My Forester CVT blew up

[gathermewool]

Great news!

Personally, I'd just keep the Subie until it starts to give you trouble, which will likely (hopefully) not be for a long while. I would also not have any issue buying your Subie from you, so long as it had been 10k+ miles since replacement without issue. i'd offer you less than usual, of course.

In reality, a 2015 Premium with a replaced CVT won't get you much on the open market. People will assume that you abused the CVT and the rest of the vehicle OR that you've got an off-day production vehicle.

With that said, I still think you'd get more money out of it selling privately. I can't imagine a different make giving you a fair deal on it, if they know the CVT has been replaced, unless they're desperate for your business otherwise.

 

[cronk]

I think regular fluid changes help.
We bought our Nissan Quest with 46k, I did 2 drain and fills shortly after we got it, and every 30k since and we are now at 100k and no issues, still working smoothly.
Switched to Amsoil cvt fluid after 60k when the powertrain warranty expired.

 

[IMPALA08]

gathermewool , that's my thought possibly Change CVT fluid every 30k miles hold onto the car until it the transmission starts to give me trouble then trade it or donate it. It's a shame it checks all the box's for my wife and I.

 

[gathermewool]

Same here; we love our Foz. I'm not sure if I could live with two slow cars, though. I like having one relatively quick, turbo vehicle in the stable.

Hopefully the HTCVT is robust, since we plan on keeping this car forever.

 

[IMPALA08]

There are just a few compact suv w/o CVT transmissions. It going to be a tuff choice! They all have less cargo but no CVT. I'll do some serious looking at the NY Auto show.

 

[caprice_2nv]

I'd go with a Mazda if I was in the market.

 

[Puckrobber]

Glad to hear you've got a good-working Subie again! I'm still waiting for my Altima to come back from a transmission replacement. Apparently, they're having issues finding a reliable used transmission to put in.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by Puckrobber
Glad to hear you've got a good-working Subie again! I'm still waiting for my Altima to come back from a transmission replacement. Apparently, they're having issues finding a reliable used transmission to put in.

You don't say lol. They are definitely not the most reliable things but sometimes it's the luck of the draw. A number of years back when I was working at Goodyear still we had to put a used transmission in a 2000ish Toyota Corolla (you never really hear of that). We ended up getting 1 more bad one before the third one was a charm.

 

[IMPALA08]

Does anyone know if the CVT problems were corrected on the post 2015 models?

 

[PimTac]

Yes. Jatco came out with their CVT8 and it has been reliable.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted by IMPALA08
Does anyone know if the CVT problems were corrected on the post 2015 models?


Well - Subaru extended the warranty on CVT for both by Subarus. So it was not fixed in post 2015 for all Subaru models.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
Oh man,
I also have a 2015 forester and I sometimes worry about this.

Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
I would recommend a drain and fill early at 15-20K then 60K there after. I have read you will loose the extended warranty on the Fuji CVT if you do maintenance on it. That is insane as it has a severe service maintenance recommendation. I would have to read the service bulletin myself to believe this. In fact I'm going to search for it right now.

Good Luck with that. I have called most dealerships around me (close to the OP as well) and nobody would do that telling me that the fluid is lifetime. When you call them out on 'lifetime', they tell me that its a guideline from Subaru not to change the fluid.
My local mechanic is willing to change at 50K but it worries me that he changes the fluid and then CVT goes kaput, Subaru won't give me the stated replacement.

From what I have heard, most failed CVTs get sent to Japan to figure out what went wrong. Since OP's blew up, doubt they will send that. Most replacement CVTs are refurbs, about ~8k out the door.


I doubt the failed CVTs are sent to Japan to see what happened. If they extended the warranty to 100K they know what is wrong. They may want to make sure the failed CVTs do not make it back onto vehicles however.

 

[AC1DD]

Originally Posted by Donald
[quote=MoneyJohn


I doubt the failed CVTs are sent to Japan to see what happened. If they extended the warranty to 100K they know what is wrong. They may want to make sure the failed CVTs do not make it back onto vehicles however.


I bet that the vendor (Jatco) has a shop somewhere in the USA that receives the failed units and they have techs there probably from Japan that disassemble them and look for design flaws or weaknesses.

 

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by supton
How do you overuse a CVT?

Drive it 53,000 miles, apparently.