sailhard

I'm due for an auto tranny drain & fill at 100k miles on my 2000 forester.( dealer wants $150 to change fluid! ( piss off,,,) Also tried to sell me on the $550 coolant, engine oil, diff fluid, tranny fluid "tune up"....) How many quarts should I drain and then add at a time? I think it was 3...

Well, it started intermittently ( every few days) blowing the inline fuse again. 2 boxes of fuses later I switched to a 30A slow blow 3 days ago...It never blew, but once the windows stoped working and there were 2 relay clicks every few seconds for a few minutes, and then the clicking stopped and eveything worked again. Today I got home and the the windows/locks had stopped working again, I figured the fuse had blown but it had not. BUT with the ignition off there was a sight buzz from under the left side of the dash when I hit the power lock switch. I tracke the buzz down to a relay(7) on the far left side of the das, above the fusebox door. I assume this is the relay/circuit breaker that cougar described...I'm going to try and replace it...anybody know the part number??? Or better yet have a spare? I just reread cougars post...it looks like it's the window relay that was buzzing..where the heck is the power window breaker?

I always thought subies usually sniff butts when they meet? ( nose to butt ) Perhaps with high mileage they are docile enough to meet nose to nose.

My 2K forester left rear wheel bearing is noisy too at 93k. Damn, it was easy to do this on a VW Rabbit... Sounds like a royal PITA!, also I'm in the salt belt and have no garage. What would a ( turns head and coughs ) Dealer charge for this? I'm due for a timing belt too....

Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to post the results. What I ended up doing was removing the washer tank and then removed the screws holding the Fuse box to the fender then I was able to remove all the molex connectors from the bottom of the fbox and sort of unkinked and straightened up all the wires to the connectors...I couldn't really tell exactly which connector went to sb-6....but when I put it all back together and installed my new fuse it worked and has been working fine for weeks. I eliminated the rip-off 30 amp slow blow, by replacing it with an in line fuse holder and 2 crimped on tab connectors. It fit under the FB cover nicely.

Thanks guys! It's snowing hard right now but I'll check the wires under the fuse block to firewall and in the door by the hinge soon. I plan make an in-line fuse holder with crimped connectors to test with. Thanks for the wiring description. Good thing, as I looked in my haynes manual wiring diagram and there doesn't seem to be any sbf-6 on it....

It's a square pink 30 amp slow-blow fuse in the hood fuse box...never saw one before...$5 what a scam....what's wrong with bus fuses and breakers??? Where would I find a 30 amp 12v dc breaker to troubleshoot with? It's very cold and get's dark early, so I pretty much have to frig with it in the lot at work. I'll check out the manual tonight...I already know that one slow blow at least powers the windows and door locks...so right thereit could be 1 of 4 window motors or solenoids that lock the doors. I'm temped to put a 40 amp slow blow in there or a jumper and see what's cookin'...

Finally having a problem with the Forester after 88k miles... I went thru the toll booth this am, lowered my power window, raised it, then 5 minutes later when I was trying to use my security card at the gate at work, no power windows, then I noticed no power locks as well. Found blown slow blow fuse...SBF-6 and got replacement for $5. ( WTF? ) Locks and all windows worked in autozone lot, went back to work and it's blown again. DOH!!!!! Any subie owners have this problem?

When the oldest one is 4 or so, they can use a "booster" seat that takes up less room, the baby can be in the "bucket holder" and the middle one in a "baby seat". Then hopefully in a few years you'll just have 1 or 2 booster seats and a baby seat. I think 3 full size baby seats would fit, but they would be hitting the doors for sure. It can be done in an legacy ( at least in a '96 L), but they are within easy reach to hit/grab each other each other and commence screaming.

What I meant by "4wd mode" is when there is more than the "normal" 10% of torque automatically being supplied to the rear wheels, from actual detected slip or "missmatched" tires. Yes I was only refering to automatic transmissions.i So whenever you get a flat that is not repairable, and have "used" tires, you should just bite the bullet and replace all 4 tires. That sucks balls!!!! I still think that it you had to drive a newer automatic subie in slipperry conditions ALL of the time you would kill the transfer case....which also sucks. There was no warning of any of this in the manual either.

I recently had to take a $2500 bath on a TB'ed 96 legacy l 2.2 that I HAD to get out of my yard. I sold it cheap to a friend, with the recomendation he get it the TB fixed asap. ( I'm sure he won't ) When I got the '96 it had 3 50% worn tires and 1 brand new one. She had 80K miles and no TB. It developed the TB at around 100K while driving back and forth from snowy ski resorts ( solid 16 flash at temp light ). I then learned all about TB...needing exactly the same size tires, and if you get a flat, put in the fwd fuse, the transfer case cover flaw.. blah blah blah etc. My question is: if having one tire a bit bigger did in my tranfer case components, does that mean if you used your subaru in the snow or mud ALL the time that it would be doomed to fail as well? ( since being in 4wd mode is "bad" for it). I also wonder if the 92-96 awd trannies are more likely to get TB than newer versions.

I did it in a 74 ford country squire wagon with a 400 4 bbl. I was going about 50 on a side road at about 1 am in the winter fog, packed with partying friends, we went through an intersection that was well lit, then in the shadow ahead I suddenly saw 2 cars all helter skelter in both lanes with no lights on whatsoever that had been in an accident, with like 6 dazed kids standing around in the street. I stomped on the brakes, realized it was much too late, so I put it in neutral, GUNNED the motor up and popped it into reverse. It started spinning the tires backwards and I lost momentum just in time to hit one of the cars open door and pop it shut. Then the tires really bit and I went flying backwards about 40 mph back to the intersection and stopped. No one was hurt and I beat that car for another 6 months, although eventually the motor/tranny mount(s) broke and the motor slumped down about 4 inches on one side, and the head gaskets went so when I shut the motor off, it would blow steam out the block. Oh to be young again....

The catalyst coming up to temp! Yeah, thats what mine mine be! Sort of sweet...

thanks guys. I got the red drivers side for 50 bucks, I'll paint it black and bolt her on. I don't want to deal with the heater...not worth the effort to me. ( it will annoy me though...:-\ ) I'll probably bid on the other one...so my ears match...

Yeah that red one on ebay is what I had in mind. I was wondering more if the bracket thing would fit to my door exactly...if shape and an extra heater wire is the difference, maybe I'll try to get it....maybe I'll get both "reddies"

Both my '96 and 2000 subies smell harsh at cold startup... almost like starting fluid or some damn thing...No idea but no problems either.

Some a-hole knocked off my electric adjustable drivers side mirror yesterday in front of my house, and kept going. It's a 2000 forester L. I can get a used heated/adjustable 2002 forester mirror, but I was wondering if it will fit...Maybe the only difference is the heat? I don't normally pay attention to outside mirrors unless I'm biking in the city....Did subie change the Forester doors that much? Better yet, maybe a legacy mirror would fit? I don't care if it matches.

I wouldn't have believed it either, but my 2.2 legacy L did the same thing, ( sputtered ran/like crap until warmed up ) and NEW plug wires fixed it. ( new plugs w/ the old wires did NOT ) I'll bet it works, and it's EZ.

Sounds Like cv joint on drive axle. Can you tell which side?

Thanks GG...Yes it's AWD...The cheap drive axle has a lifetime warranty, I may have take it appart once more and see if the "spline shaft not held in by clip" causes any driveline vibration, and if THAT doesn't fix it I guess I take it apart AGAIN and return the axle for another one.... @#$%%^^&**((*^$%$##$%^!!!!!!!!.

This legacy L 2.2 automatic has 111K miles on it, and runs like new. The steering feels tight...I had ball joints go on old vw rabbits and they would shake like tits after you hit a bump...this "unbalanced vibration in the steering" feeling seems to happen on the highway going straight with no bumps, and it comes and goes.... Is the normal way to install that spline shaft w/ clip to put it on and the just tap the splined shaft in until the ring pops out on the other side?? I was afraid of bashing the differential gears or having the ring fall off and boucing around inside the tranny...

It's possible, I just got the 50 dollar autozone one...I was more just wondering if any other subiefiles had ever un into pulling out the the splined shaft from the transaxle and if it's normal. It could be a wheel bearing too, but i'm not sure what the symptoms of that are.

Man this is annoying. It' s been "wobbly" at low speeds for a few months. First I tried rotating the tires, no help, but when doing this I noticed front left cv boot damaged and grease all over. Great that must be it!, so I replaced the drive axle, now it doesn't wobble a low speeds , it wobbles ( shudders ) intermitently at highway speeds..much scarier. Item worth mentioning, with taking off the old drive axle, it came off the hub side easy enought, but after I removed the inboard pin and pulled, I yanks the whole drive spline shaft out of the transmission. ( there was NO resistance so I think it was already like this. The locking clip was still on the shaft at the tranny end bu couldn't get it all the way back in with the ring on, so I just pushed it in all the way and hoped the drive axle would keep it there. I really don't feel like ripping it all apart again...

That video of the Murano is Horse************. I've crawled up both a wet grassy hill and a similar dirt slope at a construction site with our Murano. The reason? There is a button on the console you hit that locks the diffs at low ( less than 6mph ) speeds. Go faster than 6 mph and it automatically unlocks them again. Hit the buttom, gerbytoad... I have no doubt that the subie awd is superior overall, but that video so annoyingly biased...and no beer or chicks in it either!

I've noticed this too...I figure the towing distances ar shorter, roads more level and cooler climate than subie wants to warranty.