unibrook

No gasket sealer on my 2.5 per Cityside Subaru in MA.

It's the rear bearings. Expect them to go b4 100k miles. You can replace them yourself with the right toolkit (about $350). I did. Windshield is a bit fragile. Front pass axle inner boot will crack early due to heat from exhaust pipe directly beneath it. Clock will need a simple resolder. Add the gasket mender goop to your coolant to keep the internal head gasket failure at bay. Front 02 sensor may need replacing every 40k miles. But that is about it. We like the car.

Dave! Howzit bro?? you must be buried in snow there! Good opp to give your subie a workout. Nat

I have been using a Fumoto on my 2001 Forester for 4 yrs. I love it. Zero problemas.

The sound you describe is what our 2001 Forester (97k miles) is making for us now when we turn the key to start her up. But only intermittently. I will be pulling the starter to visually inspect it as soon as I get a warm day. Sounds like some teeth are messed up...on flywheel or on starter. I will report back here.

U need heat. Period. My bracket bolts were frozen. So frozen I snapped the head off of a bolt with my breaker bar. I took it to the shop, he heated all the bolts with his torch and they all spun right out.

You could pull each wheel and do a visual inspection of each ABS sensor and its wire. That is how I found my front left one that was throwing the code. The fronts are pretty easy to replace.

Concord MA would have worked for me. Not that I have ever done the HG surgery, but I could have watched and smoked a cigar and cheered you on as you operated. Hmmm, I think I will light up a Don Pepin Garcia robusto today at lunch in honor of my beloved little 2001 Forester. I call her, Nina.

it used to really piss off a chick I worked with when I referred to her Ford Exploder as her "school bus."

2001 Forester 97k miles on her. Probs: clock -- solder fix worked perfectly drivers side rear wheel bearing pass front axle boot drivers side valve cover gasket and spark plug pips front brake pads and rotors windshield crack spread all the way across 3rd front 02 sensor so far Most of this can be repaired yourself in driveway. We like the car overall. No plans to replace anytime soon!

Hub Tamer is useful as an option. You can leave the hub and knuckle on the car with this tool. Not cheap however.

2001 Forester 96k miles. I have noticed the oily spark plug boots for last 2 years or so. No driveability probs yet, but I decided to replace the driver side valve cover gasket, spark plug pips, and bolt washers/seals anyway. I used OEM, I think it was under $30 for the set for one side. ** Best to do the valve cover gasket and sparkplug tube seals (pips) when car is due for an oil change, so that dust and dirt that gets in there when you remove valve cover will quickly be flushed out when you change oil. Only a small bit of oil will leak out when the VC is removed. ** Best to let the windshield fluid reservoir run almost dry (.25 full or less), since you need to remove it to get the valve cover out. 1. Spray engine degreaser and scrub with toothbrush, wipe with rag, blast with compressed air all around VC to clean out any dirt that might fall into the engine while the cover is off. 2. Remove windshield fluid reservoir (10mm socket) and unclip green and white pump wire connectors. Wiggle off fluid hoses. 3. Remove battery (if doing drivers side) (10mm combo wrench--Negative terminal first) in order to increase access to the valve cover. 4. Wiggle off plug wires. Do not remove spark plugs. Stuff rag bits into spark plug tubes to prevent dirt from falling in. 5. Unclip and wiggle off breather hose from VC. Stuff in a bit of rag to prevent dirt entry. 6. Remove bolts (different lengths, so NOTE locations) (5x 10mm socket and box wrench. Ratcheting wrench would be ideal here) and valve cover. I was able to leave the oil filler neck attached and used it as a handle to help pull out the VC. Cover valve area with clean rag to prevent dirt from blowing in there. Clean gasket contact surfaces of cover and engine. NOTE orientation of old gasket for proper insertion of new gasket into slotted perimeter of VC. Use small flat screwdriver to pry old bolt washers off of VC. 7. Put new gasket into cover, then put cover onto engine. Star pattern the bolts to 4 ft lbs…less than spark plug torque. You will feel them resist when they snug up. DO NOT overtighten them. They can strip out fairly easily. Just aim for snug, not tight.

Dude has a good eye, and a good point. Anyone who owned and cared for their car KNOWS how to spell its name. I know this seems like a small detail, but.......you know where the devil hides, right?? In contrast, I own and love a 2001 Forester. It has had all of the usual problems. I do most of the work on it myself, and have a shop assist if I get stuck. For all of my cars, I have kept a spreadsheet of ALL maintenance done on them for the entire time I have owned the cars. When I sell them, I hand the new owner the spreadsheet....and their eyes light up in appreciation. Maintenance history is a good thing.

I used a closed end wrench on mine. I knew the O2 sensor was bad, and that I was def going to replace it....so I just clipped the wires and slide the closed end of the wrench over the wires.

just how much is someone willing to pay for this high mileage Forester out your way?

I am thinking/remembering that it is black also but it might be white...on my 2001 Forester. Just climb under your dash with a flashlight.......and mirror if needed, to find the few diff plugs under there. Probably only 2 choices, try them both. Here are some notes I had on it: ABS Light stays on: Dealer will just say they have to hook up their ABS computer scanner to diagnose the problem. You might as well first do a visual inspection of all of the components to be sure wires are intact and no obvious damage to any of the conduits etc. On the third sensor I inspected, I found an old wire breakage near the sensor that the previous owner (or some clown who broke the wire while doing a brake job) had soldered back together and wrapped electrical tape around….amazingly, it held for several years. Here is a diagram of the general ABS setup, albeit from a different car: http://autorepair.about.com/library/illustrations/bl457a-lib.htm You can easily and quickly pull out a wheel speed sensor once you remove the wheel. It has a black wire coming out of it, with a white stripe if you look up it near the wire clamp. You will find it mounted just in toward the engine on the splash shield by the rotor. Use a 12mm socket to take out the single retainer bolt. Then gently wiggle or pry with a screwdriver to pull out the sensor. It is a friction fit and sits in a hole like a bottle cork. So you can wiggle it out back and forth. Clean off the dirt/rust dust that might be covering the black sensor “cork” and the metal tip at the bottom of it. Visually inspect the teeth of the tone wheel, mine were clean as a whistle. The front driver side ABS speed sensor assembly is part # 27540AC100 and costs $120.77 shipped from subarugenuineparts.com. $3 cheaper than 1stsubaruparts. The wire from the sensor goes up through the fender into the engine compartment where it clips onto another ABS system wire with a standard wire connector.

2001 Forester 96000 miles on her. Front rotors have never been replaced, and she has spent all of her life in RI and MA. I was getting the vibration wobble when braking above 40 mph, so I knew it was time! What should have been a do-it-myself front pads and rotors replacement turned into a trip to the shop to torch heat and remove the corrosion welded pad bracket bolts...one of which I had sheared off with a breaker bar. I bought 4 new bracket bolts (pn# 901130011) that come with lock washers from Cityside Subaru for $18.40, then had an inde shop remove the old and install the new. My mechanic went easy on me this time, only charging one hour of labor $80 for the work. He also installed the new pads & rotors (which I supplied from Advance Auto $94) while he was in there. So be warned, up here in the rust belt, those bracket bolts might not spin out very easily...you might have to apply some heat! And people--this means YOU Subaru--there is this crazy little thing called ANTI-SEIZE! Use it, Know it, Live it.

Is there an EGR valve on that puppy? Has that already been replaced?

ok, ok, I'll pile on...don't want to miss all the fun! Front 02 sensor ever been replaced? In the last 40k miles? Any CEL codes being thrown yet? What are they?

To wrap this thread up. He needed a new spark plug. Code was for a cyl 4 misfire, iirc. Anyway, new spark plugs all the way around did the trick. Thanks all for helping.

Have you ever changed your front 02 sensor? An old sensor will give you misfire cel. Pay careful attention to whether the car drives fine when cold, but then misfires when warmed up? (if so, this is how a bad front 02 sensor behaves.) If it misfires equally when the engine is cold and warm, then probably a diff sensor or diff issue. Actually pay attention to this, and take notes! I did this, and it led me to figure out it was my front 02 sensor that needed replacing....many thx to others on this list who pointed my nose in this direction. You can change your front 02 sensor in your driveway in an hour...just like changing a spark plug.

Hi GG, yes, they actually paid me. I have cashed the check and it cleared. Evidently, here in MA, things have changed so that if the defendent doesn't pay up promptly, it gets very painful very fast for them. And these clowns I dealt with didn't seem like it was their first time on this merry-go-round!

I hear ya. It is a bear of a job. Just be happy if you didnt have to melt out the lateral link bolt bushing. Anyway, be glad you did it yourself..that way you know it was done right, right? And you will be an expert when it comes time to do the other side.

I would pass on the rust bucket. I would get the other...only if nice and cheap!