danz75

The transmission drain plug is a regular 17mm bolt and the front differential drain plug has the torx head. I have to see if sears carries that big of a torx bit. I can understand that it helps with the confusion but I still wish they went with a regular head instead of the torx head. My other question is with the differential drain plugs, can you put somesort of anti-seize on them so it is easily removable in the future? I like the 2-feet tube method of filling...comes in handy for the rear too. I have to search again for the filler tube. Looked yesterday but couldn't find it.

I'm working on trying to replace the fluid in the front differential on a 03 OBW auto. I crawled under the car to look for the front differential and there is a torx drain plug. Does anyone know what size this plug is? I will have to buy the tool for this cause my torx bits are not this big. Is this easily available at Sears? The other problem is that I cannot find the filler hole/tube for the front differential. I looked over and under for a filler hole but i'm not seeing it. Where is it located?? I need to make sure that I can find the filler hole before I try to loosen the drain plug with the bit that hopefully is available at sears. Thanks!!

Thanks for the reply. Since I have mostly sockets and have been told that some AT drain plugs are not the conventional type but stars or hex heads, I was concerned about having the right tool for the job, plus I do not seem to have very good luck with hex or star heads and usually end up stripping them. I'm glad to know that the AT filter is external and does not require me to drop the pan. I have dropped a few pans before and it is always not a pleasant job. Thank you.

Does anyone know what size is the AT drain plug on 2003 OBW 4cyl? Any special tools needed? Do you need to drop the pan in order to change the AT filter? Thanks.

http://www.smart-service.com/

I agree with the cleaning method. I try to clean my brake parts at least 3-4 times a year. That allows me to apply anti-seize on the parts so that it will not stick and definitely apply fresh calliper pin lube. On newer cars, the rear rotors are solid disc and are so thin that it is usually not possible to 'turn' them. I've had rotors turned before(usually as a last resort) but I would prefer to replace them. Brembo blanks can be purchased for about $50+/pc which IMHO is a good price for decent, quality rotors. For me brakes are what stops the car so I usually don't go cheap on these parts. my $0.02.....

I had the same problem on mine. I thought it was the rotors and checked it but it was fine. Thought about the bearings but because my 03 OBW had only 20kmi on it, I didn't think that was the problem. Brought it to the dealership and they told me both were rusted and water had gotten through the seals. Had it replaced under warranty. Should the bearings seize up, you'll get poor gas mileage and might also smoke if it gets hot enough.

Could it be like the Delorean in Back to the Future where lightning was need to get the 1GW to power the flux capacitor???

My 03 OBW R/L rear bearings went out at 20K mi.

I'm putting Chevron regular in(the 2.5 does not require premium) and I usually put in the STP fuel injection cleaners every 2-3 months. I also had it check out by the dealership and they said that it was shifting fine. But I assume when they did the test drive, it probably wasn't under load.

Here's the situation... 03 OBW 4cyl 21K. With 4 regular sized (~160-180lbs) adults, the car seems to lack power on an uphill climb. Was cruising about 65-70mph on interstate and approached the uphill...speed started dropping after awhile and I stepped on the gas pedal a little harder. (Slope was somewhat uniform throughout at about 3% grade maybe?) Gears did not kick down but engine sounded louder. Stepped on it a little more and it kicked down to 3rd. Engine was loud(the sound of trying to accelerate from 30mph on 4th or 5 gear) at this time but speed did not increase. RPMs was about ~3+K. When I floored the pedal, there is a slight second before it drops into 2nd and RPMs at this time is around 4500. Only now then the speed increases according to gas pedal pressure. Is this behavior typical of AT OBWs? I used to own a 94 MT 2.2 and the power was always there but with this 2.5, I feel that even with more horses, there is not much power on an uphill climb, esp with 4 adults!!! The only thing that I can think of is maybe the fuel filter needs changed. Oil has been changed regularly at 3kmi and I use M1 syn 5w-30. Now if I am the only person in the car, the performance on an uphill is considerably better but still not as good as I would expect. Seeing how it is, I can't imagine having to tow a trailer at all. On a level street or interstate, it doesn't seem to have much of a problem at all. Any ideas?

I had written to an "official" subaru parts online store to ask for the pricing for the transmission filter for my 03OBW, they replied back to me, they said that those filters are lifetime filters and don't need to be replaced unless something catastrosphic happens. Won't that be too late??? But from what I have read from various posts, the general concensus is replace filter at least every other fluid replacement. And I like the idea of doing it ever 15kmi since fluid costs are a lot less than a transmission replacement. Just like oil changes, I will always change the oil filter whenever I put new oil in. Just don't see the point in reusing the oil filter.

You probably want to re-lube the calliper pins with calliper lube or replace them if it is seizing. The pins are fairly inexpensive.

Sears has screw extractors which might work if you can somehow fit a drill in the area. I've heard that they work very well to remove stripped screws. I would only ddo the drilling out method as the last resort. I've had to do that before and lets jus say that I didn't enjoy it much. http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/search.do?cat=Hand+Tools%2C+General+Purpose&vertical=TOOL&Filter=Type%7CScrew-out+sets%5E&displayTarget=Subcategory&subcat=Bolt-Out%2C+Taps+%26+Dies&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes Good luck!

Go to parts catalog and select your model year 2000 and model. Somewhere in the middle you will find the part shown there. http://www.subaruparts.com/catalog/?section=84

I currently use axxis ultimates on a honda and they do stop in a real hurry which is a little too good for my driving. I would continue to use them except that they dust a lot and so I am looking for something for my OBW that bites better than stock but does not dust as much as the ultimates. Was thinking about metal masters but have no prior experience to how much they dust.

Well, the reason I was asking is being the OEM pads do not dust much but they certainly do not stop as well as Axxis ultimates which unfortunately dusts a lot. Plus, OEM pads are about $40 more than OEMs which makes me wonder who makes them. So it's probably different for every year depending on who the supplier is?

I've been trying to find out who manufactures OEM brake pads for subaru? Does anyone know? Thanks

Here's the website http://www.subaruparts.com/cart/?pn=ARFLTRKIT&item_code=303&z=Add+to+Cart Part number:ARFLTRKIT Couldn't find the part on 1stsubaruparts

I'm not sure about your forester but when I bought my 03 OBW, it was an optional part which I believe was about an additional ~$100....... I just bought the part from 1stsubaruparts.com and installed it myself($31.16)

If you have rear disc brakes, they are probably warped. That's what happened with mine. Tried to turn them but since rear rotors are manufactured so thin, i had to buy new ones instead.

I replaced the filter in my 03 OBW and Accord EX. Both the filters were extremely dirty. I agree that having a HEPA filter in a car is probably not very efficient as the environment in a car is not completely sealed. However, last summer, I had really bad allergies and I drove with my windows up all the time and it sure did make some difference. And so I figured, for $31.16, there's really no harm in having a clean filter. It is a very easy job and only requires a screwdriver. The instructions are included with the filter if you buy the Subaru part and 1stsubaruparts has it for $31.16. Don't let the shop do it for you. Take the time to do it and you'll be able to do it easily the next time.

Here's the link for instructions from autozone regarding your starter http://autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1c/5a/43/0900823d801c5a43.jsp

Could it be that the connections(check the ground cable from the starter to the battery) are loose or rusted?

Actually, the mileage on the 04 OBW (dealer loaner vehicles too!!!) was higher than my 03 OBW. I did talk to the service rep and they checked out my car for me after I complained that the ticking seems to be louder and longer than the loaner vehicles and was told that as long as the ticking goes away after the engine warms up to operating temp, SOA will not do anything. So in my case, it usually still ticks about 5 mins or more after it has warmed up but it does go away....whereas the 2 04 OBW that I've driven.....don't seem to suffer from the 'tick of death'. The service rep also said that every car was different and some will tick and some won't. I wonder why is there such a wide range in quality?