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It almost sounds like the clutch pedal doesn't fully release when you let off. I'd be looking at the master cylinder and pedal assembly for cracks. 02-05 tends to crack where the pedals mount onto the top of firewall. At this point might as well take apart both master and slave cylinders and clean them out. Maybe a clog or kink in the line is causing slow let off.

I have several CATS your for the shipping. 80919

not freeway, no.. but we do live in the country, so yeah, lol, lots of 55mph zones. Plus, relatively "flat" country.. rolling hills, nothing real steep - its all farmland around here city mileage wont be near that, no.

not that much a fuel mileage difference between forester and legacy.. I have had both the 95 Lego automatic I had, i put forester struts in and ran the 15" forester wheels.. got around 27-28mpg out of it on average. the 02 Forester, pretty stock, also automatic, ran around 25-27mpgs, depending on the season. i think i am getting slightly better with the 04 Forester, but it is a 5spd, lol

Good Luck!

If you’re after better gearing over your way, drop a forester box and rear diff in with the 4.111:1 diff ratio. Run the same tyres as the forester for factory gearing, or larger for the height and rolling advantage when offroad. Pontoontodd seems to be developing a low range that will be a game changer, just need to wait for it to come out, in the mean time save your coin! Cheers Bennie

also, check condition of u-joints for that clunking.

Why waste all that money and time when it needs head gaskets? You don't make any sense. Pull the engine and do the HG's or swap it. Don't waste time and money doing a bunch of sh1t you will just have to redo to replace the HG's. That's just stupidity. Koyo or CSF for the radiator will be fine. Get the hoses from Subaru. 99 was the first year for the phase-II automatic. They are known to have delayed engagement issues. Some people have luck with Trans-X additive. As far as how smooth it is - it's a Subaru not a Cadillac and you don't really want an auto to just lazily mush into gears - that causes friction and heat and wear. A positive, crisp shift that doesn't snap your neck is what you want. GD

They really are extremely easy to tinker on. Now that I've thought it over, I don't see myself doing any crazy offroading with it and it's not made to be a speed demon so I think I'll just leave the original ej22e in it and if I need a new trany or dif then so be it but no sense in doing anything too wild with it. I like the lift though. So a few more upgrades just to help with handling would be nice. It's still pretty fuel efficient even lifted so it's just an interesting daily driver ha