Daskuppler

There does seem to be quite a lot of hype over it. My OBDII scanner gives live transmission temp so I follow it, but I agree, if it were a big issues, there would be a lot of failed transmissions from people draining hot fluid, measuring, then adding the equivalent in cold fluid back in.

How's the fluid level in the transmission?

In the past I believe I've put in 4-4.5 quarts. I always buy 6 and return 1. That's easy when you bought the fluid locally, but if you ordered something not so much. Temperature has to be about 100 degrees when you do the change though, otherwise you could overfill or underfill.

Hello Everyone, I searched the forum for similar threads and didn't see much other than the usual valid complaints from General Disorder. This is just to help compile information, I don't currently have a problem. That being said, the older CVTs were listed as lifetime fluids (we all know that's BS), and the newer ones have service intervals depending on use. Not everyone can afford to just replace the transmission, so how do we take care of these the best that we can? Should a complete power flush be performed every 30k miles for severe use? Is an annual drain and fill sufficient? What about at 60k miles? There are a lot of fluids on the market now, is anything an acceptable substitution for Subaru fluid? I know GD uses Amsoil and I trust them pretty much without question for all fluids. Castrol, Valvoline, Redline, Motul, and I'm sure others, offer supposedly compatible CVT formulations. If operating under sever duty, are temperatures an issue with these transmissions? Should a cooler be installed? Are there certain metrics that can/should be monitored by 3rd party devices? These are clearly not built for towing or hauling, but are there other driving conditions that can cause excessive wear? Using the transmission to engine brake, slipping (on snow/ice, off-roading, etc)? What are common issues and their symptoms? Are they preventable, or is it just luck of the draw? Cheers, Andrew

If you're in there, I would just do the timing job. Especially since the cover is smothered in RTV. That's a terrible job. I had a block replaced and they didn't even bother cleaning the cover, they just ordered a new one. I did the same thing on my Xterra. Is it worth doing 90% of the work only to wonder if you should have done the chain? Or have a failure that could have been prevented over a few hundred in parts you already had your hands on.

Maybe a vacuum leak? If you stop really slowly does it still do it? Is it worse if you stop quickly?

I thought Aekbono was OEM but I wasn't sure.

I've bed the last 5 sets I've put on. This car has been neglected for a while and is now getting the proper attention. Thanks for the pointer though, I fell like that part of brake work is left out a lot.

It's a manual so I usually just sit there unless it's a hill. The issue with these stems from an old set of pads several years ago. I just replaced the pads and didn't do anything with the rotors. Funds were tight and I needed brakes. Obviously the new pads didn't match the rotors and they warped. I can now afford to do it right so I am. I was just curious about Duralast. I'll likely go with centric, EBC, HawkPerformance, Power Stop, or Aekbono.

Yeah, it sucks. It has something to do with taxes. I don't think they ship to any surrounding states either.

Rock Auto doesn't ship to Colorado 😔

Hello Everyone, i don't usually buy parts from Autozone so I'm not terribly familiar with their products. However, I ended up with $225 from a work bonus that can be spent at Autozone and a handful of other places (this was the only auto parts store available) and I have warped rotors on my 02 Impreza TS. I am a spirited driver, but do not see the track. Standard aggressive mountain driving is about as rough as things get. What are your thoughts on Duralast Gold (the C-Max isn't available for this vehicle) pads and rotors for the front? If you don't like them, what do you prefer? I run PowerStop Z26/36 on my other vehicles and have had no issues on the off-roading rig or truck, but AutoZone charges a fortune for them compared to Summit Racing. Cheers

Great news! Looks like it's only about $11. That should help a little haha.

Okay, thanks! It's been stiff for years. Oh well.

The other day I was driving around and the heat wasn't working terribly well. After about 5 minutes of luke warm air, there was an audible change and then the air was hot. I started messing around with it and I believe the blender door is not actuating fully to the hot side until things warm up a little. Is this a greasable part? Would replacing the blender door cable fix the issue (it's very stiff when cold)?

Hello Everyone, Most of you probably know the saga of my short block replacement over the last few months on my 14 Forester N/A. I finally got a good one, it now has 3000 miles on it. When it was first installed I noticed that the car didn't coast very well and would slow down excessively. I was told that was normal and would go away with break in. It didn't really. Average MPG is about 21 on a usual road trip where it used to be about 27. Our loaner car (a 2022 Ascent 2.4T) got better fuel economy. I also noticed that under heavy load, the CVT holds high RPMS even after letting off the gas. In general RPMS are higher than they used to be (almost constantly around 3k) and will barely maintain 70mph unloaded on flat ground without increasing RPMS. I feel as though 3,000 relatively hard miles should have broken in the engine just fine. The car is currently running 0w-20 Amsoil SS. All other fluids are new within 20k. Spark plugs were replaced with the new block, airfilter is an AEM DryFlow with about 10k on it. Is the loss of MPG due to the fact that the rings actually seal? Seems like it should do better than a 2.4T Ascent....

I would add SeaFoam if you're going to use a cleaner/solvent. My 02 will tick and the oil light will flash on startup for a while when oil is due for a change. Usually goes away after fresh oil

What's your thought on Amsoil CVT fluid? Is it better to stick with Subaru for this application or is Amsoil equal/better?

I have not done a.compression test. The head gaskets have about 60k on them and I don't really have any other symptoms. Exhaust smells normal, car starts and runs fine, and the heat doesn't come and go on a drive. If it's gone when in it starts, it's always come back in a few minutes and never disappears after that. Reving the engine to move coolant and bubbles doesn't help. Temperature gauge is rock solid as well. I guess I could. Pull spark plugs and check for coolant. We'll see how it progresses.

They are manual controls and cable driven. I can hear the blender door moving so I don't think that's the problem but who knows. I'll see if I can check temperatures on the hoses, that might be hard but could be helpful information.

Awesome thank you. He's not familiar with Subaru so I figured I'd check here.

The kit only said 2 minutes and I saw 10 minutes pretty commonly online so I just kinda picked an arbitrary number. I can run it again longer, the radiator attachment didn't want to seal terribly well (I could hear it leaking if things weren't perfectly set) so I didn't want to leave it to long, I figured the results would be moot anyway. I was hoping but over pressurizing I could push it to leak a little more even if it was a small leak. It might be worth buying a kit. For what it's worth, the engine was cold during the test and had been sitting for 12 plus hours, the garage was 35 degrees.

I have quite a lot of tools as well and I usually purchase over rent, but I just rented this time (it ended up being brand new so there wasn't any abuse on this one). Pressure held at 23psi for 25 minute so I would assume there's no leaks unless the cap is bad but it's brand new from Subaru. A buddy said there is usually a vacuum driven actuator allowing hot coolant to flow to the heater core and that they can go bad. Is there something like that present on Subarus?

I looked in that area, there was a lot of debris but almost all of it blew out with a compressor. There was a little bit of stuff on the hard pipe, but it wiped off and was mostly just dust. The block has a little bit of stuff stuck to it that wasn't removed with compressed air, but no real signs of a leak here. The auto parts store rents them locally so I'll go grab one and see what happens. I don't think it's likely to be head gaskets as I don't have any of the other symptoms I've had in the past.

Are you referring to the two pipes/hoses that end up going through the firewall to what I assume is the heater core? There some some buildup on the front of the block but I think it's from the oil filler tube and is pretty oily. Would it be best to check when it's hot and see if there is any steam or localized odor under pressure? The smell of coolant is strongest at the top of the block and towards the front. The heat has not gone out since and there have been several heat cycles. I did notice some debris on the radiator fill port so I wiped that off in case it was preventing the radiator cap (new from Subaru) from completely sealing. When the radiator was out for the water pump and timing repair it looked sound (it's only got 15k or so on it), I did not see any green residue buildup or obvious signs of leaks. I replaced the lower radiator hose, the top was in good shape. Coolant levels were spot on the full line in the overflow and the radiator did not take more than a couple of ounces before it was overflowing. I do not, but I can get one if that seems like the best rout to go.