2016 SUBARU FORESTER Complaints

Check engine light, service emissions, dash lights blinking and loss of power!!! I was pulling out into a busy intersection and warning lights started to flash and i lost power to cylinder #2 (per the technician at Van Subaru, he told me the alternator was sending bad info to the computer) and i was almost T-BONED as i limped through the intersection.

The contact owns a 2016 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that after starting the vehicle, various warning lights were illuminated. After using a personal diagnostic reader, he retrieved two unknown failure codes. The vehicle was taken to an independent where it was diagnosed that the transmission and an unknown sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure persisted and the contact stated that the various warning lights remained illuminated and that when coming to a stop at a stop signal, the vehicle was jerking and lost motive power. The vehicle was able to restart after shifting the gear into park(P) to turn off the vehicle and then restart. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 200,000.

Multiple occasions of vehicle cranking and not starting, or not cranking at all. Had original battery replaced at 35 months, and had new battery tested on 10/06/2022. The manufacturer mandated test showed the new battery was rated as a Fail, not meeting industry standards for this battery type/configuration. Dealer confirmed that there is no known repair available, including a reflash of the engine control module (ECM). Subaru is involved in battery lawsuit, and will not work on any battery related issues without forcing owner to register in the class action and give up rights to getting problem fixed. These actions are forcing us to own vehicles that the manufacturer considers unrepairable and are guaranteed to fail to start due to battery issues.

The horn does not respond when pressing the button on the steering wheel. The only works if the steering wheel is turned. This is a hazard as the horn is needed to prevent a collision. I have had near miss collisions due to this failure.

Passenger commented, asking why their seatbelt attachment point was not properly anchored and was hanging loose from front seat. Upon investigation, we noticed that the bolt holding the end of the LH portion of the passenger seatbelt had backed out. We were able to make a temporary field repair by tightening the bolt back in with our fingers, and later needed to use a 17mm wrench to further tighten the bolt to the point where it appeared to be reasonably tightened. When tightening the bolt, I did not notice any type of locking washer, or sense there was any type of chemical locking materials on the threaded portion of the bolt and wonder if it was improperly attached when the vehicle was built. In the case of an accident, I think it is reasonable to assume that the loose bolt would have failed and allowed the anchored end of the passenger seatbelt to come loose. The vehicle has approximately 27,000 miles, has never been in an accident, and has never had seats removed or repaired since we purchased it new.

While driving N on I 24 near Nashville Tn my Eyesight assistant turned off illuminated warning light, as it cancelled my adaptive cruise control at freeway speeds in heavy traffic, while engageing my my brakes and illuminated my forward collision warning coming very close to causing serious accident to whereIended up on shoulder due to severe vibration from my defective passenger lower control arm deffectivecv axle. All of which were looked at and reported to Crown Subaru Service department. They had my vehicle for 2 days, repaired air bag and rearcoil spring recall told me my passenger lower control arm was bent and cv axle was defective the stayed my extended warranty didn't cover it when the warranty personnel said it would be covered. Never even checked my eyesight assist or other safety items associated with it even though I explained it shutoff and turns on and off sporadically. Is it going to take a death or deaths to get these people to do there job and repair and stand by the vehicles we purchase which employees them but a life isn't worth and hour inspection by Crown Subaru or Subaru corp start caring. It was in there shop 2 days prior to incident I could have at least been warned about operation of my vehicle

Since 2018 we starting noticing random power loss and every time we took vehicle to dealership for maintenance, they could never find an issue. The loss of power began at random as well went up hills. It felt as if there was something blocking the engine from preforming as intended. Maybe poor air flow or turbo lag. We would let go of accelerator because it felt as if the car was going to stall. This power lag or loss would last 5-10 minutes. Then more issues appeared during 2018-2022. The issues were always at random. Issues we witnessed were: loss of power (poor air flow/ bad compression), car seemed to want to stall at stops, weird metal clacking (which we were able to record), bopping car at stops (as a manual car would before stalling). A code was never available for dealership to know the problem at hand. Over the past years we continued to take in the vehicle for the issues we experienced. The dealership never found the root of the problem. The problem continued until 2022 and now the car is inoperable. 400 miles out of warranty and Subaru does not want to fix this issue that had been happening since 2018. I have been waiting for Subaru of America to contact me since 7/22/22. I could never get an answer from case worker. Subaru wants us to pay out of pocket roughly 4500 and then maybe they cover the rest.

I pulled into a parking space with a friend and as I turned the wheel to pull in and had the foot on the break, as soon as I let up on the brake the car lurched forward. Luckily, I slammed back on the brake since my foot has just come off it. This was very scary as I came close to ramming into the car parked in front of me. There is no way that I hit the gas and made it lurch like it did. The car is only a 4 cyl. Now I am scared to drive it. There were no warning lights at all. I have not taken the car in to the dealer as I suspect they will say there is nothing wrong and charge me for diagnostics. I saw there were 200 complaints about this, mostly with 2017 models, but there should be a recall. I had another problem where the power steering quit working after parking the car in the garage overnight. Again, no recall and when I called Subaru they said they could run diagnostics but if nothing is found, I have to pay. Nice racket they have going.

Our Subaru Forester is slow to respond on acceleration and then surges quickly. This problem just started to surface. Our concern is when stepping down on the accelerator the car is very slow to react and then surges forward quickly, creating a serious concern over a potential accident. On August 17, 2022 I was reversing up my driveway to the garage and as I depressed the accelerator the car failed to respond. I was reluctant to depress the pedal further over concern it might suddenly surge backward too fast. What was concerning is that the accelerator did not respond as normal. August 18th, I started the car, drove out of the garage and onto the street. When I stepped onto the accelerator the car showed no response, then suddenly without warning surged forward at high speed, catching me off guard. I stepped on the brake and the car immediately stopped. I carefully tried to drive forward, again the car surged forward. I drove back into the garage. Our neighbor’s nephew took it for a drive and experience the same unexpected surge of acceleration. It was towed to the Subaru Dealership. The Dealership has consistently maintained our Forester since purchased. I asked if the car had surged and the Service Advisor shared that the technician had noticed an irregularity in acceleration. However, Diagnostic tests found nothing. The shop manager said he put almost 40 miles on it but found nothing. The service adviser called and suggested we come in and ride with the shop manager, which we did. He test drove it for a few miles and the acceleration appeared normal. He did say after the test drive that he sensed something irregular about the acceleration when leaving a stop sign. We asked they keep the car and test the car after sitting over the weekend. I asked service advisor and the shop manager if he had ever heard of a Subaru with this issue of being slow to respond on acceleration and then surging quickly. They both said they had never heard of this issue

Pulled into parking space in shopping mall. The car accelerated over the curb and ran into a store front knocking out a wall. The car was still in Drive when it came to a stop. No one was hurt in the car, on the sidewalk or in the store. There is a class action law suit on this model of Subaru for uncontrolled/sudden acceleration while coming to a stop, but Subaru does not acknowledge any problem. This was the first indication of a sudden acceleration for this car. It just had its 30,000 inspection from the Subaru dealer.