uniberp

I spoke too soon. The other side (passenger) rear lower bolt was froze, and I thought I could feel it start to twist off, which would have been a disaster. (There are lots of threads on twisted-off Subaru valve cover bolts.) I drilled a tiny hole (3/32) through the side of the boss on the block until I reached the threads and sprayed PBlaster in it. It was still tight, but it cracked loose. Since the boss is threaded through, it seemed safe to try it. It seemed to relieve some pressure or allowed lubrication. I used a mirror to see where to drill. It's not visible directly (with engine in the car). And finding a 1/4 breaker bar was not as easy as I thought. Crescent makes a 6 and 9 inch. I got both for like $15 and the long one was better. Got them at Menards. Oh, and the plug clip was in a recess on top of the reservoir, but I had to pull away the air dam valance to even see it. That pi**ed me off more than any other part. And yes, I'm slow as heck.

I assume so, 10mm., if it clears the cover bulge.

This one (2008) uses shoulder bolts, that still leave what looks like about ~1mm of space between the surfaces, I guess to prevent overcrushing the gasket. Saves a dummy like me from trying to torque them accurately. M6 I think. 10mm head. A little concerned about dirt getting knocked down on the valve train, when the cover knocked loose, but It drains directly to the sump. I sprayed it out with some gas. Oil change when Im done.

2008 Forester X. The drivers side valve cover, in fact, can be removed without jacking up the engine. The bottom rear bolt is a pain to get at: since I didn't have a 1/4 drive universal joint, I tied a string to the box end of the wrench because i kept dropping it. One flat at a time, it came undone. After removing the heavy steel cover, the fuel rail comes unclipped by pushing the 2 blue vertical slots on the connector through. Then the valve cover can then be rotated up and inward to be freed. Removing the battery helps get at everything. Now if I could find those plug wire clips that came off and fell somewhere, and not on the floor. One went on top of the squirt reservoir, but blast if I can find it.

Chicken tax From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia U.S. intensive chicken farmingled to the 1961–1964 "Chicken War" with Europe. The chicken tax is a 25% tariff on potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light trucks imposed in 1963 by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on importation of U.S. chicken.[1] The period from 1961–1964[2] of tensions and negotiations surrounding the issue was known as the "Chicken War," taking place at the height of Cold War politics.[3] Eventually, the tariffs on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy were lifted,[4] but over the next 48 years the light truck tax solidified, remaining in place to protect U.S. domestic automakers from foreign competition (e.g., from Japan and Thailand).[5] Though concern remains about its repeal,[6][7] a 2003 Cato Institute study called the tariff "a policy in search of a rationale."[4] As an unintended consequence several importers of light trucks have circumvented the tariff via loopholes. Ford (ostensibly a company that the tax was designed to protect), imports the Transit Connect light trucks as "passenger vehicles" to the U.S. from Turkey, and immediately strips and shreds portions of their interiors, such as installed rear seats, in a warehouse outside Baltimore.[1] Mercedes imported complete vans built in Germany, "disassembled them and shipped the pieces to South Carolina, where American workers put them back together in a small kit assembly building."[8] The resulting vehicles emerge as locally manufactured, free from the tariff.

A car that old might need a SECOND set of new plugs and wires. IMExperience those make the biggest difference. Maybe a new gas and air filter.

Here's how you extract the longbolt. Sorry, but you have to cut the head off, and the bolt is a special manufacturer's size, but I think I paid $16. 1. remove strut pinch-bolts, caliper, axle nut, etc. 2. Remove the nut from the "longbolt". 3. HAMMER the longbolt out of the FRONT arm and knuckle. 4. At this point you are kinda stuck, if the bolt is rusted to the inner bushing of the rear arm, and no amount of twisting or hammering will free it. 5. One way is to remove the entire arm, but that inner suspension bolt may be rusted even more badly, and the longbolt is still stuck in the arm. 5a. There just is no way to get between the bushing end and the bolt head. 6. Cut off the bolt head. Sawzall. 7. With that arrangement shown, a washer that just fits the bolt, an open end wrench, and a pitman arm puller. 8. This method saves the rubber bushing. With a new bolt you can just bolt it up and go. 9. Cutting the head off a hardened 16mm(?) bolt takes some doing. Sawzall 10 minutes, or a couple cutoff wheels and that nast smell. 10. It is not pretty, but it is done.

I've had these for 3 years now, they are superb in rain and really good in snow. The orange oil compound is less sensitive to temperature, and tougher than petroleum rubber. They are rated 90,000 miles but they are not hard or loud, and again, are excellent in rain and snow. At about 50k miles they are only starting to show wear. but I am a very conservative driver. I paid about $400 at DT.

There isn't one in the engine compartment.

2008 Forester Auto n/a. A/c compressor doesn't come on, in cool or defronst mode. The switch light is on. The a/c compressor doesn't switch on. Static pressure is about 30lbs, and the pressure seems to cycle correctly when the relay is bypassed, down to (about 20?). Pull the relay and cross the power directly, it works. Swap the relay with one of the headlight relays, still nothing. The pressure switch connector has 4 wires. I tried crossing every combination. Apparently one combination blew the fuse under the dash panel. Nothing switched on the compressor. Any thoughts other than low freon?

So where did the smoke come out?

Yokohama Avid Ascend. Made with orange oil.

That must be it. I tested the compression (with reset timing) in all 4 with a crappy HF quick connect compression tester and all are the same, even though the dumb gauge reads about 40% low (calibrated against a more precision bicycle pump). I'm just going to pretend it is due and put in a timing kit and water pump. Leakdown test showed nothing either. I'll check it again after a thousand miles or so, in case one of the valves might be slightly bent and start to burn.

The trick is to use a breakerbar/socket, not a rachet to pull the belt onto the pulley. If the belt slips the breaker bar will prevent the pulley form advancing from spring force. You can back it up and try again. Once the belt is almost on the pressure will hold the pulley in place so you can re-position the breaker and socket for a better grab to pull it the rest of the way on.

LInkage correct? I notice Subie linkage cables get very stiff.

Yes, crank and left cam were lined up. Right cam was about 5-6 notches off as I recall (I was shocked to see it). VERY apparent. Right cam sprocket is plastic, and with fingertip touch the teeth are not as sharply edged as the metal left-side-sprocket. No wear apparent, and the shaft turns smoothly. That's possible, but this engine has not had the covers off since it was new, about 60k miles. Rebuilt by a very reputable Subie engine builder specialist. I will still recommend him. Contact me offline.

No. All the covers were removed before the engine was rotated at all. It was already skipped. It skipped during running, stopping or starting. Diagnosis by second hand reports of what it sounded like... probably not very accurate. I didn't even ask for a description. After seeing the oil and antifreeze were clear and full, I suspected the tensioner, so that's why I removed all the covers before doing anything. How do I diagnose a bad tensioner other than by watching for it to jump around? I put a "maintenance removed" tensioner on it just to see if it would run. It does run ok it seems.

Gates belt made in USA. Still had visible timing marks on it. New style tensioner. 1999 EJ25D. The owner thought it was a rod bearing, (probably because that happened to the car before). I probably should not have started it, but even with the timing off, the engine turned over by hand, so I reset the belt and risked it. Seemed fine for the 10 seconds or so, revved it a bit and put it in gear. I'm gonna do a leakdown test next. There are pools of ATF in crevices on top of the engine, so it got a good soaking.

Auto transmission. Yes, it happened. The only explanation I can think is heat+oil vapor caused the rubber part of the belt to soften and slip. It was hotter than 90F here at the time. It must have happened when it was being turned off the previous day, or when started up the next, in their driveway. It was not making any clatter when running the last time it was driven.

It definitely was a few teeth off, the plastic (right side) pulley. No doubt about that. This is a 5 year old engine with maybe 60k miles on it. All new idlers, water pump, oil-pump, tensioner. A few weeks ago the trans cooler line came off and sprayed the engine with ATF. I suppose some ATF could have seeped into the well-closed-and-completely-gasketed timing cover and helped the belt slip. Fortunately the owner was smart enough to shut it off immediately when hearing a bad noise, when first starting it the next morning after a hard hot day of city driving. I'm going to do a leak-down to test for bent valves, but after resetting the belt it started and ran ok, without any mechanical noise. SInce I'm in there I'll do the belt/idlers kit from mizunauto.

I have. No mechanical failure (failed idler or waterpump or tensioner) to explain it. The only possible factor was hot city driving on a 90 degree day. Gates belt and NTN idlers.

(Title edit I meant JDM) OK "we" killed another ej25d, rod bearing, no surprise there. 1999 forester, got new tires, struts, brakes, radiator, blah blah, so I want to put in a cheap JDM ej20 and see what happens. I am willing to put in a bigger oil pump, which according to GDisorder is the thing to do, but headgaskets? IDK if the relatively low mileage on these jdm engines as reported from the ebay vendors indicates that is a toss-up. I'm kinda tired of fooling with subaru engines. I no longer believe in these cars as especially long-lived. I love the way they drive in rain and snow, but I drive very mildly, and am now babying my 2008 and never using it for less than a 5 mile trip. I still expect it to blow up anytime, despite being quiet and smooth with no "piston-slap" aka "rod-bearing knock". The 1999 was driven like a Chevy iron block and it just ate it's second new engine in 200k. It also had an interim "rebuilt" engine sold by some local jerk that burned oil a quart per tank.

Why isn't anybody recommending the clamshell type compressor? I think they are much safer and easier to use.

Have your spark plugs been changed? Miss and stumble can be caused by these, especially at 75k miles.

It's probably throttle-by-wire and that may affect how the response feels . I know my 2008 forester def has a different feel to the throttle than the 1999. Supposed to get better gas mileage, but I don't really see that. Maybe it will train itself to your driving.