Subaru Problems

Surprisingly, your car would probably run on E85, but it wouldn’t run properly. E85 is 85 per cent ethanol (and 15 per cent petrol) which has a lower energy content than straight petrol. As a result, a car running on E85 will need to use up to 30 per cent more fuel by volume to work properly. As your car is not tuned for this, it would probably run but would be down on power and may not idle or accelerate smoothly.

The bigger issue is that the high ethanol content fuel can be corrosive to fuel system parts (pumps and lines) not designed for it. While many Subaru models are, in fact, compatible with and suitable for E10 fuel (10 per cent ethanol and 90 per cent petrol) E10 has an octane rating of 94 while your car requires a minimum of 95-octane fuel. So even E10 would be a no-no.

With all that in mind, I think the best advice would be to drain the tank of the E85 as soon as possible. Refill it with 98-octane petrol and go for a drive to purge any residual E85 form the lines. Your workshop may even suggest a new fuel filter. If they don’t, ask about it yourself. The good news is that it’s very unlikely you’ve done any damage beyond the dent you’ve just put in your wallet.

For a start, some owners are not mad about the Subaru’s CVT transmission. It’s not that it’s necessarily unreliable, they just don’t like the way it works with an occasional hesitation and a slight jerkiness at light throttle applications. Some people never notice it, but others find it a real distraction. The Kia meanwhile, has been getting good reviews across the trade, largely thanks to the Australian-input into the model’s suspension settings.

Of course, you need to personally drive all three cars on your short-list as there will be things you like and dislike about each one, some of which will be deal-breakers.

The SsangYong is certainly the unknown quantity, but mainly because of the brand’s on-again-off-again relationship with the Australian market. But now, with head-office support (the Australian operation is the only factory-owned distributorship outside the brand’s native South Korea) things are looking a bit brighter for buyers and that’s backed up by the factory seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty that also includes fixed price servicing and roadside-assistance for seven years. That’s got to represent peace of mind.

A lot of cars have warning chimes, buzzers and bells to warn you of all sorts of things you have never even imagined going wrong. The Japanese manufacturers seem especially keen on them.

It could be an actual fault with a door-ajar or seat-belt warning chime or it could be a new habit the sat-nav has picked up. Have you checked the oil level and the level of coolant in the overflow-tank? Plenty of cars will warn you when these items need attention, and, since they’re not everyday events, this could be the first time you’ve experienced them.

It would depend on which variant it is, but it’s very low kilometres for its age, which would go in its favour. I would suggest a price of $8,000 - $10,000.

You actually bought both in one go, John. In much the same way as the American car industry used to do, Subaru actually releases their cars by model year or MY code generally in the August or September of the previous year. So you have a 2017-spec Forester which was built in 2016.

This is a classic case of the dangers of researching through websites you don’t know and can’t trust. The 1500-pound limit is probably from a North American website and since different markets sometimes have very different vehicle specifications (even though they’re sold under the same badge) taking such info at face value is a risky business.

Many websites simply have no idea of the facts of a particular matter, so it’s important to stick with sites like this one with a proper policy on accuracy and one that employs proper motoring journalists rather than operating as a fan site.

Meantime, here are the facts on towing limits for a Subaru Forester: The 2017 Forester can tow a braked trailer up to 1500kg in weight for all models that use the petrol engine (either 2.0 or 2.5 litres) and require standard ULP. The diesel Forester and versions that use the higher-grade two-litre petrol (which required Premium ULP) can tow 1800kg. That didn’t change for the 2018 model-year, so no reduction in towing capacity exists between the two years.

It’s possible that something has thrown an error code curve-ball at the car, Luke. It’s quite possible that a re-set of the ECU (and you can try it at home by disconnecting the battery for half-an-hour or so and then reconnecting it) will switch the warning lights off and return things to normal.

The other alternative is to take the car to a Subaru dealership and have the car scanned to see what fault codes get thrown up. It doesn’t take a huge fault to bring on these symptoms and I’ve even heard of a car driven with a loose fuel cap causing an almost identical problem.

It’s not possible to say how many km is too many, as there are a number of things that can affect engine life. It can be the way it has been driven, if it has been thrashed, if it has towed, etc., but the most important thing is servicing. Any vehicle you consider buying should come with a record of regular servicing by an experienced mechanic who would use a good quality oil. Try to find a car with around 150,000 km, which should give you 150,000-200,000 km of reliable motoring.

You’re absolutely spot on, Craig, although my info suggests the problems started occurring in the Outback model as early as 2000. For other Subaru models, head gasket failures have been an issue since the mid-90s. Then trade seems to think that the typical fail-point is somewhere between the 120,000km and 200,000km mark, but I’ve heard of cases of cars much younger than this suffering gasket failure.

So what causes it? Fundamentally, it was a bad design in the head gaskets Subaru was using at the time. The gaskets were a composite type, made up of thin metal sheets that were coated with a graphite-based material. Frankly, they were duds and it’s this simple fact that has caused so many Subaru owners so much grief over the years. Subaru eventually changed the design of the gaskets around 2011 and the problem just stopped.

You can spot a Subaru with a head-gasket problem a couple of ways. For a start, the failed gasket will allow coolant to escape and that will lead to the engine overheating. So, a car that runs hot after a distance is a likely suspect.

Early failures tended to allow the coolant to leak internally (where it was consumed by the engine) but later generations of the Subaru motor started to experience external leaks and these, obviously, are much easier to spot. Look for an oil leak from around the sealing surface of the head and crankcase and coolant on the ground under the car each morning.

The really weird part of all this was that Subarus tend to be otherwise very reliable and durable and, serviced correctly, can cover huge distances. But the problem was made worse by the fact that the Subaru flat-four engine actually has two cylinder-head gaskets, instead of the one of most four-cylinder engines. Replacement of the dud gaskets is the only fix and it’s quite a big – and expensive – job.