[kpoon]

Is everyone's maintenance reminder working correctly for them? Mine doesn't seem to count down from 6000 correctly. Every time I change the oil + oil filter and rotate the tires, I reset the countdown timer to 6000 miles for all 4 settings (i.e., oil, oil filter, tires, & maintenance schedule). I leave the date blank.

Recently my Ascent reached 24,000 miles, but all maintenance icons were still green at startup. I went into the "Maintenance Schedule" menu and checked the mileage, and it still displayed 2217!

Anyone else experience this? Any suggestions for a fix?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

 

[Boons]

We bought our 2020 in December 31 2019, it’s my wife’s car and I rarely ride in it. I didn’t realize you have to set your own maintenance so it hasn’t had an oil change. I’m pretty disappointed in the dealership, and disappointed in Subaru. We have the app and there isn’t any maintenance scheduled in the app or on the car. Do I have to input all of the maintenance reminders myself? Can I download them to the app?

 

[packout]

We bought our 2020 in December 31 2019, it’s my wife’s car and I rarely ride in it. I didn’t realize you have to set your own maintenance so it hasn’t had an oil change. I’m pretty disappointed in the dealership, and disappointed in Subaru. We have the app and there isn’t any maintenance scheduled in the app or on the car. Do I have to input all of the maintenance reminders myself? Can I download them to the app?

I did not bother setting the reminder for my 2019. I maintain awareness of the mileage for an oil change from the sticker on the windshield and I know the larger intervals for maintenance from reviewing the manual. I also receive emails from Subaru for maintenance reminders but many times they are not quite spot on. for instance the tire rotations they do not account that I get them at Discount tires. They do not know that I changed out my all seasons for winter tires so they do not account for the mileage difference. I do manually enter the service that I mentioned that they would not ordinarily know about via on-line. currently I am just a hair under 36,000 miles.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

We bought our 2020 in December 31 2019, it’s my wife’s car and I rarely ride in it. I didn’t realize you have to set your own maintenance so it hasn’t had an oil change. I’m pretty disappointed in the dealership, and disappointed in Subaru. We have the app and there isn’t any maintenance scheduled in the app or on the car. Do I have to input all of the maintenance reminders myself? Can I download them to the app?

OTOH...the maintenance schedule is pretty clear in the manual, so regardless of reminders that are possible with the system in the vehicle, as owner's we are supposed to be aware of the requirements and monitor our miles/time accordingly.

Like packout, I don't bother with the in-vehicle reminder system. The odometer tells me what I need to know.

 

[Boons]

I agree that it’s the owners responsibility to conduct proper maintenance on their vehicle. This also isn’t the 70s or 80s and this isn’t a base model $20k car. it’s not the motor, tires, and seat belts that have drove the cost of vehicles up $15000 in 15 years it’s the added technology, convenience, and safety. The Car comes with an app to lock doors or start the engine, but it cant tell my wife she put 7k on since the last oil change?

I think that it was designed to do that, but on oversight left mine blank? That is my real problem with the vehicle, maybe it’s Subaru, maybe it just a brand new vehicle with hiccups, but I feel this vehicle isn’t nearly refined enough for the money I payed. I’ve only ever owned a Toyota or Honda in my life, and while they haven’t been perfect they make this thing look like a red headed stepchild.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Computers only do what they are told to do. I can appreciate that it never being setup is disappointing, but I did do it myself early on when I noticed that my dealer set things up for half the mileage that the manufacturer schedule. It wasn't hard and the process is detailed in the manual. Get the PDF version as it's a lot easier to search. I no longer keep the "book" in my vehicle taking up space.

 

[Robert.Mauro]

I agree that it’s the owners responsibility to conduct proper maintenance on their vehicle. This also isn’t the 70s or 80s and this isn’t a base model $20k car. it’s not the motor, tires, and seat belts that have drove the cost of vehicles up $15000 in 15 years it’s the added technology, convenience, and safety. The Car comes with an app to lock doors or start the engine, but it cant tell my wife she put 7k on since the last oil change?

I think that it was designed to do that, but on oversight left mine blank? That is my real problem with the vehicle, maybe it’s Subaru, maybe it just a brand new vehicle with hiccups, but I feel this vehicle isn’t nearly refined enough for the money I payed. I’ve only ever owned a Toyota or Honda in my life, and while they haven’t been perfect they make this thing look like a red headed stepchild.

Even when set exactly to the book maintenance values, a seemingly equal number of people complain about the notifications, as those who don't have them set but wanted them set. I've literally helped an equal number of each to reverse however theirs was set.

Anyway, it's easy to turn on - or off... I even made a video that can be used to set, turn off or change maintenance reminders.

 

[TheRaven]

Until I saw this thread, I actually had no idea there were reminders like that, but sounds like a good idea for my tired old brain that can use all the reminders it can get.

 

[kpoon]

Here are pix from my last 3 oil changes. Each time I change the oil, I reset the engine oil interval, the tire rotation interval, and the maintenance schedule interval to 6000. You can see that the maintenance intervals are not counting down correctly. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[ChrisWA]

I agree that it’s the owners responsibility to conduct proper maintenance on their vehicle. This also isn’t the 70s or 80s and this isn’t a base model $20k car. it’s not the motor, tires, and seat belts that have drove the cost of vehicles up $15000 in 15 years it’s the added technology, convenience, and safety. The Car comes with an app to lock doors or start the engine, but it cant tell my wife she put 7k on since the last oil change?

I think that it was designed to do that, but on oversight left mine blank? That is my real problem with the vehicle, maybe it’s Subaru, maybe it just a brand new vehicle with hiccups, but I feel this vehicle isn’t nearly refined enough for the money I payed. I’ve only ever owned a Toyota or Honda in my life, and while they haven’t been perfect they make this thing look like a red headed stepchild.

I do agree with everything you posted! I paid a fortune (regrettably) for my Ascent Touring model and it doesn’t alert me to oil changes or maintenance! Yes, I am a new Subaru owner and should have stuck with Honda. Their dealership sent me emails, mailings and the car told me. So I was spoiled for 30 yrs! This Ascent is over priced for all the problems Subaru has with transmissions. **my grandson left my hatch open all night and the car battery was dead! How do I take this camping with this issue… ridiculous.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

...Ascent Touring model and it doesn’t alert me to oil changes or maintenance!

This is an untrue statement. The vehicle will alert you when maintenance is due. But you have to tell it you want it to do that and put in the intervals. It's in the manual.

 

[bsoldick]

Is everyone's maintenance reminder working correctly for them? Mine doesn't seem to count down from 6000 correctly. Every time I change the oil + oil filter and rotate the tires, I reset the countdown timer to 6000 miles for all 4 settings (i.e., oil, oil filter, tires, & maintenance schedule). I leave the date blank.

Recently my Ascent reached 24,000 miles, but all maintenance icons were still green at startup. I went into the "Maintenance Schedule" menu and checked the mileage, and it still displayed 2217!

Anyone else experience this? Any suggestions for a fix?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

I have the same issue with my 2021 Ascent. Interestingly, if I divide the mileage that has passed since I last reset the maintenance reminder based on the odometer reading by the conversion factor to convert kilometers to miles (1.609344), the result will be the mileage that has passed based on the maintenance reminder reading. This is consistent. My Subaru dealer has been no help with this and just continue to repeat "we can't duplicate the problem", when I can do the above calculation over and over again every few hundred miles I drive. I am elevating to Subaru of America.

 

[bsoldick]

I have the same issue with my 2021 Ascent. Interestingly, if I divide the mileage that has passed since I last reset the maintenance reminder based on the odometer reading by the conversion factor to convert kilometers to miles (1.609344), the result will be the mileage that has passed based on the maintenance reminder reading. This is consistent. My Subaru dealer has been no help with this and just continue to repeat "we can't duplicate the problem", when I can do the above calculation over and over again every few hundred miles I drive. I am elevating to Subaru of America.

kpoon - I looked at your photos of mileage above, and assuming you reset the reminder to 6000 miles each time, your Ascent appears to be doing the same as mine is with the factor of 1.609344 noted above - if you allow for a bit of rounding. It may not be exact, but the calculation being off by fewer than 10 miles over 6000 miles driven leaves me convinced this is an issue with some programming somewhere and looking at kilometers vs miles.

 

[kpoon]

. . . leaves me convinced this is an issue with some programming somewhere and looking at kilometers vs miles.

Nice catch. I’ll try the following workaround:

1. Check the current mileage left on my 4 maintenance reminders.
2. Divide by 1.609344.
3. Input the resulting number into my maintenance reminders.
4. Wait to see if the system reminds me at the correct mileage.

I’ll let you know what I find out.

Thanks.

 

[kpoon]

6000 - 5322 = 678

37,394 - 36,301 = 1093 miles since last oil change

1093 / 1.609344 = 679.16 !!!

So it looks like the maintenance reminders are taking the current odometer reading, subtracting the last oil change's reading, and thinking the difference is in km; then they convert the difference to miles, subtract it from 6000, and display the remaining (incorrect) mileage left to the next service....

 

[subaru_family]

Unfortunately, you can only change the reminder interval in 1000 mile increments. Makes it difficult to account for the KM to Miles conversion issue.

 

[kpoon]

Does anyone know what the oil change interval is in countries that use the metric system? Is it every 10,000 km?

 

[Titanrx8]

Surprised by the comments about not getting reminders from Subaru or the dealer. Do they have your correct email? I get email reminders from both and reminders about the reminders when I delay going to the dealer

 

[Robert.Mauro]

Surprised by the comments about not getting reminders from Subaru or the dealer. Do they have your correct email? I get email reminders from both and reminders about the reminders when I delay going to the dealer

You have to opt in (or have been opted in) for the reminders. The settings are configurable in the MySubaru app, for email, and push notifications.

 

[subaru_family]

Unfortunately, you can only change the reminder interval in 1000 mile increments. Makes it difficult to account for the KM to Miles conversion issue.

Based on my own observations, and those of @kpoon and @bsoldick, it appears that the Notification Distance Remaining value is multiplied by the miles to kilometers conversion factor of 1.609344 before it is stored for use in the countdown to the next service interval.

Since the three largest Notification Distance Remaining values in the Menu result in a stored distance remaining value that is greater than 6000, they are not helpful. Using one of the three smaller values (3000, 2000, or 1000) when the odometer indicates the correct corresponding mileage, will get the computer to properly calculate things.

The table below shows the Odometer reading to target for each menu value for the first service interval (6000 miles) and the second service interval (12000 miles), to work around the Stored Value bug. For example, for the first service interval, when the odometer reads 1172, choose 3000 "miles" remaining from the reminder setup menu, or for the second service interval, when the odometer reads 7172, choose 3000 "miles" remaining.

Chosen Notification Distance Remaining Value	Stored Notification Distance Remaining	Odometer Reading Set Point for First Service	Odometer Reading Set Point for Second Service (+6000)
3000​	4828​	1172​	7172​
2000​	3219​	2781​	8781​
1000​	1609​	4391​	10391​

Hardly the level of convenience one would like to see from this vehicle. However, It may be the only option until SOA can be convinced that this issue exists, and corrects it. 🤷‍♂️

Hopefully, this will be helpful to others on this great community.