cmjmarvin

Well, gee-- Obviously you all have beaten me. But I'm still pretty happy about it.

I just replaced the original battery in my 1998 Forester, purchased in Nov. 1997. More than 9-1/2 years. Has anyone beaten that? It was a Panasonic.

These are not as straightforward as you would hope. One would assume that if you remove the two screws on the lower part of the knob, the knob would come right off. Hah. What is then necessary is to remove the push button from the knob. To do this, take a longnose plier and pull the spring clip down and out of the bottom of the push button. WARNING. What will then happen is that the button and its various parts will be shot out of the knob by a spring, and may end up in inaccessible places on the floor. Naturally, NONE of these parts can be purchased without buying the entire knob assembly. SO REMEMBER, when you pull the spring clip, keep your finger on the knob and let loose of it gradually, so it stays in the knob. At this point you can pull the knob up and off the column. And don't lose the spring clip; it's small and easy to lose, and, once again, cannot be purchased, etc. etc I hope I have saved someone a headache with this post.

Grrrhmmmph....Confession time. It is possible that I did not do the flush and replace thing as often as I should have. Well, very possible....Also, that car was driven very little in its early years, and then mostly short distances, and mostly in the winter, in a cold, snowy, damp climate. I do not believe that the shop was taking me to the cleaners.

My 1989 GL went over 100,000 miles with no brake problems and original pads. My 1993 Legacy sedan had no brake problems. My 1997 Outback had to have a new right front caliper at about 60,000 because it stuck and overheated. My 1998 Forester, which still has only 41,000 miles on it, has had the right front calipers replaced TWICE, for the same sticking problem. I also had a rear strut actually COLLAPSE on my 1998 Forester, but that's another story. The trend of these things is not reassuring, exactly. I'm waiting to see what the 2007 Honda CR-V looks like.

I'm back again, after easily and successfully replacing the resistor in my 1998 Forester. Here are my observations for the benefit of all who may find them useful. You do have to remove the entire glove box assembly. There are seven identical Phillips screws, easily found. There is also a plug type fastener on the right side to remove. Now you have to give the assembly a good pull to get it loose from the internal, invisible clip on the right side. There is also a tab on the left side that slips into a slot on the neighboring part of the dash. Now you can get to the resistor; this is the easy part. Unplug the cable from the resistor, remove the two screws, and out it comes. Reverse to install the new one. I paid $51 for mine at a dealer. I probably could have got it for six or seven dollars less on the internet. Test it before you put the glove box assembly back. The glove box assembly needs to be pushed straight in and given a bump to engage the internal clip. The plastic tab on the left side will require some coaxing. Reinstall the seven screws and the plug fastener, and that's it. Afterwards, I disassembled the old resistor and found that the solder connection had given way. Thus, I probably could have fixed the thing myself. I have set it aside in the unlikely event I might ever need it. This is a job anyone with any mechanical skill can do. Don't pay a shop $50 to do it for you.

Great -- that looks like the one. Thanks much.

Texan -- I tried that but the 98 Forester didn't have an air filter, and the instructions for models that do have it show a totally different dash layout. However, I did find another site that gave relatively decent instructions, and after taking a closer look at my car, I think it's not going to be a big deal. I will try it when it stops snowing and gets a little warmer. If I am successful, I will write a post on exactly how to do it, for the benefit of all. Charlie in NH

I have discovered, many thanks to this forum, that I need to replace the heater blower resistor on my 1998 Forester. I have found the resistor near the blower, and it appears that it will be easy to remove, except....that the glove box structure is so close to it that it is hard to get at the cable plug, and nearly impossible to remove the phillips screws holding the resistor block in. So, the question is, what screws do I have to remove to pull the glove box assembly? I have found three after a quick look. Is this a simple thing, or is there some horrible trap there (I have been a victim of various springs, clamps, etc. in the past, starting when I was about eight and tried to disassemble my parents' spring-wound alarm clock.)? Thanks for any help.