Daskuppler

I was in the garage last night and heard any abnormal buzzing. I was able to identify the source as this black box under my wife's car. It is located in the undercarriage near the spare tire well. The car had been sutting untouched for hours. The buzzing stopped a short while after locking and unlocking the car. Any ideas what the long black thing is or why it would be buzzing? The car is a 2014 Forester.

Update to the tire situation: We got some BfGoodruch Advantage t/a sports in 225/60r17 installed Wednesday last week. We have just over 1000 miles on then so far. We are very pleased so far. The tires are fairly quiet, smooth, and have a great tread pattern. Dry handling was significantly improved over the worn out oem tires. I would say dry handling is excellent as is wet handling. I our 1000 miles the tires saw heavy rains, gravel roads, rocks, ruts, mud, and a small creek crossing. Unfortunately we were unable to find snow. The ties performed phenomenally on the asphalt, which was expected. When the going got rough the tires really held their own. Gravel: the tires realty shined here, the grip on a smooth gravel road sends endless! 60-80mph I gravel was smooth and the tires felt confident. Los of traction was predictable and controllable. I am very pleased! "Offroading": turning off the gravel road led us up a steep and rocky trail climbing to tree line. The tires did really well gripping the steep, loose, and rutted terrain. Traction control only kicked in once on a steep hairpin turn across a rut. The tires performed much better than expected for an all season passenger car tire. Mud: while there wasn't much mud, I played in what I could find. The tires gripped well, and cleaned out quickly. Deep water: we had to cross a creek about 10" deep. The tires did well but do seem to be a little slippery on rock when soaking wet... still a passenger car tire though. Snow/ice: untested, snow should be hitting mountain passes shortly, I'll update when I have some input. On a side note, aftermarket mud flaps are highly recommended if you take these tires off- road. The wide tread pattern really grabs a lot of rocks and will chew up your paint. I recommend the Gorilla flaps if you need some. If toy have any questions or I missed something, let me know!

I currently have the tripletreds on my Subaru, they tend to pack with snow here in Colorado. Performance seems to drop off after about 50% tread wear.

I think we will be giving these a try. It's soother new tire with limited information but the techies are all positive and there has been good feedback on Winter performance. There's plenty of siping, water evacuation channels, and the larger blocks should lend to moderate offroad casualties. We will be getting them in early September.

Good to know! What are your thoughts on the new bfgoodrich advantage t/a sport? Or the good year tripletred?

That was what I saw as well. I stumbled across an in-depth review of them which said they were great I fresh snow and average in packed/ slushy road conditions. My phone won't let me insert the link, I'll try on another device in a little while.

I just stumbled across these:http://www.continentaltire.com/product/terraincontact-22560r17-99h They are fairly new so there's not much information available on them, but everything seems positive. Anyone heard anything?

I'll update this thread when I choose tires. I contacted Treadwright tires, they had an option to request a tire size. Maybe they will make me a pair. I've had good luck with their tires on my truck. As for the Pirelli P7, I'll look into oit. Theta tons ood good tires for road driving but the dirt puts a kink in it.

Exactly. I can do my research and see what the manufacturer says. I also know what Discount Tire recommends and it is usually what is in stock, not the best option. I have run the Goodyear Tripletreads in the past with okay results, they tend to have problems evacuating Colorado snow. They do surprisingly well in the mud and rocks for a street tire. Those tires were on an older Subaru with smaller tires so I was hoping there were some other options for the Forester. There doesn't seem to be much available for it in the A/T category without a lift. It has the stock Geolanders on there now and they are horrendous. Thanks everyone for your input, I wish the BFG A/T came in a size that would fit.

Hello all, I recently acquired a 14 forester, it desperately needs new tires. The vehicle sees a fair amount of dirt, snow, rain, and light mud. Does anyone have any recommendations for new shoes? Anyone know what the biggest size that will fit is? Stock is 225/60 r17. It looks like a 225/65 might fit... Thanks for your input!

unfortunately I already put new plugs in. I'm sure these won't last too long either, I'll do better next time! lol Thanks for the input everyone! I'm not sure, I would assume it's a Subaru thing and they've been doing it forever. It's quite possible I just put in the wrong plugs and you've been using the right ones every time

I don't remember the part number, it's been a couple years since they were purchased. No gapping tools were used. They were simply removed from the packaging and installed with a little di-electric grease.

Thanks for the input everyone. Attached are some pictures of a good plug and a bad plug.

The plugs had about 20k on them and were NGK Iridiums All 4 plugs were the same and installed at the same time. So I'm right in assuming that replacing the ignition coil will fix the problem?

Hello Everyone! I have a 200 Legacy L. It had been having some issues. I'll save you the diagnostic process unless you are interested. In the end, I found two bad spark plugs. Cylinders 1 and 4 had completely worn down the electrode. There was literally nothing but a slight bump left. Cylinders 2 and 3 were fine. What could cause this? I was leaning towards the ignition pack but I'm not sure. Thanks!

All back together with beautifully machined heads, clean block, new fluids, and all new gaskets. Ran like a champ last night, no more white smoke, smooth idle, and cranked right up this morning! Thanks everyone foy your suggestions, knowledge, and patience! The gaskets were definitely bad, during the tear down and reassembly process, I noticed coolant mixed in with oil in the PCV lines and the gaskets were bubbled. i'm not sure what happened, but something went haywire! The top coolant line no longer remains under pressure as well.

Well, I have everything torn apart, heads come off tomorrow and head to the shop on Friday. Hopefully they don't find anything wrong and it's quick. Everything looks good so far, but Ic an't see real well with the heads still in the car. Is there anything I can do to help prevent this from happening again? Is there a better gasket than Fel-Pro MLS? I have had the studs suggested a couple times, I don't want to have to pull the engine in order to put them in and do this repair down the road. Also, do i need to replace the intake, exhaust, and throttle body gaskets again? I did them last time (about 15k ago)

I'm going to be taking the heads to a shop to be resurface and checked out as soon as I get the cash to pay for it and the time to disassemble. I'll post up what I find... I'll definitely look into that. The ones I used were about $60 per side.

I used new bolts on both sides. However, on one side I did reuse the bolts after setting a gasket that was defective. The car was never driven on them though. Only cranked once so they were technically still new. The main issue has been on the other gasket though.

All this can happen several thousand miles after the fact? Either way, they definitely seem to be bad.

My wife was behind me while starting it today and said it was blowing large amounts of white smoke while it was trying to start and after it started, then it cleared up. So it looks like it's a bad head gasket...What would cause a premature failure? I did them about 15k ago...

I have checked for the bubbles in the overflow and found absolutely nothing. I have noticed that when I put in the new plugs the car cranked right away the first time. The same went for when I cleaned the MAP sensor and reset the ECU. And then the next time it was started it had an issue. I have noticed no white smoke, but I am no expert in what burning coolant looks like. I have noticed the exhaust smells absolutely terrible. I wouldn't say it is "sweet" though. Nor does it have the sulfur smell I have heard can be caused by raw fuel being dumped on a cold catalytic converter. I don't remember it every smelling quite this bad in the past though. The car runs flawlessly once the rough idle clears up for the first start. No loss of power, MPG seems to be the same....The upper radiator hose seems to be under quite a lot of pressure, even after the car has cooled down overnight. So much to the point it will spew coolant if the cap is popped while the engine has sat overnight.

This is possible. I did have to pull the timing belt a little while ago to replace the water pump. Though the issue was happening prior to doing so. I'll check it this weekend. I did replace the plugs, wires and ignition coil. i checked the air filter and it was clean. The fuel filter has not been changed recently.

Update. The car seems to be having issues starting again, though it has never failed to start. It now will start fairly easily, runs a little rough though better, and then the rpms remain unstable. They seem to fluctuate between 1200-1700. I have not let the car warm up recently or driven it anywhere due to a fear of it not starting when I need to return home.No codes right now...