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Any Rattles?

11K views 37 replies 28 participants last post by  russellpat 
#1 ·
I have been monitoring this forum for several weeks now with the intention of educating myself in all things 2015 OB. With few exceptions, test drives and short term impressions by new owners are very positive. That's pretty comforting since I am waiting for my OB to arrive later this month. What I am particularly happy about is not hearing anyone complain about rattles. Am I just hoping that's the case, or has anyone actually found a rattle?

Mike
 
#2 ·
No rattles.

I've bought new cars all my life (the outback is only my 4th car since '87), and my wife leases a new cars every couple years. The outback is the only one that has not had a rattle, squeak, whirr, clunk, clank or any other item we've had to take back to the dealer to fix.

I'm hoping that will continue and I'll have no other reason besides scheduled maintenance to go back to the dealer.

Congratulations on the new car.
Glenn
 
#4 ·
Like many of you, I'm obsessed with cars. It's not just driving them, but the care and feeding also, washing, waxing, gawking, reading about them, etc. After the honeymoon wears off, sometimes in 1 year, I begin looking for a different adventure. For the last 10 years, or so, I've been buying new vehicles from Lexus, including one 2010 RX350 and one 2013 RX450h. I was looking for a comfortable crossover that had modern technology, reliability and solid construction. The RX had all of those qualities, with one exception....both rattled so badly, the honeymoon didn't last very long.

I currently have a 2013 GS350 that I am going to trade on a 2015 OB 2.5 Limited. I'm just waiting for it to arrive sometime this month. This change of heart from Lexus to Subaru happened because a friend of mine decided to get a new car after his 11 year old Vibe began needing work. He asked for a replacement recommendation, so I began doing some research and discovered the safety and value qualities of Subaru, and the Forester fit the specs he was looking for. He bought it, I drove it and was converted.

I test drove the 2015 OB and knew this was my new adventure. The OB was more comfortable, quieter, had better tech, was much cheaper, without sacrificing quality and ....NO RATTLES.

Sorry for the long post, but I need to kill time while I wait for my OB to arrive. I will apologize in advance for any future posts that have many words, but lack substance. My friends are also accusing me of that since I put the deposit down on the OB. That's all I read about and talk about. Thanks for your responses verifying my experiences of not hearing any rattles. I'll be ok.........soon.

Mike
 
#5 ·
Sorry for the long post, but I need to kill time while I wait for my OB to arrive. I will apologize in advance for any future posts that have many words, but lack substance. My friends are also accusing me of that since I put the deposit down on the OB. That's all I read about and talk about. Thanks for your responses verifying my experiences of not hearing any rattles. I'll be ok.........soon.
Welcome to the support group!

Just to vent about something unrelated, almost every day I go to YouTube and search for "2015 Outback" to see if there are any new videos out. Well there always are, but 95% of them are crappy 1-2 minute long ads from dealers about cars they have on the lot. Since they're almost identical, there's no point in watching, but I still have to scroll through them to make sure I don't miss anything new. I also came across one utterly worthless video that was just a slideshow of Outback pictures along with a text-to-speech voice reading a review of the car. If I come across it again I'll post the link so everyone can see how badly things like this are polluting YouTube. :gasp:

Edit: here's the link to that terrible video. It plagiarized Car and Driver's review to the letter.
 
#7 ·
I've had my '15 Outback 2.5 Premium for almost 3 weeks now. That was the first thing I noticed: No rattles! Last car was an '07 Legacy GT that came with all uncalled for "amenities" such as wind noise (frameless windows ugh), rattles in the dash, etc etc. My Outback on the other hand is such a great vehicle to drive! Went on a cruise today on a mix of neighborhoods and highways...felt great! :29:
 
#10 ·
I have a few hundred Km on it and the only rattle I had was the passenger's head rest when it's positioned a few clics up and the seat is empty. If you pat the back of the seat to create vibration like if you were on a bumpy road, you'd probably see some play on the head rest's poles ( when it's set high). I haven't had the time to look into it but at the setting it's at right now , it doesn't rattle. Check yours out and report back please :29:
 
#14 ·
My experience has been quiet the opposite. I'm in NYC and most of the roads are pretty rough. Nearly every morning I notice a new rattle coming from a different spot in the car. So far I'm just keeping a list of them for when I go to the get the oil changed and just seeing if anything is getting worse. It's pretty quiet on roads that are smooth, but any roads with extensive bumps and imperfections usually cause some kind of rattle within the steering column/gauges (there are 2 types of rattles I've got in this area). There's some kind of rattle coming from the passenger's side around the glove box and today I noticed a rattle from the rear middle area of the center console. Weird hearing this on a brand new 2016 but my '07 Accord had the defective door trim issue which caused the doors to rattle all over the place anytime you'd be driving over 5 mph (so this sounds quiet by comparison).


Edit: forgot words.
 
#16 ·
Have had mine for just over a year and have 13k+ miles and no rattles. That's even with quite a bit of dirt roads under it's belt and a god awful trip down old route 66 (most dirt roads are smoother than some sections of this road). The only rattles come from stuff in the center console (the reason I don't keep change in the little holder). So far the most rattle free car I've ever owned.
 
#19 ·
I get a hoot outta posts that state "..a rattle coming from the passenger side of the dash, near the glove box"...
DOH!

Anyway, of all the cars I've driven in my life, the 2015 OB feels the stiffest and tightest of them all. Seriously, it feels like it was machined outta a single billet of material.
 
#20 ·
I purchased mine in March of this year, and started getting rattles from the dash coming probably behind the instruments cluster that was very obvious and annoying. Waited a little bit for it to go, and when temperatures warmed up, rattle was gone. I informed my dealer, and he said bring it to check when it's cold so they can hear it. All summer was rattle free, but now we've had couple of relatively cold nights and rattle is back. So I guess I'll be taking it next month in October when the rattle is obvious. Besides that one, car feels rock solid.
 
#29 ·
Mine was the full line of quarters in the coin tray rattling side to side.
 
#25 ·
I drove my 2015 3.6R OB off of the dealer's lot on March 29 and have racked up 7,600 miles thus far. No rattles, no squeaks, no unwanted sounds of any sort. The OB is very quiet on the freeways. Even on dirt and gravel roads, there is little discernible noise other than that caused by driving on the rough road surface. Of course, it helps that I usually have my music playing. But even when I am not playing music, the OB is impressively quiet.
 
#30 ·
I think I isolated one of the rattles. The speaker grill on the right rear passenger door seems to be slightly lose. When I give it a light tap there's a popping noise. Does anyone have a service manual on how the door is taken apart?

In a new development I now realize that I can hear the fuel sloshing around in the gas tank when braking.
 
#32 ·
2016 3.6R

You guys are lucky. I have a vibration that has just gone worse over the past month.

I have about 1300 miles and I started hearing vibrations from the first couple weeks. At first, it almost sounded like static coming from the speakers. The vibration has gone much louder to the point that I need to go into service.

The vibration is coming from between the map light console and the headliner. And before you ask, it's not my sunglasses. If I push up on my headliner the vibration goes awayaway. I have a recording of it which hopefully the service center will recognize is an actual issue and can fix it.

:sadness:
 
#33 ·
I have this one come up here and there. It kind for sounds like music where there's too much bass causing a buzzing/humming noise. It doesn't happen as often as the other 2 rattles I have but it does happen from time to time. I'm just waiting to see how much worse it gets before I take the car in.
 
#34 ·
I have a 2016 Outback and I have at least three noises coming from the dash. One is a prominent clunk that occurs going over certain kinds of rough roads. It seems to be associated with the main instrument cluster. It doesn't take much to set it off. The other noise is a buzz that occurs at low speeds and corresponds to engine rpm. It's only audible at low speeds. Another noise comes and goes but is related to the intersection of two parts, a horizontal seem, of the dash to the left of the steering column. It stops if I apply pressure there. The worst one was related to the housing of the forward looking cameras on each side of the rear view mirror. I had to jam some folded up paper in the housing to stop the constant rattle.
 
#36 ·
I found what may be a small rattle. The passenger side courtesy/puddle lamp lens was a very loose fit in the door. i shimmed it up with small felt pads. Driver's side was tight. I will continue to be on the lookout for any rattles. I hate them.
 
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