The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Hi Guy's,

I am new to forum so apologies in advance I have started this thread in the wrong place.

I am looking to buy a new Forester XT or Xt Premium not sure yet.

The Forester looks like a great package, but I have been told by a few people that they had cracks and head gasket problems that have been a little tough to deal with Suby head office??

So I was just wondering what your opinions or experiences may be if you have a Forester or Suby's in general.

This would be our first new car and you we want to be fully aware if the suby will have engine problems after its warranty period ends.

Thanks for any info

Jason

do yourself a favour and look at the Forester turbo diesel.

My wife was looking at the XT but it has a month waiting list, the turbo was on the lot she got in and never looked back. (she did pay of course)

TOONGA

Thanks mate,

The "boss" decreed she prefers the manual petrol version and I added the obvious need for the turbo variant "you never know when you will need that burst of acceleration"

Actually the salesman also took the side of wife agreeing that Petrol was the best suitable option for her.. twit

Turbo diesel is better for offroad and also you may be able to convert it to run on vege oil which you can get for free from restaurants and the like. (they just throw it out..) Not sure if this new deisel boxer likes it, but if it does, free fuel mmmm. Link... http://www.vegiecars.com.au/?gclid=CJPX ... pAodFlDvGQ

My 2c..

only pproblem ive heard with subaru headgaaskets was with the late 90s 2.5L. Other than that theyre all pretty good.

alex

TheInterceptor wrote:Turbo diesel is better for offroad and also you may be able to convert it to run on vege oil which you can get for free from restaurants and the like. (they just throw it out..) Not sure if this new deisel boxer likes it, but if it does, free fuel mmmm. Link... http://www.vegiecars.com.au/?gclid=CJPX ... pAodFlDvGQ

My 2c..

Sadly the turbo diesel wont run on bio-diesel I don't think the standard diesel engine will either.

TOONGA

Alex wrote:only pproblem ive heard with subaru headgaaskets was with the late 90s 2.5L. Other than that theyre all pretty good.

alex

Thanks matey,

A couple of Subaru owners I was chatting to last week kept bringing up this problem of blown head & having a real cow of a time getting the company to complete the repairs under warranty.

They loved theirs suby's but were just warning of costly repairs I guess.

TOONGA wrote:Sadly the turbo diesel wont run on bio-diesel I don't think the standard diesel engine will either.

TOONGA

But its not classed as Bio Diesel, its used vegetable oil poured straight into your tank (one the conversion kit is installed, pour and go system costs a cool $1K iirc).

Unless you class them as the same thing?

just to clarify this problem was with the 2.5L non turbo.

afew years ago when subaru first did the 2.5L turbo in the liberties it won motor of the year. Fairly sure the forester motor will still be very similar, they just run a smaller turbo and are de-tuned abit.

if there were problems with these motors we would have heard something by now.

alex

Alex wrote:just to clarify this problem was with the 2.5L non turbo.

afew years ago when subaru first did the 2.5L turbo in the liberties it won motor of the year. Fairly sure the forester motor will still be very similar, they just run a smaller turbo and are de-tuned abit.

if there were problems with these motors we would have heard something by now.

alex

Thanks Alex,

As I said, your info is exactly what I was hoping to find out, opinions and experience from people that own and drive the cars day, day out. I was a bit concerned about buying the XT P and three years later walking into a $4K bill.

Hey the new Forester motor has gone back to a timing chain rather than the belt any ideas on when the chain would require changing?

Chain would be fitted for durability and to reduce maintanence and associated costs. Chains dont require replacement to my knowledge.

Forester Noob wrote:Hey the new Forester motor has gone back to a timing chain rather than the belt any ideas on when the chain would require changing?

At the moment, all the petrol engines both NA and Turbo have a timing belt, but the EE20 Turbo Diesel uses a chain.

The new FB25 engine expected in the new Forester X and XS models will have a timing chain, but im unsure when this motor will debut. The XT turbo models will still retain the EJ255 and its timing belt

TOONGA wrote:Sadly the turbo diesel wont run on bio-diesel I don't think the standard diesel engine will either.

Standard diesel? Subaru only have one diesel engine and it is a Common Rail Turbo Diesel.

As far as Bio-Diesel and vegetable oil fuels goes, i would defiantly not use them in any common rail diesel engine. The pressures and tolerances are just too critical to be using fuel that is made at home.

Older mechanical style injected diesels are ok though.

Suparoo wrote:
Standard diesel? Subaru only have one diesel engine and it is a Common Rail Turbo Diesel.

my mistake I was under the impression that subaru had a n/a diesel engine.

TOONGA

Here is a good article comparing Forester to RAV and XTrail. Is Up to date and has heaps of info about the Forry in there.

http://www.caradvice.com.au/99599/subar ... n-x-trail/

We've had our MY06 XT from new, and love it. From the MY06 model, the Forester XT got the WRX drivetrain, rather than a de-tuned version. Subaru saw this as a cost-cutting measure, as many owners were upgrading their foresters to WRX standards anyway, and it meant they didn't have to spend time / mony on de-tuning for one model. From MY06, all XTs also got stiffer suspesion over the non-turbo variants (better handling over earlier models).

I believe the motor hasn't changed since. 2.5 turbo, with 169kw. This motor won worlds best motor award (2.0 - 2.5l) in 2006.

These cars are very easy to live with. Best of both worlds, IMHO. It has the 5 star safety; plenty of room for our young family; great as the wife's car - school run / shopping duties etc; with the roof bars, carries my bikes, skis and wife's surfboard; and I can have a blast on lonely roads when the need arises. As I always say: get a car that suits your lifestyle, rather than manipulate your lifestyle around your car. This one suits us perfectly.

We've had very few issues with the car since purchase. The radio stopped working, so a new system was installed under warranty. A sideskirt also came adrift, which was also rectified under warranty. No mechanical problems so far. It has just clocked up 85,000km.

Only issues I have with the car: road noise is a bit more than I would like. Rear seat legroom isn't great; however the new model is slightly bigger in this area.

Overall - I can't recommend them highly enough. Hope this is of some help.

Cheers.

I bought a XT Premium last year just before the Diesel came out. Totally spewing! It uses TWICE the fuel as the Diesel and it doesn't have a low range. (something I missed when getting excited at the dealer). Bastard trying to back my boat up hill into the garage.

Other than that it's a beautiful car with no problems to date. If Subaru build a decent Auto box to go behind the Diesel it will get traded in quick smart.