forester2002s

http://www.subaruforester.com/viewtopic.php?t=411&highlight=location

Is the radiator fan working? Does the fan come on when the temp. gauge reads 'H'?

I take a Cod-Liver Oil pill every day. Never thought of giving one to my Subie. Would it be best to administer the pill via the oil sump, or into the gas tank, or should I let the Subie suck it in through the air intake?

What you are experiencing may be what others have called 'hesitation'. I also get this on my 2002 Forester, in first gear in slow traffic. Try running a search on this board for the word 'hesitation'.

My 2002 Forester (bought new) has 50,000km on it. It is great in the snow, and on slippery roads. In general I am very happy with it and plan to keep it a long time. I have taken it on some mountain logging roads a few times, and it has behaved OK, but there are a couple of points to note: 1. 1st gear is not low enough for really steep or rocky areas, and so one has to slip the clutch sometimes. 2. The wide tires (215/60R16) don't have enough 'depth' to cope with impacting rocks on the road; I had one flat that destroyed the tire, from running over a 4" rock (my fault entirely). The engine 'hesitates' at slow speed (in traffic); this phenomenom comes and goes; try searching for 'hesitation' problems on this board. I have learned to live with the problem (my wife doesn't even notice it). I fixed one annoying design fault: The power-windows were wired to only work when the ignition key was set to 'RUN'; that meant that if I was sitting in the car with the engine off, and listening to the radio with the key set to the 'ACC' position, then the windows didn't work. Most annoying. Soon after I bought the car, I rewired the windows to the 'ACC' circuit. Maybe Subaru have changed this on later models. One other minor fault: The seat heaters (which are a nice feature) are energized using a toggle switch (wired to the 'ACC' circuit). The problem is that the switch does not turn itself off after a pre-set time, nor does it reset to off when the ignition key is removed. This means that if I forget that the toggle-switch is 'ON', then the seats get hot all the time that the ignition is set to either 'ACC' or 'RUN'. Just a minor inconvenience, that Subaru could easily fix with timer. Other than that, the Forester is great for my needs. There are so many Subarus near where I live, that some wag has put up a sign on his road reading 'Rue Subaru' (Subaru Road in French).

This question has been asked before. Try this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12249&highlight=manuals or do a search for 'service manuals' on this board.

Try taking the other (the one that works) wiper arm off. Then compare the two drive shafts. That should give you an idea whether one is worn more than the other. Also, try operating the wipers with both wiper arms removed. It won't do any harm, and you should be able to see what moves and what doesn't. Good luck.

A few months ago, someone posted pics of their Subaru engine being dismantled, with a gloved hand visible in the corner. After many years (close to half a century) of getting dirty grease under my fingernails, and embedded in my fingerprints, I tried some disposable gloves for my next oil change. Wow, how easy these disposable gloves are to use; not bulky at all; I hardly noticed that I had them on. At the end of the job, just toss them into the garbage. Maybe that I am the last back-yard mechanic to start using disposable gloves; if so, forgive my new-found excitement. Otherwise, I recommend that you try them.

Are these letters only being sent out by Subaru of America? What about owners outside of the States? Has anyone in the ROTW (rest of the world) received one of these letters?

Does the letter from Subaru mention which VINs are affected?

Yes the $20 for 24-hour download time is a good deal. One word of warning: the download can be quite time-consuming, even with a fast internet connection. The Factory Service Manuals consist of hundreds of indivividual PDF files. Be sure to rename each PDF file with a meaningful description (the original file names are just a string of numbers), and download into a set of appropriately-named folders. This makes retrieval and reading much easier. Expect to spend several hours at the keyboard, but you'll get an excellent manual out of it.

Any debris caught under the car? Wedged again the exhaust system perhaps?

A while ago someone posted a method to reduce wind noise from the mirrors. "Place a piece of folded-up cardboard to fill the vertical-gap between the mirror housing and the mounting piece on the door". Haven't tried it so don't know if it works.

Another point about refilling the coolant. No matter how many times you flush the system, and no matter how well you think that you have drained it, there is always water left in the system (gets caught in hoses, heater cores, little pockets here and there). And so you cannot get the spec. volume of fresh coolant back in. So don't premix the coolant (60/40 or whatever), and expect to get it all in. IT WON'T FIT (in my experience on many cars, over many years). What I do is to measure out the amount of undiluted antifreeze that I need to add, and start pouring this into the radiator. Run the engine a bit to clear air-locks, and to allow the thermostat to open, and keep filling up with the undiluted stuff. If it all goes in, then top up with water. I always fill the overflow reservoir with the correct coolant mixture to the lower 'fill' line; it is best not to put either neat anti-freeze nor pure water into the reservoir, just in case this fluid does not mix straight away with the contents of the radiator. After running the car for a bit, recheck the coolant level in the overflow reservoir, and top up as necessary.

I also find these seat-heater switches annoying. Not just their location (they are lighted switches, but you can see them safely whilst driving), but also because they stay on for ever. On modification that you might want to consider, if you are going to rewire, is to add a timer-relay so that the heaters turn themselves off after a pre-set-time (like the rear-window defogger). Let us know what you do decide. I might also be in the market...

Loose battery connection?

Each time I have acquired a new vehicle, I run the fuel tank to empty, just to find out how good is the gas gauge. Obviously I carry a spare can of gas with me to refill from. My 2002 Forester ran 40km after the 'low-gas' warning-light came on, before it started to misfire, and stopped my test there. It took about 60L to refill the tank, so it must have been just about empty. Now I know.

Are you sure that it was a head-bolt that is loose? I thought that the head-bolts were hidden inside the rocker-cover (which has its own mounting bolts).

I have a 2002 Forester with the 2.5L engine (no head-gasket leaks yet at 40,000km). Does anyone know which of the 2002s have the old or the new head-gasket design? Can I tell from the VIN?

I have an Auterra Dyno-Scan tool (works on my Palm PDA), costs about USD289. It seems to do everything promised on their web-page (although I haven't tested all of its functions yet): http://www.auterraweb.com/ I have also read good things about the Harrison scan tool, about USD160: http://www.ghg.net/dharrison/obdscan.html

Duane B: In your very first post, you said that: "the oil was about twice the amount needed on the dip-stick!" I wonder whether you meant that the level on the dipstick was above the 'full' mark, by about the same distance as between the 'low' and 'full' marks? If so, that would only indicate an overfill condition of about 1 litre (1 US quart). That would be a far cry from twice the correct amount of oil in the sump. Is that what you meant?

My car developed an annoying squeak after I put a different spare tire in the back. It seems that the original spare-tire fitted into the well nicely. With a slightly smaller replacement spare (tread worn down), it could move around a bit in the spare-tire well, even when clamped in place. I inserted some kitchen-paper underneath the tire, and the squeak disappeared.

99obw: I suggest adding an extra line to your list of steps for doing an oil change: 1a. Turn engine off! Yes, yes, I know that this is obvious, but who knows who out there just might take your list too literally?

Frag: Now I understand! For a while I thought that you must have a battery that would have won a mention in the Guiness Book of World Records! The reason that I am so impressed with your cold starting, is that here on the West Coast, we shiver whenever the temperature gets to about 0 C! The coldest it got a few days ago was -9 C, and that was considered very cold. Today it is raining and +10 C. It is good to know that you are surviving this cold spell, and that Subarus Rule!

Frag: Let me get this straight: It was -32 C. You had summer oil in the engine. And you left the headlights on all night. And the car started the next morning. The obvious next question: What battery were you using???