heartless

yeah, I can just see white plastic at the joint.. no way that is going to clean up and be usable - just ordered the bushing and the lower bracket as well. might as well just get the parts & replace it all in one go rather than spending hours trying to clean it up and having to order the parts anyway. Car is gonna be down for more than a week as it is..

hehe, yeah, i had a little giggle over that one. oh yeah, we have a good supply of PB as well. along with another very useful product called Freeze-Off - not cheap, but frequently works when the PB does not. Nice intermediate step before breaking out the hot wrench. after getting things out of the car yesterday, pretty much everything got a good soaking of PB, to hopefully help when we try to continue disassembly. was just poking thru parts diagrams, and apparently there are differences between the Legacy/Outback platform and the Impreza/Forester platform.. so.. i may be picking up a couple more pieces for the refreshing job - mainly the lower lever piece and the bushing that the cable attaches to. Cost is not horrible, and that would basically give me a whole new lower end to the gear selector.

yup, it was down for most of the day. It happens periodically. while the site might be free for us to use, it still costs money to keep it up and running. If you are in a position to do so, making a donation to keep things operating is a good way to show you appreciate the site. I do when I can afford to - not as often as I would like, but i do what i can. Easy to do, just click on the donate button at the top left of the page.

lol, viscous, not vicious - altho.. if it goes south on you, it could be vicious. and thanks for the luck, I will take every little bit I can get. but yeah.. 266K + and the silly cable broke. in theory, i could still drive the car if i hooked up a way to move the shift linkage on the side of the tranny, LOL Will get some pics of things later - we did manage to get the shift selector out of the car, complete with cable attached to it, lol will be much easier to work on things when not lying on your back on the ground under the car. it broke right in front of the connection to the interior selector - in front of the adjusting nuts where the red line is. C is supposed to pivot freely in the arm, mine is pretty much rusted solid. Gonna take a bit of work to get that freed up - if it will.. if I cant get it freed up and moving properly, I may need that shifter after all, Larry. I cant imagine that the shifter itself is that much different between the models, same tranny should have pretty much the same selector. Trim might be different, but that is cosmetic stuff. gonna go pull some part numbers and do a little comparing...

don't need the whole shifter, just the cable, LOL New cable has been ordered, should be here about this time next week - only $43 plus shipping I am going to see about pulling the shift lever out and cleaning/refreshing it a little too - and drill a darn hole for the emergency park release - why they hid that is beyond me. had to basically disassemble the whole center section of the dash to get to it. No easy feat with the shift lever in park! The Forester doesn't have the little central trim plate around the shifter like the Legacy does.. the whole section has to come off to get to the emergency release thing.

lol, yeah, discovered the other half could reach the tranny selector.. she is now in neutral & parking brake is on. and we have verified it is a broken cable.. time to go order part and let the wait begin. hopefully by the time the new cable gets here it will be a bit dryer

2002 Forester, 4EAT, 266K - After getting home from town, pulled into my usual parking spot at home, went to put the gear selector in reverse to back up by the porch to unload groceries.. only it didnt feel right... tapped the throttle gently and it wanted to go forward... uh-oh! No matter what I did with the selector, it wanted to go forward - even with the selector in park. so... I am guessing the selector cable is broken, but is there any way to determine for sure from INSIDE the vehicle? the drive is a mini lake right now, with more rain in the forecast.. do NOT relish the idea of crawling under the car in a puddle. also, is there anyway I can manually move the trans side selector from inside, to put it in either neutral or park? (apparently it is supposed to be in neutral to change the cable) and which way would i move it if I can get to it? the reason i suspect the cable is because the selector has always been stiff & difficult to move between the various gear settings.. right now the selector moves super easy, so I suspect the cable has finally let go

yeah, not a fan of all the fancy, computerized stuff in modern cars.. just so much more to go so terribly wrong. Also makes for less attentive drivers, imho. Why pay attention if the car is doing it for you (lane assist, blind spot monitors, etc). rather than having wifi connectivity, i think the phone should be disabled in the vehicle unless it is stopped/parked. just my 0.02 cents worth. my Forester still has a throttle cable... the 06 Outback has an electronic throttle. Had to replace it once so far, and not a cheap proposition either. yeah, i quit driving truck in 2009, but the damage has already been done after nearly 20 yrs and around 2 million miles, give or take. and yes, we do have a Dodge pickup, lol 1995 model. It gets used as a backup vehicle & snow plow in the winter. The old GL/DL models were, if i recall, a whopping 89 hp... but they were never meant to be hot rods, just good reliable transportation. I regularly got about 30mpg out of mine, and i was not a slowpoke with it.. lol. I liked to have fun with it.

actually, that is quite typical, lol. and yes, 1.8l EA82 engine. 86 - carbed? or spfi? mine was spfi (single port fuel injection) yeah, a lot of people don't understand the appeal of a manual. had a couple of younger friends that were like that.. until I took them for a ride and showed them the fun that can be had. others were like - you drive a truck for a living, why do you want to drive a manual when you get home? cause it is FUN in the car! lol Not to 60 yet, but close... 58 this year, and nearly 20 yrs of driving truck has proven to be hard on the body.. dealing with some physical issues right now, not fun. Can't do even half the things i used to be able to do. have no experience the 4EAT with the manual option, only the plain jane ones.. have had 3 different cars with that tranny... one had to have a transplant when i got it - had lost reverse (teen driver beating on it), but a good used one worked fine. the other half's 06 Outback has the 5spd auto with that manual thing.. they tend to be a bit fussier than the 4s, tho - or at least that is my understanding.... have not had any problems out of his, however.

for the record, my Foz is an EJ251 version... and if I could, I would have a manual, but due to foot problems I cant work a clutch anymore - too painful - so automatic it is. For me, it is just more fun to drive a stick than an auto, but yeah, upkeep costs are quite different between the two. The Subaru 4EAT is just stupid reliable for the most part, making it quite cost effective in the long run. I live in the country and we get a lot of snow in the winter, so having a capable vehicle is pretty much a must have. Most around here have 4wd trucks (most are farmers, too) I get the benefits of Subaru AWD with relatively good fuel economy, and a much more comfortable ride than a truck for my average everyday driving needs. We do own a 4wd pickup, but it rarely gets used much - more of a backup vehicle & plow in the winter, lol My first Subaru, as I have mentioned before, was an 89 GL wagon, FWD, 5 spd - I paid $150 for that car, with about 154k on the clock...Put about $1100 into it for new clutch, front axles, tires, alternator, and a few other odds & ends and I drove it for 8 yrs. As long as I could get rolling forward, she would go thru some pretty deep snow. She had 285k or so when she went to Subaru heaven. That car did not owe me a dime. And that is why I like Subaru.. Take care of them and they will go for nearly ever. The body will rust away around you before the drive train gives up the ghost.

have you checked in the owners manual for info?

yup, the 4EAT is a darn good tranny, all things considered. my Foz is an auto, and it still shifts quite nicely - super smooth when fully warmed up.

glad you found it and got it sorted.

not likely to mess with engine related stuff... the other half's 06 LL Bean had a BUNCH of broken wires in the rear hatch junction... no rear defrost, rear wiper, license plate lights, etc.. all gauges and engine stuff were fine. But definitely agree about going back thru the engine bay and double or triple checking all connections & grounds - the gauge acting squirrely with turn signals & what not definitely indicate a problem somewhere

NGK plugs are good - but what about wires? Cheap parts store wires are known to be problematic on these cars (as noted with the GL wagon - those wires were only a month old when the problem happened). Use OEM or NGK wires only.

just going to add to the confusion, i am sure.. but ... many years ago - 89 GL wagon (EA82) started running like crap going down the highway - misfiring, etc, limped into a fuel station and found a cheap plug wire was arcing - also ended up with a bad O2 sensor on that car due to the misfiring. would stumble, misfire and run like crap even after putting good wires on - took it a long time to throw the code for the O2.. 95 Legacy had random misfiring but usually on initial startup - would run like crap until warmed up.. after paying closer attention for a few days, it was always on damp days.. fog, rain, whatever... pop the hood and could actually see the arcing from the coil in full daylight when it was acting up. have a short video somewhere of it.

yup, it is most definitely due to the road chemicals used. They use salt or salt brine pretty heavily here in Wi so yeah, even 5 yr old vehicles are rusting out.

pretty much... if maintained, and paid attention to, yeah, they can go for a long time. The biggest issue those of us in the rust belt have to contend with is frame rot - have had it on multiple vehicles, and not just Subaru - pretty much every car suffers from it up here. might be able to slow it down some, but can not completely get away from it, no matter how hard you try - unless you never drive the vehicle, lol. my first Suby - an 89 GL wagon - got up to 285k, but the undercarriage was so bad it just was not safe to drive anymore... motor & trans had lots more to give, but the chassis was done. Hoping to get over 300k out of the Forester before she gets to be unsafe.. so far so good, but there are bits that are looking kinda rough..

the 265k would probably be me, and mine is a 2002 model - supposedly hgs were done around the 85k mark - i bought the car (private sale) at 214k and very near to hitting 266 now.

replaced a damaged fog light.. original one had a nasty stone chip in it that allowed water in.. inside was flaking off pretty bad because of it. "local" junkyard (hr away) had one listed on car-part.com, so-so picture looked ok... was not off the car when I called, so the guy had no idea what it looked like.. got there and it was even worse than what I had. should never have even been listed (I envy all you guys with good pick & pull yards - no such thing here) back to car-part... called a place in PA that had 2 listed (with better pictures) After chatting with a guy there, and fresh pics sent, i got the light, with shipping, for $32.50 (just for reference, a NOS one is nearly $300, and the local yard wanted $25 for the pos one) and before anyone asks.. the "hole" has a stick about the diameter of a thumb stuck in it - have no idea how or why it got there - it was there when i got the car, lol. the bumper is otherwise in very good shape for a 19yr old car

it is not the alternator, i would put money on that simply based on how the OP describes what the lights are doing - one steady and the other 2 flashing is NOT indicative of a bad alternator. seriously.. seems to me a lot of you have not actually experienced the "light show" of a bad alternator and are just regurgitating 3rd hand information. i have experienced it firsthand and I am positive what the OP is describing is NOT how the lights behave. the "light show" of a bad alternator is having multiple warning lights (typically battery, CEL, & brake for sure, others depending on the actual model) FLICKERING in varying degrees of intensity (bright/dim) and ALL of the lights involved do EXACTLY the same thing at the same time. That is not what is being described here. the vehicle dynamic control relies on both the tranny and the brakes to function correctly - if a fault is being seen with either, or both, of those two systems, it stands to reason that it could potentially throw an error light for the dynamics. Not something i would just "ignore". I would be looking into WHY are the lights coming on? Tranny fluid at proper level and clean? Same with brake fluid? ABS system operating properly? Faulty sensor, damaged sensor wiring? multitude of possibilities.. There has to be a reason those specific lights kicked off, the question is, what is the reason?

with that specific combination of lights, i would be leaning more toward checking brake & trans fluids to start with. AT Oil Temp = tranny fluid is too hot - could be low? Obviously Brake has to do with the braking system so checking brake fluid would be in order... the center one is Vehicle Dynamic Control - which relies on both tranny & brake systems to operate properly. alt going out tends to illuminate ALL the lights, and not necessarily brightly, either. Nor do you get one steady and others flashing.. they all do the same thing at the same time and is usually more of a flickering than a regular flashing on/off.

basically - it puts a simulated load on the circuit to make sure the circuit is working as it is supposed to. kind of like when testing alternators, you first test with all accessories off to get a baseline, then turn things on to make sure it is working properly when loaded.

ok, so apparently they have made changes to all that.. and honestly, one email a day is still plenty for me.. LOL i only have the popup notifications turned on myself for when i am on the site. I get enough email, i dont want, or need anymore.

unless the owners manual specifically calls for one of the oddly colored specialty coolants, then yes, the green stuff will be fine.. brand does not really matter. if not premixed 50/50, you will want to do that with a demineralized water (distilled). i like to buy the premixed stuff - a lot less hassle, just open and pour. as for getting notified, there is a little thing at the bottom of the typing box... turn it on.. pretty sure there are settings in your user profile area as well.