Daskuppler

Hello Everyone, I'm looking to upgrade my wife's audio system in her '14 Forester. The stock Clarion head unit is having Bluetooth issues despite having current firmware. It sounds terrible anyway. We are an Android family so I've been looking at double din Android Auto ready units and pretty much settled on this: Kenwood DDX9906XR eXcelon but I'm open to comparable options if anyone has experience elsewhere. The speakers are where in struggling. I had intended to go with the Alpine Type R but then saw they were dropping out at about 50hz. I don't plan to put a sub in the car as it is a camping car and we have dogs so I'm not willing to sacrifice the space. Focal seems to have a good set as well. I'm only planning on the front speakers initially. I do plan on putting a 4 channel amp in, I was looking at the Alpine pdx line but, again, I'm open to suggestions. I also read, on another forum, that most people are installing the Kicker upgrade kit because of an apparent need to modify the mounting brackets and wiring harness. What is involved in that? I'm more than capable of fabricating and modifying things, I'm just curious if anyone has any experience. Lastly, is everyone sticking with the 6x9 and how hard are the corner dash speakers to replace? Cheers, Andrew

Bennie, Thanks for the input. All symptoms I was able to find are brakes locking up, especially when ABS is activated. The fluid will congeal if it's missed with a petroleum product, but all the rubber will swell at the same time and the whole system needs to be rebuilt. Based on the fluid I found, I suspect they dumped a cap full of power steering fluid in the reservoir and then said it needs to be fixed. They were obviously told no, I can do it myself. I hate dealerships.

I'm the only one that touches it. We just got home with it. Only the screen was congealed. The rest of the reservoir is still fluid. A little dark but fine otherwise. There was also a clear fluid spilled on the fuse box which is odd... They pulled out the knn air filter and fumoto drain plug and charged us $50 then blamed the pcv valve and oil fill gasket for the 1.5 quarts of oil consumption in 5000 miles lol

Hello Everyone, I had to drop our 2014 Forester off at the dealership for the brake lamp recall and to do an oil consumption test. I got a call this morning saying that the brake fluid had turned to jelly. My research says that this typically only occurs when a petroleum based product is introduced to the system. About a year ago, I did a flush with Amsoil DOT 3 and 4 fluid (the car had about 40,000 miles on it then). The fluid was fine, a little dark but not too bad. The fluid was checked about a month later and it was still fine. The dealership only wanted to flush the system which tells me there was no introduction of a petroleum product otherwise they would have wanted to replace all the rubber as well. The car drives fine, ABS works, brakes are smooth and working as usual. What could have happened? And how do I flush the system with the jellied fluid? I have a pneumatic bleeder that hooks up to a compressor, but it sucks fluid from the caliper end. I have not picked the car up yet so I have not seen it with my own eyes. I'll be grabbing it tonight.

I'm not familiar with known engine issues, do you habe now information or a link to the problems?

Hello All, I bought our 14 Forester 2.5i about a year ago. When it was time for an oil change, I drained the Subaru fluid and put in Mobil1 0w20. About 3000 miles later, the low oil light came on. In past Subarus, I've experienced problems with consumption ruining Mobil1 but never like this. The oil was not low after 6k on the Subaru oil. I can assume the consumption is related to switching brands but I was curious if anyone else had similar experiences. What brands are working well? 0w20 seems really light, is anyone rubbing 0w30 or even 5w30? Cheers

I'm sure they're a great tire. The tread pattern is a little tight for the off-road usage though. There are much better tires if you're not leaving the pavement much and don't push them. We periodically see 100 mile stretches of dirt road and cruise on them at speeds in excess of 60mph. With Subaru's AWD, the car still does fine in snow up to about a foot. If it's dealt snowy we take the truck so score performance was important but not the only factor.

Further update: After nearly 10,000 miles, the tires are wearing well. A recent snowstorm brought almost 10" of snow to Colorado. The tires perform okay in the snow, nothing fantastic. Stopping performance is mediocre at best. Acceleration traction is pretty good for an all season tire. Turning performance is okay as long as there is some loose snow on to. For me, the most important thing is predictability in traction. While these tires don't have the best traction, you know exactly where the limit is and they let go and hook up smoothly. I know exactly what they can and cannot get through and when to expect that glorious slide! There are better all season tires out there for snow Teton, but none that I have tried are as predictable as these. I've also not found a better all season car tire for mud, gravel, rocks, roots, and all the other terrains Subarus are meant to explore! Mud flaps are all necessary for these tires! They chuck rocks like no other!

Thanks everyone for the input. Seems to be a unanimous conclusion of it's normal and nothing to worry about

Is this vapor purge something that would randomly happen? Or maybe be associated with a temperature change?

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?