StructEngineer

The doughnut gasket paired with spring bolts is intended to provide a joint that's flexible. I think also, it provides an emergency outlet if anything ever becomes clogged in the system. I just assembled one of these joints and didn't have any issues. Doughnut goes in the direction so the curved surface mates with the curved flange. I believe this would be your photo 1. To install, you need to slip the doughnut over the PIPE and it should be fairly snug. If you sanded the outside of the pipe down too much so it's loose that could be your problem. You then tighten up the bolts. I would not run this without the springs. They're not that difficult to get.

My 02 forester is at 98,000 miles and is due for a timing belt change at the stealership. Is there any sane reason I should get weeping headgaskets replaced at the same time? My prime concern is not getting stranded by a blown gasket in 10,000 miles. They're not leaking enough to be replaced under warranty, but enough to not really trust the car. I also plan to get the tensioner, water pump, radiator hoses, t-stat, and drive belts replaced. Any other words of wisdom are welcome.

I have had plugs fouled by seafoaming through the intake in the past. Hence, now if I do that usually change the plugs afterwards.

Could it be that something's wrong with fuel delivery that's not letting your cat come up to the correct operating temperature?

If you put the cheapest possible cat on I think that is your problem. Most foreign cars are picky about aftermarket cats. If you go with el cheapo it's not going to smooth out the secondary o2 readings enough for your ECU to be happy.

I used a direct fit car-sound (Magnaflow) cat and have not had problems for the past 20,000 miles. Purchased it on ebay and was careful not to buy a drilled out test pipe. While I was at it, I replaced the piping with OEM direct fit pipes, and also purchased new NTK O2 sensors. Since it was all bolt on, no welding required so I could do it in the garage. Took an afternoon and saved me at least $500. I heard way too many problems with Eastern Catalytic and wouldn't waste the time with one.

What sort of cat and O2 sensors did you use? Subaru's are picky. Are you absolutely sure there's no exhaust leaks? How's the fuel mileage? When you say there's fluctuation in the primary o2, do you mean more movement than the normal oscillation that supposed to be there?

I like to play it safe when it comes to parts, but when the OEM part is 4x more expensive it doesn't make sense to buy it. BTW, are you in a state that monitors emissions? A 2 cent piece of electrical tape on your dash light does wonders.

Yup, stock converters must last longer, therefore more catalyst. I just changed one out last weekend. The stock cat's bricks were twice as thick as the aftermarket.

Yea, IMHO AWD just isn't worth it on these cars. Compared to my other FWD vehicles, I really dont see the gains.

I've used magnaflow (car sound) replacement cats with no problems. Would stay away from Catco, random technologies, and eastern catalytic. The P0420 means your secondary o2 output isnt flat enough due to the catalyst not doing its job. So if you already replaced both sensors, and have an essentially new cat, the only other option would be to check for exhaust leaks in the off chance that they're messing with catalyst efficency. My bet is ol Bucky used a POS converter. Consider buying a direct bolt on converter if possible and do it yourself. They're not bad unless they've done some cutting/welding that would require more work.

I do not recommend waiting till you feel deteriorated performance to change spark plugs. This is how you fry your catalytic converter (aka, by blowing unburned fuel through your exhaust). When you refer to copper tops, I'm assuming the typical NGK v power. I wouldn't push those past 30,000 miles. I did a plug change on my 2.5L. There's no need to remove any motor mounts, but you do need to remove the air intake, battery and washer reservoir. It is probably 5x more difficult to change plugs on the 2.5L than my Honda accord and Civic, and probably 2x as likely to strip threads.

Sounds like you're steam cleaning one or two of your cylinders. I personally wouldn't take it unless I absolutely had to. Granted it's a 2.2 and not the POS 2.5, you still shouldn't be losing that much coolant so often while daily driven. No big deal if you top her off every gas stop, but if you start getting air into the system it's another story....

When I drove 5000mi through the desert southwest and rockies I had the following: tire plug set portable tire pump a good tire iron a spare ignitor a spare coil XM Satellite Radio (worth every penny) tools (duh) Made sure my hoses and belts were good, and obviously all the regular tuneup stuff had been taken care of.

I need to remove my rear bumper beam on a 02 forester. Anyone ever remove this piece? Is it easy as removing the bumper cover, unbolting it and sliding it out of the frame rails? I don't want to get the thing out and not get it back in. Car has never been rear ended, so nothing should be bent.

I'd take a tire gage and measure your remaining Blizzaks and if a new tire would be out of the 1/4" threshold for your transmission, then order a blizzak from http://www.tirerack.com and have them shave it to your specified diameter. There's no reason to buy 4 new tires unless the 3 you have are trashed for some reason. 5000mi could be a significant amount of wear on Blizzaks depending on how warm it was when you drove on them. And in the meantime, you want worse traction up front to prevent tailspinning. It's easier to slow down when making turns (front end sliding). Therefore I'd say move your spare to the rear. True, but also to add winter tires are misleading because they give you poor handling 100% of the time for gains only in on-the-snow and below 15 deg conditions. For most of the US, this is not a good tradeoff.

Measuring it by starting with full tank and 0 on the trip meter. Upon next fillup after 220 miles of solid interstate driving I refill up to full with 11.7gal. 220/11.7 = 18.9 miles/gal Yea, tire pressure is good all around on a set of allseasons. Dont want to burn up anything. Also to mention this is driving around the great planes, NOT mountain driving. and I wasn't fighting wind or anything.

My wife usually drives our 2002 Forester S so I was surprised when we took it on a longer trip that it's only getting 19 MPG on the highway driving 75mph. Is this normal for you guys? I read it should be getting at least 25mpg on the highway. All maintenece is up to snuff including fluids. Runs fine. Only thing I can think of is the O2 sensor. It has 90,000 mi.

I'm not sure you can call it a true lubricant. Most of the folks I've seen who put it in their crankcase change the oil after driving for a few miles max. I personally would rather do a few short term hot oil changes rather than put a solvent in the crankcase. Thinking about it more, you could have flaked off a piece of carbon from your intake manifold that may be messing with a valve.

Maybe a stupid question, but did you change the oil after putting it in the crankcase?

No kidding, and I find it kinda funny that this thread is running along side http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=91917 "I was happy as a clam until I discovered my 2.5l was a piece of crap"

I only have GOOD things to say about them.... They always package my orders really well as opposed to other sites where they throw a bunch of parts in an empty box.

How tight is "tight enough"? Overtightening or undertightening will damage the threads. You could guess at it, but if you're using a long wrench you could easily overtighten...conversely, if you use a small wrench you could easily undertighten. I dunno, a $10 torque wrench is cheap insurance you dont damage your head. Yes you need to gap the plugs. The clearance is the distance the spark needs to jump across...out of spec clearance stresses your ignition system and gives worse gas mileage. Easy to buy the $3 gapping tool and get it within spec. Also, consider applying a small amount of anti seize compound to the threads upon inserting. Hand tighten to get threads started to prevent cross threading.

No way I would pay 11k for that car. You should be concerned about the 2.5L head gasket leak if you find that engine hasn't had the problem addressed. Somewhere in 2002 was the year in which they corrected the problem, so your engine may or may not be prone to it. I have an 2002 forester with 90k on it and really dont trust taking it on long trips because of fear of the HG letting loose as so many have. I always have a slight tinge of burning coolant coming from my engine bay....not enough for dealer to repair under the extended warranty.

I just changed mine out on a 2.5. Plugs had 50,000 mi on them. Consider removing the air intake on the passenger side, and the battery/washer resevoir on the drivers. It really wasn't all that difficult to do, just time consuming. Once I had adequate clearance, I was able to get a better grip on the wires and with a twisting motion they came out fairly easily without the need of a wire puller. Just grasp the entire wire cap assembly, dont tug on just the wire itself. From there just used a standard extension and plug socket to remove and install w/ torque wrench. Use anti seize. If you're not sure if your existing plugs have anti seize on them and they've been in there for a long time 60,000 mi+, I personally would just have a shop do it because I dont have much experience dealing with fouled threads.