Quirks with these cars......fun post!

[TheTurboRook]

I watch a lot of YouTube car videos and ended up stumbling upon Doug Demuro. He does a lot of fun videos and one of the things he likes to point out at the quirks about cars. These are things that aren't broken or not functioning right, these are things that are working correctly.....just are weird and odd. So I thought it would be fun to have people post weird quirks they've noticed with their car. I'll start :-)

 

Quirk #1 - This is the most odd to me. The car has an external temperature gauge and it pops up this ominous audible and visual warning when it's 37 degrees outside! Why 37, what engineer choose that completely random number. I could care less if it's 37, I want to know when it's 32 and freezing. Does it freeze at 37 in Japan lol?

 

Quirk #2 - The way the car only tracks remaining miles available based on fuel level. It doesn't do it down to the single numbers, only by 10's. If that makes sense. So like when your getting low on gas, it'll tell you 50 miles remaining, then a while later it drops to 40, 30, and so on. It doesn't track it 50, 49, 48, 47, etc. I find that odd.

 

Quirk #3 - The heating/cooling system. It took me weeks to figure out how to set up the system so it worked properly. Maybe it's just my car, but it seems like an inherent quirk. I've never had this issue in any other car. I was always having an issue where the air temperature was oddly changing on its own. I'd have the temperature gauge set at like 68 degrees and have air coming out the front dash defrost vents and the floor vents. But then the front facing dash vents would be shooting out hot air. I felt like I was constantly adjusting the temperature because weird changes were happening. And again, it didn't seem like there was anything wrong, just a weird quirk in how the system was designed or something. After a few weeks, I finally figured out a way to get it to work right. Odd!

 

So those are my quirks, do you guys have any?

[Infosecdad]

I've found that the estimated MPG usually moves in .3 increments.

[Max Capacity]

37F is because icing conditions may occur. Audi's do that at 40F I've been told.

 

I don't find the miles to empty to be a concern, I've gone down to 20 miles left. I've put in 15.8 gallons.

 

You do know the dash mpg is about .7 miles more then you really getting.

 

These cars need to have clean tight battery terminals. In the early day's, summer of 2004, the radio would change volume by itself, a few issues with the HVAC system also. When Fall came, and I was doing my pre-winter check's. I found the battery terminals, loose. After that, all was fine.

Edited February 22, 2017 by Max Capacity

[MilesA]

Quirk #1 - This is the most odd to me. The car has an external temperature gauge and it pops up this ominous audible and visual warning when it's 37 degrees outside! Why 37, what engineer choose that completely random number. I could care less if it's 37, I want to know when it's 32 and freezing. Does it freeze at 37 in Japan lol?

 

Quirk #2 - The way the car only tracks remaining miles available based on fuel level. It doesn't do it down to the single numbers, only by 10's. If that makes sense. So like when your getting low on gas, it'll tell you 50 miles remaining, then a while later it drops to 40, 30, and so on. It doesn't track it 50, 49, 48, 47, etc. I find that odd.

 

I don't want to ruin the fun by going into Dr. Science mode, but...

 

For #1, the temperature of the roadway can be cooler than the temperature of the air a few feet above, meaning you should be wary of ice when the temperature of the air is close to the freezing point. This is especially so for bridges and overpasses, that can ice up before the rest of the road.

 

For #2, I always interpreted these "miles to go" numbers as rough estimates. The display only shows approximate range and does not try to imply these numbers are exact.

[CapnJack]

When turning up the radio volume, it gets noticeably louder until you get to 10. Once past 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 don't seem to do much. After 15, it starts to get noticeably louder again.

 

My keyless entry worked ok when I lived in south central rural WI. When I lived in central rural Iowa, it didn't work well at all even after multiple battery changes. When I moved back near heavily populated south east WI , it now works perfectly. Only conclusion is that there was a frequency that interrupts it in the first two locations. However the location I'm in now is much more heavily populated than those and works the best it ever has.

[Hirschman]

These cars need to have clean tight battery terminals. In the early day's, summer of 2004, the radio would change volume by itself, a few issues with the HVAC system also. When Fall came, and I was doing my pre-winter check's. I found the battery terminals, loose. After that, all was fine.

 

Interesting Max, I have just noticed my radio randomly changing volume. I'll have to take a look at the battery connections tonight.

[sigmafour]

1 click of the remote control will open the drivers door. It then seems to take about 4 to 8 clicks of the remote control to get the other doors to unlock.

[rommelcake]

1 click of the remote control will open the drivers door. It then seems to take about 4 to 8 clicks of the remote control to get the other doors to unlock.

 

This bothered me for the longest time. You need two long presses of the unlock to get it to unlock all doors.

 

By Long press, I mean probably quarter to half a second.

 

I was mashing away and could never get it to work before my wife told me to just hold it down longer.

[JustCallMeNick]

I love this thread! I was just thinking about posting a similar thread last week but instead pertaining to your individual car as opposed to fourth gen Legacies. This thread makes more sense though.

 

I noticed the 37° warning two nights ago for the first time. I wouldn't have known what it meant except that one time I had a rental Camaro with the same feature but the Camaro had a more explicit message that it may be slippery.

 

One thing that I found weird about my car after I bought it was the dash warning about an ominous "Anniversary Date." LOL

 

And yes, The radio volume maxes out before the sound gets very loud. In my third gen you could blast the volume to the moon, well past the point the speakers could handle it.

 

Here's a quirk that really irritates me: The car is a 2.5L Turbo but has a classy, built-in non-numerical, meaningless, analog MPG gauge that just sways back and forth but doesn't really tell you anything. All you can infer from it is, when you put your foot down on the accelerator, your gas mileage is worse, and when you let off, it is better. Haha you don't say... Why couldn't that be a boost gauge instead? How sweet would it be to have a built in integrated boost gauge in the gauge cluster? Instead there's no boost gauge at all.

[CapnJack]

Here's a quirk that really irritates me: The car is a 2.5L Turbo but has a classy, built-in non-numerical, meaningless, analog MPG gauge that just sways back and forth but doesn't really tell you anything. All you can infer from it is, when you put your foot down on the accelerator, your gas mileage is worse, and when you let off, it is better. Haha you don't say... Why couldn't that be a boost gauge instead? How sweet would it be to have a built in integrated boost gauge in the gauge cluster? Instead there's no boost gauge at all.

 

It's an inverse boost gauge!

[LatentWagen]

The "instantaneous" mileage gauge is a BMW feature that Subaru tried to adopt, IMO unsuccessfully. The BMWs have numbers, at least. In my spec B, there are 3 nearly useless MPG gauges and NO boost gauge

 

The way I read it, the dead center of that instant MPG gauge is your average fuel economy, say 21.2 or whatever is on the ticker for A or B. The gauge only really shows if you're above or below that average, and by how much, relatively speaking.

[JustCallMeNick]

That's how I read the gauge too but let's be honest - is it really that helpful? I'm frankly kind of embarrassed by it because it seems so silly. They engineered a really good looking gauge but then chose to redundantly display MPG. Subaru - always looking for the cheap way out. Haha. No one is fooled...

[LatentWagen]

My '92 Volvo has an OEM boost gauge in the exact same spot. Would've been cooler than the MPG gauge. They could've also put one in the info/gauges part of the navi display, instead of the uselessness they put there...

[Rhitter]

I honestly never understood why instant MPG was useful / why we would want that information. To dedicate an entire gauge to it seems really questionable.....

 

Do they use it for something else in JDM legacys?

[Redslaya]

every so often when i brake the volume goes down. has happened 3 times in the 2 and a half years ive had the car

[DiGiuliolgt]

1 click of the remote control will open the drivers door. It then seems to take about 4 to 8 clicks of the remote control to get the other doors to unlock.

 

every time!!

[Max Capacity]

My wagons locks work great 99% of the time. Every now and then at work, I have to lock it again to get it to unlock.

 

My Spec B...it's always a crap shoot, most times you need to be with 20ft or so to lock or unlock. There times I've had to use the other key to lock the car in the driveway. Then next day, it will unlock from 200ft away.

 

Oh the wagon also has a hair trigger key fob, it's taught me a number of times, don't put the keys on the kitchen counter and go back out to get more stuff out of the car...the doors will be locked.

 

Have also been told some of the lock/unlock distances is because of interference with other Subaru's around the parking lot. Happened once at the dealership, the wagon would not lock with either fob.

 

Once I drove away, all was fine next time I got out of the car.

[John J]

The switch for the parking lights on top of the steering column. Is that Subaru's way to prank newbies?

[RckyMtnGT]

The switch for the parking lights on top of the steering column. Is that Subaru's way to prank newbies?

 

Yeah, this one got me the first week I owned it, the car wash place hit the switch, and it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out why the lights were still on once I got home.

 

I think my biggest 'what were they thinking' quirk is the lack of a 'sync' button for the climate controls. Every other vehicle I've been in with dual climate control has a 'sync,', or 'dual' button, so you don't have to turn two knobs to get the temps the same. Two knobs, every damn time!

[TheTurboRook]

RckyMtnGT: Great point on the dual climate thing. It bugs me too that I have to adjust both knobs so they are the same temperature.

 

Here's another quirk that bothers me in regards to the climate control knobs. The volume control knob is the same size and has the same ribbing/notches around the knob as the temperature control knob. And they are so close to each other that I'm constantly grabbing the wrong one and adjusting it when I'm driving. They should have made them different enough so if you're reaching down and not looking you aren't grabbing the wrong knob by accident.

[Merc6]

*Walks in trying to be relatable but all the posts are refreshed 4 gen stuff.*

 

#1 Power steering cooler. Seems like it was cool for 1 year then it's gone.

 

#2 Black headlight housings. Kinda glad I got an 05 as I can't stand the chrome ones in the years after.

 

#3 Cabin filter. I know there is a fix and I'll probably do that mod 3 years after I get the car running. Just don't see why they didn't figure taking half the interior apart wasn't logical. LOL and to go though all that trouble to not even find a filter in the tray....

 

#4 once they did a refresh, why did they keep the clock separate of the radio still? Pre refresh we have all our cool instant/trip/till empty/timer stuff there that gets moved to the gauge cluster later on.

 

#5 Redundant CHMSL with GT wing installed. Taking the bulb out is cool if the tint wasn't already cut around the back window making it a noticeable redundant feature still.

[Darth SpecB]

I dislike how the red ring around speedometer disappears at the bottom (manual transmission only) I almost cried when I thought I would have to pull the dash apart to replace the bulb or even have to get a new cluster.

 

Also the common rod knock and catastrophic turbo failure. I drove my car for a week after I bought it until it blew up.

 

I wish the rear seats were heated. And that we had cup holders in the doors or storage space.

 

And my Navi is pretty much useless, wish it was a boost, oil gauge or even a cubby.

 

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Charged]

Having virtually no interior lights over the driver/pass seats was my biggest issue when I got my car. The first mod I did was to wire up the map lights to come on with the interior lights.

[sunny5280]

Here's a quirk that really irritates me: The car is a 2.5L Turbo but has a classy, built-in non-numerical, meaningless, analog MPG gauge that just sways back and forth but doesn't really tell you anything. All you can infer from it is, when you put your foot down on the accelerator, your gas mileage is worse, and when you let off, it is better. Haha you don't say... Why couldn't that be a boost gauge instead? How sweet would it be to have a built in integrated boost gauge in the gauge cluster? Instead there's no boost gauge at all.

 

Any chance you I could ask you to post a picture of this gauge? My car has the instantaneous MPG reading but it's digital...one of the display options on the center console where temperature and average MPG can be found.

 

As someone else mentioned this used to be found on BMW's vehicle. I had it on a few of the BMW's I own. The idea being you could see the increased fuel consumption and adjust to lower it. As you said it's primarily useless. In fact it seemed to do just the opposite. As I managed my fuel consumption I discovered I was obtaining slightly worse fuel economy than just driving the vehicle. I gave up on using it long ago (I think BMW did away with it...at least my current BMW doesn't have it).

[sunny5280]

This bothered me for the longest time. You need two long presses of the unlock to get it to unlock all doors.

 

By Long press, I mean probably quarter to half a second.

 

I was mashing away and could never get it to work before my wife told me to just hold it down longer.

 

Also make sure the delay between the two presses is not too long. Otherwise the second press will only unlock the already unlocked drivers side door.