Subaru Problems

The recommendation from the trade is to use a fully synthetic 0W20 or 5W30 grade oil. As the grade suggests, this is quite thin oil, but it allows the oil to flow easily when it's cold and, therefore, reduce wear. Modern engines like the Subaru's have many intricate, tiny oilways associated with the variable vale timing mechanisms, so a thinner, easier-flowing oil is often what's needed.

The flip-side is that modern engines with low-tension piston rings (for better fuel economy) are apt to drink a little oil between oil-changes. So you need to keep an eye on the oil level on the dipstick to avoid running the engine low on oil. This isn't a Subaru-specific thing, but applies to many modern engine designs. What you'll spend on oil will be more than offset by the fuel savings a modern engine can provide.

Subaru is firmly committed to the CVT (Constantly Variable Transmission) concept as it gives a theoretical efficiency advantage over conventional transmissions. The catch is that to make the CVT feel less alien, many car-makers (including Subaru) engineer in electronic `ratios’ which kind of sidesteps those theoretical advantages.

It’s true that Subaru CVTs have experienced some reliability problems in the past, but in the case of the Outback, that appears to mainly affect vehicles built between 2010 and 2015. After that build date, things improved dramatically on the reliability and durability front, not to mention the driveability and comfort offered by the CVT. So we wouldn’t be too concerned about this aspect of the vehicle. Given that you’re buying a brand-new vehicle, you’ll get the full five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. And as proof of Subaru’s faith in the CVT concept, for the 2018 facelift of the Outback, the CVT got a seventh `ratio’ and a shorter-pitch chain to reduce cabin noise. So a brand-new Subaru CVT should represent the best the concept has ever been.

Let me guess; you have either a shorter family member or a car-port or garage with limited height clearance. You might have thought it would be as easy as phoning Subaru Australia and asking the question. Which is what I did, but Subaru Australia couldn’t give me the answer. It’s just not included in the specifications supplied by the Subaru factory. Apparently.

So, I grabbed a tape-measure and headed to a Subaru dealer who allowed me to measure the XV’s tailgate. So here’s how it pans out (bearing in mind I didn’t have a ladder, so the measurements might not be millimetre-perfect): The distance from the ground to the highest part of the open tailgate is 2100mm (as I said, give or take a few); the distance from the ground to the lowest part of the grab-handle that closes the tailgate is 1960mm. Hopefully that helps you out.

Subaru has a long history with the CVT transmission, and it hasn’t always been clear sailing. The first Subaru to feature this transmission was the Justy in the late 1980s and while we saw the similar Sherpa model, Australia never got the CVT transmission. In fact, the Justy had so many transmission problems that it was dumped from world price-lists in about 1995.

Our first taste of the Subaru CVT was in 2009 with the launch of the fifth-generation Liberty and Outback models which featured a CVT on four-cylinder petrol versions of the car.

The CVT has since been extended to the brand’s Impreza, Forester, XV and even the sporty WRX line-up.

And, yes, there have been issues reported by owners. While catastrophic failures have not been widely documented, the Subaru CVT’s overall behaviour has been criticised on a number of levels. Those include a jerkiness to forward progress (particularly in low speed and light throttle conditions) harsh shifting, shuddering under acceleration and a delay when selecting gears from Park. In some instances, a reflash of the electronic control module has improved things, for other cases, Subaru has introduced a completely new, improved software package.

Part of the reason Subaru has copped so much flak over the CVT is that the symptoms it displays are often the death-knell for other types of transmissions and consumers- rightly – have been worried. To counter this in the USA, Subaru extended the drivetrain warranty of 1.5 million cars with CVTs from five years and 100,000km to 10 years and 160,000km.

But even if total transmission replacements don’t seem common, do you want to live with this gearbox? For many people the answer is no. But to be fair, most of the problems seem to have occurred on pre-2018 models and later CVTs appear to be better units.

In the case of the Outback you’re interested in, with the update of that model in 2018, the CVT was revised with a revised torque-reduction control to improve upshift clarity, a short-pitch chain was used for lower noise and a revision to the shifter was made to improve shift feel (although we suspect that’s feel through the shifter itself, not the way the transmission feels when it selects a gear).

A: If the reason the battery is going flat has anything to do with a fault within the rest of the car, then yes, I would imagine the problem – and the subsequent battery replacement if the battery is damaged – would be a warranty issue. The body computer in modern cars can do curious things with the electrical systems and accessories fitted, and that can sometimes result in a flat battery.

Subaru is not the only brand with this problem, but flat batteries caused by it are definitely not the sort of statutory wear and tear issues that normally exclude a battery from any warranty claims. It would be the same with tyres, brakes and clutches. Normally, when these components wear out its deemed normal wear and tear and is not covered by the car’s warranty. But if a tyre, clutch or braking system fails because of a manufacturing or materials fault, then the new-car warranty should cover it.

Subaru's EE20 diel engine is an interesting one as it was claimed to be the world's first turbo-diesel engine with Subaru's trademark boxer layout (where the cylinders run in pairs, opposed to each other (like an air-cooled Volkswagen).

The brand has switched from timing belts to timing chains and back at various points in its engineering history, but the EE20 in your car is from the point in history where timing chains were in vogue at Subaru. As such, the timing chain should last the life of the engine and not require periodic replacement as a timing belt does.

By far the best thing to do with anything like animal urine, bird droppings, tree sap and industrial fallout on your car is to remove it with hot, soapy water as soon as you notice it.

Windscreen glass is not such a problem as it's more or less impervious to such stains, even though they can contain large amounts of acid (bird droppings are particularly acidic). But the car's paintwork, being potentially porous, is another matter altogether and plenty of paintjobs have been ruined by allowing these contaminants to sit on the car for longer periods. Leave them long enough and they'll eventually leach into the paint itself, leaving permanent stains.

You can use all sorts of detergents, but make sure they're designed for cars and painted surfaces. Don't be tempted to use household dishwashing liquid, as this has high levels of salt which can actually scratch the paint.

If the stain is already proving difficult to shift, you can try a cutting polish that might move it, but be careful that you don't remove too much paint, especially in the case of a metallic colour with its clear top-coat. A better bet might be to take the car to a specialist in what's called paint correction, who might be able to reverse the damage already done.

Once that's done, keep the paint protected with a good layer of automotive wax (which forms a physical barrier between the paint and whatever's trying to stain it) and try not to park under trees.

The experience over the decades has been that the more you do to make a car secure, the more damage the bad guys will do to it in the name of gaining access. Making the door locks harder to remove will lead to the crooks using a bigger screwdriver to pop the locks out, or simply lead them to smash a window if they really want to get inside. When cars were easy to steal without the key, many did, in fact, disappear overnight. But now the coded ignition key is required, many car thefts now begin with an aggravated burglary so the thieves can get hold of that key, terrorising the owners in the process. It's a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless.

The best advice is to park the car somewhere secure or at least under a light source (a street light can make all the difference). And, of course, never leave anything you value inside the car. That's not always easy, but, again, it's a fact of life.

The smell you're describing has been around since 1986 when all new cars sold in Australia were forced to use unleaded petrol. That move was to protect the catalytic converters fitted from that date (leaded fuel would have damaged them) and the combination of these converters and the new fuel resulted in the smell you're noticing. So it's not new, but it does vary from car to car and possibly even from one brand of fuel to another.

It's supposed to be harmless to humans, but if you can smell it, that automatically means you're being exposed to other chemicals in the car's exhaust emissions, including various carcinogens and carbon-monoxide which is a known killer. Think of the rotten-egg smell as an early-warning system that there's exhaust gas in the air around you. Excessive gas can also be a symptom of a car's engine that is not turned correctly.

It's really important not to run a car engine inside a garage for any longer than is absolutely necessary as these toxins can build up very quickly. It sounds like your garage is attached to your house, and that reminds me why garages were once separate to the house they served. (As were kitchens in the very old days, as a means of ensuring a kitchen-fire didn't take the rest of the house with it.) Don't be tempted to reverse into the garage, instead drive in nose-first, leaving the tailpipe nearest the garage opening and never start the car with the garage door closed.

Okay, let's tackle your questions one by one. The advice you've been given by two repairers doesn't really gel. For a start, you have a mechanic telling you it's an electrical problem, and an electrician telling you it's a mechanical problem. Sounds like neither of them know what's up here. There's a big difference between an engine that has no spark and an engine that needs a complete rebuild, in both dollar and effort terms, so you need to get an independent assessment of what's really wrong with the thing and go from there. If, for instance, it's a simple case of needing new spark plugs or coils, then it's worth fixing. If the engine is indeed toast, then a new one is probably going to cost more than the value of the entire car.

Which brings us to your second question. Given that a 1998 Forester is probably a $3000 to $5000 car in good working order, you're not sitting on a gold-mine. While you could potentially make more by wrecking the car and selling it in pieces, you have the hassle of physically separating the car and selling it piece by piece with cleaning, packaging and mailing the parts one by one. Then there's the fielding of hundreds of emails and phone calls, not to mention the hassle of having a dead car in your driveway for as long as it takes to sell all the bits. Even then, you'll eventually have to have the carcass taken away. The alternative is to sell the car to a wrecking yard to handle that side of things, but you'll be lucky to be offered more than a few hundred dollars to have the car picked up and removed.

The option, to answer your third question, would be to have the car electronically scanned, find out precisely what's wrong with it and make an informed decision from there. If the thing is fixable, great. But if it needs a new engine, it might be time to think about a replacement car as spending thousands on a 25-year-old car that will certainly be showing wear in other areas, doesn't really stack up.