2017 coolant issue?

[tmoney468]

FWIW, my 2012 Impreza had coolant consumption, I had to top it off every couple of months or so.

 

Checked my 2016 Legacy I got a couple months ago, and it was below the low mark as well. Topped off as well

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SubieN8]

"Ya know how maddening it is when that automatic lift-gate decides not to open and you're standing in the rain holding groceries? And it was most often in the rain or snow. Dealer couldn't replicate. Of course not because it was a random thing. Nothing that will kill ya but very annoying and a known issue."

 

I had a new, 2017 as a Loaner for a week, and this happened twice.

[ammcinnis]

The silence is in regards to people who are very vocal about my posts but silent on my points such as Consumer Reports. Maybe the red marks in CR isn't good enough for them?

CR overall brand rankings (Source: Consumer Reports, April 2019, pp. 18-19):

 

#1 - Subaru

#2 - Genesis

#3 - Porsche

#4 - Audi

#5 - Lexus

#6 - Mazda

#7 - BMW

#8 - Lincoln

#9 - Toyota

#10 - Hyundai

 

 

CR brand reliability rankings (Source: Consumer Reports Online, updated February 2019):

 

#1 - Toyota

#2 - Subaru

#3 - Lexus

#4 - Mazda

#5 - Hyundai

#6 - Genesis

#7 - Audi

#8 - Kia

#9 - Porsche

#10 - BMW

 

 

CR owner satisfaction rankings (Source: Consumer Reports Online, updated February 2019):

 

#1 - Tesla

#2 - Porsche

#3 - Genesis

#4 - Subaru

#5 - Audi

#6 - Ram

#7 - Toyota

#8 - Honda

#9 - Kia

#10 - BMW

Edited May 9, 2019 by ammcinnis

[Norskie]

Let's talk anecdotal. The guy that bought my Volvo - had a lot of problems with his OB. A friend at church mentioned her OB uses oil (she owns the year of oil problems). I had a number of issues on mine. All OB's mentioned are within a small space of model years. A small sampling yes but they are the only people I know that own or owned OBs.

 

Here's the subaru experiences of my friends and family:

 

1995? Legacy wagon, ~260k: Original timing belt broke. Not worth fixing (was used to haul goats in the trunk). I'm not counting this as a failure.

2001 Outback 160k: Couple head gaskets. Sold.

2002 Outback 180k: Couple head gaskets. Sold.

2004 STI 40K: No problems. Stolen (yay NJ!)

2005 Outback XT 175k: Burnt valves (140k), six wheel bearings, burns oil, three axles, hatch wiring, transmission quill damaged, multiple valve cover gaskets. Sold. Missed. Would have been scrapped if I didn't pull the head and fix the valves myself.

2007 Outback, 100k: No issues.

2008? Forester 120k: Sold while on it's third transmission (4EAT)

2010? Impreza 120k: no problems.

2011? Impreza 80K: Motor ate itself. Used motor installed, sold.

2012? Tribeca 130k: Cracked head. Sold to mechanic to pay for pulling the head.

2013 WRX 36K: No problems. Sold.

2014? Forester, 80k: Significant oil consumption.

2014? Forester, 55k: Oil consumption; 1 qt/500 miles. Sold.

2016 WRX 31k: Battery. No problems not caused by crash that totaled it, but overall quality 'feel' is 'cheap' (i.e. crappy shifter, noisy, cheap materials, etc).

2017 BRZ 20k: No problems. This seems the best quality Subaru we have ever had or driven.

2017 Legacy 26k: Battery. Hood not aligned correctly. Three trips to shop to fix (warranty).

 

So, out of seventeen Subarus, eight experienced significant mechanical issues prematurely.

 

The general consensus among friends and family is to not own a Subaru unless it is under warranty. Most of our family drives Kia, Honda, Hyundai, Ford, and none have experienced the sort of major malfunctions we've seen with Subaru's.

 

I see someone mentioned BMW. I know a guy and his wife each owned one. He loves his but his wife had to replace her sunroof or something up top. It cost $$$ thousands and $$$$ thousands. Most all of the cost was labor of the technicians. She now drives a Kia.

 

In a year or two we'll replace the Legacy with a Kia Stinger, when they start to come off lease.

 

I mentioned BMW. I've owned one, a beautiful 2010 535ix 6MT. Before I bought it with 48k on it, it had new injectors, steering angle sensor, a couple oil leaks fixed, airbag replaced, some other things I don't remember. I had it 16k and in that time I replaced injectors again, 2x valve cover gaskets, walnut blast, cracked valve cover, worn control arm bushings, bad batter (a huge mofo), leaking headlight, one turbo was starting to smoke, oil pan gasket leak, oil filter housing leak, oil cooler leak, and other things I don't remember. I did a lot of pre-emptive work, like moving electronics out of the trunk, external PCV system, aluminum charge pipe, etc. and it wasn't enough. This was the only car we've owned that has left us on the side of the road (no, both our Audi's did too). This car checked every single box for me, and it was a joy to drive. But with problems like this at 64k? That's unacceptable. We replaced it with the boring Legacy; the monthly payments on the Legacy are less than the costs to maintain and repair the BMW.

 

I may yet buy another BMW, to replace the 2016 WRX. Other than exploding cooling systems, older BMWs with their venerable inline 6, no turbo, and a manual transmissions are somewhat reliable, durable, and easy to work on. There aren't many AWD+MT+Sedan/Wagon on the market. We just need a winter beater for our BRZ to get around town in the snow, and the 2016 WRX is a bit too much $$ to have tied up in a rarely driven car.

 

Does Subaru still install a 490 CCA battery into their new vehicles?

 

Yup.

[Norskie]

Consumer Reports overall brand ratings, 2019:

 

 

What are they rating? Consumer satisfaction? Frequency or cost of repairs? Over how long of a period?

 

More details makes the information usefull.

[ammcinnis]

What are they rating? Consumer satisfaction? Frequency or cost of repairs? Over how long of a period?

To their credit, Consumer Reports does publish their rating methodology, although I often disagree with them in detail (e.g. weighting factors). CR isn't gospel, just another data source comprising probably the largest sample size of any comparable ranklings.

[urdrwho]

I agree that it is just another data source and be it polls or data collection, methodology is king.

 

To their credit, Consumer Reports does publish their rating methodology, although I often disagree with them in detail (e.g. weighting factors). CR isn't gospel, just another data source comprising probably the largest sample size of any comparable ranklings.

[urdrwho]

If they are ranking 2019 it can't be an accurate measurement. At most, how many miles driven will be on 2019 models at this current time of the year?

 

I guess CNN has a different CR account. My Consumerreports.org will only go up to the year 2018 for reliability.

 

This makes no sense...

 

I'm staring at the CR screen for the 2019 OB and I'm on the Ratings and Safety tab. They are showing two OB's, the same darn car. For the one 2019 OB they give it an overall CR score of 81 and for the other 2019 PB they give a CR overall rating of 83. They're the same car. They are saying 16 city MPG and 34 Highway MPG (both cars).

 

The 2019 Legacy gets an overall score of 88. So all you Legacy owners bet a better score than the OB.

 

So if we can go to different data sets among different reports does any of it matter? I guess the only thing that matters is the anecdotal evidence given by each persons experience from driving their cars.

 

I had a car that I was using while I installed an engine in one of my daily drivers. It was a cheap Mitsi Gallant that had an issue with oil weeping past the valve seals. Ran fine except from a stop light it would puff some smoke. Aside from the puff, it had leather, a nice sound system, everything worked well, etc. I sold that car to a friends son who needed a car to and pointed out the valve seal issue. It was a $750 deal, sold as-is and he was going to pay me back in payments. He let his girlfriend use the car. She never checked the oil level and one day on the highway, she seized the engine, because she never checked the oil level.

 

So although he ran the car without oil, to him it was a piece of junk. To me, I could have kept running that car for a long time. He never paid for the car, his parents offered to pay me but I said no. It is his to pay and someday he may think back that he was the one to break the car.

 

To the buyer anecdotal evidence would be a gallants are a piece of crap but to me it would have been an ok car. I had already driven the car all winter, spring and summer. As a kid I had a car that had terrible piston rings and was a smoker. I drove that car all through high school but I kept an eye on the oil level.

 

What are they rating? Consumer satisfaction? Frequency or cost of repairs? Over how long of a period?

 

More details makes the information usefull.

[ammcinnis]

My fan broke down because I was using low-quality coolant.

Another amazing factoid! Please explain how choice of coolant can cause the fan(s) to fail.

Edited February 26, 2021 by ammcinnis