heartless

the plow mounting kit for our Dodge has similar nuts for attaching parts to the frame rails... the metal strip was strong enough to actually be used kind of like a wrench for tightening..

www.car-part.com is your friend in cases like this... input the year & model of what you have & the part you are looking for, and it will return compatible items.

how much force were you putting on those bolts??? recommended torque is only 4.7 ftlbs - basically nothing.. a smidge over just snug. Agree with the others, get the damaged bolts out now and replace them.

i have a 2002 Forester with the 2.5 & 4EAT with 234,000 miles and counting - headgaskets had been done at around 108K (long before I got the car). Trans shifts smoothly through all gears, no problems at all. As far as I know, it is the original trans... no records of it having been changed. I have had this car on several longer road trips since I got it (at 219K) and have never had a problem with either the engine or the trans to date. If both cars have been well maintained, and you have seen documentation to back that up, then flip a coin and pick one.

it means that your tires are no longer in contact with the actual road surface.. there is a thin film of water between the tire and road - that is what hydroplaning is. It has nothing to do with AWD, or ABS - it has to do with physically losing contact with the road. How to fix this? 1. SLOW DOWN when approaching standing water. 2. get tires that are better at removing the water from between the treads.

get NGK copper core plugs (BKR6E11 is the recommended plug for this car) and either OEM or NGK (FX58) wires - these cars are fussy about plugs AND wires. aftermarket plugs & wires are known to be problematic (especially parts store wires) - just because it fits, does not mean it works well. also inspect the cam case covers (valve covers) for oil seepage - especially in the spark plug well - this is a common issue and easily fixed with new seals.

totally agree on this one.

no, accessory drive belts do not come with a timing kit. you can go to your local auto parts store and get those asap if they are needed.

this one: http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4007502&cc=1433581&jsn=15 yes, it is more money, but it is also better quality parts that will last.

have to agree with Fairtax.. if the calipers are in that bad of shape, then replace them. it is not hard to do, and brakes are not something that should be skimped on. just because the fluid in the MC looks fresh, does not mean the lines have been flushed (especially if the bleeders look like they have not been touched in a long time)

i would start by doing a proper bleed of the system all the way around.

why are you using a used temp sender? why not new? less than $20 for a new one

Oh, I don't, not really. LOL that he can squeeze 30mpg out of that H6 is actually pretty impressive. =) overall average is a little bit lower, but, yeah.. Me - I would be doing good to get 27 out of it. LOL - love the zoom-zoom pedal too much i guess. LOL

mpg is one of those things that tends to vary depending on the driver (& how heavy a foot they have), how much weight in the vehicle, and the terrain... flat ground, light foot, you can get 30mpg fairly easily.. hilly terrain and a heavy foot, most definitely will be less. with my old 95 Legacy, 4EAT I got around 28-29mpg average... mild hills, medium heavy foot with the 02 Forester (box on wheels), I am getting around 27mpg average - same factors... the other half has an 06 LL Bean Outback with the H6, and he can squeeze 30mpg out of it if he tries, but he drives like a 90yr old grandpa most of the time, LOL

as already said... either OEM or NGK... and no, there are NOT supposed to be washers under the mount - there is a lip in the strut rod that mates to the mount.

that is so totally weird... I just tried it after reading the wiki article.. and tilting my head in opposite directions makes the "brush" rotate... tilting my head to the right, the yellow is horizontal... tilting to the left makes the yellow turn to almost vertical... but yeah, polarized sunglasses and LCD displays do not play well together... personally, i will take the non-glare advantages of the polarized glasses over reading time/temp/mpg readouts in the car, those are not that important to me while driving... speed, tach, & engine temp gauge are more important, and the gas gauge, LOL,

my 95 Legacy had a similar issue - I did replace the filler neck on it (it needed it) and still had problems with fuel leaking if I filled it too full. So yeah, I can without a doubt say that it does happen. good luck with the repair... not gonna be a fun job no matter what you do

ok, here are my 0.02 cents worth.... 1. Don't screw around with rusty brake components. Period. Brakes are just too important for safety to be screwing around with rusted up garbage. Reman calipers are relatively cheap, and usually come with pretty much everything you need aside from pads & the bolts to mount the bracket to the hub. 2. Yes, GD can be a jerk - BUT - he knows what the heck he is talking about when it comes to repairing a Subaru. Take it how you like, but wasting hours & hours trying to tap out a broken bolt just to "save" a couple of dollars? Penny wise, but dollar foolish, imho. Yeah, there is something to be said for doing things yourself, but there is also something to be said for making smarter choices in how you do them. When it comes to brakes, if parts are in bad enough shape that things are breaking, then it is time to replace them. I also live in the boonies - nearest parts store is a half hour away... but the phone is handy, and I often call ahead - order if I need to, and save the gas of making an unnecessary trip. (and at $2.60/gal - that adds up quickly). Advance Auto is usually pretty good about being able to get certain parts in over night if they dont have them in stock when I call.

do yourself a favor and get new ones.. seriously. used shocks/struts are a gamble. they may "look" ok, but be utter junk. When I swapped my 95 Legacy over to Forester struts, the used ones I grabbed out of the 98 Foz we had turned out to be completely shot - both struts and springs... Bought new KYB struts, new KYB tophats & associated hardware, and new OEM Forester springs - the whole works cost me around $400-450.. got everything assembled before hand, then it was a simple pull the old out, stuff the new in. If you don't have the tools to compress the springs, check with a local independent shop - one near us will install the springs on the strut and put the tophats on for like $25-30 - for all 4. Took all of 15 minutes for them to do it.

On a Subaru, both front & rear diffs MUST match. If they do not match, terrible things happen... so, if you want to keep the 4.44 gearing of the auto, then you must find a tranny with the same ratio... if you swap to a tranny with 4.11 gearing, you must swap the rear diff to match it.

if you can't find a tranny to match the final drive ratio of the Foz, you can always swap out the rear end... as long as both ends match (front & rear), you are good to go.

while I do miss the sun/moon roof (the '90 Lego had one), it is not a deal breaker for me. the earlier models did not have the big panoramic sunroof like they do now, if that is what you are looking for... and to be honest, now that I think about it, I have not seen too many earlier Foresters with a sunroof. the piston slap, while it sounds terrible, is pretty benign... it is not an indicator of needing a rebuild. it is caused by the short skirted pistons (weight savings) wobbling just a little in the cold cylinders until things warm up enough to remove any excess play (heat = expansion, and all that) during the summer months, it is pretty much unnoticed - this is more of a cold weather + cold engine thing. the colder it is outside, the worse it sounds on cold start up. If the engine is quiet when at full operating temp, no worries. If it still rattles at full operating temp, then there are issues to be concerned about.

like i said before - i have an '02 - EJ251 that has had the head gaskets replaced... no issues with running at all. otherwise it is bone stock. It does suffer from a bit of piston slap when it is cold out (actually sounds like hell till it warms up, lol) but otherwise it runs great. just estimating here as I have not been keeping real good track of things, but since getting all of my brakes updated and operating properly, I believe I am getting around 27-28mpg average with the 4spd auto... I live in the country and drive 18 miles to work on surface roads (no freeways) - speed limits from 55 to 25mph (more 55 than anything else) mileage will depend a lot on your driving style - do you drive like a grandpa or like Mario Andretti - and where you drive - mostly flat will do better than lots of steep grades... I tend to be kind of in the middle of both... not a grandma, but not Mario either.. LOL, and the terrain here is rolling hills.

cant say I have ever seen a silver KYB - always black... as for the company - never heard of them before now

From his initial post in this thread...