Setright

Check all the ground cables, undo and tighten them back to spec. Loose grounds can give funny problems. That, or you knock sensor is cracked. Have a look from above, should be able to see it below the rear of the intake manifold.

AllTalk, not much difference in hill-holder and foot brake, except only one brake circuit is held. My Legacy had internal drums on the rear discs, so here the e-brake was a safer way with the brakes hot - mine get that way.. My Imp has only drums on the rear, which means I might end up leaving marks on the drum surface when I stop on the e-brake.

Ahem! Gran Turismo Please, no translations, let's stick to the original language. A true GT is something like Mercedes SL, Porsche 928, countless Bentlys, BMW 6, 8, and 6 again now, Lexus SC400, Ferrari 456..and so on. Cars capable of driving at very high speeds, keeping occupants cocooned in leather and silence, and having room for a weekend's luggage. Handling should be tuned for high speed stability and predictability, to suit 120mph motoring on sweeping motorway bends. Ahh, just the thing back in the glorious days of speed-restriction-free motorways..... GT is misused as an indicator of equipment level on our family boxes.

Yep, bolts have seals on them too. MIght as well replace the lot while you're at it! Otherwise, you'll be down there again in a few months. Also, replace the PCV valve, helps lower the internal gas pressure resulting from blowby

I think you should be happy to live in Japan, where the twin-turbo is available! Cool car, I hope you will stay with Subaru in the future, I expect the Legacy will do all it can to convince you :-)

The car must be tilting 3 degrees towards the rear, otherwise the ball controlling the system won't roll back and hold the line pressure. There is no response to forward tilt. The system gets "fooled" if your reverse and brake hard, and holds the line pressure, which can make the brake pedal feel odd - perfectly normal. I use both the hill-hold and e-brake method. E-brake is a MUST if the brakes are hot, because clamping hot brake pads to discs is the biggest cause of brake judder. Please don't anyone start a debate on this one, go to stoptech's site and check the logic for yourself.

Plenty of different gaskets to contend with, as Tiny is pointing out. But to answer your question: Yes, there is enough room to get the valve train covers off...but it is tight. The cover can just clear the valve components, so I recommend washing down everything before you open it up, or you might get some grit and grime inside the engine.

Could be the knock sensor. When the Check Engine light is on, the ECU ignores the knock sensor and retards timing to the back-stop, to avoid pinging/detonation. This means a serious loss of throttle response.

So, you have the filter box on the inside of the fender/wheel well? All you need to do is cut the pipe from the box just after it turns downward inside the fender cavity and stick a velocity stack on it. Made my BC7 Legacy sound AWESOME! Pics at : http://www.geocities.com/vik2r/Sube/intake2.jpg

Well done, 'Crest! I have sold my Legacy, at 309k KM. Reluctantly, though. I wanted to sell it while it still held some value, and also pass on a car in very good condition, that will serve it's next owner faithfully. I do too many miles, and would have caught up to many major repairs within the next year. New owner won't reach those before the poor thing rusts away. My replacement is a four year old Impreza, which had done just 40k miles when I bought it...only 45 now, two months later. Newer, and shinier it may be, but it doesn't have the lovely sound of an unburstable EJ22 :-(

Hey LameRandom! I have been searching and KartBoy make adapter mounts for the Impreza. Screws into the three standard holes in the bumper, maybe this fits you Forester? Or perhaps looking at the design will inspire you?

Tiny, you must use something stiff. I have been designing my own cold air intake, using PVC pipes, and the sound is pure :"Hey buddy, did you mod the intake using plastic drain pipes?" They flex to much, ie. tend to cave-in during WOT and the sound tends to swing in frequency, and get's all echo-ey. Replacing the main, straight, length of pipe in my system with a steel pipe created a far more cultured noise. Now, I just have to get the whole system made from aluminum, and it should be top class. WHY do I bother you with these details? Because you might as well not waste your time replacing the intake system with hoses or PVC pipes, the sound will suck! No pun, intended :-)

I am very sceptical of the "tornado". The thing is stuck too far away from the place it might have any benefit: the intake ports. A serious swirl on the intake air will create a more uniform air/fuel mixture in the cumbustion chamber, and produce a more uniform explosion. But the tornado won't make this happen. Careful design of intake port, valve and fuel injector placement are the factors to consider here. Remember when Honda launched the car based on their fantastic new CVCC engine? Stratified charge was what allowed them reduce the amount of fuel fed by the carb, the mixture was far more uniform and therefore runnning rich become a thing of the past. It was good intake port design that did it - not a propeller in the intake stream :-) Your varying mileage could be attributed to wind, humidity, and temperature differences as well. And that's just on the move, consider that gasoline's density varies quite a bit with temperature and you can't be sure that you are filling the same amount in the tank despite the same pump reading the same volume of gas.

Check the pads and fluids first. Then replace the relay. You will probably have to go an authorised dealer to make sure you get the right part. If this doesn't help, you will need to replace the entire ABS unit! Very costly, unless you pick up a used item. OR, remove the ABS computer fuse and drive the car without ABS.

Well Cool ;-)

Okay Tiny, I have to ask: Which duct? If there is one on your car, then I yield and accept that plenty of cold air is being fed at speed. However, my BC7 Legacy had a silencer in the fender, and the intake opening was inside the fender too. That´s a good solution! My GC8 Impreza has the opening just behind the headlight and any it draws in has passed through the radiator. There is no duct.

There is a "muffler" on the intake, just like the exhaust. Keeps things quiet. There is no room for it in the engine bay, therefore they install it in the fender cavity. For some odd reason they chose to draw air from just behind the headlamp.

Tiny! That air is entering after having passed through the radiator :-)

You should be able to get Brembo rotors - OEM for Subaru - at a reasonable price. There is something to be gained by buying better quality rotors, but remember that a higher price doesn't necessarily mean higher quality. Experience can be an expensive thing to gain in this field! I would recommend Brembo if you need something dependable, and don't want to take any chances. Mintex or EBC grooved discs if you want that, AND improved braking performance. All rotors rust, but the cheap ones rust faster and the rust is far more coarse. This leads to faster wear on the pads, and occasionally pitted rotor surfaces - in which case the rotors must be replaced. Don't pinch the pennies here, these are your brakes after all :-)

That is the intake. The pipe sticking out from the fender cavity has been through a silencer, on it's way from the air filter box. This would be a good time to remove the silencer and stick a velocity stack (intake trumpet) straight on the pipe from the filter box and get some cold air into your engine - and a nice sound during full-throttle acceleration! Search around the site for more details.

Good question! I suggest finding the part no. of the good clutch - TSB - and checking up with the dealer which clutch they are going to install.

OKay, but even so, there may still be oil just hanging around in the valve tappet covers. Next time it reads low, add a very small amount. This usually starts a chain reaction in the valve cover with the filler neck and the oil makes a dash for the pan. Or try bouncing the car a bit on the suspension, to get the oil to flow back down. Of course it could actually be losing that oil, which is outrageous in an brand new car. I expect the dealer will give you some sort "during run-in....sudden oil consumption...blah blah blah..."

The clutch shudder is a known production fault, don't let the dealer BS their way out of replacing it. There's a technical service bulletin floating around on this, unfortunately, I don't have access to my copy right now, so I can not post it. Oil consumption does sound high, but there is something you may have overlooked: It might not be consuming all that oil. The boxer engine needs a long time to let the oil drain down into the oil pan. You must leave it at least thirty minutes before checking the oil level, preferably longer so it has cooled down too. This same aspect makes it a pain to replace the engine coolant, air gets trapped everywhere and you need to purge the system regularly for the next 300 miles.

Brake pad/shoe material has "grown" onto you disc/drum surface and makes the noise as it rotates past the pad/shoe during. Happens in wet weather, and also if you hold the brake pedal down at standstill with the brakes still hot. If the problem is persistent: Replace the brakes on both sides. No amount of turning, sanding, polishing will ever make it good again. "Persistent" means that it won't go away after braking a little harder than normal a few times.

Right side of the engine (from drivers seat), looks like a vacuum actuator.