forester2002s

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???

Frag: Normal start at -32C. What engine oil do you use to get such good performance?

Where is Alias20035? You set off on a cross-Canada trip a while ago? Are you frozen in-place somewhere? We miss your insightful posts.

I do all of my car maintenance now. What prompted me to stop using dealerships was a loose distributor. This was not a Subie, but a Ford (a long time ago, in the days of distributors and contact-points). In preparation for a long trip, I took my car in for service; the dealership adjusted the timing, but failed to tighten the distributor clamp-screw. 100 miles later, on a dark highway, the engine died! Fortunately I had a flashlight, and found that I could rotate the distributor by hand. I restarted the engine, and adjusted the distributor timing for fastest idle-speed and tightened the clamp-screw; when I got home, I checked the timing and found that I had managed to set it bang on. I haven't let a dealership touch any of my cars since then.

I get frost on the inside of the windows quite often. I think that this happens when there is residual moisture inside the car, e.g. if the carpets are wet or damp. With the inside of the car warm, as when driving, the amount of moisture in the inside air is high. Leave the car overnight in cold weather, and all that moisture condenses out as the temperature drops, and freezes on all exposed surfaces, including the inside of the windows. A couple of ideas: Keep the inside of the car as dry as possible, especially shake off water or snow from shoes and boots. And lower the heater setting to 'cold' for the last few minutes of driving before parking the car; this reduces the ability of the inside air to hold the moisture, and the ventilation system will bring in colder (and drier) air into the inside of the car; not a very popular trick with my passengers, but it works. And if you park under cover, leave a window either cracked-open, or if possible fully-open.

I have experienced a misfire problem due to a cracked porcelain insulator on a spark plug. This was very hard to diagnose, because the insulator only had a hairline crack, that was barely visible to the eye. However, when I wiggled the top of the plug (still installed in the engine), I could detect a tiny amount of movement. The plug had cracked at the base of the porcelain where it enters the steel base of the spark-plug. This type of damage to the insulator can happen when the spark-plug socket is pulled accidentely to one side (very easy to do), and can go unnoticed (except for the annoying misfire). This may not be what you have, but it is worth checking.

I have had a torque wrench for years, but never thought about having it recalibrated. On the one hand, is this necessary? After all, what can go wrong with the torque wrench. Mine relies solely on the bending properties of the arm (which moves a scale/pointer to show the torque). Other than a change in the material properties of the arm (extremely unlikely), I can't see what would make the torque wrench not keep reading correctly for ever. On the other hand, I suppose it would be easy to check the calibration myself. I could hang a known weight at a fixed radius on the torque arm. Has anybody tried this?

Good luck with your trip. Let us all know how you fared. And throw a warm sleeping bag in the back, as well as a thermos of hot toddy!

In my 2002 Forester, the trailer wiring connector is located in the spare-tire wheel well (on the right-side as you face into the rear hatch).

The electrical resistance of spark-plug leads doesn't always tell you the whole story, in my experience. A lead may be faulty at high-voltage (causing misfire), but show a 'normal' resistance value at the low-voltage applied by a multi-meter. However if the resistance measures too high, then the lead should be replaced. While we are on the subject of spark-plug leads, what make do people use on their Subies?

I've read a lot about potential problems of head gaskets failing. Fortunately this hasn't happened to me yet, nor do I want to experience it. My question is: Would it help if I were to periodically retighten the cylinder-head bolts to the correct torque? I know that this used to be recommended on new cars after the break-in period. Anyone have any experience with this?

I use dyno oil, 5W30 winter, 10W30 summer, and buy the cheapest API-tested brand that I can find, usually a no-name Walmart oil. Filter: regular Fram. I change the oil and filter very frequently, every 3000km (2000 miles). I do the work myself, so the cost is minimal. I have followed this routine on numerous cars over the years, some of which I have kept for a long time, and I have never had any oil-related problems. I know that this doesn't meet with everyone's approval, but it works for me.

I had a similar problem several years ago on a Ford. I traced the annoying squeek to a rubber suspension bushing. That bushing was supporting one of the rod-type suspension components, and squeeked when the rod rotated slightly inside it. If I remember correctly, the squeek was worse in dry cold weather. Once I had located the problem, a simple squirt of WD-40 was all that was required to silence the squeek. I have no idea whether Subarus have this type of rubber suspension bushing. But it is worth a quick look underneath; try bouncing the stationary car up and down and see what happens. Good luck! These squeeks can be infuriating.

I don't find that Alias20035's tone is condescending at all. I always think that his (her?) posts are always very informative and to the point. Alias obviously knows the subject, and is willing to share his/her knowledge with others. Very often replies are of interest not just to the original questioner, but also to the thousands of others who also read this board. Good for you Alias, and don't let this impolite questioner stop you from posting. I for one am grateful to you.

2002 Forester (40,000 km). Vancouver Canada. 80W90 Walmart (No-name) GL5. Front 5MT Gearbox at 1,000km (drained oil was clear). Rear Diff at 1,000km (drained oil was grey), and again at 8,000km (drained oil was clear). No problems or complaints with shifting.

My 2002 Forester has plastic grilles covering the front of the fog lights. I removed these, and this helps a bit. But overall, these fog lights are next to useless.

I use a solid silicone-lubricant stick. Lasts for years. I run the stick along the rubber seals, and then go over it with a piece of paper towel. Don't apply too much, or else the silicone smears the windows.

When I bought my new Forester, I told the dealer verbally but also wrote it in on the agreement (at the offer stage): "No dealer decals or badges on vehicle." It worked. I agree with a previous post, that the best thing to do would be to not accept delivery, if your instructions are not followed. Another approach might be to offer to keep the decals at a price, say $100/week, and see what the response is!

I tend to agree with Frag, that this sounds like a fuel-starvation problem. I had a similar experience with a 1968 Ford Mustang (oh, those were the days!). But that was a carburetted engine. The fuel-filter was clogged, but allowed just enough fuel through to slowly fill the float-chamber; hence the car would start for a few seconds, running off the residual fuel in the float-chamber, and die a few seconds later. If I cranked it hard, it would restart and then die again. Since we were miles from anywhere, with 3 small kids in the back, I had to do something quickly. So I borrowed one of my wife's knitting needles, and pierced a hole through the fuel-filter element, reassembled it, and away we went! Could this type of temporary fuel-starvation happen on a fuel-injected engine? I don't know.

Quite few years ago, Consumer Reports did a study on engine oils (if I remember correctly, this was about conventional oils, not synthetic). Amongst other things, they reported two key findings: 1. Provided the oil had the correct API designation, then was no significant difference between 'Brand X' and the more expensive brand names. 2. That all multigrade oils lost their mutigrade properties in time; and that the wider apart the two numbers, then the faster the multigrade properties were lost; i.e. a 5W40 oil will lose it properties faster than will a 10W30 oil. Since reading that report (I think that it was probably 20 years ago), I have always bought the cheapest oil that I could find, and changed the oil and filter frequently (every 3000 km). I have never had any oil-related engine problems.

Go to this site, to see if your Factory Service Manual is available on-line: http://techinfo.subaru.com/html/index.jsp You can either pay individually for specific documents, or do as I did, and pay US$20 for 72 hours free access to any and all publications that you care to download. One word of warning: the download can be quite time-consuming, even with a fast internet connection. 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.

My seat heaters work fine. I don't use them a lot, except on really cold mornings, and then only for 10-minutes or so. However, the way that they are wired is problematic: - The toggle switches that operate the seat heaters are just that, simple switches. Once switched on, they stay on for ever. Even if accidently switched on by an errant elbow, they stay on. Even if the car is parked overnight, and then restarted, the switches are still on. - The seat-heaters work on both the IGN and ACC ignition-switch circuits. That means that if you stop for a while (e.g. waiting for a ferry), with the engine off but the ignition set to ACC (to listen to the radio), then the seat-heaters are still on, and will drain the battery in time. A better wiring arrangement would be to control the seat-heaters by means of a timer-switch (similar to the timer-switch used on the rear-window defogger). When timed-out (say after 10 minutes), the circuit would switch off, and would not re-energise until the switch is reactivated. That way, one couldn't forget about the heaters being on, nor would it matter if they were accidently switched-on, or left on from the day before. Subaru, are you listening?

I have a 2002 Forester 5MT: - Mixed highway/city I get about 11 L/100km (21.4 mpg). - On long runs I get about 8 L/100km (29.5 mpg), or slightly better. BTW, for those interested, the conversion factors are: mpg (US) = 235.2 divided by L/100km mpg (UK) = 282.5 divided by L/100km

Welcome to the Zen world of car maintenance!

Calling a mobile locksmith may be cheaper than calling for a tow-truck.