CNY_Dave

By the way I had to free up my forester hatch handle and hardware a while ago, I lubed it all with electrical silicone grease. Has lasted much better than anything I have ever tried! Months later and it still works like new.

On one of mine, the handle felt like the cable was not attached, and it was the locking mechanism keeping it 'disengaged'. Try cycling the lock about 10 times. Is there a small removable panel on the inside to access the latch? I have had to pull off the internal panels from below the window to get to a stuck latch. Broken bits usually result, trick is to be as gentle as possible.

If you can confirm it's exhaust into the coolant, it'll have to be a new gasket I think.

My son has an '06 forester, there is a lot of condensation in both headlights. No lakes in there yet though.

Did you measure the voltage with the solenoid connected or disconnected? If connected, if the solenoid (or circuit to it) has too much or little resistance that would throw the voltages off.

I had read, ages ago, about one flavor of TCU where the output transistors would go bad. Probably one of the ones Q520 - Q524 in that pic. Connector pinout should get you enough info to figure out which one it is.

Top of the filler tube behind where it comes thru the fender. I could not believe the amount of salty dirt that was trapped behind the plastic cover!

Oh god I just cleaned the cabin air filter area and blower motor on an '06 forester that was parked for 2 years. THE HORROR!!!!!!

That pushes-coolant-out-after-a-hard-drive was my first sign of an internal head gasket problem. You can drive on it for a long time that way, only real reason I stopped driving mine was that it needed a fair bit of work to pass inspection, and I wasn't willing to do all that work on a car with a bad head gasket with a rough body, when the car needed 4 struts, all brakes, all the rubber suspension bushings, etc etc. But mine actually never overheated, even after driving on the leaking head gasket for awhile.

My '05 forester has the same fuel-fill tube problem. I made the diagnosis 100% sure by gutting an old gas cap, affixing a piece of hose to it, put it on the car, and blew smoke from a cigar (from my mouth) into the hose, and watched where the smoke came out. Just keep the cigar/cigarette etc well away from the car... get a mouthfull from away a bit then go to the car.

If you put a 2000 trans into a 2004, the transfer solenoid may function backwards. Not sure if this is H6 cars only or H4s as well. On mine: I put a '04 trans into an '03 and the AWD only kicked in when the fronts spun a lot, then it banged in. 03 trans, +12V to solenoid releases the rears, 0V locks the AWD. 04 trans, +12V to solenoid locks the AWD, 0V releases the rears. If this is the case on yours, for low lockup the TCU will be sending out short pulses that average out to a low voltage, which the older trans will see as signal for a lot of lockup. For high lockup it will be disengaging the AWD. If you put in the FWD fuse and the AWD is locked you know it's reversed. On mine, I had to swap the solenoid and solenoid valve (and the valve plate) in the tail section.

I work with a guy that used to work in a literal salt mine, underground, salt in air and high humidity. He said all the fancy crap they would use on electrical connections sucked compared to dielectric grease, so I'm giving it a try when a convenient test case comes along. I wouldn't say use it where actual lubrication is required, but if something just has to sit there and look pretty I'll give it a shot!

I wonder if for some of these things silicone dielectric grease wouldn't work better? I'm trying some out on my forester hatch latch.

You might have to swap the '05 AWD transfer solenoid and valve over, and there might be a worse incompatability between the trans and the TCU. For outbacks I know starting in '04 on those the transfer solenoid valve/tcu worked backwards (12v locked vs the 12v slipping of '03 and earlier). In '05 didn't they start putting the transfer solenoid and valve in the pan area?

On my alloys at one point I had to break off the black glass-like corrosion where the wheel mates to the rotor to get it vibration free.

I have used a piece of pipe that transitions from too small to too big them pulled the 2 pipes together with trampoline springs. Was just like an old school 2-stroke dirt bike exhaust! But that's a pretty crude fix.

I wonder if a H6 trans filter blockout could be put on, and lines run to a remote filter? Of course with what that filter does, probably little risk of harm in no filter.

I think he means colorado

I have used, to good effect: Aluminum duct tape backed by hose clamps (just make sure the clamp forms a 'heat sink' over the hole) small holes plugged with the white hardening sealant 1/2 sections of pipe (or bent sheet metal) over a blob of the sealant, held in place by hose clamps The small holes I've dealt with have usually been from a welded-on hanger ripping out. Good pipe around a rusty strip or hole the size of a dime or so.

I am, and always will be, skeptical of dealer diagnostic abilities (and worse, desire to do it correctly).

Anything in the rear section can be done with trans in place, but looking at mileage plus price of parts vs jdm trans, jdm trans looks pretty good.

Stuck in 3 is limp mode?

My bad front pinion, wheels on, in the air:

Car is a ... ? Hard to tell where that is. It looks to be too high to be the front sway bar, but maybe is. Dpes it look like a piece of pipe and has rubber hoses at each end?

Unless the bad trans is actually a bad front diff, if the diff fluids haven't mixed with the ATF. Obvious to most of us, some might not know the front diff is separate.