Ravenwoods

Our 1998 Forester has 191,000 miles on it and we got it when it has 103,000. It seems that it is due for an alternator failure any time. My GMC truck, with 143,000 miles, had its alternator die yesterday with -30 F. weather. But fortunately I've got a heated garage, so got it changed easily. Just getting it home was the struggle. I had a Nissan Stanza once and it seemed its alternator gave up sometime after 170,000 miles. Just wondering what alternator experiences other's have had. I'm just trying to guess the most likely problems to turn up next. My guess is the starter motor and the alternator are the most likely things. I've already replaced plugs, wires, injectors, timing belt, timing belt tensioner, clutch, lots of pulleys.

The car is running great now. No more misfiring and has normal power again. Next time we fill up the gas tank I'll post the miles per gallon we are getting.

Since the oxygen sensor was so old I decided to replace the front one. I had cleared the misfire code for cylinder 2 on Monday at O'Reilly auto parts and the next day it came back on the same way by flashing first. I dropped by O'reilley again tonight and it was the same code: Misfire cylinder 2. I changed the front O2 sensor this evening and then started looking at the spark plug wires. I immediately discovered the number 2 cylinder spark plug wire was not attached to the spark plug. I just sent an email to my mechanic about this. I wonder if the plug got damaged from the sparks arcing to the spark plug. Seems the spark plug was able to fire enough of the time that the engine ran very smooth except for the occasional mis.

Front Oxygen sensor was replaced about 40,000 miles ago I think. This was not the original timing belt. Last timing belt change was maybe 40,000 miles ago.

We had a compression test done and a leak down test. Valves passed the leak down test. But eventually the problem turned out to be that the timing belt had slipped a couple teeth. So we replaced timing belt and belt tensioner. While we were driving it with the teeth slipped, could the valves have gotten burned?

We've been using the Iridium plugs all along without any problems. That is what the mechanic used and we just replaced what was in there.

We have a 98 Forester with 190,700 miles. Yesterday the CEL started blinking. I dropped by the O'Reilley Car Parts store and discovered they will use their OBD II code scanner to read your DTC. The only code was Misfire on Cylinder 2. I've recently replace all spark plugs with those iridium plugs, all the plug wires, and fuel injectors. The car runs fine, but every once in a while it misses a beat--I guess a misfire. Anyway, I've heard a blinking CEL is some sort of bad news about the Catalytic converter. The gas mileage is terrible. I haven't had the chance to measure the miles per gallon, but at the rate the gas gauge needle is dropping, the mileage is very low. Could this perhaps be a bad oxygen sensor (before the catalytic converter) even though no code is being thrown?

I suctioned it out and put in ATF Dexron. Will be getting a new quart of ATF to flush it out again later today.

I just suctioned out the power steering fluid from my 1998 Forester with one of those turkey baster type devices. I poured in some Prestone Power Steering fluid. After that I noticed the cap says to use ATF Dexron. I had always thought power steering fluid is power steering fluid. Anyway, is it alright to use the Prestone Power Steering Fluid? Or should I suction it out and replace with the ATF Dexron?

Turns out my 1998 Forester with 190,000 miles on it, had a slipped timing belt. My mechanic could see no reason for it to have slipped. So we just replaced the timing belt and belt tensioner. It has slipped at least 2 teeth. Previously we had done a compression test and leak down test. He found the compression about 200 psi for each of the two passenger side cylinders and 150 psi for the two driver's side cylinders. Then I found this post earlier in this thread: "I just had this same problem with an EJ25D (which is what your GT has unless it's been swapped to a 2.2). Turned out the intake cam pulley bolt was not tightened enough when the owner did the head gaskets (himself) and this resulted in the cam pulley bouncing on the cam nose and gougeing a nice L-shaped trench out of the keyway. The intake valve timing on the passenger side was advanced by about 3 belt teeth. Due to the nature of the failure the compression test showed high (but otherwise ok - was around 200 psi where it should have been about 185). The giveaway after many hours of diagnostics was that the two passenger side cylinders had compression that was too high and was *the same* higher number for both cylinders - thus leading me to the valve timing and leading me to pull off the belt and inspect." So I figured this had to be the problem as we had eliminated just about every other possibility. My mechanic seemed to have been embarrassed for missing this and gave me a $100 discount on the job. Anyway, the car is running fine again. Hopefully it will keep going 20,000 before the next problem.

I think my Subaru Forester also has a slipped belt. Compression is 200 on the passenger side cylinders and 150 on the driver's side. The OBD code reader says misfire on cylinders 1 and 3. Plugs and wires have been changed. Car has 190,000 miles. I changed pcv and fuel injectors.