2016 SUBARU FORESTER Complaints

My 2016 Subaru Forester is having acceleration and possibly fuel propulsion issues. It stays in low gear, high RPM when accelerating. This happened after a Yellowstone week long road trip from San Leandro, CA. The MPG has dropped from 24mpg to 12mpg and has been at Hayward Subaru since 8/15/2023. They have not provided a known issue. Still trying to figure out what is wrong. There was a low oil warning light on the way home and we stopped for an oil change in West Sacramento within 15 miles of the light coming on. The issue has been happening since the oil change. Only oil change and air filter replacement done on 8/8/2023. Thought maybe its a fuel injector issue. Still at dealership. We did fill the fuel tank with 85 octane in Elko, NV once.

The car caught on fire while in operation. A complete loss. It started in the engine

The backup camera and reverse taillights stopped functioning soon after I bought this vehicle in 2020. I am the 2nd owner and bought it from Peterson Toyota dealership in Boise, ID. There was no particular incident, i just noticed that the backup camera no longer showed an image when putting the car into reverse. I later found out while getting an oil change that the reverse taillights were not functioning either. It is available for inspection, and I have taken it to 2 Subaru dealerships who assessed it and said they couldn't find any specific issue. They confirmed the problem however. It has not been assessed by insurance representatives or police. There was no warning lamp or indication that my reverse lights were not working, other than realizing why no one was letting me out of parking spots. I have tried both replacing the bulbs and replacing the fuses for these systems, with no change. Upon researching, I found an identical problem occuring in Subaru WRX's manufactured between 2015-2021 that is listed under recall 22V522000. I would like to get this fixed as soon as possible and would like to see if it is possible to extend the existing recall to include my vehicle?

While driving, the passenger airbag system would initiate an alert that it needed service, at which time the passenger airbag would turn off with somebody sitting in the seat. My, and my passengers', safety was at risk by the airbag turning off with a full-grown adult sitting in the seat. A Subaru dealership confirmed the alerts and reset them. The code they captured was 'occupant detection sensor malfunction'. The alerts persisted, as did the airbag turning off. There is a previous recall related to this issue - the dealership made it clear that they would do nothing beyond the NHTSA required 'solution', which had already been done and did not solve the problem. They said the only way to positively fix it would be to replace the seat, and quoted me $1500 to do so. I contacted Subaru of America multiple times regarding this issue. They agreed to cover the cost of the seat replacement.

Lug nuts stripped off on the drivers rear wheel, that was corrected. Now my right rear lug nuts have been stripped completely off.

The potential safety issue is with my 2016 Subaru Forester. I'm aware of a recall on the 2017 & 2018's for the a/c condenser assembly. My vehicle has the same issue. The passenger side output is cold, as it should be. The drivers side output is hot air. I've also been made aware that the 2015 Forester's with a sunroof & navigation (which my vehicle also has) had a recall for a wiring harness in the a/c system which apparently could lead to a fire. Knowing that there have been recalls for the Foresters made the year prior to, and for the 2 years after my own.....and experiencing the exact same issue, has me greatly concerned. I would be curious to know if there is any chance they are preparing to recall the 2016's for the a/c condenser. And if not, how can my concern be added to other 2016 Forester owners complaints for the same problem, so it can be brought to the attention of those who are in charge of issuing recalls. Thank you, [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The Horn stopped working in the vehicle. This is a known issue with many Subarus. The horn is essential for safety reasons due to this the vehicle cannot pass a safety inspection. The culprit of this issue is the electrical coil spring component in the steering wheel behind the air bag. The component has multiple connections going to it including an airbag connection. In the event of accident it is not guaranteed that the spring coil component would deliver the signal for the air bag to deploy. This component is defective in many Subarus and is a very costly repair due to all the electrical and safety components connected to cloak spring. This component has been an issue in previous Subaru models but has not been extended to newer models that clearly have the same issue. please see document attached.

The Driver Seat Lumbar suddenly broke while driving, which caused a sudden unplanned shit of my driving position. There was also a loud hardware breaking or snapping apart, which caused a certain degree of panic and distraction while driving. I fixed the broken lumbar seat approximately less than two years ago and now the incident I mentioned previously, has happened again. I paid for the first repairs through an extended warranty I bought, I explained this to Subaru Corporate Customer Service, and they refuse to take responsibility for the inferior nature of the Lumbar System and thus refuse to cover the cost of fixing it.

With car engine running and adult sitting in passemger seat, the passenger airbag on-off orange warning light will flicker between "on" and "off".

Battery drain due to CAN system. Has caused loss of power to functions of car resulting in vehicle dynamic control and airbags to be turned of in the middle of driving causing the ABS to become unusable in the case of an accident putting everyone in the car at risk of injury or death.