erikm

Thanks for the paranoia. There is an exhaust shop near me that will normally help people in my situation, but they said that on a Subaru they cannot due to the dual cat thing. If emissions is not an issue to the government, can you drop the cat? How bad is that for the car and/or Earth?

Less than a week, and at the time the codes pointed to both o2 sensors. I could not get to work, so it was an easy decision. I drove with a cracked header for quite a while. The shop said that by hitting the header with the welding torch, they could see the temp difference where the cracks were and fixed them all. That noise is gone, too. Will check the cat for rattle. Other than emissions problems, what is harm with bad cat?

I am in a similar state with a 2000 Forester 135k miles. CEL P0420. Changed both O2 sensors about 30k miles ago. This actually fixed an issue where I could not drive the car at all because of stalling. Had my exhaust manifold welded where it was cracked about 5k miles ago. Still getting CEL P0420, could the CAT actually be bad, or could the sensors have fried while exposed to a cracked exhaust header?

What you say has some validity, in that I have to be careful how I close the hatch because it will trip the open door indicator if I do not use enough force. The part that has me believing this is not true is the noise seems to be coming through the back seat and wheel well, not echoing throughout the whole backend. Thanks for the reply.

Wanting to confirm some advice I got from the dealer the other day. My C.E.L. came on intermittantly for the Catalytic Converter being bad. Additionally, I am hearing more of a "go kart" sound on heavy acceleration. The dealer told me that both are caused by a loose/ill fitted air filter. Ironically, the noise started after my last oil/air filter change, and double ironically the air filter was very challenging to seat properly. It was a FRAM. I will be going down to try to adjust that later today to see what I can see. The dealership explanation was that the loose air filter could cause a poor mixture by allowing too much air in or directly make the noise through vibration. Similarly, the bad mix would get down to the CAT and set off it's sensor, like it is not remixing the unburned gasses correctly. Is this dealer taking me for a ride, or does this sound valid? Will post an update after my next long drive with the air filter seated properly. Just wondering what y'all think?

I own a 2000 Forrester and had a very similar situation. In my case the CEL was coming on for #2 only. This was also after I just changed the O2 Sensor and the Oxygen Fuel Ratio sensor. Then the CEL was coming on for #2 misfire. I changed all 4 plugs only, and I went with Bosch High End plugs. Did not fix it. Then I found out that the #2 plug wire was having a hard time staying on to the plug. I pinched it and other stuff and finally got fed up. So, I went back to the store and got the import NGK plugs and paid twice as much for them as the high end Bosch. I also got a set of plug wires. This cleared it up, and the new wires made really good snap-in connections. I guess the point to all of this is, are you using American plugs? I think it really makes a difference to use the NGK original equipment plugs. It is possible too that the bad O2/Fuel Mix sensor is sending a bad mixture causing the misfire. What about running a heavy duty engine cleaner. There is a certain brand that is all petrolium products and only costs about $3. It is possible that the dealer or repair shop is correct, however I tend to agree with you that it sounds like they are fishing.

Update on the tire noise: Stopped into two tire stores, both who checked the tires and said they were fine. This weekend I had the first nice weather, and so I changed my rear brakes. The instructions here rocked, thank you very much. It went exactly as specified. The rotors looked all rusty which was very surprising to me, especially for the face where the pad is supposed to rub. Also the pads had to be hammered out of the guide clips, which was also surprising. Here are the changes in the scenario after doing the brakes, there are about four different noises I am hearing from the passenger rear tire. Oh, and I verified that the back plate is not rubbing on the rotor, because if I had to identify the sound, that is what I would think it sounded like. I also backed off the parking brake to make sure it is not rubbing. 1: Metal scraping noise, very low pitch and fairly low volume, noticable when rolling backward down the driveway, or at the very end of a stop for a stop sign, or immediately after take off, when going very slow. I am willing to chalk this up to the brake pads rubbing on the rotor, maybe? 2: Metal scraping/grinding noise, when making right hand turns at lower speed, like turning a corner in a residential area when there is not a stop sign. Only right hand turns, not left hand, so only when the "bad tire" is on the short side of the turn. Only makes noise for 2 seconds at the apex of the turn. I hear the the knuckle has a thumping sound when it goes bad, this is definitely a grind. 3: Metallic sounding noise on the highway. Just barely audible over #4 so it may be road noise, but beacuse of #4 I am unable to be sure. 4: Hollow road tire noise which is excessively loud from the passenger rear tire, varies with speed and starts to be audible at about 30 mph. I would say that it sounds like a high speed fan, but it also has some hollow ring like it is echoing in the tire. This is the noise that I think people are telling me is the bearing? I will say for sure that this "road noise" is not repeated in the other three tires. My next steps are to swap tires to see if the noise moves with the tire and then pull the bearing as the next step. On the bearing, if I pull it, the local parts store has a machine shop and will do the actual bearing swap for $25 in labor, plus about $75 in parts. I have to pull the whole knuckle from the tire assembly, according to the shop. They said to remove the axle nut, and then disconnect the other equipment attached to the back plate and that whole section is what they need. Is this worth the effort? Will I need a spring compressor to do this? Am I better off paying the $400 in the shop?

One final note. Following the spark plug swap, I was still getting a bad #2 cyl C.E.L. So, I pulled the Bosch plugs and used the OEM import plugs and changed the plug wires and now the engine is running better.

Followed the instructions on general maintenance. Took out the air system and wiper fluid tank and swapped out the plugs. It was a very simple job, just needed to get a bit of wether warmer than single digits. Took about 45 mins. The Forrester runs AWESOME now. Seems as though the plugs were the latest and hopefully last step for a while in neglected routine maintenance by the previous owner. Thanks for the help. Case Closed.

On replacing the plugs, these are the strangest plug wire ends I have ever seen, I am used to the traditional american wire ends. Do I just pull them off (with appropriate care of course)? Also, do you recommend removing the battery and washer fluid reservoir to get to the driver's side plugs?

Thanks for the tip. I have already done the Fuel Filter within 3 months. I just bought spark plugs and will report on changes. It seems like it is flooding and missing when I stomp on it. Also starting to get rough starting. Might be a battery on that side, but maybe not getting enough spark to start quick?

Thanks for all the help on this. I was forced by work to make a long drive today before addressing this. Yes I know, but without money there are no repairs. Anyway, about half way there the noise stopped sounding like knobbies and now sounds like a hollow kind of sound. My next steps are: 1. Rotate tires If noise moves 2. Buy tires If noise stays (unlikely with new development above) 2. Rip wheels apart. I have also noticed that this car is very sensative to road conditions and passes them to the driver noticibly through noise and feel. Is this normal for a 2001 Forrester?

Started getting odd noise in the rear passenger tire area of a 2000 Forrester about two weeks ago. I am a newer owner and dont fully understand all the mechanics under there. The noise sounds like a loud off road tire noise coming from a normal street tire that made no noise before. Not sure it is coming from the tire as it doesnt start until 50 mph and I cant get somebody to stand next to it and listen at that speed. The sound changes to higher pitched at higher speeds but always sounds like a knobby tire. I have taken the car to a tire shop and they said the tires were really out of balance and fixed that, but the noise did not go away. They did not warn me of any other visible dangers while inspecting the tires. I have heard the bearings fry on my camper trailer when I did the job poorly and this is not that noise, but I dont know what the Subaru bearing death noise sounds like. Any Starters?

I purchased a 2000 Forrester about 4 months ago. On inspection I found the car was running very lean. Changed the Air Filter and Fuel Filter and that corrected it. Tried an engine cleaner gas additive and immediately got the CEL code for bad Air Fuel Mix Sensor (O2#1) and fixed that about 1 month ago. I was getting 30 mpg on the lean mix and now I am down to 20mpg with things fixed. The car seemed to be running extra rich and wanted to bog down at low rpm shifting. It is a Manual with the Horizontally Opposed 4 Cyl. NOT turbo. In the last couple weeks the car has developed a problem with acceleration. When I go easy gas (less than 10% pedal) and high RPM (over 2500) the engine runs fine. When I attempt to give her some gas or dare try to punch it to the floor, I get caughing, slowdown and even backfiring instead of a thrilling speed increase. So now I have to be very careful to accelerate with just the right pressure on the gas pedal to make the minimum on the gas and keep higher rpm to keep from backfiring. I am hoping this is plugs and wires or something simple, I am dreading the internal timing chain or something serious. Please help.