Subaru Reviews

Subaru’s own brochure blurb for the Crosstrek features the promise of off-roading family fun. With that in mind, the warranty will still apply even if you do get adventurous with the vehicle. That said, you might have warranty problems if it’s deemed that you’ve abused the vehicle by trying to take it places it was never designed to go. For example, while the Crosstrek is fine for finding a great mountain bike trail somewhere along a forestry road, trying to drive it up the Old Telegraph Track to Cape York through metre-deep river crossings is not within the Crosstrek’s design brief. Doubtless Subaru might argue you should have bought a high-clearance off-roader with a snorkel for such adventures.

The CVT is Subaru’s own work and design. While many other carmakers buy in transmissions from outside manufacturers, the CVT in the Crosstrek is an in-house effort. It’s generally agreed that Subaru’s CVTs are better than some other brands in terms of durability and reliability.

The noise could be from the electric motors themselves or in the gears and cogs that physically move the mirrors to their new positions. Pulling the mirror apart and lubricating these mechanisms might help reduce the noise and may even fix the one mirror’s reluctance to move through its full range of positions.

As far as warranty goes, the situation is a bit complicated in that the dealer may examine the noise and decide that it’s not abnormal. But what you should do before the warranty runs out is have the car examined and the problem logged at dealership level. That way, if anything goes wrong as a result of the problem, even if it’s beyond the warranty period, you have what’s called a pre-existing condition whereby the problems is Subaru’s to fix because it existed while the warranty was still current, even if it wasn’t fixed at that time. The point being that the dealer can’t delay a fix reported during the warranty period and then claim that the vehicle is out of warranty and refuse to fix the problem.

It certainly sounds that way. The clutch’s job is to join the engine to the gearbox while still being able to disconnect them when you need to idle the car or change gears. If the clutch is worn out, you’ll find it slipping under load, allowing the revs to flare up and the vehicle not moving much. This sounds exactly like what you’re describing.

At the least, you’ll need a new clutch unit, but if it’s been slipping for some time, there’s a chance the flywheel has been damaged and will also need to be replaced or machined. I’m tipping that when you tried to reverse out of your parking spot most recently and revved the engine out with no motion from the rest of the car, there was a terrible smell a bit like the smell of brakes in a railway station when a rain pulls in. If so, that’s a clutch failure for sure.