Cougar

As far as getting a Forester I would recommend you get a newer model considering what you said about your situation. There were improvements made in '03 to the model that you might like so I would get something made from then, on to the present. I guess you don't want a new car but if you can handle the payments on one I think it is a great time to buy a new car with the good deals going on now. You could have a car that will last many years if you can swing a deal for one. Subaru has 4.9% financing available to well qualified buyers. http://www.motortrend.com/oftheyear/suv/112_0812_2009_subaru_forester_suv_of_the_year/suspension_and_price.html

The flasher may be trouble alright but there could be a problem with the power to it also.

I looked over the good pictures again and I noticed something. In post #8 you showed a picture of a capacitor with a broken lead and I thought it was for the points in the disty. After looking at the picture of the disty in post #33 I can see the capacitor for the points mounted on the side. The other capacitor may be for eliminating noise in the electrical system. It would most likely be connected to the main power buss. You may also want to get a new set of points as the set in the pictures look pretty burned due to the current flow through them.

I would first suspect that the button on the remote has a problem. If you have a spare unit try swapping the two. If that isn't the trouble then the receiver may be causing the trouble.

You are welcome for the help. Pictures usually are always good.

You certainly did find the trouble. That wire ties the minus side of the coil to the points and it was shorting to ground. That is why the coil was getting so hot, it was passing current through it continually and you will also have no ignition pulses. Life will be better now.

The voltage readings you took are normal. That is the condensor you show in the picture and it helps eliminate the inductive kickback spark coming from the coil and across the points when they open. The lead that is broken off would tie to the minus side of the coil and the other lead ties to ground. Purchase a new one and install it to those points and use the clip on the side of the condensor to mount it somehow to a bracket. This shouldn't keep the engine from running but I think it will help it run better. Your last picture does show the ballast resistor mounted on top of the coil. The condensor does not tie to it.

You may want to get a block check done to see if any exhaust gases are getting into the coolant.

Going by pictures it looks like you have a very nice car at a good price.

Make sure the ignition is working when this happens. If the engine control doesn't see ignition pulses it will shut the fuel system down.

That sounds like it may be ok. There may be a ballast resistor in the line to drop the voltage a little in the Run mode. You could check to see if the voltage goes up in the Start mode though the starter will load the battery down some. Place a test light probe on the minus side of the coil and see if the light pulses when you crank the engine. If it doesn't then the pick up loop is bad. The pulses are needed to generate the high voltage for the spark

Gloyale is correct. It may seem that it is a lot of money to purchase the set of 4 manuals but if the purchase saves you one trip to the service shop it will pay for itself right there. Add to that the time they will save you looking for things, particularly with wiring problems. There isn't a subsitute for the factory manuals. You can get the set of manuals for less but you may have to wait a while for a better deal. I paid about 100 dollars for my '88 manuals when I purchased the car new. Though I don't have the car anymore I still have the manuals. The manual that covers the wiring is the most used. Once you use the manuals for reference on a repair you will see what a good investment you made.

To have a good ground connection make sure there isn't any paint between the ground lead and the engine block. I doubt that is your problem. Coils do run pretty warm but there may be a problem with the pick-up in the ignition circuit. Also the new coil may require a ballast resistor but if you purchased the correct coil you should be ok. Current flows through the coil to the pick-up when the ignition is on. If there is a problem with the pick-up it could cause the coil to overheat and have a no spark condition.

Thanks for the update and info on this and glad you found the trouble.

If I remember correctly the yellow wire goes to the minus side of the coil not the plus side. I doubt that the coil is bad. You also need verify that voltage is getting to the plus and minus sides of the coil when the key is in the ON position. If you don't have voltage there then check the fuses.

I first recommend you clean the battery connections using a battery post cleaning brush. I also agree with the others about checking for a bad chassis ground. Remove the ground leads running to the chassis and clean them.

It doesn't matter how long the car runs. Unless the temperature gauge gets into the hot zone the fan should not turn on. By doing the test you proved that the fan circuit is good, though it did not prove the temperature sensor is ok. That is bypassed with the test.

If the engine is flooded it helps to also push the accelerator all the way to the floor and crank the engine. It opens the throttle body valve to let air in. I suggest you first get a spare spark plug and place it in one of the plugwires and rest the plug body on a good engine ground. Then crank the engine to see if you have spark. If you do then try spraying some starter fluid into the intake and see if that fires the engine. If neither of these things work then you may want to do a compression test to see if something bad has happened.

I purchased the Equus 3130 scan tool and like it a lot. It will work on any OBD2 system. You should be able find them on Ebay at a good discounted price over full retail. I haven't used the included software yet as I have not needed to so far. http://www.iequus.com/product_info.php?product_id=3130&category_id=1_10_7

The main fan relay is on the left side under the dash. The A/C relay is in the relay panel. You haven't really stated that you are sure that the fan operation is actually a problem. Are you sure the fan isn't working due to a problem, because normally it doesn't turn on unless the coolant starts to overheat. I recommend you first connect the diagnostic connections together under the dash to test the fan circuit.

Good advice from Rooster2. You can hook power directly to the fans to check them out. They may be controlled to turn by a sensor and through the ECU. You should also be able to test them by tieing the diagnostic connections together.

I also would expect some maintenance to come up in the near future. Especially with the front engine area. Things like the water pump, alternator, idler pulley and such. Nothing real major but at the purchase price you are talking about that isn't a problem. The timing chain condition is hard to say. I'm not sure what the average life of that is but it is harder to work on than the old timing belts. Hopefully the car hasn't been in a wreck somewhere and that would be my biggest concern with the price it is at. You may want to have the front end checked out for a wheel alignment to see if that is ok before you sign on the dotted line. The car also requires premium gas in case you weren't aware of that. I have a '01 LL Bean Outback with the H6 in it and like it. I don't have very many miles on it though so it is really like a new car. Hope it works out for you to get this.

As the others have stated already the trouble is with the heater circuit to the sensor after the CAT. You cannot short the heater wires together to solve this trouble. Either the heater in the sensor is bad and you will need to replace the sensor or, there is a bad connection to the heater and you need to repair the circuit wiring to the sensor heater. By checking the voltage across the heater leads you should see 12 volts there when the heater is supposed to be on. This is usually while the engine is warming up. You can also check the resistance of the heater coil to see if it is ok. As a guess, the normal resistance for the heater may be about 10 ohms. As an added note. When you start a thread for a problem please do not start another one for the same thing. This makes it more confusing for others trying to help you deal with problem. Information between the two threads is usually different.

I think the display requires about 40 volts to operate. This requires a power supply circuit to run the display from the vehicles 12 volt system. The trouble may be within the power supply. I doubt you will be able to find some schematics that show the details of the circuit. It is treated as a module that just shows wires going to it. If it keeps working like it is then it may be best to live with it. It would be interesting though to know how they dim the display. They may just vary the supply voltage through the dimmer circuit.

You should be able to find one on Ebay for a good price.