ThosL

I reactivated my AAA membership fortunately they don't have a wait period if you were a member on 3 mile tows as the vehicle is about that far to tow. The mechanic who my brother has used will go to you; we'll check it out later to see if there was any damage.

2 hour job? I didn't think I'd need my AAA membership so let it expire, good thing that they don't have a wait period at least for the basic, but the next tier that lets you tow for 100 miles does have a wait a week or more and another chunk of money.

I was going relatively slowly, 30-35mpg or so. I heard it break, hopefully no damage was done. How big a job is this? I read a couple threads here where they did damage in breaking and to avoid aftermarket ones. Updated--corrected to reflect what we found once it was opened up.

As others said it could be the driveshaft. My guess is possibly the tires that have under 10k in life left. I replaced one of the front wheel knuckles with a junkyard one. I had one stud on that wheel which was stripped so had 4/5 good studs, not sure if that could have distorted something. Friend's mechanic said to drive it slow in a tight circle for "clicking" tied to CV axles. Also that the tie rods, ball joints, bearings etc. if they are not 100% would account for the vibration.

I have a 2002 Forester, 250K miles. I was trying to diagnose my Forester with a mechanically inclined friend. Over 55 especially and going uphill with foot on the pedal the vibration is the worst. A mechanic friend of Sam thought either it would likely be tire balancing or axles. I had the tires recently rotated so don't think it is them. Any direction on trying to figure this out would be appreciated. I had alignment done after replacing a tie rod end so think the front end is ok.

I finally got the spark plug out nearest to driver. Strange and unexpected, I still don't know why it was such a tough hurdle. I used an extractor sharp edge type spark plug socket, had to hammer it in. A lot of debris was also in the plug wires area so I ran the car for a couple seconds with that plug hole open so any remaining debris would be blown out.

It's the external shaft of the spark plug that is stripped, so not a big job.

You are obviously a very thorough mechanic. Yesterday I was trying to get out the last remaining spark plug, driver's side furthest in out. I will need to get a spark plug wrench easy out as the previous owner stripped it out and I have not gotten around to it yet.

Yes, that's part of the job, inserted new rubber gaskets. Still oil is getting into the plug wire compartments.

I'm learning the reason behind your pointers the hard way. I pulled one of the plugs the other day to check the gap of the Denso plugs and found it had fouled out, but I kept my NGKs so will put those back in. Some of us like me don't respond well to authoritative statements, such as "No!" or "Never do that!!!" without hearing the reasons behind it. Many years of getting bad advice I guess. Also there's oil in the plug holes even after the valve cover gasket change out and I thought I was not overfilling.

Also the local Auto Zone has the tools in their free rental program for pushing out and pressing in new bearings. But I just don't have the tools for most of the work. I was able to get it done at a shop that is reliable for $65 plus the $75 used knuckle.

LaJoies in Norwalk had the one I needed, and a local mechanic may be my choice in the am as I do not have the power tools, just low end ones. He'll probably get me for around $75 so $150 is not bad to replace it plus the yard let me take a rotor which I needed.

Too bad the wheel bearings don't have grease fittings anymore. I was thinking you should be able to inject lithium grease into the area of friction anyway if you catch it early but I'm probably dreaming.

A local yard had one for $75 which is pretty aggressive as a shop 45 minutes away had one for $50; plus one of my studs on the hub was buggered so that will address the two issues.

How did you make out with this? Around 10 years ago I paid a local shop to change out the bearings, spent too much and they failed within 1 1/2 years-2 years, both. So I put in used spindles instead, no problems then.

Thanks, I'm checking around. A member here had the same problem last winter; went to a dealership that has the equipment to do the job on the vehicle but high price.

I'm probably going to look for a good knuckle instead of trying to get a pressed in bearing on my 2002 Forester, but will try to get one in the next couple days. Pulling that off is not easy.

Sounds like you were just the right person to get it!

Ok, I'll pull the tire off and see what I'm dealing with. Typically Subaru upgraded with beefier parts such as brakes and easier to fix parts, the hub. I found this video on the job on a 1998, probably much closer to the job and a lot more difficult:

This is an excellent video on a later Impreza, probably roughly the same parts:

This is probably beyond my ability, a 2002 wheel bearing replacement due to the tools required on an old car. A friend is mechanically adept, has a lot of Snap on tools. I was checking Amazon, and it looks like replacing the whole hub is the way to go especially since I have only 4/5 studs in the hub and replacing the hub would address that. Is it likely that missing one stud damaged the bearing? Here is one hub option, looks to be a substandard knock off: https://www.amazon.com/Front-Wheel-Bearing-Hub-Repair/dp/B08Z9RX68B/ref=sr_1_7?content-id=amzn1.sym.d3f43d11-fd5a-4179-8b1e-1a03d11e07f4%3Aamzn1.sym.d3f43d11-fd5a-4179-8b1e-1a03d11e07f4&keywords=wheel+bearing+subaru+forester+front&pd_rd_r=9b76bdd5-31f3-47df-8253-bc36c149ad06&pd_rd_w=9banO&pd_rd_wg=ThPQD&pf_rd_p=d3f43d11-fd5a-4179-8b1e-1a03d11e07f4&pf_rd_r=BGWPRZ870PR6VJ45S76W&pid=HR0nPDI&qid=1686150425&sr=1-7&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.d977788f-1483-4f76-90a3-786e4cdc8f10&vehicle=2002-13-57-105--9--6-168-115-1-1--22-&vehicleName=2002+Subaru+Forester Also the rear main seal is leaking, are there any stop gap measures on that? To fix it would require engine removal. Thanks as usual for the help.

I was able to get around $300 for my last junker, I'd think metal prices are up.

I'm thinking that after the pandemic there are a lot of people in rough shape, families that have lost people and some opportunities like this as well as predatory buyers. Let's hope most people know how to get top dollar for their cars.

I'd think with how little junkyards have been paying for vehicles you selll to them that they would be set up for that. The last ones I junked were around $250 in the fall of 2021 when prices were up, they towed it. The one before that in 2018 where I was paid around $80. They just do not give any financial incentive to the extent that a neighbor who had to get rid of a Forester because of parking issues, all it needed was a starter AFAIK, was also paid under $100.

Some curved balls on this job which I did not anticipate checked out some Youtube videos. One was the difficulty of accessing the bolt on the valve cover lower one toward back on driver's side. Also after putting the driver's side back together was getting oil burning smoke, so I took it all apart again thinking that the valve cover was not evenly snug. After that no real problems after running it a while.