Outback front inner guard liner gets torn out.

AvB · Post by **AvB** » Wed May 01, 2013 11:24 am

I’m a long term Subaru nut having owned one of the early DL wagons from 1984 and since then I’ve had four other Subarus. I love them but something about my 2009 Outback is really p#ssing me off. I regularly go off road onto farm tracks up hills in the pursuit of my hobby of slope soaring radio controlled gliders. I love the off road grip and have seen my mates in other AWD’s unable to reach places I go with the Outback. I know perhaps the Forester is more aimed at off roading but I want the cargo carrying length of the wagon.

However I have twice now torn out the left front black plastic moulded mudshield that lines the inside of the wheel arch. The first time it happened I was driving slowly through a mud dip which certainly wasn’t severe, and heard a crunch, and found the moulding torn out and totally destroyed, which cost me around $200 to fix. Then more recently I was driving slowly in grass and weeds; heard a noise under the front left, checked it out and found that part of the moulding had pulled away from its mounts so I pushed it all back into place. It lasted a few more minutes before a stiff weed in the grass must have hooked it again and pulled most of it away, tearing parts of the liner. I had to completely remove it but haven’t yet had it replaced.

I’m really disappointed and feel like I’ve now lost confidence with the Outback because of the repeated problem and googling it shows that it’s not an uncommon problem. I really want to stick with Subaru, but inevitably I need to be able to take the car into situations where it’s gonna scrape over grass and weeds and rocks occasionally. I contacted Subaru asking if they could suggest anything but they gave me a totally useless reply along the lines of “you shouldn’t be taking it in long grass”.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there any “known” modifications that can help an ’09 Outback to handle some rough stuff?

Very sorry if there are threads already addressing this – please direct me to them if so.

FROG · Post by **FROG** » Wed May 01, 2013 5:27 pm

I did see one fella had changed the scrivets and clips to some sort of fastener with an oversize head on it, I would imagine though they would still eventually pull through too

I didnt get to have a closer look sorry
maybe the rally guys have a fix if they even run them?

I could fill my old Liberty''s guards with sticky river mud with no issues