heartless

Glad to hear you have your car back at last, curls! Here is hoping you have many more years of use and enjoyment from it!

I have the feeling that if I was to take those apart, the one strut would almost compress itself. not even sure I would need the spring compressor for the one, it is so squished. I knew the right rear was in bad shape - just didnt realize how bad until we got it out and laid it next to the new one. The difference in ride already - with just the new rears installed - is like night and day - or should I say nightmare and day dream. I can hardly wait to get the fronts done - just waiting on the spacers/washers that go between the upper spring seat & tophat to get here...hopefully by the end of the week. the old ones will get stuffed back into the Forester they came from so we can move it/load it on the trailer for hauling it away when the weather warms up. it is currently sitting on blocks buried in snow...

weather was cooperative enough today that we braved the outdoors and got the new rear strut assemblies installed - and I think I now know why I was being beaten up so badly...the right rear strut was so far gone the car was riding on the spring alone - and that was giving out as well... both old strut assemblies...you can see just how much more the right one had compressed... Really glad I decided to go new with everything, not just new struts. So - anyone interested in a slightly used set of rear Forester strut assemblies?

the FSM drawings dont show any pads on the lower fronts, and the set that is on the car right now doesnt have them either...I would have to do some digging in the snow to find the old ones that came off the car... Rear assemblies are complete and ready for installation. Will have to wait on the spacers/washers that Texan mentioned for the fronts before I can get those put together...but that much closer. my plan to borrow the shop where the other half works got blown up - seems his boss is going to be there all day tomorrow...oh well...

yup, just ordered those actually - the one thing I missed - so the fronts wont be getting assembled today...oh well... well, one down, one to go for the rear... now that it is all put together it does look right...can hardly wait to get these put on the car!

I was just about to ask about that - I thought that is the way it should be, but nice to know for sure. getting that lined up is a little bit of a headache, but I will be sure to do it. I am also aware of the difference between left & right on the rear tophats and was careful to make sure I have the matching strut and tophat for each side. I am primarily interested in getting the rears installed ASAP - tired of getting beaten up by completely worn out struts back there - right rear mostly - but the fronts will be done in short order as well - same day of I can get all 4 assemblies done today...altho using the HF spring compressors does take a bit of time...cant use impact tools on them - we trashed one set doing that. Texan - the old ones arent coming apart - I got all brand new stuff (took me almost 2 months buying a couple of pieces at a time) and am going to be replacing the enitre assemblies once I get them all put together. Much easier this way - well, maybe (LOL). no more worn out parts anyway...I figure once I get the new stuff in it should be good for pretty much the remaining life of the car...unless I can manage to get more than 7-8 years out of this one! hehe

ok, yeah - comparing the paint marks on yours to what is on my new ones, they are identical - yellow & green on one coil, red on the next coil... alrighty then, open end down it is... here goes nuttin... whenever I have done struts in the past it was always compress existing spring, swap the strut, reassemble - never really paid much attention to which way the spring actually went as long as it was the same from old to new...

Thanks BB - at least I know I am not alone! LOL it has been fine since, so yeah - probably a combination of factors being just right that caused it. Having only been driving this one a couple of months now, so still working out all the little buggy things - like the check engine light that came on today...

ok, so I placed the spring against the lower perch in both positions... open end first - this just doesnt look right to me... now the tight end...this does look right to me... Thoughts? comments? suggestions? I really want to get these put together so I can get them installed tomorrow when it is supposed to be warmer... help?

thanks bratman - but now I am even more confused... on your pics it looks like both ends are fairly tight - the bottom being more so than the top... the brand new spring I am looking at (in the above pics) has one end tight and the other end very obviously open... argh...

ok, so I had to run an errand for work before I could go any further with this and I come back and see multiple posts that it goes the other way around? the FSM drawings arent the best where the springs are concerned, but it does kind of look like the open end does go down.... from the 98 Forester FSM (fronts)... One other thing that I would like clarification on - there isnt supposed to be a rubber pad on the lower front spring mount (strut end)?? the drawings dont show one for either the Legacy or the Forester, and I couldnt find any parts listing for one in that location either...rears have the rubber pads top and bottom, fronts are only at the top?

Thank you VERY much! now, back to work!

So I purchased all new components for my Legacy - new KYB Excel struts, new OE springs, new rubber spring pads, and new tophats - since the donor Forester had over 360,000 on it, and the used struts/springs/tophats are pretty worn out.... My plan is to assemble all the parts then simply swap the assemblies... the question is - which way is up on the springs??? one end has a very tight coil, the other is more open...looking at the spring perch on the strut, I am guessing the tighter end goes down, on the strut, the open end goes up? Like this? Is that the correct orientation?

yeah, for some dumb reason I forgot all about the silly drain tube for the AC system - must be frozen brain syndrome from the extreme cold we have had up here for the last couple of months Gonna guess it will be near the center of the firewall, down low (in the general area of the heater core box, since that is where it drains from...) I havent had a car with working AC in years, so.... dont know if this one works yet either, and it isnt warm enough for me to try it out yet LOL hoping to get into the shop where the other half works this weekend to put in the new struts/springs - shop is kept at 50 degrees all the time so with any luck everything will thaw out while I'm there and I wont have any more problems with it.

no sunroof on this one - altho the roof rack may be questionable - there is rust forming under the ends of the outer runners...I dont think it is quite so bad as to allow moisture in, but without taking it off the car I cant say that with any certainty... nope, no heated garage available, sadly... now lets add to the mystery... freezing rain when I left work this afternoon - freezing on the windshield as soon as it hit the glass - had no choice but to run the defrost if I wanted to be able to see - worked perfectly - even on full blast - no moisture inside at all. However - it did smell kind of funny this time - not that sweetish smell of antifreeze, but more a musty, old, damp basement kind of smell... I am beginning to think that it is the AC drain tube plugged and/or there was/is some moisture in the vent system... oh joy...

it does have AC - never considered the possibility that the drain line could be plugged/frozen - even knowing that the defrost setting uses the AC condensor to help dry out the air...will hjave to look into that before I get too freaked out! LOL Where does the AC drain hose exit the car? I hope there arent any problems with the windshield seals...

also wanted to add that the temp gauge never budged from the normal position (for this car) once it reached operating temp - just a hair below the halfway mark Hi Rooster - with the amount of moisture coming out of the defrost vent, i kinda don't think that is/was the problem - but I suppose it could be a possibility. I am kind of fanatical about knocking excess snow off my shoes when I get in the car as well - I know I cant get all of it off, but the greater majority, yes...drivers side floor mat is a little damp, but the underlying carpeting is pretty dry. until yesterday & last night it has been dry and VERY cold. it got into the upper teens yesterday with light snow in the morning - first time in several weeks it has gotten that warm (if you can call upper teens warm) We have been hovering around zero, into single digits above during the day, and well below zero at night...haven't had any snowfall in at least 2 weeks.

the car: 1995 Legacy L, EJ22, auto, AWD with around 209,000 miles on the clock... the issue: started the car this morning as usual, set to defrost, fan set to #2, went back in the house to finish getting ready for work... Go back out to the car to leave, defroster was starting to thaw the windshield, had about a 3" high area cleared - turned the fan up to 4 to expidite things - but instead of clearing it began to fog up more - on the inside! I switched the controls to floor heat and turned the fan back down to 2, found some paper towel to try to dry the inside of my windshield off so I could get to work. My first thought was blown heater core - BUT - the floor/carpeting is bone dry - no moisture at all - not even a little bit. No moisture from the floor vents either - even after having it set there for the drive to work (about 15-20 minutes) - I am at a loss? I could not smell that tell-tale sweet-ish smell of anti-freeze either....it just smelled damp. Is it possible that snow got into the air intake for the cabin and that is where the moisture is/was coming from? If so, how do I prevent it from happening again? It did get quite windy overnight, with light snow fall and the cowl area (under the wipers) was pretty well packed with snow this morning - not that unusual, but this is the first time I have had a moisture issue inside the car. HELP!

Ran the Kelly Explorers on the 90 Lego - decent tire for the money. Have also run Cooper CS4 Touring tires - Great treadlife (started getting age cracking before the tread wore out) and pretty good traction in bad weather - not exactly cheap tho... Another option to look into would be the Mastercraft brand (made by Cooper) absolutely love the Glacier Grip snows I am curretnly running, and will probably be getting the Mastercraft version of the CS4 for summer use if and when it ever thaws out up here...

entirely up to you, but at 300K, with known bad headgaskets, and sealer dumped in several times - i would just find a lower mileage engine and swap it out - would also do a thorough cooling system back flush (radiator and heater core) before hooking it up to the replacement engine.