hohieu

The Frontier has been discontinued for a while, even when I bought mine. But is still available at some autpoarts stores: Pep Boys around here. The successor to the Frontier is the Cascade (11 cubic feet).

You could get the Thule Frontier available at some the chain autoparts stores but don't know what you have close to you. Here's a thread about this very to http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=58707&highlight=hohieu

I've been running a GMB H2O pump, made in Japan with a stamped impeller, for the past 20K miles with no problems. We'll see how well it holds up. The OEM pump was still going strong with no bearing play or leakage when I swapped it out as a part of the timing belt service. Stamped impellers are more efficient and, therefore, sold as "high velocity" as well noted by porcupine.

These tapered roller bearings are symmetrical so they can go in to the housing either way. The inner races carry the caged rollers and press against each other at the center of the outer race. When you remove the plastic retainer (the yellow thing in your link), the inner races will just fall out -- be careful not to drop them-- hence, no special tools are required to repack them. You will want to clean out the shipping grease and repack them with the appropriate grease of your choosing. Avoid putting too much grease in there. I chose Mobil 1 synthetic (the red stuff). The following is pasted from an NTN link: http://www.ntn.ca/faq.htm#hightempgrease "How much grease is too much? For general applications a grease fill of 30% of the free space in the bearing seems to be accepted as standard by most manufacturers. Slow speed applications in harsh environments (such as agricultural machinery) can sometimes require a larger fill. High speed applications (i.e. hand tools) can require a lesser fill." I replaced a rear wheel bearing on my Forester with a Koyo bearing from RockAuto around 7k miles ago, and it has been nice and smooth. OEM wheel bearings are made by NTN.

Would be great to hear from more folks with the EJ25 SOHC engines (99+ Forester & Imprezas and 2000+ Legacies and Outbacks) I'm acutally hoping that the headgaskets hold out until the clutch needs replacement. Any advice as to whether I should preemptively do the head gaskets when the engine is already out for clutch replacement? But yes, being in the city, without a garage or even a driveway, I'm not looking forward to the job -- especially dealing with the exhaust header nuts and studs. True enough, but I already agreed with you on this point . For reasons you mentioned, I wouldn't buy a car with mismatched metals. All the cars we've owned had aluminum blocks and heads, with the exception of a 91 Cherokee, which has both cast iron block and head. These early Cherokees with the basic locking transfer case and AW4 trans. are bulletproof. It's a totally different animal than our Forester, but I can't say enough good things about the Jeep -- just a very good, simple design.

Yes, they're very easy to replace if you have a Denso style starter -- which, by all accounts, I think you do. After the starter is out of the car, just remove the plate on solenoid, and it's all pretty straight forward. The Mitsubishi starter in my Forester has a sealed solenoid so there's really no way to replace just the contacts. You can get starter contact kits off ebay or from you local dealer, which come with new o-rings, plastic insulating grommets, and plunger, but the contacts are usually all you need -- just clean up the plunger disc with some abrasive wool before you put things back together. For example, http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SSK-12-STARTER-REPAIR-KIT-FOR-SUBARU-clickers-L-K_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33576QQihZ001QQitemZ110174274654QQtcZphoto ah, just noticed that you have an automatic so... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SSK-6-STARTER-REPAIR-KIT-FOR-SUBARU-clickers-L-K_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33576QQihZ001QQitemZ110174275560QQtcZphoto Not sure what dealers charge....

Good point, but I would consider headgasket replacement routine maintenace only in diesel powered engines, which run at highter compression and more intense combustion cycles. My family has run several gasoline powered cars past 200K miles over a period of, say, 15 years without any headgasket issues. With proper maintenance, particularly of the cooling system, I would expect this in any normally aspirated gas engine. However, as grossgary stated, other issues with the cooling system can cause a headgasket to fail on any engine, even a brand new SOHC EJ 22. 99 Forester 2.5 SOHC, 124K miles and counting....

I have the older OTC 6490 Master Kit rather than OTC 6537 Kit, which includes a new Ford adapter that only matters, of course, if you own a Ford. I saw the HF Kit, and I'm sure it would have worked with some additional parts that I did not already have. With the HubTamer, it was nice to know that I had everything I needed to do the job with a simple box of tools. Also, the quality is such that there is no worry of having to find replacements midstream while the hub is already disassembled and, in my case, with no second vehicle to go searching. It was acutally $170 + $20 shipping. The guy on ebay who sold it to me was pretty cool and didn't jack up shipping costs. Add maybe $60 for seals and the bearing, a free Saturday afternoon, and I figure I've already paid for the investment In any case, I've seen the newer OTC 6537 Kit online for less than $300, not including shipping.

If you have multiple Subarus, the HubTamer works great. Well worth the $200 I spent for it on Ebay. Sometimes there won't be any play, but you can check the bearings this way: jack up all for corners, rotate the wheel with one hand, place your other hand on the coil spring. If there is roughness in the bearing, you'll feel vibration in the coil spring. Subaru addressed the problem by updating the part to tapered roller bearings (from the caged ball bearings on the earlier models) as well as the service procedure. My '99 Forester chewed through two oem sets in the first 59k miles -- replaced by two different Subaru dealers. The revised bearings have lasted much longer -- I replaced one last year that was making some noise with a Koyo bearing at around 120K miles (OEM bearings are NTN), and concluded that poor workmanship in installation was the cause of failure.

Yes, they measure exactly 1 3/4" x 1/4".

They're called spark plug well seals, and they do tend to leak. You can get them from 1stsubaruparts.com or from your local dealer. Felpro also sells a vc gasket kit that includes both gaskets and the sealing washers, but not the spark plug well seals. You don't need any special tools, just a 1/4" socket wrench and corresponding socket. There's also no need to drain the oil as most of it will be in the oil pan, though some will probably drip out from the heads so do keep a drain pan handy.

+1 for boot replacement, especially if you discover the tear in the early stages. I replaced both boths on the driver's side with the halfshaft still in the hub. Just make sure you put reassemble the inboard joint exactly the way it came out.

In addition to our forester, we have a '91 cherokee with 199K miles on the odometer, with the original timing chain that's making no noise. It's the tried and true straight six 4.0L so the timing chain is indeed quite short. On some Jeep forums, there are guys with over 300K miles on the original timing chain. The Automatic transmission and all other mechanical components are also flawless.

The right inner boot on my 99 forester splite open in 2005 at @ 90K miles. I was working overseas at the time so my wife had it replaced with a remanufactured unit -- don't know what kind the mechanic used but it has worked just fine. The left inner one failed almost exactly one year later at 107K miles, which I discovered almost immediatel so I replaced the boots. Although the plastic outer oem boots were fine and seem to hold up quite well, but decided to replaced them with neoprene aftermarket ones -- plastic ones are more difficult to seal without the proper tools. The oem NTN half shafts seem bulletproof, especially according to grossgary as you well know, so I felt it was worth it. I plan on rotating the front halfshafts, I replace a bad front wheel bearing to hopefully extend their service life. If the polished surfaces of the outer joint aren't pitted or rusty, why not just replace the boots. You may also want to replace the inner hub seal while you have things apart.

If you can get the lateral link bolt out, you're home free. I had to cut it off and replace both lateral link bushings in the process. If you get it out, put some antiseize on the bolt where it goes in the bushing collars and the knucke. I had a hub tamer and it was a breeze! Well worth the investment in my opinion, especially with a Subaru in your stable. After I replaced the loud rear wheel bearing, i can now hear that the front left one is also making some noise.

Replaced the bulb and the light still doesn't work. I just took the fuel gauge needle down several times on a recent road trip, and still nothing. I refilled with close to 15 gallons several times. Can it be that the sensor has failed? Are there electrical connections I should check? I know it's a minor issue but an annoying one nonetheless.

Is it possible that a front wheel bearing would also cause noise in the front? I just replaced a loud rear wheel bearing on my 99 forester as well. Now that the rear is quiet again, I notice what I believe to be noise caused by a failing front left wheel bearing. It's the same wump, wump at slower speeds and a roar at highway speeds (not necessarily when making "sweeping turns").

cool, thanks ferret! $1.49 for two 12v/60mA bulbs, which are shorter but are brighter than the oem ones. My car has orange coverings for on/off indicator bulb and none for illuminating bulbs -- the buttons themselves must have a green in them. It's a good idea to disconnect the battery or at least turn the ignition to off when removing and replacing the bulbs as it's very easy to short them out. I thought there might have been a short in the wiring, but I shorted a couple of the bulbs when removing them. Good thing I bought some spares.

I'm taking care of some annoying minor but annoying things on my 99 forester. The illumination on the cruise control switch, located on the dash below the left most vent along with the fog light and heated mirror switches, was out -- the orange on/of indicator light still worked. I took the switches out to find two tiny bulbs for each switch that screw in similarly to the bulbs in the instument cluster, except much smaller. The on/off bulbs have brown backs while the illuminating ones have black ones. I tried replacing the bad bulb in the cruise control switch with a working one from the heated mirrors switch to verify it was just a bulb issue, and it burned out the bulb? So now I have two bad bulbs. Two questions: The bulbs I need are marked TSN & and TSE on the plastic backs but look identical. Are they indeed different? And are these dealer only items?

Thanks. It was very simple (Bulb #158). To replace it I didn't need to remove the culster completely as the low fuel light bulb is very accessible on the the bottom corner. As you pull out the plastic visor, there are just two screws on top and a couple of hook pawls the bottom corners -- just pull outward and the bottom pops out. I'm taking care of annoying little things, and will post a question about some other bulbs in a separate thread.

I ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas because, as I just learned, the fuel light burned out. How difficult is it to pull the instrument cluster and replace the light?

Maintenance guidelines tend to be ultra conservative to account for the mutiple variables that contribute to engine life or death as it were. Much of these change intervals depends a good deal on your driving style. Timing belt: City or highway is one example, as the belt is under more stress under the load of frequent acceleration and deceleration than when it is not loaded at constant highway speeds. In stop and go driving, the engine also idles for longer periods of time while no miles are being registered on the odometer, and engine temperatures are also higher in city driving. Also if your wife has a heavy foot and floors the car from red light to red light around town, this also puts an unnecessary heavy load on the engine, transmission, and everything else, including the belt. If you have logged only 70K miles in 8.75 years, the assumption is that you doing a lot of city driving and not too much on the highway. Timing belts on all the cars that my family has owned have owned have far surpassed the factory maintenance guidelines in terms of both mileage and time, but I changed the belt out of my interference 2.5 SOHC at 105K miles for peace of mind. Oil is often changed prematurely. BMW recommends 15K-intervals, but they also charge you $100 so the dealerships are not losing out.

[quote name=MDW25gt Can the bearing be examined with out replacement? In other words, pull, clean, inspect relube and re assemble?[/quote] All four wheels need to be off the ground: As you rotate the wheel with one hand, you can feel vibration on the coil spring with the other if the bearing is bad. As a reference, you can check to see how the other wheels feel. I just replaced my rear wheel bearing after over 40K miles of the roar. There was never any play in the wheel even when I replaced it.

Okay, I had to finally cut the lateral link bolt off to do the job -- this was the most time consuming part of the job. I coated the bolt with antiseize upon installation. You can read about the ordeal in this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75218 The Hub Tamer "Master" Set worked just fine, even without some of the extra parts listed on the Subaru Kent-Moore tool kit. You'll have to improvise to pull the hub if you don't already have a hub puller kit and slide hammer, which I didn't, so I just slowly tapped it out from the inside with a forcing srew (#311811) from the kit. The inner race puller from the kit worked just fine -- just be careful not to scratch the hub in the process. Installation was simple. After the disc from the kit made contact with the housing, I used the old outer race to seat the new bearing. In case you're interested, I used the red Mobil 1 grease to repack the Koyo roller bearings I purchased from RockAuto. Remember not to overpack -- fill up about a third of the bearing space with grease. I also had a cheapy 19-piece seal driver set from Harbor Freight, which isn't great but did the job. Well the noise had gotten progressively worse and after a 1,300-mile road trip, figured I had pressed my luck long enough. Upon removal and inspection, the old NSK roller bearing looked fine, and none of the rollers appeard damaged. However, the outside rollers (next to the hub) were noisy while the inner ones were still silky smooth. The grease also appeared to be in decent shape, and the polished surface of my cv halfshaft was fine -- not pitted. My conlcusion is that poor workmanship caused the premature failure or perhaps my bearing housing or hub are out of round. Only time will tell. History: -Car purchased new by PO in 4/99 -Wheel Bearings replaced by dealer under warranty at ~30K miles (presumably with old ball bearings) -Wheel Bearings replaced by dealer with revised roller bearings at 59,347 miles in 10/03 -I purchased car in 5/04 with ~73K miles and heard a rhythmic noise from the rear right wheel. I rotated the tires and had them balanced, but the noise persisted from the same place. -Just replaced the rear right wheel bearing myself at 117,595. The rear left bearing is still smooth. This means that the roller bearings have lasted at least twice as long as the original ball bearings.

Okay, thanks for the friendly advice. I thought the pickel fork might do the trick, but there was not nearly enough clearance to get it wedged in between the bolt head and the washer. I tried an impact hammer to break the corrosion weld, then wacking away some more while bracing the the knuckle from behind with a 2x4 , but the dreaded bolt still wouldn't budge. In the end, I cut it off and destroyed both bushings in order to remove the darn thing. Thanks for the warning, I'll brace myself.