accessing vital relays SF Forester

[Steptoe's photos]

I doubt that any technician has had any influence in locating vital relays in easier access points in today's Subarus. At least it is easier to see these relays in my 1999 SF Forester - when compared to my mid 80s XT Wedge .

I am pleased that only the front plastic skirt needs removal, then a 10mm nut off, to get one set of three relays off the side of the kick panel in order to remove , inspect and replace a relay - BUT this cluster, if only the fuse panel swung down/out or just had an elevator button to give easier access to these often blamed relays.

It does take quite a well lit study, with head cranked, and looking up in some contorted position to work out how to get largish hands in there

[heartless]

even smallish hands have a hard time getting to some of that stuff...  knuckles get smacked up and bloody..

[Daskuppler]

The engineers get blamed for a lot of design issues, but we forget that they are constrained primarily by budget. Subaru tells them to build a car for x amount so they do it. Some things just cannot be accessible for a reasonable cost. I've also owned Subarus for well over 10 years now and never had to replace a relay on any of the cars. Everything is a trade-off and is largely based on likelihood of failure and service.

The relays could be made easy to access at the sacrifice of your interior lighting fuse., Or headlights, etc.

Have you tried working on a Jeep? Nissan? Toyota? Ford? Us Subaru guys actually have it pretty easy. At least our cars are.pretty reliable and easy to work on.

[Steptoe's photos]

I knew I had a post on the net somewhere with info to update.

I found to remove two blue plugs at the top front face of fuse board, unclip lower side retainer clips, the board drops away on a cord of wires. Then, you can get to two 10mm nuts to drop the fuse board hanger, complete with relays. Despite my practice run on the wreck, in confined spaces, sun beating down on my twisted and contorted body - I missed the ingeneous little clips to flick these relays loose. Closer study of mine in better circumstances revealed this ...

Simple as a belt buckle, flick the red bit over the green and it opens up to release the relay. I coloured the bits up with permanent marker while it was open - for best instructional display

[Steptoe's photos]

11 hours ago, Daskuppler said:

 

Have you tried working on a Jeep? Nissan? Toyota? Ford? Us Subaru guys actually have it pretty easy. At least our cars are.pretty reliable and easy to work on.

The secret here is we rarely really need to work on our Subaru's. I have only had one or two of these Mitsubishi relays fail on me in 25 years, and really do not think I will find one to be my problem with this SF Foz either. I made a test bench using spare relay plug, spare switch to switch the coil of the relay. Relay is powering up an air horn compressor sans trumpet. Powers the compressor just fine, until I start to block output air pipe. Loaded up enough to blow my plentiful supply of 15A blade fuses. Yet to test my resettable blade fuse I bought yesterday, rated at 20 A. Should be a fair test for 22A relay.