coryl

What is the scheduled maintenance of this car? I race mine (Subaru and Evo) and have changed my dif oil frequently. 144,00 miles seems to be very high for a Subaru basic maintenance, but that said I don't do basic.

Bring it back to the dealership and see if they will give you a deal since they replaced the gear oil and now there's a leak. They might do a deal.

Looks like the gasket to me. Changing the gear oil will break up the gunk at the seals causing leaks. Is this the first oil change in 144,000 miles? That's got to be the problem I'm thinking.

I went in to see my friend, and did a bit more research. My Potenza pole version tires are asymmetrical and not directional, so as long as all 4 tires say outside on the outside they are correct and they are. The confusing part was the arrows going in different directions on either side of the car and the sips not symmetrical in direction. Clearly the design arrows are there to confuse people. Almost all of my tires, Blizzacks, Re71r, Dunlop Z's, have all been directional, so I believed the Poles were too and especially with what I felt were directional arrows. Anyways, I'm glad you figured out that your tires were installed incorrectly so you can get them fixed! I am now much more informed about asymmetric tires thanks to you.

On all tires. Appears not in my case.

I sent my friend an email and I'm waiting to hear back. The tires should all read outside and the direction arrow should all be facing the direction forward as the wheel turns.

I just went outside to look at my tires and I'm back in confusion with even mine. I don't think mine are right as I initially thought they weren't. The pole position tires I have are directional and asymmetric. Ffs I'm looking at them closer tonight and they are all outside yet direction is not correct. The crazy part is that the direction appears as a fancy design so is confusing. Omg I'm so pissed. Going to speak with my friend tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. Thank you Craigmcg for bringing up this thread.

I can't believe it still but I'm so happy. If you can believe it, even when the tech said he knew the problem was in the door, I initally thought to myself that this must be a secondary problem. Once we believe that it's a problem with the suspension, etc, and especially when there was a car accident, you keep focused on that belief unfortunately which would have cost me a bundle of money to figure out had it not been for my friends. I bought pizza and bought presents to thank everyone at the dealership. That would have been a huge cost for me I know to Figure it out. I so thank them!

I have the performance Bridgestone Potenza "reverse pole" tires on my Subaru and they are confusing on an AWD vehicle to rotate and it's taken me a bit to figure things out. I was so confused initially that I contacted my expert tire friend to confirm that they had been installed correctly because they didn't look like I'd expected in direction yet they were. I'd definitely call/contact the manufacturer for information.

Problem solved and I can hardly believe what was the problem... I get to the dealership and my friend takes the car for a test drive and he can hear nothing. So I get in the car with him and eventually he can hear the ping sound but very faintly yet can't distinguish where it's coming from. Next, one of the girls at the dealership gets in the car with me on my request, because I read somewhere that women hear things differently than guys do, and she hears the pings from the back seat but thinks it's coming from the front of the vehicle and not from the back where the wheel was hit and so as I'm listening to it closer I now agree with her. Next, a tech gets into the back seat and he can hear the pings too and thinks it's coming from the front wheel too, so now we are all in agreement it's coming from the front drivers side area. The car is put up on the hoist and the front wheel won't make the ping noise when turned and nothing is looking like it's catching on anything. The tech then brings the car down and gets into the front seat and takes the car off on his own. He comes back with a big smile on his face saying that he's figured it out and it's "coming from the door" and starts to swing open and shut the driver's side door and something's banging around inside so we take the door apart. The metal rod connecting to the lock mechanism had come apart, so when taking fast left turns it would hit once against the metal inside the door but couldn't hit anything metal when swinging in the opposite direction taking right turns. I'm so happy that it wasn't anything major with the suspension. I'm also very happy that the problem was figured out before the fob stopped working or the car alarm went off and then the key in the driver's side door wouldn't work to open the door or to shut off the alarm which would have undoubtedly been at minus 40C in winter!

A poorly calibrated, sticking or failing brake light sensor can also play with ABS/traction control when braking and set off codes. Have you checked the codes when this happens? Clearly a code will be detected when there's a fault like this so that's where they need to analyze when you get to the shop. It will be fairly easy to figure out the issues when they check the codes. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

One thing about buying a car that's been a trade in to a different dealership is that they'd really like it off their lot, so the deals can be much better. Most running cars are worth at least $1500 unless there's any major work to be done, ie, engine, transmission. The dealership is selling the car at a higher price than you can get from a local seller, yet there should be some warranty at the dealership verses none when you buy it from someone else. In Canada, there's a 30 day warranty on all used cars sold from a dealership and IMO it's well worth a bit extra to have that peace of mind. That said, I also bought my Subaru from a Toyota dealership and have since learned a few things that I would now do in the future since there were dropped leads and head gasket problems that cropped up after. I would offer a close price for the car that they are asking, and I'd have them do an engine analysis and a 100 point check for leaks, brake/tire wear, etc, etc, etc. Costs them really nothing to do this (the techs are all there), yet they would be obligated to tell you of anything that they found and any dealership isn't going to risk reputation for not disclosing something for a car of this price. It would make more sense if the car was of higher value to take it elsewhere to have things checked out, but IMO not in this case because it will cost you for the full analysis of it. Take the car out on a test drive and check out the things others have said on this thread as a final decision and negotiate further depending on what's found. As just mentioned...rust would also be a big deal breaker for me too. Good luck!

Just a quick question before I take the car in. I was listening for noises after the car was hit and I heard nothing until after I had the wheel alignment done. Is it possible that one of the bolts didn't get torqued correctly during the alignment process?

Idosubaru, yes, this is the wheel that was hit. I've checked the brakes and cleaned everything and still the single ping/tick when taking corners at over 30kms/hr. The tick/ping sound only comes when taking corners faster and not from a slow start. The sound comes regardless if I'm braking or not. 1 Lucky Texan, the strut wasn't replaced/rebuilt in this case. CNY_Dave, this is a good possibility. Something definitely could have been loosened during the accident. I checked into what you said about the bearing/mount and found a video with a guy having the same problem. People are telling him by the sound that it's the bearing/mount after he'd just replaced his struts and he's not believing that's the problem. The sound coming from his car is identical to mine, so I'm going with you and the majority on that site. I'll take the car in to my friend this week and let you know. Thank you all for your help.

It sounds like you like your car so may have had it for a while? Call Subaru and see if they will "participate" in the repair. Subaru definitely knows their head gasket issue. They participated in my repair and my dealership participated in the other half. Never hurts to ask. Whatever you do, definitely have the engine removed and heads resurfaced or you'll just be back at the same problem. Timing belt do it even before due if you're going to do this.

I had just left the collision center getting some rust damage repaired and hood painted with full front clearbra done on my Subaru. Car looked brand new. I got hit by a truck 2 minutes after leaving the collision center and the truck hit my wheel area and back quarter panel on the driver's side. My car has been repaired and wheel alignment done (oddly the right front wheel was totally out of alignment and the wheel that was hit wasn't totally out of specs). I'm then driving home and I'm noticing that whenever I take a left turn that same wheel area gives a ping sound like a rock is hitting metal. Because the wheel had been removed, I retorqued the lugs, and retested and test drove it to the same sound. I removed the wheel and cleaned everything up with brake cleaner and retested and it's still the same on left turns. The odd thing is that when I'm taking slow left turns I don't hear the sound.

Gloyale, my cars often do sit for months at least a few times a year. I used to lose expensive batteries frequently ($350-$500 each). I live in an end unit town home, and in the spring, summer, fall, I have everyone in these units beside me coming through my yard to go through their back yards which makes it impossible to hang extension cords across my property from my electrical outlet to my Subaru which is the car that sits outside...in the winter it's a different scenario as no one and their children crosses my property and so I do not solar charge my Subaru (and also because of the snow on my windshield) and because I want a more precise charge to keep my battery at full. My Evo gets the garage, but it's very difficult to charge to the battery as the battery is in the trunk so it has been charged through the OBD port always...when I'm away for months I do charge my Evo directly to the battery with a higher amp charger because it's not driven. My chargers are 3.5 amps maximum through the OBD port or higher 7.3 amps (Subaru)and 15 amps (Evo) when charged directly to the batteries (when I'm away in winter). I keep the amps to 3.5 to the OBD on both Evo and Subaru through the OBD. I've done this for over 6 years now with no issues at all until I over charged the Subaru with the broken cord and was solar charging on a full 12 hour sunny day when I started this post. I agree with you. I don't want to put a huge amount of amps through my OBD but I can tell you that 3.5 isn't a problem from so MANY years of experience. In the end of the worst extreme...I blew a fuse. I keep a few extra fuses on board now. Don't think I'll need them since I now keep an eye on any broken cords and will immediately replace them.

Was doing some reading on HG issues/prevention because I have so much money invested into this car. I found a conversation on preventing further HG issues. One guy who was a Subaru mechanic suggested to have the head bolts retorqued. He said, "one point back in the 80s Subaru would actually pay the dealer mechanics to retorque the cylinder head bolts at 1000 miles"...seems to be common knowledge and he said that this was a period of time where there weren't HG issues...I can't find anything to confirm this from Subaru but this is why I'm wondering. He also said that this was a period of time where there were 8 bolts instead of 6. Anyone have an opinion on retorquing these bolts after HG replacement? Is this a possible fix for HG problems?

Hey Gloyale, Thanks. I understand what you're saying. Everything worrys me because I love my cars and their safety...they're my children. The first time I solar charged through the OBD was when I purchased (from Ebay) a solar charger from VW who used solar chargers to bring all of their cars here to prevent battery failure on arrival to North America. VW wouldn't charge through their OBD ports if they felt that they would damage them? My friend from Mitsu agrees. That said, I didn't like the idea that they were unregulated ,so I agree with you, and so when I found a charging system that regulated the voltage I purchased it. This system has saved my batteries and have kept them like new since. The only issue I had was blowing the 7.5A fuse when I charged for over 12 hours in direct sunlight with a broken cord which I only realized after I started this post I've been charging through the OBD port for over 6 years. There's just nothing better.

Yes, driver side was the issue, but with encouragement from people on this site I did both head gaskets/machined, and I'm so happy it's sorted out. I couldn't get into my Subaru dealership for my last oil change and to check to make sure no gasket leaks (major tire change season), so I took it to my service manager friend at Mitsu, and they've confirmed no leaks after head gaskets done...wanted too make sure before warranty ended. Yay!

Please understand that any new car you get now is going to have the same issues and car price won't matter much. If you drive infrequently, any car you buy will have the same battery issues. Buy a SMART battery charger with "quick connect" connections...takes 10 secs to disconnect or reconnect and your battery will last a long time.

I do not think that your battery is good...it may register as an "OK" battery when tested (not sure how you tested it) but it's probably not putting out enough power. Also check your terminals. Everything you mention, from the clicking, to the stalling while driving, whirring sound, to the taking forever/pausing before start, is all sounding related to a battery that is failing and causing stress on your alternator and engine if it's stalled out.

Call a few (not all are considered equal) car security system installation companies and get their opinion. They understand setting up the keys, immobilizers, ECU and helped me similarly to save my fast key on my Evo. And if they can help you, it will be a whole lot cheaper than the dealership.

You didn't mention what Toyota you traded in, but I'm guessing that it probably didn't have all the power-hungry luxury auxiliary options that the new Forester might have that will drain a battery. Most new cars often normally don't come with other than a smaller battery that is just enough to get the car started and to run a few extras...so, you are definitely not driving this vehicle enough and are therefore draining the battery too often and never allowing it to charge fully, all of which will destroy a battery in short time. Gel/AGM batteries also do not tolerate being boosted often before seeing some damage, and I call them the 2 boost batteries. If you drive as you say, you will need to keep your car on a battery charger when not in use to bring it up to full charge, which is crucial for battery life, or be forever replacing batteries...I also used to lose batteries frequently from infrequent driving, but no problems now for 6 years since using a smart charger. You could also purchase a better battery, but that would be at your own expense and they're not cheap.

Thank you Gloyale for your information. After I posted this, I found I had a break/short in my charger cord...which I've been using for many years to save the expensive batteries on my Evo and on my Subaru. I'm upset that Subaru has the injector fuse connected with battery. OMG who does that???? I spoke with my fiend who is an electrical engineer and who worked with mitsu, and he said to me that he didn't see any issue with me charging through the OBD port saying that it is grounded. I will continue to charge my batteries by OBD port, but will always now look for any breaks.