. In 45 years of driving, I've not had to have that many windshields replaced, total. One time the damage was definitely from a rock hit. Recently I've had a chip repaired from a rock hit.

Car stalls, mostly in intersections when we turn either left or right, mid-turn. Also, the steering wheel, plastic, is dangerously-slippery, expecially during those stalls in heavy traffic when panic sets in.

Cvt transmission fluid was not filled with the specific amount from the factory. This is the second issue with this brand new car. First they didn't fill enough freon for ac so it started blowing off hot air at 1400miles a month after I bought. And at two months not enough transmission fluid. I'm worried what else they did not put enough or is thei quality checking good enough to put the cars like mine on the market.