Body Problems of Subaru Forester - part 2

Tailgate problem - car was in stopped position. I was unloading groceries so opened the tailgate. The tailgate opened and paused in it's highest position for a second and then slammed abruptly with intense speed. The speed of the closure is enough to injure someone or cause death. This is a very serious issue. . Read more...

See all problems of the 2014 Subaru Forester 🔎.

My drivers side door seal has repeatedly come loose from the door. This usually happens in very hot or cold conditions. I struggle with it on an irregular basis. Recently my passenger's side door is doing the same thing and is more resistant to being put back into place.

Driving on highway trunk opened up, lock is totally not working and had to drive with a open latch. This was replaced under a recall and still its bad.

See all problems of the 2019 Subaru Forester 🔎.

The car has a power assisted hatchback. When it fails to latch, the power is completely drained from the car, and there is zero indication of this happening, until the next day when an attempt is made to start the car. We've been stranded twice in our car and twice on the road. It's all due to the robotics not getting a signal to stop trying to keep it open. We notified the dealer twice by April of 2021. The second time they replaced the battery and we failed to convince them that this was a symptom, not the cause per many tsbs. In March of 2022 we were traveling and the hatch failed to latch. It would beep all the time. We took it to another dealer in baton rouge, who ordered a latch back in atlanta. We drove it hundreds of mails beeping. The electrical system failed the next morning - again. We got the car started, made it back to atlanta, and had the latch replaced by a 3rd dealer. Our original dealer says we are not eligible for the replacement hardware/software fix in the robotics (as distinct from the latch) to stop parasitic draining unlike identical cars made in this year. We do not trust this car until it's fixed.

I turned into a parking space covering the brake and came to a stop. I went to shift into park and when the gearshift lever started to move the car accelerated uncommanded and ran into the building.

See all problems of the 2018 Subaru Forester 🔎.

The linkage cable between the drivers' front interior door handle and the door latching mechanism became unhooked somehow during normal usage, rendering the door inoperable from the interior. Simply removing the interior trim from the door and reattaching the linkage fixed the problem, but until then the door was only useable from the exterior of the vehicle.

See all problems of the 2020 Subaru Forester 🔎.

A large fracture on the windshield appeared (roughly 16 inches long) with, in my opinion, no obvious impact. I only noticed the fracture after the vehicle had been parked for a period of time. I took the car to the Subaru dealership to get the fracture inspected. The service manager ran a ball-point pen along the fracture and found a small indentation (less than 1/32 inch deep) near the a pillar. The dealership claimed that this indicated the fracture was due to an impact and not a defective windshield. Consequently, the dealership refused to replace the windshield. I have since filed a claim with my insurance and I am in the process of getting the windshield replaced.

Hello, I own a Subaru Forester sport 2020 and I have the driver side rear window implode without any reason. The car was parked alone for less than one hour and I came out of the house to use it and the window was in a million little pieces with no sign of entry or any object to suggest that it was an act of vandalism. The police came and did a through-rough investigation and could not find a motive or reason. At the end it was assigned as vandalism. However, after further searching online, there is a pending lawsuit christine powell vs. Subaru of America due to this reason which is windows and windshields cracking or imploding without any reason. Subaru is not taking responsibility and even asked the lawsuit to be dismissed. The number of complains keeps increasing and insurance companies and owners have to foot the bill to get equally bad replacement windows. I am deeply concern for the integrity of the car and also my safety and that of my passengers.

Vehicle was driving next to an RV on the freeway. Rv kicked up small debris onto windshield. Windshield immediately had about 16 inch crack.

Windshield is extremely fragile. I haven't even had this car for two years yet and its already had two cracked windshields due to road debris. I've heard that Subaru made the glass thinner to save weight, not sure if that is true, but it seems crazy to have the windshield crack so easily (driving on regular roads, mostly highway). Also the glass is very expensive, and since my car is equipped with eyesight, it also needs to be recalibrated each time its replaced. I've had other cars for five times longer and never had two cracked windshields in the life of the car. Maybe something is going on with the Subaru oem glass that needs to be investigated? thanks.

See all problems of the 2017 Subaru Forester 🔎.

Subaru Forester 2019 model cracked windshield by it self.

Back hood latch stuck and won't open.

On the morning of October 1, 2020, I pulled the car out of my garage. I was the only occupant,. The car was parked facing the wall, on the opposite side of the garage door, and I had to back out of the garage into my driveway, putting the car in reverse. I then had to turn right, into my driveway leading to the street. After I shifted the gear from reverse into drive, the car started moving forward spontaneously, and I was unable to stop it, nor steer the steering wheel. My right foot was on the brake pedal, but I was unable to stop the vehicle. The brake pedal felt hard and would not go down. I found the car going forwards towards the garage, but slightly to the right of the open garage door. I was also not able to turn the car with the steering wheel, which was also stiff. I was fully aware of the failure, and my inability to control the vehicle, with the car going towards my house, and the brake not being effective. My wife, dr. Geetha rao who was at the door, was watching and helpless. The car then hit the pillar/ post, between my garage doors and stopped, hitting the right side, of the front of the vehicle into the garage post. I notified my insurance company and drove the car to Subaru's service center, and has since left the car there. I had met experienced a similar situation about 2-3 days earlier. At that time, I did not think much of it. The car is with the service department of bill kolb jr, Subaru dealer, and the service manager, can explain the damages to the car, as it has been with them since the incident. My wife was standing at the door and witnessed the incident. The investigation was then handed over to Subaru America , who further forwarded it to bosch engineering. Subaru America now wants to me take the car without explanation for the failure. I have requested a copy of the report, which Subaru has denied .

Windshield cracking: I have 7k miles on my 2020 Forester and have had to replace the windshield twice already within 2 months of each other. The first time I'm not even sure if I was hit by anything. I had been driving on the highway for a couple hours and I parked it in my driveway. When I came out an hour later the entire windshield was cracked left to right. The second time while driving on the highway, I was hit by a very small pebble that left the tiniest of nicks - initially barely even visible. Within an hour it stretched across the entire windshield. I live in az - it's going to happen occasionally. But all my other cars over the years had lots of tiny and not-so-tiny nicks from small rocks that never spread out at all. The windshield on my prior 2014 Forester with 90k miles on it only had to be replaced twice in 6 years. In both cases I was hit by larger pepples that left significant (like 1/2 inch) spider nicks. I am convinced there is something going on with the 2020 Forester windshield - maybe the pitch or a manufacturing/design issue. But this is potentially dangerous and a real inconvenience. If it happens again soon, I will trade it in. It's a shame because I love this vehicle otherwise. My cousin in CA btw has had to replace the windshield in his 2019 Forester four times in 17k miles.

One day I looked up at my windshield and there is a scratch/crack visible on the inside. Nothing hit it.

Windshield cracked unexpectedly while going 35 mph on a surface road.

Tl- the contact owns a 2016 Subaru Forester. The contact that the rear passenger window imploded with a loud noise, without impact, leaving chunky pieces of glass, large enough to have struck and hurt someone. The vehicle called the koeppel Subaru dealer, located 42-01 northern blvd, queens, NY 11101, (347) 846-0660 and scheduled an appointment to take the vehicle to the shop. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately.

See all problems of the 2016 Subaru Forester 🔎.

The top nut of the rear left lift gate piston ball snapped/rusted off causing the back hatch to drop violently as we were unloading the car. Hitting my daughter on the back and my husband on the head knocking them to the ground. The car was parked in our driveway on a flat surface. I took it to ruges Subaru in rhinebeck NY to have it fixed. I was charged for it and got home to find out they never fixed it, stating I declined replacement, which I did not, but was still charged for it.

Cracked front windshield.

On June 16th, 2020 my vehicle was straight in motion on a city street. Randomly, a crack appeared on the driver side part of the windshield. I have no idea what caused this, but the dealership did not give me coverage for this incident.

The lift gate motor on my 2020 Forester does not shut off when the lift gate is open, it continues to cycle until the battery is dead. Subaru dealer says they're unaware of the problem even though a simple computer search found dozens of complaints for the same issue.

Oil is constantly having to be checked because this vehicle goes through lots of oil. I've put a newer engine in the car due to the first one doing this. Also the front right cv joint is about to need replacement and is loud. Both of these issues have happened as soon as I bought the car April 2020. Also, cruise control works on and off literally back windows won't come down, horn won't honk and bluetooth is horrible.

Steering wheel locked while car was being driven on highway, causing car to crash into guardrail on median, causing extensive bent frame of car and extensive body damage, causing car to be declared a total loss, and causing nerve damage in the neck of driver.

Cracking windshield once a year since last year.

Spontaneous crack in windshield.

The 2017 Forester was parked and had been parked for a week. While parked the temperature fell to 30 degrees f and the windshield cracked from the bottom up. This is in mason county washington state noticed Feb 21 2020.

The back lift gate will randomly stop opening. This has only been tested when the vehicle is stopped, in park with either engine running or shut off. It will sound 3 short beep/tones but will not function appropriately when the lift gate button is pushed in either the interior control, the key fob control, or the actual button on the lift gate. The only thing that fixes the issue is to disconnect the positive battery cable for a few minutes and reconnect it. This fix is temporary and the lift gate will again have the same issue. When discussing with the Subaru dealership they could not duplicate the issue.

I was parking at a busy ski center, car in drive as I was slowly pulling into an open space, car in first row of vehicles facing a small road. The road connects the parking lot with the ski shop . 5 mph would be normal speed on this road, where pedestrian skiers walk from the lot to the ski shop. Before I could stop to turn off the car, the engine started revving crazily, the car lurched forward and accelerated on its own. Brakes would not respond. I was able to steer onto the road, car accelerating faster and faster, no brakes, no control. There was a small car driving slowly some distance ahead, and I was gaining on it fast, a split second away from crushing it, so I deliberately swerved into a snowbank, hit some trees, and that finally stopped my car. I was unhurt. Extensive front end damage and passenger door damage front and back, and roof rack damage. Police came to the scene, car was towed by flatbed back to the dealer. Insurance paid for the repairs. Manufacturer will examine the vehicle thoroughly, will remove the "black box" to find what was the cause of unintended acceleration and loss of brakes. This examination may take 4-6 weeks. So fortunate that no one was injured or killed. I cannot estimate what speed the car reached on its own.

The vehicle was stationary. I pressed the power rear gate open button on the driver side dash, but the rear gate didn't open, and the car just beeped three times. The beeps would happen every time I tried to press the gate button on the car or on the faub. I opened the access panel and manually opened the door, extending the door to full height. When I pressed the buttons on the car, the power gate would go down but would slam shut and the car would issue a long beep. When I pressed the button either on the car or the faub to reopen the rear gate, it wouldn't budge and the three beeps happened again. I then pressed the buttons on the car and held them passed the three beeps until the gate unlocked and I was able to lift it open. The gate closed again when I pressed the lock/gate close buttons, slamming shut as before with the long beep. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the gate to open on its own ( with power). When I turned the car on, there was no indication that the rear gate was open, but when I put the car in drive and started to drive, the car continuously beeped until I stopped driving and put it in park. I turned it off and let it sit overnight. The next day, I tried to open the hatch as mentioned above and it still did not open, though I could manually open it if I held the buttons down beyond the three beeps. When I tried to turn the car on, though, it would not start. After I tried to start the car with the push button start, all the icons began flashing and clicking on the dash and control panels and the eyesight function was off and the car said to check vehicle function, all while flashing and clicking. When I pressed he button start again it all stopped. The parking pedal seemed very stiff and was difficult to press at all. The car would not start through starlink either, so now it sits in my parking lot until I tow it to a dealer tomorrow.

The driver's side interior door handle no longer functions. When the door is shut, and unlocked, and the interior door handle is pulled, nothing happens. The exterior door handle still functions, but the interior handle does not. This is a critical safety issue. We have less than 30,000 miles on the odometer. We contacted the dealership and Subaru u. S. Corporate office via email for assistance, but received no replies.

See all problems of the 2015 Subaru Forester 🔎.

I went on an extended road trip and received two cracks in my windshield in a single day. I have owned several cars in my life, and never have had a car with such a sensitive windshield. I would not expect the windshield to crack so easily. I know this is an issue for other similar year Subaru models, so I'm thinking it wasn't a coincidence. Both cracks were received on a freeway, moving at 70mph. Both objects were very small in size, and should have resulted in only minimal damage.

The rear door on the forrester sport does not open. It first happened after going through a car wash, the door does not open even if the car is unlocked. Neither by fob or door button. I have been unable to recreate problem however it happened again after a light rain. Door would not open. There have been similar claims online for the same year and model. Only fix I have is holding the door button until it switches from automatic to manual and it seems to reset it. However this only worked once out of the 2 times it has happened in the last month.

Tl- the contact owns a 2019 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked in the driveway, the windshield cracked without impact. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who stated that the crack might have been caused by a rock. The contact stated it was not. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was repaired by an independent mechanic. The failure mileage was approximately 6,500. Fe.

Tl- the contact owns a 2007 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds a rattling noise was heard coming from the front end of the vehicle. While driving in reverse the driver side front control arm and axle suddenly broke off due to severe corrosion and rusting. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer lester glenn Subaru(1501 NJ-37 w, toms river NJ) was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 129,000. Jft.

See all problems of the 2007 Subaru Forester 🔎.

Tl- the contact owns a 2015 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that after discovering a crack at the based of the front windshield the crack had expanded approximately 16 inches over the next 3 days. The cause of the crack was not determined. The local dealer new motors Subaru(8670 peach st. Erie, PA) was notified of the failure but no assistance was offered. The front windshield glass was replaced at an independent glass shop. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 80,000. Jft.