Leaderboard

your automatic has a neutral safety switch... amongst other things try moving the shift lever to the neutral position to start.. insert key, turn to "On" position... move shift lever to neutral... attempt to start car also.. and i know this might sound like a silly question, but how easy is the lever to move? is it stiff? or easy? can you move it all the way to the 1 position easily? or is it difficult? Reason I ask is because the shift cable that goes between that lever and the transmission actually broke on my 2002 Forester... i could shift from Park to Drive without too much effort, but it was stiff, anything lower than that was damn near impossible. 1 was pretty much impossible If it is at all stiff, or you can not get it to shift all the way down to 1, I am going to suggest that you get a new shift cable asap. not terribly expensive, and pretty easy to change IF you do it before it breaks, LOL

Replacing the wheel bearing fixed the problem

Yes it’s the FWD fuse holder. So you’re just reading the cap. Lift that lid and install a fuse for FWD. there’s no fuse installed, just an empty fuse slot once you lift the lid.

That is very strange about the fuse. That thing I described sounds like the right one, right? I unplugged the connector from the bottom of it, couldn't see any way to lift the thing marked FWD off the top. I don't recall ever seeing an FWD light on the dash, and now that you mention it, I don't think there is one there now. Maybe that thing marked FWD is just a cover, and there is no fuse under it? I'll have to look closer tomorrow.

Odd. I have suspicions about why that happened, but it won't matter so I'll ignore the symptom change for now. Because the caliper pin bushings can gradually resist and then seize (usually due to swelling - there's one per caliper on that car) and cause noise and potentially, though less likely, vibrations. They slowly start to get stiff inside the bore, and the caliper wants to "rock" as one pin slides fine, and one doesn't. So the symptoms gradually get worse and include noise and eventually vibrations as the bushing worsens from resistance to totally seized in place and the caliper movement is crooked and pads wear unevenly front to back, the caliper is cock eyed...etc - leading to noises. Familiarity. Us Subaru folks could probably drive it one time and we'd know. Modern wheel bearings are hard to diagnose. They can pass every test on the vehicle. A. Check for play. (this one is basically a waste of time on Subaru's - it happens so much less often than other symptoms I don't even bother) B. Rotate huge (wheel off) by hand and feel for resistance or noise in a certain spot. C. Use a mechancis stethostope around the wheel bearing while turning the wheel D. Use an infrared temp gun - check both sides after driving a reasonable distance - if one is 50+ degrees hotter than the other you found your bad wheel bearing (assuming brakes are working correctly). CV joints - the inner joint will not click like the outer joint. First check the boot for signs of breakage or loss of grease. One of the most consistent tests I've found for the inner CV is to do this: 1. with car at a full stop make a close to 90 degree turn while giving it gas all the way through the turn (you don't have to floor it just give it consistent acceleration/loading) 2. this might vary or not be true but I think it works best when the car is at a stop facing UP a steep incline, then start the turn from a stop. Listen for a noise then. I'm going to call it "clicking" because that's probably the best word but it won't sound like the traditional "CV clicking" most people are accustomed to with the outer joints. Less frequency and more of a dull thunk thunk thunk and less audible, than a typical outer CV joint. Like you might just hear three muffled, rythmic (happening at equal intervals) thunks instead of the numerous small clicks of a typical outer joint.