Parts for your 2014 Subaru Forester-Brake wheel cylinders

2014 Subaru Forester brake wheel cylinders — are they used?

Short answer: brake wheel cylinders aren’t used on the 2014 Subaru Forester. That model (SJ series) runs four-wheel disc brakes — ventilated discs up front and solid discs at the rear — with hydraulic calipers, so there are no drum brake wheel cylinders anywhere in the system.

This isn’t guesswork. Technical sources that specify disc brakes with calipers for the 2014 Forester include:

• Subaru Forester 2014 Service Manual (BRM – Brake), which details front and rear disc brake assemblies with floating calipers.
• 2014 Subaru Forester Owner’s Manual sections on braking and parking brake, describing disc brakes plus a drum-in-hat style mechanical parking brake (cable-operated, no wheel cylinder).
• Subaru Australia model specification sheets for MY14 Forester listing “Ventilated disc (front), solid disc (rear)”.
• Subaru EPC and common parts catalogues for 2014 Forester that list front and rear brake calipers, pads and rotors, with no listing for wheel cylinders.

Wheel cylinders are a drum brake component. They push brake shoes outward inside a drum. Because the 2014 Forester uses disc brakes, hydraulic pistons in the calipers do that job instead. The rear rotor has an integrated “drum-in-hat” for the handbrake shoes, but that mechanism is purely mechanical via a lever and cable — still no wheel cylinder involved.

Why Subaru went this way comes down to consistent braking performance, better heat management on long downhill runs, and compatibility with ABS/VDC stability systems. For owners, it means servicing focuses on pads, rotors, calipers, brake fluid, hoses and the mechanical parking brake shoes and cable — not wheel cylinders.

FAQs

Does the 2014 Subaru Forester have brake wheel cylinders?
No. The 2014 Forester uses disc brakes at all four corners with hydraulic calipers. Wheel cylinders are only found in drum brake systems, which this model doesn’t use.

What should be serviced instead of wheel cylinders on a 2014 Forester?
Regular checks should cover pads and rotors, caliper slide pins and seals, brake fluid (flush about every 2 years or 40,000 km), flexible brake hoses and the cable-operated parking brake shoes inside the rear rotors. Any pulsing, pulling, or spongy pedal feel should be investigated promptly.

Could any 2014 Forester variant come with rear drum brakes?
Factory specifications for the 2014 Forester across major markets (including Australia and New Zealand) show four-wheel discs. It’s highly unlikely a genuine variant used drums. If a vehicle appears to have drums, it’s probably the drum-in-hat parking brake inside the rear rotors, which is mechanical and not hydraulic.