2018 SUBARU FORESTER Complaints

The contact owns a 2018 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that since owning the vehicle, the battery had been replaced three times. On each occasion, the contact stated that the vehicle failed to start up after multiple attempts. There was no warning light illuminated. The dealer had been notified of the failure and informed her that there were no recalls on the vehicle. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was unknown.

Passenger air bag light displays intermittently on and off (mostly off) regardless of whether there is a passenger in the seat. It has not yet been inspected by any dealer, service center, manufacturer, police, insurance, or others.

Environmental and safety issue. The AC System has failed three times now. SUBARU dealer checked the system for leaks at in November 2021 (mileage about 22,000 miles) and could not locate any leak but added freon. AC System stopped working again in August 2022 at 24,000 miles. Mechanic checked system, found a loose connector and tightened it, then recharged Freon in system. After 4 days, system again is not cooling the car. Compressor and blower work but no cold air and return line from compressor is not cool. This problem is widespread across Subaru Forrester models 2017 & 2018. Checking for leaks and adding freon costs $200. Most likely a repair of the system will cost at around $1,500 - 3,000. For a less than 4-year-old, very well-maintained, garaged and little driven car, components should not be failing. Having no working AC is a safety hazard to be in while driving in 100+ degree weather and also the windshield will fog over because moisture is not being taken out of the air now. Environmental issue due to loss of Freon to atmosphere.

I recently purchased a used Subaru Forester with about 92k miles. About two weeks after purchase, I took it to a Subaru dealership and a multi point inspection revealed a cracked catalytic converter. The tech stated that this was discovered by visual inspection. This failure causes a safety issue by leaking exhaust vapors into the cabin. This failure occurred with no warning lamps or messages/codes.

The passenger airbag is disabled when my light weight wife is riding in our 2018 Subaru Forester. There is a recall for this issue including 2018 models but it looks like Subaru thinks the fault is caused by heated seats. We don't have heated seats - so maybe that's why our VIN doesn't register ??? However it is definitely a safety problem that Subaru must fix. I don't want to get embroiled in a lawsuit if my wife ends up injured in an accident.

Twice now the battery has died without any obvious reason. We did not leave the lights on nor any other electrical devices known to us. We had to cal AAA who could not find an issue for the drained battery.

I have been getting an airbag warning light for the past few months. I took it into my local Subaru dealer and they confirmed that the issue was the passenger recognition system. The system will recognize a passenger and turn the airbags on sometimes, and sometimes it will not. This puts the passenger’s life at risk in the event of an accident and the airbags don’t deploy.

Passenger seat when empty will at times indicate person is sitting in seat without buckling seat belt and sound alert

Our windshield cracked again to the edge. This is the third time it’s cracked and will be our fourth windshield on a 2018 model year car.

Windshield cracked over night, and is getting bigger. There was no accident, nothing hit the windshield. It is in the drivers view point