capewaveride

Just haven't been on USMB since then. Haven't made it to the dealer either. No snow, no smell. I plan to get it in soon though to have a few things checked out including: 1. The snow driving clutch smell 2. A faulty power window (passenger side) 3. A mild but unsettling trailing throttle sound when downshifting Seems to be a pretty sweet car overall, but I'm concerned about some of these apparent issues that started right out of the lot!

Just to clarify things here: I do not beat the snot out of my car. Any tire slipping (including the occasional doughnut) occurs on snow, fresh snow where there is no chance of hitting a dry patch of pavement. I am not popping the clutch, pulling the e-brake, red-lining the engine, riding the clutch, or any of the other assumptions y'all made. I bought it with my own money (will be paying for it for years to come) and therefore take great care of it and have a great amount of respect for Subaru's (obviously, I just bought a spanking new one). The smell I was getting in slippery conditions also occurred when driving very conservatively. Just attempting to climb a snow covered hill at low speed with the clutch completely engaged it seemed that any tire slipping produced a smell. I plan to get back to the dealer soon to have my clutch checked out. Thanks for all your comments.

When driving my 2010 Impreza Premium (manual transmission) in situations where the AWD is engaged (getting unstuck, doing donuts, uphill on slick surfaces, any tire slippage while trying to move forward) I get a strong clutch burning smell. I know how to drive a manual trans well and do not believe this is a case of operator error. It seems that it burns some clutch even when the transmission is fully engaged when the tires are slipping. Is this normal? I have experience driving older foresters, a legacy and an impreza in snow and have not experienced this smell before. I have tried turning the traction control system off during these conditions and still experience the same odor after even a little bit of tire slippage. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Porcupine, Thankyou for your reply. The actual lighter socket is not working. I generally use the socket to charge my cell phone and to plug in a radar detector. When the fuse blows it also cuts power to the lighter socket type plug in the rear of the car. So, your'e saying it's unlikely that the problems are related? And what do you think about it having something to do with my audio wiring behind the cd deck?

I installed a cd player and hard wired an IPod into my 2001 impreza and everything worked fine for many months. Now my cigarette lighter plug quit working, everytime I change the fuse it blows the instant I try to use the lighter. Also, my drivers side headlight has blown four times in the past two years. Maybe related to my other problem. Can this be possible that my wiring has screwed all this up?

I've been having the same trouble with snow and ice building up in my wheel wells. There are two things that worry me with this problem. 1) When driving on slippery roads a slight bump will cause the tire lock up as it bottoms out on the ice packed wheel well which could theoretically send the car into a slide (hasn't happened yet, but I've been doing alot of chiseling with a flat bar to avoid it). 2) I wonder what kind of damage could occur from hard bottom outs on the ice in the rear wheel wells? In my opinion this is a serious issue and I'm not sure how to fix it other than getting down and chiseling every few miles or as the rubbing sound begins. It seems to me that it's the cold days when the roads are covered with slushy snow that are the worst because it causes instant ice buildup that does not seem to get melted from tire friction. Much more of this is going to make a truck with higher clearance seem much more appealing, don't get me wrong, I love my subaru, but I'm not willing to jeopardize my safety to keep it. What about removing the plastic shields inside the wheel wells?

I haven't heard of any new head gasket failures yet. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Hey, Sorry to scare anyone. When we brought the '05 forester in for it's head gasket replacement it turned out that it was simply a plug of some sort that had blown it's seal and was letting oil leak on top of the motor. What a relief.

Here we go. Moms 2005 forester has sprung a head gasket leak at 24000 carefully driven miles! Luckily it's still under warranty. Is this most likely an outer leak between the coolant and the outside of the motor? Although the service man said the leak was a potential fire hazard which I would assume means otherwise.

So I was assured by someone here that I can adjust the hill hold brake on my forester despite the fact that my dealer told me I can't. I then asked someone at drivesubaru.com (the website for drive magazine) and they too said that the hill hold can not be adjusted. Has anyone actually had this adjustment done? Or do you know a dealer that has done this adjustment? What's the deal? -Thanks

Thanks Louis, I'll tell that dealer whats up (Beard Subaru, Hyannis, MA.). -Bryan

This hill hold brake set up on my 2004 Forester is really annoying. It engages every time I stop and makes it difficult to pull away smoothly, whether I'm on a hill or not. Some one told me that it can be adjusted, but the dealer said it can't. What's the deal, can I adjust it or unplug it?

What's with the automatic brake sticking thing for starting off on hills in the '04 foresters. I drove one and was not at all impressed. Is there an easy way to disable this?

Why is there not a clutch fluid reservoir in my 2001 Impreza Outback Sport? Also I've been experiencing a grinding sound when I shift into reverse (usually noticed when the car is cold) could this be low fluid levels, or what else could it be? Thanks.

Good point, thanks