LanceGillette

I emailed the symptoms to my mechanic and here is what he says: "Common problem on tight turns when the rear clutch (a coupler but not fluid) in the back of the transaxle gets used up. It will squeak worse when it needs tending. Parts are expensive, about 3 hours labor. Back of trans comes off, new parts stuffed in (carefully)."

The tires are all the same size, same brand, and same mileage. But the tires are getting low on tread. We've put about 40,000 miles on them. The tread wear looks identical on all the tires.

I took the car out for a test drive to see if the problem shows up when the car is cold. The car rolled freely around sharp corners. So I drove it about 7-8 miles and still the problem did not show up. So it seems the car needs to be driven quite thoroughly and the viscous coupling unit needs to be thoroughly warmed up before the binding starts. A few months ago we made a 300 mile trip and when we stopped for gas I noticed it distinctly as the engine stalled while making a sharp turn and the car stopped rolling.

I noticed a similar thread from someone with a 99 Forester and manual transmission. One person said this: "I own a 90 Lagacy AWD 5/m with 210k I don't think the viscous coupling has ever been changed. When making slow tight turns (ie, turning in to a parking space) my car shudders a little, this is normal. If the viscous coupling unit went out you would have either no drive (unit is not coupling) or vary notisable binding (unit is locked up). A quick way to tell if the unit is locked up is to jack up one tire and try to turn it . If it turns with some resistance your OK if not The unit is locked up. Good luck" The guy with the forester jacked up a rear wheel and it would not turn compared to another Subaru that would turn. I just jacked up a back wheel on my Forester and it does turn with some resistance. Then I jacked up a front wheel and repeated the test and the wheel turns with resistance regardless of whether the steering wheel is turned to the left or right. I do think this binding issue happens mostly when the car has been driven a distance.

I rarely drive this car, but I first noticed it quite some time ago and then forgot about it since I rarely drive it. So it is not a recent problem. I think it is necessary to give a bit of gas to keep the engine from stalling.

I check the tire pressure regulary so that is not the problem. It dogs at low speeds only when making sharp turns.

It is a manual five speed transmission.

When making a sharp turn such as for parking, there is apparently something binding and the 1998 Forester will stop rolling. You have to give it some gas to proceed. Tire wear appears normal, I replaced the front axles about three years ago and the cv boots are still intact, cv joints are not making any noise. The car tracks down the road nice and straight and does not pull to the side. Could this be just a case where an alignment is needed? Since I don't notice any unusual tire wear, this possibility didn't come to mind. Is there something else that could be causing this problem?

Rear defroster on 98 Forester has not worked in sometime. Yesterday I found a burned out fuse. I replace the fuse and check again today. Burned out again. Any suggestions?

I found them exactly where you said they would be. Thanks! I've hunted for them before with no luck.

I've found the main fuse box on the left side of the engine compartment on my 98 Forester. But there must be another fuse box inside the passenger compartment somewhere but I can't see any. Any clues where the other fuse box might be?

Here in Fairbanks Alaska it can get very cold (-50 F or colder) and I don't have a garage so I use the Mobile 1. Car starts pretty good after it has been plugged in for a while.

I got the check engine light to go out after replacing the front oxygen sensor. I replaced the rear as well since the 1998 Forester has 133,000 miles on it. I read somewhere that if the car's computer does not detect the code after running the car three times, the check engine light will go out. The error code is stored though. So I started the car four times not having much faith the light would go out. I was so pleased when the light did not come on with the fourth start. Both sensors came out easily. I sprayed a bit of PB Blaster on the day before.

Replacing the front oxygen sensor did the trick. I replaced the rear one for good measure since the car has 133,000 miles on it. Hopefully they last for the rest of the cars life. Thanks all for the advice.

I found a website that says one can test a sensor like this: "Next step is to measure the voltage at the oxygen sensor on Bank 1 (the rear sensor, or the sensor after the converter). The voltage should be low and steady (~200mV, depends on the vehicle). If the voltage varies (e.g. 100mV to 600mV) then it's time to replace the catalytic converter. In fact, it would be a good idea to test each oxygen O2 sensor while you're at it." I'm looking on comments on this test. I've read that if the cat. converter is bad, that one should put in new sensors with the converter. So I'm tempted to start with a rear sensor replacement as the prudent approach.