CNY_Dave

Our '06 OBW serpentine belt idler pulley is metal, at least.

Of course could be a bad motor or trans mount allowing the trans or motor to contact the body somewhere too.

Consistent with the driveshaft center bearing, or a front or rear diff on the way out. If the '95 has the FWD fuse location, put in a fuse, check for FWD on the dash, see if that changes the noise.

4 cyl? CA? non-turbo? funny, might be some inconsequential difference. try searching an 06 and see if 05's pop up?

Below not applicable to bolt-in bearings... I believe there are bearings out there that swap out with the screw-type press... but I also believe I've never met one! Every one I've done has had me hanging off the lever on my 20T hydraulic press. Even if so, getting the snap ring out with the hub in place on the car I will say right now I would never have been able to do on any of the one's I've done. Way to crudded and rusted into place.

We bought our '05 forester used with about 25k on the clock- right front caliper was partially seized.

If the manuals have a neutral switch and/or a clutch switch check those- they could 'work' but sometimes fail as soon as they start passing current, hence the 'click'.

Slide pin won't pull out?

Another thing to watch for is loosening the nut with weight on the wheel, or tightening it by putting weight on the wheel to keep it from turning. Any weight on it with the nut loose can put all the weight on just 1-2 balls in the bearing, pitting the ball and/or race. Loosening with weight on is not an issue if you're replacing the bearing. I use a scissor jack and a piece of wood to apply the brakes to keep it from turning (jack between brake pedal and seat, with another board keeping the seat from getting smushed). Or get/make one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Tool-Aid-66400-Steering-Depressor/dp/B0002UNRB2

If it's an H6 and you ever need an alternator, watch out to get one actually made for the 6 cyl.

Where I am, and to a degree Yonkers, the oil cooler is much more useful as a winter oil heater.

I received a VDC rear section awhile ago that I have never used (donated the VDC rear housing to someone with a busted one). The VDC VSS goes into a different place on the tail housing, and it's easy to look at the parts and see what the sensor is 'reading'. Those that have dome the swap either live with the AT light flashing due to the rear VSS error code, or I think one person has used the SW and cable to make it stop looking for the rear VSS (or something like that). I theorize you could connect the front VSS output to both inputs. My best guess is the front reluctors are the same. I have a 4eat out of the car and could look in to the VSS hole and see what a non VTD looks like, maybe someone could do same with a VDC trans.

I am almost sure that the front part of the trans is the same except for maybe the reluctor that drives the front VSS- the rear VSS reluctor on the VDC guts is different from the non VDC reluctor (VDC uses small reluctor on a shaft instead of the outside edge of the clutch basket). I don't know if the VDC TCU just uses two different sensor-reading circuits (or uses SW to correct), or if both reluctors are different in the VDC. The rest of the magic is the TCU software and the planetary gearset that replaces the transfer clutch. The VDC software uses at least one sensor the non-VDC doesn't, the G sensor located under the center console.

My hub-pulling slide hammer is a big fat bolt 3 feet long that goes to the thing that attaches to the lugs, and has a few nuts on the end, and the slider was a 25lbs thick steel plate, but now is 2 or 3 5lb barbell weights. I stand over it and slide the weight with both hands. On my outback (using the big weight) the hub was so stuck I think it almost yanked the car off the jackstands. Shook a lot of rust off too!

Tackling pinch bolts without a blue-wrench... brave souls!

I think VDC trans is identical except for the tail housing guts. '01-'04 H6 trans will work, using an '04 requires swapping transfer valve and solenoid over.

Yonkahs! Longtime home of my clan.

The lurching could be a bad suspension bushing or ball joint, or a bad inner CV joint. The inners can act fine then vibrate like hell, then be fine again.

There are a lot of cases where the clamps under the hood need tightening, they seal warm but need to be tighter to seal in the cold. Might be no drips, just leaking as fast as it can evaporaTE.

Another parts store alt will probably be the wrong one as well.

What's 'on time'? We shoot for 5000 miles. As far as sludge goes, is it a heat (coking) issue or a too-cool oil problem? For us, it is pretty rare the car starts and drives less than 20 miles.

Fluid pressure is used to lock the plates together, all years- that is, no fluid pressure, no lockup. The 2004 change affects hpow the spool valve is operated only. BUT that doesn't mean there is any fluid running over the plated to cool them and keep them from heating & scuffing, and even engine running it was never made to accept as much slippage as you'd get from front-wheels-stopped, rear-wheels-turning. Rear wheels down, FWD fuse in, engine running would be fine at really low speeds. Like 10? 15? would be my guess.

'05 forester non-turbo and '06 4cyl outback, so far only thing from that list I've seen is the forester window motors do indeed suck pretty bad.

Sounds a bit like my '05 2.5x forester- every 80k miles or so the EGR valve sticks. I take it off and clean it.

Cool- To address the older post, I believe it's a 0 ohm resistor, just acts as a jumper. Often done on 2 layer boards to avoid a via or get out of a bottleneck.