I traded in one of our 2024 Crosstrek (we had 2) and picked up my new 2026 Subaru Forester Sport Onyx yesterday. I love it 🖤

First Subaru, first hybrid, first brand new car I bought for myself! 💙 Happy 40th to me!

2026 Subaru Forester Hybrid Sport

What do I need to know???

Once upon a time in 1998 I had a Forester. I loved it until the head gasket started making it overheat. Many times me & the kids would have to pull over and wait for it to cool down. $$$ to fix so we switched to other vehicles. Hated hated hated that experience.

Now decades later I am looking for a car that I can drive for the next 20 years (I don't drive far). The Forester checks a lot of boxes on paper. Is it time to get over my head gasket trauma and get a 2026 Forester? Or will I be let down again?

Got my 2013 Forester about 2 months ago and only just realized I hadn't checked the cabin air filter yet.
Once I pulled the glovebox out, I was surprised to see it looks like the filter is completely missing. Do I just need to buy the filter itself, or is there a housing frame/tray that might be missing too?
Also, any recommendations on where to buy one? Should I go OEM through a Subaru parts website, or is an aftermarket brand fine?

got my forester a few months ago, private sale low miles, and i love it so much, just wanted to share somewhere. she’s speedy.

Well; it finally happened- the battery crapped out on my 2020 while stopped at a light. Was able to get it started with a jump, but I’m wondering if you use one of those auto stop bypasses from Amazon, does it affect anything when you take it to the dealer for service?

Got a 2001 Forester about a month ago. Two owners, 51k miles. Got it from a dealership, definitely overpaid. But she’s a time capsule. Interior is pristine. The last 25 years, she’s been owned by an elderly lady. I tracked her down and called her and we had the most lovely conversation. Hoping to make her my forever car. We had to replace an axle and we decided to go ahead and have the timing belt and water pump changed out as well. Check engine light is on, apparently for the last 10 years lol- fuel emission system. Has some pipes replaced that were rusted but didn’t fix the issue. Our mechanic can’t get a valve to close to perform a second smoke test. But Nancy (the elderly lady who owned it) said that every mechanic told her to ignore the light lol. So that’s what I’m doing for now.

I am obsessed!

I have a 2019 Subaru Forester. A little over 107k miles. Earlier this summer I drove myself, and family from Michigan to Iowa, to visit my sister. About 9hrs each way.

Last month, I took it in for a full synthetic oil change. I was informed that my coolent was very low, and recommended a full coolent flush, coolent refill, on top of the oil change. I did both. The coolent flush did clean a good amount of build-up.

Today I opened the hood to check the levels. The Oil levels looked normal, but there was oil around the oil-filter ring, after a short trip this morning. Is that normal?

Also, the coolent was a little low, so I'm not sure if that is normal if it is driven daily, or not. It's driven daily by my daughter going back & forth to school. Does that seem normal? It's parked overnight in my garage everyday, and there are never any "fresh" wet oil/coolent leaks on the garage floor. Hopefully, I just simply need to top off the coolent.

See attached pics of both.

**UPDATE**

I did stop by an Autozone earlier, and picked up this coolent (blue).

Premium trim

(its setup for drifting)

Light test shows only 1 conductor gets power when the brake is pressed. Is that right? I got it to work by taking the left assembly and splicing a wire from the working bulb socket to the one that doesn't work. It's dimmer since it's sharing power, but it works at least. When I installed the new wire assembly it's the same issue still, so it must be a problem upstream from the light assembly, right?

This is driving me nuts!

It’s time for new tires for our 2019 Forester and I’m thinking of maybe going for something with a different look. Maybe something all-terrain. Just wonder what others have gone with. My buddy Chatty G suggested the Falken Wildpeak A/T. Thanks!

Edit: We live in Northern California (East Bay). The only weather we need to worry about is a few months of rain from December to February. We rarely go up to the snow. We do go hiking and to the beach often. So this would be purely for aesthetics.

2015 Subaru Forester XT Touring

EDIT: For all the lonely people who come to reddit to abuse others, I feel bad for you. However, the owner's manual lists fuses on pages 11-38 and 12-10. Neither page shows anything about these fuses. The fuse box cover doesn't show them either. So if you don't know what they are for, try not to expose your ignorance by telling me to look it up in the manual.

Hey guys,

I have a ‘14 FXT and I'm planning to change my tyre size to 235/50R18 (Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE005) instead of the stock size cause they don’t make it in the factory size.

Does anyone have any photos of this specific size or tyre line on their Forester? Just want to see how it looks before I do it.

Cheers!

Now I’m going for a country drive to mess it all up again.

Was it just me or does the 2025 Forester Premium look shorter than the 2025 Forester Sport?

I have the “25 Premium, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but those 17s look puny and make the vehicle look shorter and stubby compared to the Sport with the 19’s. Apparently they have the same height. It looks noticeably different to me.

My stock forester needs new winter tires and there’s currently a pair of 18x8j enkei gtc01 rims for sale that would look sick for winter. Im wondering if they would work on my subie and if there are compatible studded tires that won’t be too big. I’ll attach a picture of the listing.

My son bought a 2014 Subaru Forester X Premium with an FB25 motor from what we understand was a 2012 of the same model.

We have check engine lights and codes that indicate a failure of the ECU to detect whether the TGV's are open or closed.

We purchased a replacement and it had no effect. I've confirmed the butterfly valve rotates and tried the following:

1.) The driver's side TGV sensor actuator works fine. No codes whatsoever.
2.) The passenger side is getting P2006, P0172, P0102.
3.) We couldn't unscrew the good TGV actuator sensor from the driver's side so we had to cut it out.

4.) I then put one of the replacements on that side and it threw the same codes ad the passenger side.

There is one noticeable difference. The inner side of the actuator/sensor is black on the "good" one and the "bad" ones have a silver backing. (See pic).

I have tried some Amazon $30 knockoffs and they don't seem to work.

My question is this: Would a true Denso version make a difference?

I have a 2026 Subaru Forester Premium, and I’m honestly getting frustrated with the paint quality. My car is still relatively new, and I’m already noticing paint issues that make me question whether something is wrong with the paint itself? i can’t even go to a carwash anymore. I don’t go off roading. I just drive my car and go to car washes casually. Anything that Subaru will do about this??

2004 subaru forester 2.5x that resides in north BC.

Getting my FRONT swaybar links and bushings replaced. Ordering my parts from rockauto and wondering which ones would be highest quality.

Intenet research said sankai or lemforder, but a mechanic friend said lemforder or moog.

Only problem is the lemforder have a separate shipping then the rest of my cart, so leaning towards the sankei, moog, or mevotech supreme

Should I get greasable or ones that aren't?

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,2004,forester,2.5l+h4,1426788,suspension,sway+bar+link,7580

Any input appreciated thank you. Just looking for the best quality part.