daja

Make sure your lug nuts are tight. I brought my car to have new summer tires installed and they had not tightened the front left wheel properly? I was able to turn all 5 by hand. That's how loose they were! Thank goodness I didn't loose a wheel on the highway.

I've had the same symptoms several times. First it was hesitation and almost got t-boned with my wife and kids in car! It was a bad spark plug wire. Hesistation under load, but at higher speed was due to my spark plug O-rings leaking oil into my spark plug cavity. Replaced with brand new plugs and dumped engine stop leak into oil. BTW, leaks happened twice and always after putting Mobil1 synthetic in. Think the stuff's too good Exact same symptom you are having now after changing the plugs. I went to regap and noticed a hairline crack in the insulator. I installed old plug and problem is completely gone. It doesn't surprise me since spark plugs are fragile and crack can occur if someone has dropped the package on the floor. There is a guide on how to test your coil. I don't recall the site, but maybe someone can post or PM the link to you. Hope this helps now and in future if you have similiar problems.

About the chin thingy... I've been doing this for years In regards to the pressing sequence I've tried both. 1 to open and quickly to open remaining doors. This is where my trouble comes, it sometimes doesn't react to the second press. I may do this sequence several times in attempt to get doors open. I'm not that old or maybe I'm just too fast and the remote doesn't sense I've released it the first time. The strange thing is that it almost seems like it locks me out when this happens because I try to lock the doors to start over it doesn't lock. This is when I open the door with the key on the passenger side to flip the door switch. Difficult to do when I'm holding my 4year old in my arms in -40 celsius windchill (last years experience and don't want to repeat this winter). Are the newer remote boxes interchangeable? If so I may trash the old box and get a new control unit with new remotes.

I've lived with this for years and will like to know if anyone else has the same problem. I have a 2000 Forester with keyless remote. Most of the time when I press the open it works, but when I try to open the other doors by pressing the button again and holding, it doesn't. Just sounds like the driver door is unlocking (faint clicking). It's winter again and I got majorly upset when trying to get the doors open with my two small ones and not being able to until I went to drivers side and used the manual unlock. I've changed batteries many times and this happens on both my remotes. Question: Keyless Entry Sucks or do the remotes suck? Can I correct this problem by buying a newer remote (heard there are more rounded ones out)? My remote is the square one with rounded corners.

Thanks for all the replies. Yes I had the impression that I was getting a flush since changing just the fluid in the reservoir is lame. It was a while back (summer) and I paid around $100cdn! I'm just going to get someone to assist and bleed the fluid myself. cheers, daja

I brought my car in to get the brake fluid changed. Are the Subaru's done differently from other cars? The reason I ask is when I got the car back I checked the bleeder valves & rubber cap and they were not touched. There was still dirt/mud caked on them and there were no signs of any tool being used to open the valves to bleed the lines.

Thanks for the replies. My car is a '00 Forester. Recommended to bring to Sube dealer to align? Or any reputable shop will do?

Doing a visual on my rear tires and noticed they are worn excessively on the outside of the tire. Insides are still almost new. This is on both rear tires. Is this an alignment problem? Can I adjust the rear towers in anyway to compensate or better bringing to a dealer (don't trust them anymore). Something bent? I folded my rear seats and filled the whole back of the sube with booze up to almost the roof. Could this have bent or misaligned something? There is no roughness in driving so I hope nothing like the axle is bent. No accidents or sliding into curbs either. Could this possibly this be normal? I searched and others seem to have wear on insides in the rear and not the outside. TIA, daja.

Thanks you for all the suggestions. It is not clutch related. I've gotten use to the Sube organic clutch. It has to do with it being engaged and in gear, especially first gear. It's real bad when air conditioning is on. I step on the gas lightly to compensate and the car is like a wild horse buckling. LOL, it does make me look like my first day driving stick, but that was 25 years ago. The throttle cable is smooth so I don't think anything is sticking. I'll live with it and yes it does come in handy at times It's the annoying comments I hear when my bro-in-law is in the car. I just reply "I do it because I can, afterall it's not a honda lawnmower :)"

Question. Does anyone find their MT subes have a sensitive throttle response? It feels the same as my old car where I had replaced the cam with a race cam along with all other mods, but that was expected. My forester is stock and since day 1 it has been sensitive to the point of literally millimeters on the accelerator pedal. I live with it, but my wife may start driving the car soon and she had (I had) whiplash from the car jerking.

I followed the sensor wire further along and notice it does a 120 degree turn into another set of wires. At this junction the electrical tape seemed very gummy from rubbing. I turned the wire as much as I could opposite and it seems to be working. I looked around and there are many places where the wires seem to be pulled back and potentially have an internal break caused by engine vibration. Are there many reports of open circuits causing malfunctions in Subes? I find this odd and hope it is not intentional to milk money from people. Many thanks to all for the advice

My ongoing saga.... Finally read the proper code from ECU. P0325. I decided first on replacing the fuel filter since it was cheap and easy. WOW, what a difference! Car runs so much smoother and acceleration is noticably better. I noticed how bright and shiny the new filter thing is. Car has 125k and is 4 years old. I do not recall this being changed, ever! Isn't it suppose to be at every 24k service? CEL came on again. Thought I had it licked. P0325 is a knock sensor malfunction. Is this one of those codes that actually means what it says? Or can it be related to anything else? I have never modified my knock sensor. I've read and followed the advice about cleaning and checking resistance and wire continuity. Need advice. I love my Sube ('00 Forester), but I'm starting to have dreams with bright yellow lights

Thank You all for the input. I tried it on my wife's car and no READ indicated. I exchanged for a new one and it read code P0328. I hope the new one doesn't bite the dust. If it does, I'll certainly let everyone know and to avoid this thing. Now off to fix my problem Regards, daja. BTW: Here in Toronto (Canada?) there are not really any large automotive chains except for Canadian Tire. Tough luck for all us auto enthusiasts. I tried a small garage and they wanted $90 to pull codes, LOL something about a $30 000 dollar machine, heh.

I am using the EQUUS code reader. These codes may be wrong! I connected the reader following the instructions as outlined. Pressed the LINK and nothing. I pressed the small button (reset?) and these codes appeared. After finding NOTHING about this button I decided to try pressing the button while not connected to my ECU. Same codes! This means that these codes are not being read from my ECU. The only thing this $150cdn piece of plastic seems to be able to do is reset my CEL. On way back to get a refund! I cannot find any diffinitive answer anywhere as to whether my 2000 Forester is indeed OBD-II complant. I am in Canada and rump roast-U-ME that all cars here after 1996 are also OBD-II compliant. Am I wrong?

My '00 Forester recently seems to have a lack of power in the sub 3000RPM range. There are days where it's fine, others the throttle response is terrible. If I half to full throttle, the engine litterally feels like "BLAH". I need an idea before I bring it into the dealer. I had a check engine a while back and they recommended changing the plugs, wires and they go from there. Go from there? Lucky they are not my doctor... let's remove your kidney, then your nuts and go from there. They also suggested replacing the ignition coil to the final tune of $400. I also had two other codes P0113 AND P0118. Any insights would be much appreciated, especially before I goto the dealer to get scammed again. I really need this fixed before winter. TIA.

I get 9.31litres/100km or 22.25mpg with my '00 5spd forester and I drive the car hard with no thoughts about fuel economy and this 22.25 mpg is during winter. This went up 10% since I was hacking around with the air intake and noticed that there is a banana shaped chamber right before the 90 degree bend to main airbox. It points down. It's pretty delicate and someone (mechanic?) had broke it off. They rammed it in all the way which blocked about 2/3's of the airflow. I pulled it back out and clamped it. Drives smoother and accelerates quicker. That alone made a 10% improvement on my mileage. I'd also go with a new o2 sensor, might seem like alot (~$50 here), but i've been driving for 100,000km and wasted 10,000 of that due to air restriction, 10,000/500km per tank = 20 tanks of gas x $35cdn/tank = $700. Well worth the cost. BTW: did you check to see if any of your brakes are seized? My back left was stuck and it caused me to go down to 350km/tank, very hot rim, stinky smell, warped disc, new pad... you get the picture.

I was wondering if there is a way to install a centre headrest in the back? I noticed that later model Forester's have these and I would like this as well for safety issues. I sometimes have passengers that have their whole neck above the seat. This is very dangerous in a rear impact accident. Potential for crushing one or more vertibrates.

You are gutsy, I start sweating when it hits the needle stopper way below emtpy. For the first three years I had my 00' Forester the fuel gauge was more accurate. The needle would go pas the F when filled and I would always get at least 300km around half and in the end just below the E it would be around 450km. This last year I cannot get the needle to go past the F no matter how much I filled the tank! I would hit the end needle below the E and be around 400-425km. Brought to Subaru and ... well it' ain't quite broken, is it? was the reply I got from them. I might start a thread on the stupidity of the service department later. Can anyone post something we (accurate fuel gauge wannabee's) could do to fix this problem. I actually removed the plastic cover to move the needle further up, but it seems to operate on a voltage differrence (generated from fuel pump?). Hope next year it doesn't get more inaccurate and I run out of gas 10km from a gas station in -40C or +40C degree weather. That would a bit annoying.

I recently developed leaks in all four of my spark plug seals. My car only has 100k km on it. I did switch to Mobil1 after using Walmart synthetic. A bottle of seal lubricant seams to have cured the problem. My Forester gets the garage treatment now, probably will rust from inside out now , but when I had my civic with no garage I can tell you that synthetic helped dramatically with cold starts. Minus 35 Celsius without windchill, a norm in Toronto, 'cept for last year. That civic has 400k km on it and engine still has no oil burn! This is with 12k interval changes as well. My other car was running dyno juice at same time and boy did it smell funny after cranking for what seemed like eternity on the same -35Celsius day. My dilema?? Did synthetics cause my seal problem? Or was it because I changed brands (detergents different) as posted earlier? I would really like to keep running synthetics. Hopefully we could get an answer directly from Subaru Canada? Anyone know if/how we could do that?

Thank You very much for the info. I can get a good sleep now knowing it's not a cracked block. I love my sube, Look at the rest and just grin

I checked my plugs due to my 00'Forester (100k km's) hesitating. I found oil, fresh oil covering the boot that connects to the spark plugs tip. Not just on one of them, but all four! I am not burning oil. Exhaust is very clean. I have always used synthetic oil. I replace the plugs today and went for a 30 min drive, 20 of which were spirited. It drives like new again. I excluded the possibility of a cracked engine block since no burning of oil or coolant coming out exhaust. One of the plugs had a dark sludge on it. This one seemed looser that the others as well. ALL tips were nice and brown which means no oil in combustion chamber. Question: What is going on? Anyone else had this problem?