Scotty and friends My brothers commute to work is 30 miles and it was 20 degrees this morning. His 2020 Subaru Forester doesn’t have a normal temperature gauge but has a blue light indicating the car is cold but the whole time this morning it never went out and the heat never got warm and he also said the oil light came on but there was oil he said. It has 60k miles and he bought it new. Could this be the oil pressure not building up or bad thermostat?
Wanted to give a follow up that it’s happened again and it’s the thermo sensor. Being replaced under warranty and turns out this is a very common Subaru problem and there will be a class action lawsuit
@seeitknowit171 Thanks for letting us know. At least it is being fixed at no cost to you.
just because it was so cold some of the electronics were frozen
that's complete horse manure. Run away from this so called "mechanic" as fast as you can.
@imperator well so then what do you think happened? Everything now works and the car warms up as it should. Didn’t even charge us nothing. If you don’t think any parts have frozen (now functioning) then what?
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electronics don't freeze. In fact, electronics work better cold (except batteries of course).
I don't know what happened. Too much second hand info.
Could this be the oil pressure not building up
Huh? What does that have to do with the heater? A lack of oil pressure would bring on serious engine problems but would not prevent the heater from working as long as the engine kept running.
bad thermostat
That is certainly possible, even probable, though unexpected on a car that new.
@chucktobias he just clarified it wasn’t the oil light it was just not getting warm and the blue light was on the whole 40 minute drive to work this morning again it was 20 degrees
Check the coolant level. Run the engine for 15mins to warm it up and then shut the engine off. Feel the upper and lower radiator hoses. Both hoses should feel hot.
@oskool Also, if coolant has been serviced recently there could be air bubbles in the system.
@Chuck Tobias That's a good point! @Seeitknowit171 Make sure the engine has cooled down before removing the radiator cap to check the coolant level!
@oskool update now the engine warms up the the light went off but now the fan stopped working
he just clarified it wasn’t the oil light it was just not getting warm and the blue light was on the whole 40 minute drive to work this morning again it was 20 degrees
If the engine were warming up properly but no heat I'd say the HVAC blend door was probably not working. If the cold light stayed on but the heater worked then the temperature sending unit would be the likely culprit.
However, here you have both a cold engine indication and no heat. Although we discourage the parts cannon approach, given the combined symptoms the thermostat is a good place to start.
now the engine warms up the the light went off but now the fan stopped working
What fan? Engine cooling fan? HVAC fan?
@chucktobias the heater
Check the fuse and relay for the fan. If those are good and the fan is accessible you can check to see if it's receiving power - if so the fan motor is bad. (Unlikely on a car that new but possible.) Other than that, seeing as how the HVAC system is computer-controlled it's probably going to require a professional-grade bidirectional scan tool for diagnosis.
We took it to the mechanic and said there was nothing wrong it was just because it was so cold some of the electronics were frozen. He said my brother should have let the car warm up for at least 15 minutes before driving otherwise everything would have worked. Still he was driving over a half hour each way still nothing worked so I don’t know either way everything now works and at least the mechanic didn’t charge anything