Forester Rear Door

You have to close it firmly. It's no big deal.

Same problem with my 97 Legacy. And after that it developed a problem with the locking mechanism where the unlock does not always work unless you jiggle it between lock and unlock one or more times. i think these are related. dealer replaced the latch, but it did not help either situation.

Jim

Hello Steve,

I feel the same way about my 2004 Forester. I need to give it a good push, it never closes with only the springs. Often I need to re-open and give it a harder push. I feel bad about pushing to mutch, it since it is still almost new.

Folks, you are making a mountain out of a molehill, IMO. The Forester rear hatch door needs to be shut quite firmly. So be it. Think of this as another chance to get some needed exercise. Get used to it. It is not an automatic, motorized door closer (which I personally hate because you can damage them by forcing them, and since most doors are nonmotorized, someone unfamiliar with your car is going to try to close it by force sometime anyway.) As another said, No big deal. Adjust your expectations and get on with enjoying your car.

My 2000 Forester was very hard when new and softened up. I still must firmly close it. What is wrong with needed to firmly close it???

Folks,

I don't see it as a big problem. I thought it might be a matter of adjustment for my particular car. Seems it's a general 'feature', so I'll continue to give it a firm push. Seems a pity when the other 4 doors close so nicely......

Steve

Glad you worded it like this at the end; it made me think of one other reason that the rear hatch may be more touchy about needing to be closed firmly. These cars are quite airtight, and thus if all the doors/windows are closed, there is entrapment of air whenever you shut ANY of the doors, which sometimes causes a bit of resistance. (My wife and I have both gotten used to the extra bit of "oomph" needed to make sure the doors shut, and when the other happens to open a door just as one is firmly shutting one, it results in more of a slam than was intended.) This might apply on the rear hatch, since it is capable of moving (and thus "trapping") much more air than the other doors do (as a function of its larger area, of course.) Maybe this makes it even harder to fully engage the locking mechanism because the compression of air fights you. Just a thought..........

DH,

Good point. I'll try closing the rear hatch with one of the other doors open to see the effect. Will report back tomorrow.

Steve

Sorry it's so boring for you Tony. Perhaps you should move on to the next thread? Or maybe you prefer to spend time demonstrating your tremendously cool attitude? Whatever.

Answer (to anyone interested). The door closes perfectly when another door is open to avoid trapped wind.

Steve

doors/windows

Tony who? Yawn... (good answer, Steve.) :-----)

Thanks for posting back, Steve. I had never bothered to check it out for sure because the problem didn't irritate me that much, but I'm glad to know our cars are that tight. Especially at 5 years old in our case. No one needs worry too much about the frameless windows and gaskets being a real problem, as many are when they first come looking at Subarus. (That includes me when we got these 99 Foresters, our first Subarus.) I admit to occasional windnoise from the front windows, but the fix that has been posted on here infrequently really does help. (See below, since I made the mistake of bringing it up, and now must answer the question before they start.) Furthermore, I had MUCH more windnoise from the lousy gaskets on our 92 Honda Civic; had them replaced under warranty twice, and then I was on my own. They were designed so badly that the gaskets shrunk and pulled out of their tracks and looked terrible after a while. One of the poorest designed parts on those cars, IMO. Oh well, I'll stop bashing them now. ... for awhile.

Here's the fix I mentioned above, can't take credit for it, just passing on what I was given: FORESTER WIND NOISE FIX, FRONT WINDOWS This is usually caused by the gusset, not the seal, the gusset is the triangular piece that holds the mirror. First thing to do is to roll the window down, then with your hands squeeze the inner and outer pieces together, narrowing the channel that the window slides in. The second thing to do, also with the window down and the door open, "nudge" the gusset toward the car a bit; you won't feel it move, just give it a good push. Both these "adjustments" should get rid of the noise.

DH,

Thanks for the tip on wind noise. I'm not aware of a problem on my Forester, but I'll file it away for future use.

Steve

tremendously

A big YAWN this time.

For gods sake post something constructive and useful.

A twelve year old could easily work out the problem in 5 seconds imply and easily.

As for us waiting with baited breath for you to do another test and report back to us...well I've got better things to do.

HTH

Steve Alm> Sorry it's so boring for you Tony. Perhaps you should move on to the next

Is that foam in the corner of your mouth? You ought to take it easy, that sort of rage must really hurt........

I really am sorry I haven't posted anything which you find entertaining, but like I say, "just move on".

You're setting us all a fine example.

Steve

Hey, Tony, I guess you've prefer a newsgroup that is idle and has maybe one or two perfect posts per day or week. I'm sure you can find some groups with very few posts if that makes you happy, but don't ever post to them because if you do, they won't meet the "perfect" criteria any longer (ie. You'll screw them up, in case you can't figure it out.) Another suggestion: IF you don't care for his questions or other's responses, I have a simple method for freeing you of the annoyance. Why don't you add us to your killfile, O worthy one? We hate to make you stay awake nights fretting about posts you find to be simpleminded. I know it would hurt my feelings thinking I had caused such terrible stress to you. Kiss me goodbye, eh? You'll feel so much better.

Hi Dale

Good to see nothing has changed over time.

Hope the medication is working.

cheers

D H wrote:

Physician, heal thyself.

Thank you Andrew. You and I don't know each other.

However, I suggest you take some of your own advice before shoving your ignorant views down someone's throat.

As a dedicated Subaru owner, 7 new vehicles in the last decade, I suggest that I might have a "reasonable" understanding of the marque and it's model line-up. As an automotive mechanic I might even have an idea about the mechanical aspects of a Subaru.

Most of the posts here, IMO, are from posters who can't be bothered on taking a personal investigative approach to a minor issue. They approach "I'll go the NG" and post, it's a lot easier.

The fact some d*****ad had trouble closing the hatch on a Forester and didn't even try it with one of the other doors open shows his/her investigative tools.

I haven't seen many posts at all from you, so you may be an expert, I'm not always right, however I'll have a good look at the problem, detail the symptoms and if I can't work it out I'll take to some> > > A big YAWN this time.

As the 'd*****ad' involved, I'm ashamed I don't have your wealth of investigative knowledge and experience. Thanks for pointing that out. Maybe someone as clever as you ought to think what they expect to find in a thread called 'Forester Rear Door'. Some fabulous opportunity to air your wonderful investigative abilities? Or some rather mundane request for help from a newbie, looking to eliminate the one, small fault he finds in his 'new' car from people who will know these cars?

To the others who responded, I say - thankyou. To you, I say - get a life. The web is full of sad people sitting at the end of their telephone lines demonstrating how clever, cool, and tough they are. You are one of them.

Steve