I'll be curious to hear what you find. I also hear a clunk in my new wilderness when the rear goes over speed bumps. Haven't dug into it yet to figure it out. May try taking out the spare and see if it's from inside or out.

 

AppFan I was thinking the same thing. Is there a wing-nut type of securing method like in many cars?

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

The spare itself has a nut to make sure it's tight. The styrofoam tray with the jack and tools just lays there loosely.

 

First, welcome to the forums! A few things here:

From Range Rovers to Audis to Subarus - Any vehicle will produce loud bangs or thumps, or bottom-out, if you fly through speed bumps at 10mph. I am unsure what the issue is here. If your spare is not loose, it is definitely driver error. Slow down.

Be careful when reading information in an echo-chamber where people post their issues first, and their successes second. There are a ton of members here with reasonable input. And we don't hear about millions of happy Subie owners that don't zero-in on fringe issues.

Insurance is part of life, and the coverages you make is a choice. My old 2015 Range Rover's windshield costs $3500 replace. Subies are cheap. Find the right coverage, which is what shopping for insurance is for. I pay $620/6 months for full coverage and $0 Comprehensive deductible on my Wilderness, which is what covers my windshield plus recalibration. There are deals to be had with policies that fit your needs, pending credit ratings and driving records.

You never have to buy anything (like extra windshield coverage that doesn't fully cover the cost of replacement). Those are choices.

Additionally, there is no evidence that Subies have "thin," windshields or fail en masse. While there are fringe cases of possible "surprises," at the end of the day a rock is a rock, and will chip or crack glass both when flying through speed bumps at 10mph or on the highway at 70mph. The full story is never presented, and usually when reading experiences the person leaves out how fast they were going, how close they were to the vehicle, what kind of vehicle they were tailgating, and whether their windshield was already compromised.

Just my thoughts.

 

First, welcome to the forums! A few things here:

From Range Rovers to Audis to Subarus - Any vehicle will produce loud bangs or thumps if you fly though speed bumps at 10mph. I am unsure what the issue is here. If your spare is not loose, it is definitely driver error. Slow down.

Be careful when reading information in an echo-chamber where people post their issues first, and their successes second. There are a ton of members here with reasonable input.

Insurance is part of life, and the coverages you make is a choice. My old 2015 Range Rover's windshield costs $3500 replace. Subies are cheap. Find the right coverage, which is what shopping for insurance is for. I pay $620/6 months for full coverage and $0 Comprehensive deductible on my Wilderness, which is what covers my windshield plus recalibration. There are deals to be had with policies that fit your needs, pending credit ratings and driving records.

You never have to buy anything (like extra windshield coverage that doesn't fully cover the cost of replacement). Those are choices.

Additionally, there is no evidence that Subies have "thin," windshields or fail en masse. While there are fringe cases of possible "surprises," at the end of the day a rock is a rock, and will chip or crack glass both when flying through speed bumps at 10mph or on the highway at 70mph. The full story is never presented, and usually when reading experiences the person leaves out how fast they were going, how close they were to the vehicle, what kind of vehicle they were tailgating, and whether their windshield was already compromised.

Just my thoughts.

WELL SAID.

 

Check rear shocks for any oil leaks, I had a blown one on my new 2015 Outback I only had it a couple of weeks.

 

Something loose in the spare tire tub. Include checking for proper inflation pressure.

 

My car insurance does cover calibration, and mine is cheap Geico - nothing special. ADAS calibration is not unique to Subaru. What is ADAS calibration and why does your car need it?

Depending on the sound of the clunk/thunk it could be a bunch of different things:

• Something loose in the spare tire well, e.g. tire not tight
• The seat belt buckle in the headliner above the cargo area
• Loose rear subframe
• Loose sway bar clamps
• Loose sway bar end-links
• Loose lug nuts
• Loose shock mounts

My car does not make any unusual noise going over a speed bump at 10 mph.

If possible make a video of the noise and you might get more accurate conjectures - the site doesn't let you upload a video but you can post a link to your google drive, icloud, youtube, etc.

 

This is not what I expected from Subaru.

Your car insurance is not Subaru's fault, shop around as someone suggested. You can probably change insurance companies, get the coverage you need AND end up saving money compared to having bought the separate coverage. Also, while there are reports of people with cracking glass they're going to be the majority of what you see as people are more likely to complain than report "all is good". For every report here of a cracked windshield there are probably 10,000 of the same Outback on the road that DIDN'T get cracked glass...

 

I had this. One of the sway bar links had lost the nut at the sway bar end. Would only make noise over certain speed bumps. They replaced both links under warranty.

 

I had the same noise on my 2022 outback Wilderness. Just took it to Subaru, they called and told me once they disconnected the sway bar end link, the noise disappear and is in the process of getting new links installed.I’ll update this once everything has been fix and see if the noise is still there.

 

Recommend putting the rear end on support jacks, chock the front wheels and crawl underneath and do a physical pull and shake on the suspension. Make sure the tires are all the way off the ground too, so you can detect any loose stuff in the rear. If you find something suspicious, use surveyor tape (bright orange) and wrap around the components in question to mark them. Don't use spray paint.
If you find the problem you can then take it back to the dealer, and when on the lift show them the areas you marked then they can get down to business.
Some may object to this method, but it is wise to know the underside of your car and get a creepy crawler too. Comes in handy.

 

Mine also makes this noise. It really sounds like it's coming from the suspension... Not exactly like it's bottoming out though, it's not as deep of a sound as that, a bit more hollow sounding (if that makes sense).

 

A certain amount of thump is normal going over speedbumps in any car, but I'm somewhat alarmed that a bunch of people are hearing abnormal thuds or something. I trust that all of you have driven over speedbumps in many other vehicles and know what normal speedbump sound would be. I wish someone would make a video of the noise so that others could confirm "the same noise" or "mine is different". It's possible that one person's speed bump noise is different than another - sway bar end-link rattle/clunks sound different than a loose spare tire.

 

Mine makes the same sound. I just assumed it was the foam/ spare/ rear cargo lid.

 

Ok, this is getting interesting and I don't have an OBW. Watching to see what gives.

 

Hello- just want to give you some reassurance about your windshield. I had my Outback Wilderness for about a month when I got stuck behind a large truck which was spewing rocks in a tunnel. Long story short, my windshield took a direct hit and escaped with only minor scratches. Could just be luck, but I think your windshield is pretty tough 🙂

 

I don't know if any of you read Jalopnik articles, but a writer on there named David Tracee did a review on the outback Wilderness and said the clunking is the suspension topping out at full droop. I can confirm whenever I have heard the clunk it's been at full droop whether it be off of railroad tracks at a brisk pace or a deep hole on a gravel road.

 

This description aligns with what I'm hearing. The clunk doesn't come during suspension compression but right after.

 

Took delivery of my OBW end of June. Now has 12K miles on it, including back roads and trails in New Mexico and Utah, plus I'm a somewhat aggressive driver. Never had any "clunks" like those described here, even when driving with a heavy load.

As to the windshield, mine was hit by stones thrown up by other vehicles and did fine. Hail driven by hurricane-force straight line winds, not so much. My insurance covered replacement, including calibration.

 

From the Jalopnik article in question "Though visibility and traction were excellent, the Subaru Outback Wilderness did have a few issues off-road. The shocks topped out often, making a “clunk” noise in the cabin..." (Basically topping out, means the shock cannot extend any further - which, again, aligns with when I hear my clunk).

 

Yeah, sorry I should have posted that but I was in a hurry at work. Thank you for quoting it.

 

Literally the only time I hear it is on speed bumps. 2 sets of particularly gnarly speed bumps. Is the stroke length of the shocks on the OBW the same as non-Wilderness models? Anyone happen to have that info?

 

Interested in this since I noticed this on my OBW. But only after I went over a speed bump faster than I wanted to. I heard a thump and right my bad, but maybe it's a Subaru bad...?

 

Is this a Wilderness-only issue? I have an Onyx and my car sounds normal when it goes over a speedbump fast - normal speedbump sounds, no unusual clunking or thunking or metallic click.

 

Good question. Not sure how to go about it, but would it make sense to survey Wilderness owners in this forum?

 

If we make a poll it might be good to have a reference video of the "wilderness speed bump sound" so that people can choose:

• My wilderness makes that noise
• My wilderness does not make that noise
• My non-wilderness makes that noise
• My non-wilderness does not make that noise.

 

My 2022 Wilderness makes that noise.

sample video

 

My non-wilderness Premium doesn't make any noise over speed bumps and takes them better than my 4x4 truck.

As to windshields, after going through the original and one replacement Carlex, I switched to Pilkington and haven't had issues since. This isn't to say Pilkington is bulletproof, but they do seem to be more durable than Carlex. My Safelite tech noticed the Pilkington was heavier than the Carlex, which does suggest thicker glass.

 

If/when I have to deal with replacing mine I'm asking for Pilkington based on this post alone.

 

Hmmm, this sounds vaguely like an issue I had with my transmission cross support in another make of Car I had. That might be worth looking into.

 

My cargo covers flap was not fully tracked. It was flapping on bumps and making noise I had.