Problems to Look Out for When Buying a Used Subaru Forester - All Generations

hi my name is greg your car angel and in this video i'll unpack a lot of information on the subaru forester if you follow me on this channel you know that i like to do reviews on cars that are known for quality and reliability especially japanese cars cars such as the venerable toyota highlander the proven prius the toyota rav4 as well as the honda crv all these cars and more have been reviewed on this channel but what about subaru it's also japanese brand are they good cars do i recommend them to my car buying clients specifically how does the subaru forester stack up against the reliability of those other brands such as toyota and honda this video will go into detail on the main problems throughout all the generations but let's start with the main problem head gaskets ask any knowledgeable person with mechanical background about the subaru engines and they will most likely cite that the main problem associated with the subaru brand is the head gasket failure how on earth can a car company as accomplished as subaru get something so wrong and which years are affected which engines are the bad ones was it all subarus or just certain models i'll explain how it's possible that subaru could make such a colossal mistake and what they did about it and lastly i'll go through generation by generation all the problems that you need to be on the lookout for when buying your next super the original first generation forester ran between the years 1997 to 2002 and apart from the head gaskets it was tough in every way the earliest models between 1997 and 1999 with the ej25 engine had internal head gasket leaks the internal leaks were difficult to diagnose because it was hidden from view and would only start showing up as a problem when the car would start overheating which is way too late this resulted in many blown head gaskets and catastrophic engine failures the problem was a poorly designed single layer head gasket with a graphite coating and it was a serious engineering mistake the way to know if the head gasket is failing on your subaru or subaru that you're inspecting is to do a hydrocarbon test with the coolant i have a video on that procedure which i will put in the description below other ways of knowing are seeing some brown sludge on the coolant cap or seeing bubbles in the coolant reservoir and possibly random overheating of the engine it's important to catch these leaks early another problem that shows up frequently on the older subaru models is the old spark plug tube seals now these seals which penetrate the valve cover can shrink with time and allow oil to seep down into the spark plug tubes now this will eventually file the plugs and cause a misfire but it's a real easy fix the 2000 to 2002 models received a slightly updated exterior and interior and the popular limited slip differential was introduced for more hardcore off-roaders unfortunately the head gasket failure fiasco continued on the new ej251 engines but these were external leaks which were more obvious and easier to catch than the earlier models which had internal leaks the head gasket failure could be easily remedied with a high performance gasket but if you were to go to the dealer and get a replacement you would be buying the same inferior one silver introduced the second generation which ran between 2003 2003-2008 with the first generation under their belt subaru dialed it up a notch to compete with the honda crv and the toyota rav4 subaru was trying their best to compete in the reliability category with these other japanese manufacturers what differentiated the forster from these rivals was the symmetrical all-wheel drive system which was superior to all other all-wheel drive systems made by other manufacturers in 2004 you could get the forester in the 2.5 turbo version which is what this model here is you could identify the turbo version by the prominent and functional hood scoop the second generation model was new and improved in every way especially with a much needed new head gasket design the new model still had a higher incidence of head gasket failure compared to the other makes of cars but it was far less common than the previous model as a side note the turbo version did not suffer from the same problem because it had the multi-layer steel head gasket this particular model is a 2005 xt turbo forester with 123 000 miles and like many other turbo variants from subaru it has never had a head gasket problem one problem that does come up frequently on the ej255 as well as the ej257 turbo engines is the union joint or some call it the union bolt or the banjo bolt it gets clogged over time and that starves the turbo of oil and it's especially bad on the expanded oil change intervals that subaru came up with and the remedy to this problem is just more frequent oil changes which is something that i would recommend on all subaru engines the problem with that banjo bolt was that when the small oil filter that came on those two engine types would get clogged it would go into bypass mode sending debris up to the banjo bolt and it would get clogged and that would be where the problem is so just more oil changes the truth is that the boxer engines are just not as forgiving as other japanese engines and the one thing that you can do to keep them running healthy is to change the oil more frequently than what subaru recommends another issue on the second generation was the steering rack and it was prone to leaking from the rubber boots a visual inspection underneath the front of the car is all that's really necessary to see if it needs replacing an interesting side note on this generation is that you can easily turn your all-wheel drive system into a front-wheel drive system simply by replacing a fuse in the fuse box not sure why you would ever want to do that but it's an interesting thing to know the third generation forester ran between the years 2009-2013 and it was totally redesigned except for the primitive four-speed automatic transmission that was a leftover from the previous generation and was begging for another gear however you could get the manual transmission in the five-speed the new forester was better in every way it was longer wider taller and it had better handling characteristics than the previous model and it was also way more comfortable especially for tall drivers like me in the cargo area increased substantially the forester scores high marks for visibility due to an open cabin design with lots of greenhouse and virtually no blind spots the 2009 forester won motor trend's suv of the year award when it debuted but keep in mind motor trend also gave the same award a couple of years earlier to the awful volkswagen tower egg this pathetic gmc envoy and the ridiculously unreliable land rover lr3 so i don't give that much weight to the award the forester however was better than all those cars thank god but was not without a couple of serious issues the most concerning issue was that of oil consumption on the new f series 2.5 liter engine which was installed on the non-turbo versions through 2011 to 2013. the good news is that the engine featured dual overhead cams with a timing chain that replaced the timing belt and the new design was meant to increase horsepower need less servicing and lower emissions that's all good stuff the bad news is that the f-series engine would develop major oil consumption problems due to a combination of a different piston ring design a looser engine build and thinner synthetic oil that's been recommended as the miles pile up on the engine you would get even looser engine tolerances and burn even more oil these factors along with longer subaru recommended oil change intervals of 7 500 miles resulted in many engine failures due to oil starvation subaru later updated the oil change intervals to every 6 000 miles presumably because of the class action lawsuit that was filed but the damage was done even if you changed the oil every 6 000 miles you could still run low enough to destroy the engine so the short answer to the question of when should you change the oil in your forester is the same as it was with the turbo version and that is to change your oil every three to four thousand miles and you'll most likely avoid any of these oil starvation issues the fourth generation which ran between the years 2014 and 2018. 2014 was the first year of the fourth generation model which is what this is but unfortunately it still had the same third generation oil consumption issues on the f-series 2.5 engine it would take another two full years before subaru was able to correct this problem the oil consumption issue had a couple of nasty consequences if engine oil is able to migrate into the combustion chamber by working its way past the oil control rings the valve stem seals or the valve guides it ends up getting burned off leaving trace deposits of carbon on the pistons the valves and the plugs some of the oil will also pass through into the exhaust system where it would affect the o2 sensors and shorten the lifespan of the catalytic converter 2014 was the year the forester came equipped with the new cvt transmission which was problematic there was a higher incidence of transmission failure on the 2014 and the 2015 models as well as the 2017 model subaru opted for this new transmission because it was lighter weight and netted better fuel economy to comply with cafe standards but unfortunately the new cvt transmission was not as tough or as off-road capable as the earlier for e80 transmissions now subaru says that the cvt has a lifetime transmission fluid that never needs replacing now the term lifetime is really subjective if the transmission fails at 100 000 miles the fluid will indeed have lasted the lifetime of the transmission just as you can technically hold your breath for the rest of your life but basically my point is this there's no such thing as lifetime fluid it is true that the cvt transmission generates less heat than a conventional transmission but that is no reason to neglect it entirely the good news is that the fourth generation came with many major improvements in all other areas of safety and comfort the big improvement was the introduction of the isight package which is a suite of safety systems that integrates adaptive cruise control pre-collision braking and vehicle lane departure warning unfortunately the eyesight feature was reserved for only the higher trim levels being an optical system instead of a radar-based system it has limitations in poor visibility such as driving into the sun fog or where the windshield is not clear any of these may cause the system to disengage and as a side note if you ever get your subaru forester detailed make sure that the person who does the detail doesn't accidentally spray or smear anything near the sensor which would corrupt the camera's ability to function properly the touring model which was the higher package level offered a powerful harman kardon 440 watt amplifier and eight speakers the manual transmission model was thankfully upgraded from a five-speed to a six-speed major complaints on this generation have to do with the clumsy infotainment system now many people complain about the erratic behavior of the electronics especially the poorly designed voice recognition system the fourth generation interior was totally revamped with a particular focus on seat comfort with new cushioned material that made long drives a lot more comfortable there was also a major gain in leg room especially in the back seat one more problem on the fourth generation forester with the ej255 and the ej257 engines was ringland failure and this would be especially evident on vehicles that are driven hard the fourth generation forester scored high on the small overlap test for the first time but oddly enough only on the driver's side leaving the passenger side vulnerable to severe intrusion in case of an accident and it's not just subaru other manufacturers are also guilty at making non-symmetrical changes on safety improvements in summary i stay away from buying the 2014 and 2015 models and focused my inspections on the 2016 and 2018 models of this generation now i consider the 2018 as the very best model year for the fourth generation especially in the higher trim levels with the safety package the fifth generation forester has been running from 2019 till the present and is again an upgrade in many areas it is bigger bolder more refined noticeably quieter and more comfortable if you liked the previous generation forester you'll most likely like the new one even better the new forester continues the long-standing strength of excellent visibility and virtually no blind spots the common theme of a low belt line and tall windows was nicely integrated into the new design even the side mirrors which traditionally limits the view in the lower corners of the window have been placed lower down on the door to increase the sight line even more apart from visibility the biggest improvement in the forester lineup at least from a safety perspective is the eyesight package which was formerly only available on higher trim levels now thankfully became standard on all models it was because of this that the manual transmission was dropped as it could not be integrated alongside those safety features also standard now is apple carplay other major improvements are with the interior trim older models were like an old pair of durable shoes practical but plain the new forester is like a gucci upgrade with padded dashboard trim where hard plastic once thrived along with top level leather upholstery and thoughtful stitching all but the base models came with the larger panoramic moon roof now complaints about the newest forester have to do with busy controls scattered all over the place whereas the older layouts were simpler and more intuitive to use the name subaru is japanese for uniting or bringing together with the partnership with toyota the future has never been brighter and reliability will continue to get better i'm sure of that i'm greg your car angel thanks so much for watching this video i appreciate it give it a like if you enjoyed it and subscribe if you haven't done so already i'll see you in the next video take care it's so freaking cold here

Channel: YourCarAngel

Views: 526,109

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Id: A2a63sO_tUE

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021