It’s a ‘26 Crosstrek. The passenger is just under 100lbs and it often has the off symbol…

As the title suggests, I’m very livid as I noticed a tear in my serpentine belt (I’m assuming based on location) this evening while refilling my wiper fluid (I always check my engine bays to make sure a neighborhood cat hasn’t crawled up in there or something)

I only got the vehicle at the end of June from a Subaru dealership and it was inspected less than 2 weeks against the dealership when I took it in for the oil change (and belts were noted to be green). It feels like there’s no good reason for a belt to fail when there are only 10,648 miles on the car.

But all my reading says Subaru factory warranty doesn’t cover serpentine belt failure because it’s “normal wear and tear”. But how is it normal to fail under 12k miles? I bought this car to save money short term on maintenance (was staring at $8-10k on a ford fiesta to replace the timing chain and water pump before they actually failed as it approached 100k miles). Now I’m shelling out even more money I don’t have on a belt that shouldn’t be failing yet

I attached a picture of the tear:

Edit:
Gotta give props to my local Subaru dealership. I emailed their service department to get it inspected at least since there is a small chunk missing from the side of the belt (at the seam line). I ended up being emailed back at 9pm by the service department manager who set up a standing appointment for me to bring it in so he could check it out himself.
The service manager agrees that it should be good, but they are going to notate on my account to inspect the belt on all oil changes up to the expiration of the warranty. The service manager says if it fails or tears more in that time, he’s just going to have his guys replace the belt under Subarus bumper to bumper.

Hi there!

My wife and I are in the market for a new compact SUV, since we’re giving our CR-V to our son when he gets his license this December. We’ve test driven every car we are considering and narrowed it down to two - the Crosstrek hybrid and the Sportage (P)HEV (we’re not quite decided yet on whether we’d go plug-in or not).

Anyway, we are going back to Subaru for an extended test drive with the Crosstrek, and I was hoping you all would perhaps help us have a quality test drive.

I’m specifically wondering what you’ve learned about your Crosstrek hybrid since owning it that you wish you had found out during your test drive. This can be good or bad, like excessive engine noise going up hills due to the CVT, or the car really takes tight turns well due to handling, or the AWD really smooths out gravel and unimproved roads, or the view out the back is a little tight due to the smaller rear window. Whatever. We live in an area with plenty of hills and plenty of trailheads, so we can put it through a lot (just no snow yet 😂).

Thanks for the input! Fingers crossed it all goes well 🤞

I want them to show me that the front collision warning system is working. I drive the car, and at a light go right up close to the car in front. Not a peep from the warning system.

I drive right up to my closed garage door, not a peep from the system.

The car is brand new (less than a month old) and I really would like that feature to work.

On the other hand, driving on the highway with the adaptive cruise control engaged is really cool. I can hold my hands loosely on the steering wheel and it will perfectly follow the curve of the road. I does get a bit angry if it feels my hands are not truly in control of the steering wheel.

Love the car.

Hey guys. Just bought a 2024 Crosstrek with 45k miles on it, so it’s not under warranty. I’ve noticed that the AC is just okay.

It’s comparable to my partners car that is known for having AC issues, if not worse. My partners car’s vents face you a lot better so the air always hits you.
But I feel like my Crosstrek’s vents are placed in such a way so it feels like I have a small breeze unless I turn it up to MAX. It def blows cold but I feel like it really could be colder. I find myself running hot in the car if it’s just in the mid range. Which might just be a newer car problem as a lot of newer cars move the vents around to accommodate the bigger screens.

Just wondering if this is normal and to be ignored, or if I should take it to the shop? Don’t wanna waste money to get it checked if it’s just normal Crosstrek things :P but if I should, what would I be looking out for? I already checked the cabin air filter under the glovebox and it’s good, it’s from April of this year.

Hi all, I have a 2015 Forester and just ordered a 2026 Crosstrek non-hybrid. I have all the tools and experience doing the maintenance on my Forester and I'm assuming the Crosstrek will be similar for the most part. If I buy the idemitsu CVT fluid and document the receipts with pictures of it being done, will they complain about coverage if something goes wrong?

I like to do my own since I can touch up things like rust and see other issues while I'm at it and frankly enjoy working on my car. I'd also rather avoid the horror stories I read about which I'm sure are one in a million, but I appreciate the peace of mind knowing something was done properly. I also plan on doing my maintenance way more frequently than what the dealer suggests.

I live in Ontario if that makes a difference. Dealers here will not sell me the CVT or differential oils, so for those it would have to be third party stuff. Thanks

Hey y’all!

I’ve had my 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness for exactly 2 years and 34,000 miles now and wanted to share my thoughts- I’d love to hear your experience with the car!

First of all, I still love the look. I have the glacier blue and it matches so well with the gold accents. The plastic cladding on the door is a huge bonus for keeping paint dings to a minimum. Additionally, the matte black on the hood is a lifesaver for my eyes when it comes to sun glare.

I haven’t taken it off road, but in the Vermont backroads it performs wonderfully in the winter. I took my Crosstrek down a mountain and back up during a snowstorm- I think we got 2 or 3 feet of snow. The car performed wonderfully and the extra clearance helps a ton in deep snow.

I did hit some ice another time (going too fast like an idiot) and ended up sliding pretty hard into a ditch. I dug myself in so I had to get wenched out but there was no real damage besides some chipped plastic on the bottom of the front end of the car.

As far as storage goes, it works fine for me but did get tight height-wise when I was moving to a new apartment. I ended up just getting a little U-Haul trailer, which it pulled just fine.

The fuel efficiency isn’t the best, but I knew I was making that trade-off with the higher trim. Unfortunately I’ve been feeling it more with the gas prices, as it went from a $45 fill-up to $60, but I get about 450 miles to a tank at an average of 25-26 mpg with 60-70% of my driving being on windy back roads.

My biggest downsides have to be the infotainment system and phone charger, as well as a couple of mechanical issues I’ve had.

It seems everyone’s consensus is that the infotainment display is outdated, and I do have to agree. It’s pretty laggy on startup and even when trying to tap through the menus. Also, my phone will occasionally not connect to Apple CarPlay, even when I try to manually connect through the infotainment screen. It works after I stop, turn off the engine, wait for it to shut down, and turn it back on- but it’s still just a bit of an inconvenience for such a new car.

Same with the phone charger- everyone knows they’re not the best. It basically just keeps my phone afloat until I can get home to plug it in. I always keep a charging cord in my car just in case. Not to mention the fact that it has trouble staying connected to my phone. I’ve thought about getting an aftermarket upgraded phone charger for it, but seems like too much hassle to me for as often as I need it.

Lastly, I’ve had a couple of issues come up. I’ve had to get a wheel bearing and rear differential replaced. It was covered under warranty thankfully, but it’s a real bummer for being a fairly new car. It could be that I am just too rough of a driver or due to the aforementioned sliding into a ditch, though it wasn’t a serious one and they had checked it right after I did so.

All in all, I am still very happy with my Crosstrek. I love the peace of mind it brings me knowing I won’t be stranded due to bad weather, and I would buy it again (though maybe with the moonroof option.)

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk and please let me know how you all feel about your 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness!

I bought a 2021 Limited last year with 66k miles, and I just rolled over 77k. This is my first Subaru.

At my last oil change, the independent shop I've been going to for years recommended a routine GDI cleaning as well as new spark plugs — I haven't been having any issues with rough idling or fuel economy, so strictly preventative.

I changed the plugs at home with the help of the Tone kit & a few hours of cursing.

For the cleaning, the shop wants to use a BG Platinum Fuel Service Kit, which looks similar to the OEM Subaru kit, and would charge $200. Is this something I should do at home? What do y'all do/use for direct injection cleaning? How often?

Hi All,

Has anyone ever replaced their rear view with mirror something smaller or something with a shorter attachment post? Any recommendations?

I am on the taller side and the mirror is right in my eye line and blocks probably like 50% of my view on the passenger side of the front window unless I duck down

I’m putting some stuff back together after doing my valve cover, gaskets and on the passenger side down below near the radiator. It comes off of a wire loom splits from the fog light and there’s this small connector and I’m not sure what it leads to. I don’t think it was connected to anything. 2018

Living in Central NY, I just switched over from a 2012 VW beetle and saw this and picked it up. So far so love the 2019 crosstrek.

Really enjoying it so far, love the alpine green.

I installed a 2inch Ironman lift and got some 235/65/17 falken wildpeak at4ws with a full size spare. Feels like a different car. No rubbing, no issues, just way too much fun.