Do all crosstreks seem to have a problem with pre-mature wheel bearing failure? s there a fix for it?

i don't think so - don't seem any more prone than anything else.  

how many have you seen - all on the same vehicle? 

I have a freind with a crosstek that roars. He called the dealership and they said "It's probably wheel bearings we see a lot of them". Hes got only 57K on the car. Doing a google search its not red flagged, but it does seem they are failing between 50-60K if they fail.

my WRX had a bad rear bearing - under 60K miles.

12 hours ago, nipper said:

I have a freind with a crosstek that roars. He called the dealership and they said "It's probably wheel bearings we see a lot of them". Hes got only 57K on the car. Doing a google search its not red flagged, but it does seem they are failing between 50-60K if they fail.

Got it - a higher bearing failure ***rate*** is the new norm for *a wide range* of vehicles, not just crosstek's or Subaru's.  Plenty still make 150,000 miles without issues, but it's no surprise to see a few early failures like this. 

For illustration purposes only, these numbers are inaccurate, but 20 years ago let's say early bearing failure happened 5% of the time, now it's 15%.  That would mean it's a crazy high 300% failure rate increase but plenty still never see issues either.

Another reason to keep my 2005 Outback

1 hour ago, nipper said:

Another reason to keep my 2005 Outback

I'm not sure - but if I had to guess I'd guess the 2005's also have a higher failure rate of wheel bearings.  i don't see enough Subaru's to know, but all things being equal (which is nearly impossible now due to age/miles of older stuff) but i'd guess like somewhere in the 90's and earlier fail less often at lower miles than late 90's until now. 

Yep.  ALL Crosstreks blow their wheel bearings at right about 21,345 miles.  lol   

 

Keep your 2005 car.  lol   

Our 2013 needed both rears at 90K. Dealer charged $1200, but at least they changed one again 20K later when it failed too without charge. I am used to my older cars getting 300K from rear bearings.

1 hour ago, rustfarmer said:

Our 2013 needed both rears at 90K. Dealer charged $1200, but at least they changed one again 20K later when it failed too without charge. I am used to my older cars getting 300K from rear bearings.

There’s a significant chance only one bearing was bad.  shops often quote or replace two bearings for a couple of reasons, when in reality it’s not necessary and only one side is bad.

$1,200 is high. $200 parts, they finished in 2 hours. Most excellent independents should come in under $400 per hour.