hohieu

I have 55K on mine and suffer from the same symptons. They have good deal of tread left but are also extremely noisy at this point -- will probably replace them soon.

Is this Viton better than the other two elastomers?

Right, Subaru makes no such claims for the oem seals in question, and I agree that you should never buy lifetime brake pads. I was referring to someone on this forum who reiterated what their mechanic told them about the seals when they went in for the timing belt service. In any case, does anyone know why they switched from a black rubber compound to brown? My new oil filler cap seal is also brown.

Just finished with timing belt replacement and all the other little bits on my forester: 1)Timing Belt (NAPA) 2)Toothed Idler Pulley (OEM-NSK) 3)Cam Seals and Front Crank Seal (OEM-Nippon Reinz) 4)Oil Pump o-ring (and reseal w/ Permatex Ultra-Gray RTV) 5)Alternator Belt (OEM – Mitsuboshi) 6)A/C Belt (OEM _ Gates) 7)Water pump (Aftermarket-GMB), Thermostat (OEM), + coolant conditioner Everything I replaced was working just fine – the only items that showed real wear were the accessory belts (items 5 & 6). 1) The marks on the NAPA Belt lined up just right on the crankshaft and the right (passenger’s) cam sprocket and a hair outside of the notch on the left cam sprocket. Contrary to what my manual states (40.5 and 44), the tooth count was 43.5 and 47 – thanks to Jam11 for clearing this up for me in a previous post. I am accustomed to changing t-belts on Toyota and Honda inline fours, and it was very nice to have all that extra room to work and to not have to jack the engine up to remove and replace the belt. To break the crank bolt, I used a 16” , ½ “ drive breaker bar and a pipe extension. To keep the crankshaft still, I wedged a factory jack and a 2x4 between the brake pedal and the steering wheel and put the car into 5th gear. Crank Bolt is 22 mm; cam bolts are 17mm. I didn't have too much of a problem but watching the breaker bar bend as I cranked the bolt off was a little scary. I taped a piece of cardboard to the back of the condenser to avoid potential damage. 2) Toothed idler was fine at 105K, no noise or leaking grease, but I replaced it anyway for peace of mind. All the others were fine as well. 3) The old seals hadn’t started leaking – they were black in color. Replacements were brown, and I’ve read that these will last for the life of the car. I used a screwdriver to gently pry out the old seals. Thanks to bearbalu for the tip on using plumbing couplings as drivers for the cam and crank seals, 1” and 1 1/4”, respectively. 4) Oil pump was leaking just a little bit. The screws on the backplate were firmly in there so I left them alone. One little snag – I installed the crank seal while I had the oil pump out and had a heck of time working it back over the snout of crankshaft during oil pump installation. The lip of the seal would get turned inside out, even with some moly paste on the inside lip. I finally got it to go in by using a 1” pvc coupling to guide the seal square over snout. My suggestion would be to either install the seal after the oil pump has been assembled or if you decide like me that it’s easier to drive in the seal while you have the oil pump out, practice the reinstall a few times before you apply the ultra-grey rtv -- this stuff sets very fast. Also, there are a couple of rubber strips that fit into two grooves of the oil pump and seal up the gaps between it and the engine block -- be careful not to lose them. You can push them into place after you've installed the the oil pump. Items 5 &6 were straight forward. 7) The old water pump was in good shape – no play at all in the bearings – clearance between the cast impeller and the housing were within spec. The new GMB pump has a stamped impeller. I'll let you know if I encounter any problems with the aftermarket pump. Thanks to everyone for all the invaluable advice and information. This board rocks! It was a hot and humid day on the old east coast, but now I can rest easier with my interference engine!

My experience with Toyotas of the 80s and early 90s has been terrific -- only standard maintence items. I hope your RAV4 serves your well. I have a 99 Forester that's had the rear wheel bearings replaced twice in the first 59,000 miles -- this is a crying shame. Taper bearings were installed at the second replacement, and I'm now above 105K -- my fingers are crossed. Headgasket isssue is also a crying shame. That said, if you like engines and work on them, the boxer engine is something to get excited about. I must admit that I now have a weakness for them. Subaru's AWD is also tried and true -- hence you see them everywhere in places such as Vermont and Colorado. I think that Toyota makes great utilitarian cars, and it sounds like you really get around. Good luck!

Subaru recommends anaerboic type sealant, but the ultra-grey RTV type sealant works fine -- just don't overdo it. That Subaru goop seems to work quite well in sealing small leaks with no adverse effects on the cooling system -- . Some dealers really jack up the price so you might want to check online for better (Part# SOA635071). My local dealers wanted $8 and $12 bucks, respectively, for something that lists for $1.39! If you have a manual, you can put it into 5th gear and have somesome stomp on the brake while the old belt is still one there. Your method also works. As for the coolant, I've used Havoline Dexcool with no problems -- any other long life coolant works the same way but without the liscensing to push up prices. Zerex is great. Hieu

May as well check all these things while you have the front of the engine apart. Permatex ultra-grey seems to be the gasketmaker of choice, and use some medium loctite (blue) on the screws. Be careful not to scratch the cam/crank shaft ends when you do the seals -- a little oil on the ouside circumference and moly grease on the inside lip also helps. You're really playing it safe. Usually only the toothed idler goes. You could inspect the other two and if all is well, you could save the new ones for the next time around. Same could be said for the tensioner. Heater and radiator hoses tend to last quite a long while. If they're not soft and and spongy, you might want to wait a couple coolant changes before replacing all the rubber. Also remember to dump that Subaru coolant conditioner into your cooling system (recall WWP99) -- subaru's preventive for external headgasket leaks -- which also seals any stubborn leaks around your cooling system fittings. You might want to go to mysubaru.com and check to see if there are any open recalls on your OBW. Cam sprockets are fine unless they're excessively worn or scarred. As for your removal of the cam sprockets, next time you might want to crack the cam pulley bolts before removing the old belt to save you the hassle of having them move. Good luck.

Hey Gary, There's a resistor that tends to fall off, and it's a rather simple fix. You just need to take the clock out and reattach it (probably the "510" one) with a soldering iron. Even if it's still attached, the solder joints may be cracked. Be careful as you take the clock apart not to lose any of the buttons or the resistor itself. You can do some further reading in this post: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14124

If your car has a manual trans., you can stick it in 5th gear and have someone stomp on the brakes while you torque it down or lock up the flywheel at the starter whole, but the latter requires more work. If you have an automatic trans., you could use chain vise-grips and a section of the old old belt to protect and steady the pulley while you torque things down. Finally, there is the more expensive option of buying the special tools.

Like Cookie said, there is a bridgewire on the back of the front socket to prevent a possible fire in the front dash -- it's "L" shaped. You can replace with 60/40 solder or regular copper wire if you don't use it for a cigarette lighter.

Looks great, Bobbie. I think you'll be very happy with it. With all those pups, find that it's very usable, lockable, waterproof storage. Don't know how it really affects mileage. On our last road trip, we got over 28 m/gal (1080 miles/38.149gal.) with the box and car fully loaded with gear and our two 70-lb. labs. Coincidentally, it was the best milelage we'd ever gotten with our 99 forester -- perhaps had something to do with new gas formulation as MTBE was fully phased out. Have fun on the road!

Right, it's an aqueous solution unlike the pellets in Prestoned stop leak. In the global economy of mergers and subsidiaries, it's hard to figure out what you're getting sometimes.

There was an ammendment to the owner's manual sent out with the recall notice that reads: "Important: To prevent cooling system leaks, always add Genuine Subaru Cooling System Conditioner (Part No. SOA635071) whenever the coolant is replaced." I am wondering if any of our European members havehad any experiences with Holts RadWeld (a British Subsidiary of Prestone/Honeywell), which is rebadged as the "Genunine Subaru" goop. Is it any different from the Prestone products on the market? I have over 100k miles on the odm so the extended warranty is moot at this point. I'll be replacing the coolant in my car soon and am just curious about these "miracle" cure products. As a side note, my local dealers want $8-$12/bottle for an item that lists for $1.39 -- so should source the stuff online.

As per WWP99 coolant recall on SOHC 2.5 L engines, I had the "Genuine Subaru Coolant Conditioner," dumped in my 99 forester almost 30K miles ago. Now the question is whether I I should follow SOA's advice to dump another bottle of the stuff in when I replace the coolant. The stuff is rebadged Radweld(I think), made by Holts of the U.K., a division of Prestone. On the Holts webpage, they claim the following for this product: - permanently seals radiator leaks - unaffected by antifreeze - contains rust inhibitors - safe for use with rubber hoses I know of one incident in which this stuff gooped up the weep hole of the water pump, which caused more neglect of failing pump bearings and serious engine damage as a consequence of overheating. This is probably avoidable with pre-emptive (regular) maintenance and unlikely with the low silicate/phosphate coolants on the market. In the 2.5 L engines, most of us replace our water pumps at the time of timing belt service, before they ever become problems. Has anyone had any bad experiences with this genuine goop?

Glad to hear you worked it all out. A belt that is a little loose wouldn't cause your AC to degrade. Is it squeaking? Depending on how many miles are on the belt, you may just need to tighten things up. You'll also need to do the same with your new PS/Alt. belt in 500 miles or so after it has stretched. Don't overtighten, though, because this will cause undue wear on your bearings.

Sounds like your Power Steering/Alternator Belt is loose or worn -- one belt drives both pulleys. If this is, in fact, the case, it should not cost very much to fix: $10 for the belt and 1/2 hour worth of labor.

I've been away all weekend and haven't been able to chime in, but it occurred to me that Thule also makes one called the Cascade 1100 that would have worked. In any case, glad you finally got it all squared away. Okay, you have the bigger box. I was assuming that you were having problems with the Frontier 1100.

Bummer. The soft bags are easier to store, but it does have certain drawbacks: 1) not waterproof as you mentioned, 2) More difficullt to pack and unpack (3) Not really lockable. The hard cargo boxes are nice because you can lock your stuff up and pack or unpack things as you need them. The lid flips up providing easy access to all your stowed items. We keep our dog food up there on road trips, and it's nice to have things dry and accessible.

I am assuming that you mean the rear hatch of your car. Couldn't you mount the box farther toward the front of your car? We have no problems with our Forester hatch.

Yes, Bobbie. It's mounted closer to the passenger side and opens up from that side as well. The square boxes open up from the rear and are a bit more of a hassle to load. A longer box also gives you more versatility -- many people use them for skis (hence the sitings by fastwgn286 in "mountain towns"), and you can fit a bike carrier or canoe on your roof rack simultaneously.

You may need the extra storage, but we purchased a Thule Frontier Box (11 cubic ft.) from Pep Boys for our '99 Forester. The longer boxes like this one are much easier to load and unload from the passenger side. It is also relatively light, a little over 30 lbs, and, therefore, easy to mount. Price was $200. Our two labs take up the rear of the car, and we have been very happy with our carrier during camping trips.

For your engine, 2.5 DOHC: 4 cam seals 1 crank seal o-ring between oil pump and engine block thermostat + seal I know you want to order from Pep Boys, but many recommend OEM for the preceding parts. Water pump, T-belt, idler pulley (usually only the toothed one ever needs replacing) can be sourced in the aftermarket. Good luck.

Hello All, I just removed the wiper control stalk from the steering column of my 99 Forester S. I read in a previous thread that the S trim should allow for some adjustment of the delay. Is this true for all model years? I'm having some trouble figuring this thing out -- any help would be great. Thanks

The 99 Outback 2.5 L DOHC does not fall into the headgasket recall, which entails dumping a small bottle of coolant conditioner (sealer) into the radiator. This treatment only works for external gasket leaks common to the 2.5 L SOHC engine found in MY 2000- legacies and MY 1999- Foresters. However, the first generation 2.5 L DOHC engines are prone to leak internally - between coolant chamber and cumbustion chamber. You can do a search on "headgaskets" and find a lot of useful info. Some believe in preemptive replacemnet, but you'll need to decide for yourself. Vibration may be out of balance wheels. In any case, the prices you've quoted seem a pretty high: $1000 for cv axles shafts and $395 for valve cover gaskets. Perhaps the dealer is using new rather than rebuilt cv axle shafts. While I was out of the country, my wife had a cv axle shaft replaced on our 99 forester with a rebuilt unit for around $170 including parts and labor. Good luck.

Hey Pascal, It should be a flat washer. Good luck. Hieu