2010 Subaru Forester Pricing and Specs

This is a bit of a known problem in the six-speed manual (which I assume is the transmission you’re talking about) in this model Forester. Some examples of this model were manufactured with a missing oil passageway. Over time, this can lead to poor lubrication of the third and fourth gears, leading to failure.

The noise and clunk that you’re hearing now might be the start of this failure. The good news is that Subaru actually recalled affected vehicles to fix this problem, so you need to contact a Subaru dealership to see if your car was one of the affected ones and what can be done about it now.

It’s worth remembering that this recall was issued back in the day (2010) but if the problem is the one identified in the recall, that shouldn’t matter as Australian vehicle recalls don’t have an expiry date.

As the car is running normally, with no other signs of a problem it’s most likely to be condensation in the exhaust system. If so it’s nothing to worry about. Changing the fuel won’t make any difference.

Switching the transmission and ECU clearly hasn’t fixed the problem, so look at sensors in the system, the wiring harness, and connections. I would suggest you take it to a Subaru dealer or an auto transmission and have them check it for you.