heartless

hate to say it, but i am leaning towards wheel bearing as well. even if you don't have a thermometer, you can do a quick check of hub temps with your hand - compare side to side and front to back after driving the car a few miles (5-10) - be careful/mindful that one may be quite hot and the others wont be if there is a problem. When one went on my car, i didn't even have to actually touch the hub/wheel - just getting my hand close to it I could feel the heat.

I ran Kelly's on my 90 Legacy and was happy with them, too, for the most part. (i don't remember the exact model anymore) But Mastercraft just seems to be better all around - wear, traction, fuel mileage doesn't suffer (it did a little with the Kelly's - softer compound perhaps?) they are quiet (unless you are on grooved concrete - then nothing is quiet! LOL) and I have done a little light off-roading with them with no problems. Probably not the best tire for a lot of off-roading, but they are capable enough for some trail running. The Mastercraft website has a tire selector - enter your year, make & model and it will bring up the suggested tires for that vehicle (side note: Forester is listed as "Subaru Truck")

I have been super happy with my Mastercraft all season touring tires. These are made by Cooper without the Cooper price tag. They are wearing very well - have been on the car for a couple of years now. I purchased a set of dedicated snow tires when I first got this car (was winter when I got it), but have not used them since that first winter as the all season tires are quite capable in crappy weather... The ones I have on my 95 Legacy are comparable to the Cooper CS4, but are being replaced with ones comparable to the CS5 now. I am looking at getting the new version for my new to me 2002 Forester soon. http://mastercrafttires.com/Tires/Passenger/LSR-Grand-Touring.aspx the other half is also running the same type Mastercraft tires on his 2006 LL Bean Outback and is quite happy with his as well.

for me, it would be whichever is the "easiest & fastest to complete" option - most likely running new hose all the way to the fuel pump fittings... I would use a snake from the secondary access & down, attach the new line, and fish it back up, then fish it across to the fuel pump. Once you have it in place, use some zip ties to attach the new hose to the old hard lines where ever you can reach to keep it from flopping around and rubbing through. Seems to me I did something along those lines with my 1990 Lego...been a while and the memory isn't as good as it used to be.

personally, I went with new on my 95... but the rears looked like this: fronts were a bit better... When you get to doing the job - pull the pads out and make sure the caliper slides on the pins smoothly and easily (betting they don't), and also that the piston compresses into the bore easily. If either are hard to do, get new (reman) calipers & mounting brackets as well. Yes, you can get rebuild kits much cheaper, but it just isn't worth the hassle, or potential safety risks, to me to spend the extra time and effort to clean things up to try to re-use the old, rusty ones...

new bracket installed, timing job finished up (including seals, idler pulleys, water pump & new t-stat), coolant conditioner added to fresh coolant, and it even got an oil change today. She is up and running like a top! Quite happy right now. Now I just need to swap over my good tires from the Legacy (already on the Forester rims, hehe) and probably my bluetooth/usb/AM/FM/CD stereo as well, get some seat covers installed to protect the near spotless upholstery (already ordered), and a few other odds & ends to make it mine...and fix the few minor rust spots and we should be good for many years to come. Thanks to all that helped out.

tried to tell you that... install kits/adapters are sold separately so that you can get one specific to your vehicle.

I am guessing you have never done a stereo swap before, have you? The "harness" the new stereo comes with will only have the connector that plugs into the back of the stereo unit - the car side will be just plain wires - no connector. That is what the adapter kits are for - they come with the connector to actually plug into your specific vehicle so you do not have to cut/splice any wiring in the car. you wire the stereo harness to the adapter connector and simply plug it in to the stock connector in the vehicle. It also makes reverting back to the stock stereo much quicker if you decide to sell the car down the road, but want to keep the new stereo

when you replaced the pads, were the old ones worn evenly and flat? or was one more worn than the other? or possibly worn at an angle? if worn unevenly/angled it would indicate the caliper is hanging up on the slider pins I have discovered that one of mine has a little bit of play on the pins allowing the caliper to twist slightly - indicating the pins & seals should be replaced Remove the pads, set the caliper back in place, and try sliding it back and forth on the slider pins, if it binds up or does not move easily, this could be the source of your heat issue

i dont know for sure about the 2007 model, but our 2002 Forester has the antenna embedded in the drivers side rear cargo window glass... looks kind of like an oddly shaped defroster grid. If at all possible, get an adapter harness kit for your new stereo - it would have the plug-in to match your vehicle, you just wire the new stereo to it, and simply unplug the old one, plug in the new one - no wire cutting/splicing in the vehicle that tends to lead to problems. something like this: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120708901/Metra-70-8901-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html (use their vehicle specific finder tool to match up what you have already to get one that will work right) Issues with larger tires would be pretty basic - clearance (especially when turning) and the speedometer/odometer will be off - how far off would depend on how much of a size difference there is. Use https://tiresize.com/comparison/ to get an idea of how the speedometer would be affected. for the suspension stuff, i will let someone else take those questions since I am fairly new to the 2000+ generation myself.

they don't call it the newbie, and/or virgin switch for nothing, LOL

Don't you know it! and yes, I did need to get longer bolts for the new bracket - which one is which should be obvious... and on further inspection the old bracket needed replacing anyway... this is the steel rod the tensioner rides against... pretty worn...

New tensioner bracket arrived today - yippee! back to work on the Foz tomorrow... only thing i may run into is I may need to get a couple of longer bolts for the bracket - needing these were mentioned in a couple of the reviews for the part... apparently the 2 upper bolt holes are thicker in the new version. shouldn't be too much of a problem however. Also got my coolant conditioner and the new T-stat on Thursday, as well as the new plates & registration. Looking forward to getting this one buttoned up and on the road!

they should be unplugged as soon as you are done with testing. As long as they are plugged in, they will continue the test cycling of the solenoids & fans.

Don't base your decision on the rated MPG - that is kind of a silly thing to do. Yes, the 2 models are very similar, but a couple MPG either way is not the best deciding factor here. if it was 10mpg or more difference, yeah, it would make more sense to look at that, but a couple of mpg? Actual MPG will vary greatly depending on driving style, traffic & weather conditions. Heavy traffic conditions (stop & go) will get lower MPGs than free rolling open highway driving; putzing around in town will be lower than out in the country; bad weather will be lower than good... a heavy foot on the accelerator will be lower than gentle acceleration... Rated MPGs are little more than an estimation of what the car "should" get in ideal conditions... and there is very little "ideal" in the real world. Both are quite capable of getting in the 25-30mpg range depending on all of the above factors.

Thanks for all the info guys. I am currently just waiting on parts/supplies to arrive to hopefully get this wrapped up this weekend. Really hoping I don't have any other stripped holes (what I have done so far seems good) it is good to know that the old style is pretty much interchangeable with the newer style - I have the brand new 'new style' tensioner in the kit, so would just as soon use it vs using a 'used' old style - but it is good to know that worst case scenario i could make that change if I need to. still need to get the cam seals replaced, and torque the water pump (i found the torque sequence and ft/lbs needed already)

short answer - yes. it is worth doing while you are in there to prevent needing to go back in later.

pretty much anything is doable if you have the knowledge, materials and time to do it. and yes, there are blanks to fill in button holes - best bet is to either find some from a junkyard car, or ask in the buy/sell section of the forum

you mean something like this?? these were the rears I took off of my 95 Legacy when I got it... Salt, getting too hot from bound up calipers/dragging pads and just plain age are all contributing factors.

thanks guys - the one I was seeing is the one inside the cover area - will have to poke around a bit more for the other 2 (i took a look at the part picture and realized that there had to be a couple outside of the cover area - just not easily visible with alternator & AC compressor still in place) hoping to have the part in time to get it installed this coming weekend.

@ Fairtax - don't speak too loudly - it ain't over yet! LOL right now just waiting on parts to arrive so we can finish what was started. Was really hoping to be driving it this week, but such is life. So - how many bolts hold that bracket in place? I can only seem to find one...

I really do appreciate the offer, Larry, but a new one has already been ordered as of last night. Was really hoping to have the car up and running this weekend, but I guess it will have to wait.. why is it that things never quite go the way you plan them to? LOL Oh well - I had also forgotten to get some of the Subaru coolant conditioner before hand, so that got ordered last night as well. I will say that I am really glad I decided not to drive this car before doing the timing service - after pulling the old belt off and inspecting I found a nice crack getting started - about a 1/2 inch long - it wasn't going to last much longer.

OMG - Fairtax, you are a life saver! THANK YOU! (and lmdew, i apologize for the rant)

Seriously?? I am sorry, but I can NOT afford to just go buy a used engine just like that. Not to mention that Subaru's are not easy to come by in the junk yards around here - they are not nearly as plentiful here as they are in other places. If you were trying to be funny, sorry, but you failed.

ok, wasnt sure if that would be an acceptable solution or not. thanks.