heartless

you can also go to pretty much any of the large chain auto parts stores and get the codes read for free. they will NOT reset them, but they will tell you what is present and give you a printout if you ask for it. Get those codes and post them here in the order the car presented them. And yeah, Cruise light flashing just means it has been disabled by the vehicle until the other things are addressed, or reset. Very probable that something got moisture where it should not have and that is where the light show is coming from. Also, just to clarify here.. TCU is Transmission Control Unit on a Subaru, not traction control.. .that would come up as VDC - Vehicle Dynamics Control. And both battery AND brake lights on? Battery light is not really something to ignore.. Battery light on is an indicator that your charging system is not functioning correctly - I would also have a charging system check done while at the parts store - again, most of the large chains will do this for free. Brake light is not quite as worrisome and could be something simple, like your parking brake handle very slightly raised... but, check your brake fluid level.. make sure it is where it should be. the light will come on if the fluid level drops too low. If the level is low, you need to top it up, and then try to figure out WHY it was low - ie: leaking somewhere? Warning lights in the dash are typically not something you should just ignore.. they are there for a reason - you need to find out what the car is trying to tell you and then fix the issue.

Not a pro by any stretch, but i am going to suggest that you forget about the EZ30 - not an easy swap at all. would require MUCH more than just swapping the engine.. ECU, wiring, possibly exhaust.. yeah, you do not want to go there. For my money, either the EJ22, or EJ251 with a head gasket job (using upgraded gaskets - not the stock ones - GD can provide excellent info on that) - either one would be vastly superior than the EJ25D you currently have. The EJ251 would have slightly better power over the EJ22. Both my previous 2002 Forester, and my current 2004 Forester have the EJ251, and with good maintenance are good engines. As for pricing.. again, no expert, but seems a little bit high to me (more in time required than $/hr).. altho pricing varies considerably across the country - location dictates a lot, so maybe not out of line for your area. to check, you could make a few phone calls and ask for a ballpark on the job.. Regardless of which engine you get, i would recommend doing a FULL timing service* before it goes in, and reseal of the rear separator plate - unless it is obviously damaged there is no need to touch the rear main seal - do not let them tell you otherwise. 99.99% of the time any oil on the backside of the block is coming from the separator plate. I would also recommend going thru and replacing all vacuum lines and coolant hoses while everything is easily accessible. there are a few small ones around the throttle body and under the intake that are kind of a pain to get at. probably would not hurt to change the PCV valve either... spark plugs (basic NGK copper core), and wires, if needed (OE or NGK only), and accessory belts - power steering, alternator, AC.. Exhaust manifold gaskets will be a necessity. *Full timing service includes water pump (Aisin w/metal gasket), thermostat (OE ONLY!), idler pulleys, belt, tensioner if needed, and a check of the backing screws on the oil pump. Would also recommend new radiator hoses at this time as well. Do as much in the way of maintenance as can be done before the engine goes in.. save yourself headaches later... if everything is done prior to install, you should, theoretically, be good to go for 100k with little more than the periodic oil changes required.

all codes will be a letter and FOUR digits, not 3 so the P073 is missing something, somewhere. and yeah, P07xx codes tend to relate to either brakes or tranny.. but you are STILL missing a digit

i know the rear O2 has pretty much zero effect on running.. front, not sure.. my 02 Foz had a code for the rear O2 (broken wires - bought one but never got around to installing.. car ran fine) 1443 and 0452 are both evap emissions related, and probably have very little to do with much of anything.. on mine, there was a solenoid just above the charcoal canister (rear of car, behind RR tire area) that solenoid was completely nonfunctional but the car ran fine.. never bothered to replace it because rusty nightmare. Would start with that front O2 sensor - leave everything else alone for the time being.. Knock sensor is not a bad idea, either.. they can quite often be bad and never throw a code.. has happened to me and 073?? there has to be a digit missing.. there is no such number listed in the FSM for 2002 Forester, nor is there a 0073 or 0730... so... yeah... please double check that one.

soo... no codes? not even pending codes?

any CEL codes? Codes can usually point you to problems. what did you use for plugs & wires? should be standard copper core NGK plugs with proper gap, and either NGK or OE wires - anything else is garbage. why, specifically, did you replace the coil pak? unless there are obvious/apparent problems, it is rare to need to replace that. with all the older Subarus I have had, I have never needed to replace a cat converter - and pretty much every one of them was pushing the 300K mark when i passed them on... O2 sensor, yeah.. but never the cat. Would be interested in knowing why it was replaced.

yeah.. a lot depends on the stock size the car originally came with... I know from personal experience, that thru 1995 at least, the Legacy came with 14" wheels in stock form.. not gonna fit a larger wheel/tire combo.. Newer models, however, probably could. might fit the larger wheel, but tire would have to be close in diameter to the stock 14" size to keep from rubbing.

yup, rent the pressure tester kit.. and clean the scuzz off so you can see. you can also test radiator cap with the kit as well. worth doing.. the 02 forester had no symptoms to speak of - just a gradual loss from the overflow bottle - but testing showed the cap to be bad.. new cap and no more coolant loss

just as an fyi... Subarus do not tend to mix oil and coolant giving the milkshake appearance... they typically leak either externally - ie: leaks visible on the outside or through to the combustion chamber - which results in the bubbles you are seeing in the overflow... exhaust gasses getting into the cooling system. just because the head gaskets were changed does not preclude a new failure. A lot depends on which gasket was used, whether or not the mating surfaces were properly prepared* and if the head bolts were properly torqued. *making sure the heads are totally flat is a big part of a headgasket job. if there is any warping at all, it WILL fail again - just a question of when.

you know what happens when you assume, LOL and yeah, that price sounds about right if memory serves..

check here for FSM - http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/Forester/

i find that interesting, because we rented from Advance... basicly, they way their system works, is you "pay" for the set as if purchasing.. but if you bring it back in XX number of days, you get your money back - or most of it anyway. that way, if it does not come back, they are not out anything. We checked All the vehicles when we rented.. found the problem with his car (bad hose - had a small split) and found the cap on mine was shot

Hallelujah!! LOL so, he is off to work this morning with it.. Seemed to be running fine when he left.. will remind him later to swing by Advance & get the charging system checked out under load - make sure the battery & Alt are OK

Thank you GD we have already discussed testing the charging system under load and also checking/cleaning grounds, especially underhood. we did have to make repairs to the liftgate harness not that long ago (2 summers ago, maybe)... what tipped us off to that was his license plate lights were not working, even with new bulbs...dug into it and found that all but a couple of the wires in that harness were broken. was checked with just a basic multimeter yesterday... battery, cold, not running was 12.8v - and this was at about 12F ambient temps, started car and it tested at 14.4 - he did turn lights and heater on and said it maintained, but yeah.. should be checked properly under load... we are both very aware of the commonality of bad alt killing a battery and bad battery killing alts.. so.. Alt was replaced due to not charging - causing battery to be run down. but yeah.. not real impressed with the canbus stuff at all.. LOL so, is this something i am going to have to be worried about with the 04 Forester? I hate electrical problems time to start going backwards i think.. get rid of some of the excess electronics.. fewer electrical problems .

they dont make anything like they used to!

yeah, being an LL Bean, it should have the heated seats... so very weird the harness is not there. other half has an 06 LL Bean Outback with heated leather seats...

i would have to check with him... i really have no idea where it came from

Rent one! thats what we did stupid easy to pressure test - dont even have to run the engine..

he did recently have to get a new alternator... might be worth checking battery out further. hmmm... was just informed he did put LEDs in the tail lights... could not find anything else at the time, lol

ok, so a 17 mile test run and everything seems to be fine... I dunno

Other half's car.. he messaged me last night to look up this "ER-HC" code, which i found to be a CAN high speed communication error... Car ran fine and he made it home fine... this morning he checked codes with scanner and got P0021 - Camshaft Sensor (says this one comes and goes) P0600 - Serial Communication Link P1718 - AT Can communication circuit P0700 - TCU Malfunction indicator lamp request Not thinking about it, codes were cleared with the scanner tool Next, we tried performing the "handshake" to get the car to go into DTC mode.. took several tries to get it, but finally did no additional ECU or TCU codes, but it did come up with some ABS/VCD codes, and those are.. C0105 - Abnormal rear ABS sensor - RR C0140 - CAN communication malfunction C0115 - abnormal ABS wheel speed sensor - any one of four (assuming the same sensor as above at this point) Conditions at time of noticing the ER-HC code... He was on his way home, made a couple of errand stops along the way.. at last stop, shut the car off, went in & got what he needed, came out, started car - noticed the brake light was on - fiddled with the parking brake handle to try to get it to turn off - DTRLs were on, so he figured, eh, whatever.. turned lights on, backed out of his parking spot.. said he thought he felt a little bit of a slip on ice feeling, but otherwise, not problem... Pulled out onto the road and glanced down at dash to see what lights were on (obviously something out of the ordinary), and that is when he noticed the error code.. Car ran fine, no issues, other than the light show in the dash.. Temps outside were pretty chilly, but not unusually so for Wisconsin this time of year.. maybe low 20s, hi teens How likely is it that we are looking at a major CAN problem here? could it be bad grounds? other wiring issues (rodents)? He is currently out for a test drive.. will update later Oh, and he said to say the David Bowie came up with a TVC-15 error

you were told in the post just above yours..

definitely share some pictures! for the cruise... if the vacuum lines are hard, replace them.. just get some vacuum line of the correct inside diameter - outside diameter makes little difference. and the color of the switch light means nothing.. If i recall from my 1990, it was a kind of orangish red - it is simply to let you know it is on, nothing more. also take care of the timing system... unless you know for a fact that it *all* has been done recently, it is probably overdue (by age). at least with a 93 - EJ22, it is non-interference, so not a huge deal if the belt does let go, but could potentially leave you stranded. by *all*, i mean idler pulleys, water pump, timing belt, and tensioner, if needed (ie: leaking oil) generally speaking, timing is due every 105,000 miles, or 105 months (8.75 yrs) which ever comes first... so, even tho it only has 70k on it, it is WAY over 8.75 yrs. on the early models, i believe that the mileage, at least, was actually lower but this gives you a ballpark to work in.

thanks for coming back and updating. and yeah. wheel bearing jobs are not cheap, but unless you have the space, time, and access to the right tools, you are better off having it done

yes, the 05 will be a 253 - have one sitting in our yard as a parts car also have an 04 that is being driven.. it is a 251