FindingForester

"Trade-in" values apparently are always low. About six months ago our 98 Forester was rear-ended by an idiot paying more attention to her cell phone than to the fact that the lane she was driving in had a car in front of her doing about 20 mph less than she was going. The car was totaled. When we were haggling with the insurance adjuster over the value, I contacted the salesman at a dealer where we were considering buying a replacement from. He looked up the KBB value, which turned out to be the same figure as what I'd gotten online, around $9400 IIRC. He added that would be for a car in pristine condition, and most cars would sell for somewhat less. Then he said,"as a trade-in, we would've given you four thousand." Man, I nearly dropped the phone when I heard that. Essentially, when you trade in you're sacrificing a great deal of value in exchange for the convenience.

Is this the clock in the upper center console?

You could also try www.car-part.com. It doesn't specialize in Subaru but you can search on year, make, model, and part.

Low-emission "winter" gas has a lower heat of combustion than straight gasoline does. That is, it yields less energy when burned. Cold air also reduces gas mileage, including that it will take longer for the engine to reach normal temperature, so you have a double whammy against gas mileage in winter.

Heating the O2 sensor does not fool it into thinking the engine is warm. The O2 sensor is more accurate and responds faster when it is hot than when it is cold. That's the reason for the heater. IMHO it shouldn't take even a minute to heat the sensor properly. I wouldn't even bother with pre-heating.

The practices at a dealer's service department IMHO generally mirror the policies set by management. I've had good and bad experiences with dealer service (not just Subaru), from honest ones that do and charge for exactly what was needed, to ones that pad the bill by $20 to $30 with things like uncalled-for oil or windshield wash additives (funny how the additives don't seem to reduce the amount of oil or fluid they charge for). If management presses service writers to boost profitability, they'll try to sell services or goods that the customer doesn't need or doesn't need yet. Your best defense against this sort is knowledge. Most dealer service departments I've dealt with are good, but pricey. That's why it makes sense to know what services should be adequately handled by a good indie and which are best left to a dealer. As others have pointed out, many car owners don't know anything about their cars or are too busy to bother. They are the low-hanging fruit for many sellers of auto service, both indie or dealer.

You could look on eBay motors; many of the Foresters seem to be going for lower prices than average. Yahoo has used car listings, and so does cars.com and a lot of other sites.

Are there any drips under the car?

Yes, go with the taper bearings. They'll last.

Yes, the compressor works fine just as before. The socket is what died—there is no voltage on the center pin. Thank you, ferret. I didn't know the circuit went through a relay and another fuse. I'll check fuse 4 next. The car does not have seat heaters (except for whoever sits in them). I hate troubleshooting an electrical problem without an electrical diagram. It's like trying to work on a piece of electronic gear without a schematic!

I've heard recommendations sometimes that alloy wheels be re-torqued after a week or some hundred miles of driving. I've always had steel wheels, though, so I can't say for sure.

Yes, it has to be an open somewhere. I just thought it really strange for it to open suddenly as though a fuse had blown, but for no apparent reason. If I can get my hands on a wiring diagram, I'll have some more options for troubleshooting this thing.

The rear accessory socket in my 98 Forester went dead suddenly as I was adding some air to the tires and the spare. I had a little 12V air compressor going in it and it suddenly stopped after running about 15 minutes. Must be the fuse, I thought. I pulled the fuse (position 19--that is, lower right corner--behind the coin tray) but it was okay. I even plugged in a new fuse, and still the rear socket was dead. I checked and found 12 volts present on the hot fuse terminal, but there is nothing at the socket. Before I try to trace the wiring out, has anyone else experienced this? What was the culprit? Is there another fuse or a weak link somewhere in series with the socket? Thanks much!

Absolutely. I bought a couple keyless remotes on eBay for around $15 each and programmed the car easily with info that another member here generously provided. I think it took less than 30 seconds to do.

I learned recently that Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, the cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. (That explains the stars on the logo.) Here is a photo of the Pleiades. For more information, see http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/pleiades/

True, but it's still worthwhile.

There's nothing wrong with switching over to synthetic at that mileage. Better now than never. Some people report leaks after doing so, but many do not. IMHO, there's no causality demonstrated. Several of my friends have switched their cars--of varying ages and mileages--over to synthetic oil and have not experienced any additional leaking or seepage. I switched to full synth (Mobil 1 or Castrol SynTec) in my VW Golf at about 50,000 mi and have been using it for over 180,000 miles. The engine does not leak or burn oil and still runs like new. When I live in a northern clime there was a marked improvement in starting on very cold winter mornings.

I put Bridgestone BT70s on our 98 recently and have been very pleased. They handle and shed water well and are much quieter than the Mastercraft tires that were on it when we bought the car four years ago.

Platinum lasts longer, with less erosion. The difference in conductivity is negligible, especially when you consider the resistance of the wires.

Okay, it was a long shot, but worth a try. The original speaker drivers are probably from one of the hundreds of no-name speaker manufacturers in Asia (especially mainland China). I'm in the audio manufacturing business; I'll see if I can come across any 5" full-range drivers.

Is there a manufacturer's name anywhere on the original loudspeakers?

Thank you very much, hohieu! I appreciate the assistance.

Crutchfield (www.crutchfield.com) might have something like that. I'd give them a call.

That sounds like an EGR problem. It seems to be definitely a problem of too rich a mixture under high vacuum conditions.

Does anyone have the programming procedure for a 98 Forester? It has the rectangular remote (made by Code Alarm, as I understand) with the two square buttons. Thanks much!