Forrester Springs a Leak
Back when I bought my first Forester SUV back around 1997-8, which was the first Forester available in Australia, Subaru were recognised as making some of the most reliable vehicles available to the average mid-range car buyer. One of my primary reasons—if not the primary reason—for going with the Subaru Forester was the reliability factor. For me reliability was trumps and more important than any other single selection criteria in picking a car to buy.
One certainly does not by a Forester, or probably any Subaru back in 1998, because of its styling and looks—most everyone agreed back then that Subaru’s looked ugly compared to most other maker’s offerings. That view has not changed terribly much over the years, especially in the case of the Forester SUV.
When I bought my first Forester from Total Nissan in Cannington, who no longer sell Subaru vehicles, as I picked up the keys I asked the salesperson how I should drive it during the running in period. He sort of laughed and then replied with something very close to “ … treat it like you hate it and it will never let you down”. Seriously! I kid you not. That is what he said; or something very close to that. I swear on my dead mothers ashes.
Well since then I have had five different Foresters. I have only owned Subaru Foresters since buying that first one.
Today Subaru let me down.
After reversing into a parking bay at site—where it is mandatory the everyone reverse park—I stepped out of the car and could then smell this really awful odour. I could not work out what the stink was, and then I noticed smoke coming out of the front of the car. Only it wasn’t smoke, it was steam. I found this out when I popped the bonnet to see what was going on.
There was green-blue coolant splashed onto the engine cover.
A horrible sinking feeling washed over me—I instantly realised that I had lost of lot of coolant and it looked like it was coming directly out of the radiator.
I closed the bonnet and continued on into work. If there is one lesson I have learnt in my lifetime it is never to assess a problem when stressed and confused, and right then I was stressed and confused. After a cup of coffee and about an hour later I returned to the Forester to review the status.
There was no hose damage. The hoses looked new and had probably been replaced as part of one of the regular services. The coolant seemed to have come from the centre upper area of the radiator so my assessment was that the top-tank seal onto the radiator core had somehow broken.
A check of the radiator and the coolant reserve indicated there was still coolant in the system. This was a good sign and probably means, I hope, that no damage has occurred to the engine.
As I sit here now keying this up in my motel room my car has been carted off by an RAC car-carrier to the local radiator repairer and they have confirmed my assessment of a stuffed top tank seal. They also said it was a good thing I did not try to drive the car anywhere as the leak was large and my coolant would have emptied away very quickly. They have ordered a new top tank and seal which should arrive from Perth tomorrow morning—they should have it fitted by midday.
I have to confess I am quite disappointed. My 2005 MY06 2.5 XT Forester has only done 140,000 kilometres, which is only about 84,000 in ‘the old money’ (i.e., miles). For a modern engine 84,000 miles is hardly even run-in. My very first car, a 1970 Ford Escort 1.3 GT, had done 145,000 very hard country miles (about 232,000 kilometres) when I traded it in on a Ford Cortina; and it had not let me down once—ever. You do expect more from a modern vehicle, and especially a Subaru.
To add to this, when I contacted my Subaru dealer about this he informed me that top-tank leaks were a known problem with that model Forester at around 140 to 160 thousand kilometres.
