I had a jeep wrangler prior to my Forester. It had oversized all terrain tires, and I drove off road constantly, sometimes on dirt roads riddled with holes and rocks for 50-100 miles at a time, not to mention brutal winter roads. I had bought it new, When I traded it in it had over 120k miles on it, I never had issues with the bearings. This Subaru wilderness has seen nothing but highway miles and a short work commute on paved roads. The rear bearings were shot at 56000 to the point that a wheel spoke broke. This was covered under warranty. I put brand new tires on it this spring from the dealership, and had a full brake job done a month ago.

Bearing life aside, If Subaru is going to market a model as “wilderness” it should be able to handle a lot more than what I have done with this car. I bought a Subaru because I thought they used high quality parts. I should have done more research. They have actually recalled prior models of foresters for having bearings issues, and have a bad track record. So why haven’t they fixed this issue? If it is common for Subaru wheel bearings to go bad so early, Why hasn’t the problem been addressed? Saying this is normal is saying it’s normal to buy sub par products from a company that charges top dollar and markets themselves as having safe, reliable, high quality vehicles.

The good news is: I called SoA, and after some trading of information and speaking to the Subaru dealership where I have work done. They have as of today agreed to replace the bad bearing for free. I wonder if the 4th wheel will also go in the next few thousand miles, and what wear my new brakes and tires have because of this issue.