The rumble strip noise you describe could be the engine being on the border of lugging. I can reproduce that easily on my 2010, since I have a manual.

What exactly do you hear when you are making tight turns? Our power steering is down to make some serious noise when near full lock, and an even scarier noise when held at full lock. Try turning the wheel with the windows down and up while stationary to see if that sounds like the bearing noise you report hearing.

These cars aren't the quietest.... But they're awesome still.

 

This happens whenever I'm driving along at that rpm/mph combination, and I believe it's getting worse. Unfortunately, I did not notice it when first got the car, but instead, several weeks later...

I just googled "lugging" and came up with this tread right on this forum:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f113/please-explain-lugging-engine-35404/

I don't claim to understand any of what is being said in that thread, but it sounds as if since the car is an automatic, then yes, this a problem. I had taken it to another Subaru dealer in August and September but while the service manager took a test drive with me and I pointed out what the sound was when I heard it, he didn't even comment. He did tell me there was a new brake line recall and took care of it while I was there.

This spring when I got the notice for the brake line recall to be redone, I went to a different Subaru dealer (they're both about 30 minutes away, just different directions) and have had it there twice. They also say both the "rumble strip" sound and what he called "crab-walking" on the tight turn into a parking spot are normal, but at least acknowledge the concern.

Suggestions for Subaru to recognize the problem fix it while its still under warranty?

 

For what it's worth (my car is a 2015), my car doesn't "crab walk" on tight turns. I assume what he means is that the front tires are actually sliding or skipping a little. I've encountered this problem on my Corvette when backing out of a parking place when the weather is cold, but it's sorta normal for a Vette because of the wide tires, cold temps, and summer tread compound. This should not be an issue on a Forester.

I have the CVT (I assume yours is a regular automatic) and I get no lugging, nor would I expect to. I don't think yours should either except momentarily before a downshift. It could be that if the engine is lugging, it's causing a vibration in one of the heat shields, but that's generally a higher frequency sound than what you described.

I really don't think either of your problems is "normal" based on your descriptions. Not sure about the wheel bearings, but once again, my car is silent.

 

I have the original window sticker even though I bought it used and it doesn't say anything about CVT, but it does show VDC (Vehicle Dynamics Control), PZEV, and sport-shift.

I did put new tires on it at the end of the year and that didn't change anything.

 

I get a bit of crab walking on super tight turns, but my car is a manual and has a different AWD configuration which is more prone to that.

When the car is lugging, try giving it some more gas slowly and seeing what happens. It's possible the car has always done that and you're just now noticing it. I have driven many automatics that keep the rev's on the edge of what is considered lugging. If it downshifts everything is fine. If it doesn't, by half pedal then that's an issue.

Typically on an automatic I don't worry about it, they hopefully programmed it to know when not to drop the rev's that low. I have encountered situations with my Mom's CVT Outback where it is on the fringe of lugging.

 

On my 2011 in stop and go traffic, I often notice the engine lug a bit with the 4EAT transmission which as a previous poster stated seems to be the way it's programmed. What I sometimes do is simply put it in Sport mode or manual shift mode which allow you to circumvent this.

I think the flexibility of the 4EAT combined with its bulletproof reliability and towing capacity is great and I'm amazed how well it does mileage wise in traffic. I get better mileage on my 17 mile highway commute when there's mild traffic than when I just cruise at 60 mph in no traffic.

That said I recently put 500 miles on a 2015 CVT rental and was blown away with how much better performance it offers. After a series of passing episodes on two lane highway I found myself briefly wondering if I had the Turbo.

 

On my 2011 in stop and go traffic, I often notice the engine lug a bit with the 4EAT transmission which as a previous poster stated seems to be the way it's programmed. What I sometimes do is simply put it in Sport mode or manual shift mode which allow you to circumvent this.

I think the flexibility of the 4EAT combined with its bulletproof reliability and towing capacity is great and I'm amazed how well it does mileage wise in traffic. I get better mileage on my 17 mile highway commute when there's mild traffic than when I just cruise at 60 mph in no traffic.

That said I recently put 500 miles on a 2015 CVT rental and was blown away with how much better performance it offers. After a series of passing episodes on two lane highway I found myself briefly wondering if I had the Turbo.

The mileage on my CVT is also much better at "in-town" speeds than it is cruising the freeway at 70. Only about 25-26 mpg on the highway, sometimes well over 30 on slower roads where stops are not required. It's an aerodynamic thing I guess.

The first time I passed someone on a two-lane road, I was amazed. I wasn't sure what the CVT would do, but was prepared for it to just slowly buzz up. Surprisingly, it sounded like it downshifted and really took off. I was pleased.

 

The car has probably been doing this all along and I only noticed it a few weeks after getting it. unfortunately, I was driving with the radio on all the time... I do believe it has been getting worse, and the transmission fluid supposedly looks fine. I'm just afraid maybe this isn't the way it's supposed to be and it's going to eventually break down.

can't really put on more gas on roads where I can't really go faster. I will test it out again, and it does seem that if put on more gas, it does shift, but it seems weird that this could be normal when all my other cars have been silent. I did have an older subaru outback about 10 years ago and it didn't do that, that I remember. it doesn't seem like all subaru foresters do this, which doesn't sound like a good thing for mine that odes...

I keep hoping it was available with low miles (compared to what we usually buy) because the person who had it before me is simply someone who trades soon after the full factory warranty expires, not that something started going wrong...

 

It seems that the 4EAT-equipped Foresters do have a tendency to lug the engine, probably to maximize fuel mileage. If I keep mine in D and putter around town at the 25-35 speed limits around here, I see rpms between 1500 and 1750 without the trans initiating a downshift - terrible! IMHO anything under 2k in 4th/D is not good. It's one of the reasons I almost always shift into 3rd in city-like driving conditions at basically any speeds below 40 mph. It keeps the engine happy and in a much more usable part of the powerband. The 4EAT gives you the relative luxury of being able to select any of the 4 gear positions - take advantage of that and try using 3rd for these types of driving conditions for some time to see if the noise improves!

Also, have a look at this thread: http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f89/tell-me-about-manually-shifting-4eat-85397/

 

As far as I know, mine's just a regular automatic, with sportshift (that I've never used). I may be misunderstanding, but I'm just trying to find out why at 1500 rpm's (usually around 25mph and 38 mph, it had this vibration that's almost like going over a small rumble strip, and trying to find out if that's normal or if there's something wrong with it...

 

From Drive push the gear select lever left. You are now in "Sport" mode and if the rumbling sound you are hearing is from the motor lugging due to low revs will likely go away. In addition in sport mode you can access manual shift mode by moving the gear shift momentarily forward or back. The D in the dash display will change to a number indicating which of the 4 gears you are in. If the rumbling sound is still there at the mentioned speeds but at higher revs then it is likely something else.

 

Did you check the XCV axle?