hohieu

Heat production is directly proportional to the coeffecient of friction. At a very general level, when you use your brakes, you're converting kinetic energy into thermal energy (heat). The main advantage of ceramic pads is not improved braking performance but lower NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) and less noticeable dusting, which are the main complaints of your average driver and, therefore, a major source of comebacks in the automotive repair business. Ceramics insulate heat (and noise), so your rotors actually run hotter with a ceramic pad vs. a semi-metallic one. Many manufacturers add copper to their ceramic friction compounds in order to improve heat dissipation. This is misconception about ceramics providing performance advantage is mainly due to the successful marketing campaigns of brake pad manufacturers. Ceramic pads tend to cost more and the profit margin is higher. I've tried several different ceramic pads and have concluded that I prefer high quality semi-metallic pads. I can live with the extra dusting. As for the brake lube question, I think piston boots and slide pins, particularly on Akebono calipers with the rubber bushing on the lock pin, require a dedicated lubricant. A solid lubricant such as Permatex Ceramic, Moly grease, or anti-seize is good for the pad contact points and backing plate, areas where washout is a concern. On the sealed areas of the caliper, washout is not a concern, and this is where I think you need a dedicated lubricant that will not swell rubber and compromise the sealing points and that will stand up to the heat of a braking system.

This is the stuff you want for those rubber bushings on the caliper lock pin. They're also generously smeared on the piston boots prior to assembly at the factory. The stuff holds up, whereas everything else I've tried has vaporized under the heat and stress of braking components. In addition, they've gummed up and and swelled the rubber bushings that grossgary mentions. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=128421&highlight=niglube

Definitely 18mm. Spark plugs sizes are either 14mm or 18 mm. I think the only question is whether you want to get the shorter or longer anti-fouler -- either one will work.

Yes, it's an interference engine: this is true for all Subaru 2.5L engines. However, more vehicle history (mileage and service history) and info. will be necessary to determine whether he'll need a new engine, valve job. A peek underneath the plastic timing cover (front driver's side of engine) will tell you much of what you'll need to know. Most people will tell you it's cheaper to put in another engine, either used or rebuilt so you'll have to check to see what machine shops in your area charge for valve jobs to determine whether it's worthwhile to fix it. But you'll need to pull the heads off before you know whether there's any damage to the piston(s) as well.

Sorry to hear of your trouble. Let us know what you find under there. Many on here will help very good advice for you. At this point, I guess the question is whether you replaced all the idlers or just the tensioner assembly. As mentioned in this thread and many others, it's the cogged idler that tends to fail. Usually, some coolant starts to leak out of the weep hole to warn of impending H20 pump bearing failure. I've read on this board that the H20 pumps on the 2.5L were more robust and that some weren't replacing them at the 1st T-belt service; however, I'm inclined to believe that extended H20 pump life has has more to do with lower phosphate/silicate coolant formulations. I have the same car and replaced only the H20 pump and cogged ilder (along with seals and the oil pump 0-ring) at the first T-belt replacement. I now have over 170K miles on the car.

Agreed! It's a real pity because I really like the 1st generation Forester.

Original Equipment Supplier: They provide the parts for Subuaru OEM.

Thread resurrection here: but I just wanted to update current offerings from two different 2.5 SOHC kits I recently purchased for a '99 Forester w/ 190K and a '00 Legacy w/ 112K. I bought a kit for my car a few months ago from FCP Groton, which no longer sells parts for Japanese cars -- only European ones: - GMB idlers made in Korea (smooth idler is single rowed as opposed to double rowed OEM (Koyo) bearing -- I think even Subaru OEM has switched to a single rowed bearing w/ a revised bolt) - GMB tensioner assembly made in Taiwan - Mitsuboshi timing beling made in Thailand I bought OEM seals & t-stat and an Aisin H20 pump to supplement this kit -- Gates or Stant Exacto stat would also have been fine. Just last week I ordered this kit for my friend's car: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300442415810?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 I'll be doing the work as a favor and wanted to go with OES components because I didn't want to be responsible for the possibility of any problems: - NSK cogged idler and single rowed lipped idler, double rowed Koyo bearing (all made in Japan and identical to OEM) - NTN tensioner assembly made in Japan) - crank and cam seals not Viton but made in Japan - Aisin H20 Pump w/ vulcanized metal gasket, & t-stat gasket (all made in Japan) - Mitsuboshi timing belt made in USA that looks identical to my Thai belt. - Bando accessory belts made in USA - MotoRad "high performance" t-stat made in Israel which will go in my ultra high performance made-in-China trash can. All told, I'm paying about 30%/$100 bucks more for the OES idlers, tensioner, and belt made in the USA. Not all that much money in the long run, but going with the less expensive parts for the 2nd t-belt service on my 13-year-old Forester doesn't bother me, knowing that in all probability they'll work just fine and that I may have to pull things apart to do the head gaskets at some point between 210K and the 3rd scheduled service at 315K -- that is if the body doesn't rot out during that time.

I finally found time to do a few things on the car -- replaced oil & filter, cabin & air filters, and spark plugs. The engineers made these tasks very easy to perform on the straight 6, or so called "slant six," especially for a 3.0 L packed tightly into relatively small chassis. I've had plenty of experience with other cars where the engineers didn't seem to put much thought or care into how folks would maintain and repair their final products. The last oil fill was in service for 17.5K miles, and consumption was probably the 2 qts. that I added as I doubt the po ever topped off. The filter cartridge still looked good (no sludge). All I need to do now is to find some time to do the clutch.

So it's a done deal -- less than $3K after title and tag transfer fees and tax. It just needs a cleaning and a new clutch along with some routine maintenance.

Thanks. That's a lot of great info. Can he suggest any good forums? The only reason I'm even considering this car is because I'd be buying at the low end of trade-in value. The throw-out bearing is in the early stages of failure. It makes noise only with the clutch pedal depressed to the floor. Otherwise, it drives great with no engine or drivetrain noises. So I may just be catching this car at the right time. Your friend is really on the ball. The light came on after I took it through some twisties to check out the suspension. The oil was last changed about 17K miles ago, but with a 7-qt. sump, I'm not too worried -- just normal consumption. The inspection is from 11/11 so you're probably right that they didn't want to pay for whatever the dealer mandated in order to pass. As I looked through their records, I saw that they charged them around $1200 to replace the rotors and pads a few years ago. Along with some other pretty routine work, that total bill was over $2200 alone.

Thanks, Gary. I wish there were a one-stop resource like USMB for other makes. As so often happens with my other cars, I have to sort through so much crap to get any decent info.; and much of the time there's none to be had. I had a friend who worked at a local BMW dealership who said that those Bavarian engineers don't trust their mechanics to do anything. If there's any major transmission or engine work that needs to be done, they just replace the whole shebang.

I'm thinking about picking up this used 5-sd. manual transmission BMW with 112K miles for my wife. The car has been dealer serviced, though BMW's maintenance protocols do not call for much of it. The throw-out bearing is making noise, so it needs a new clutch asap, as well as new front brake pads & rotors and some other routine maintenance, but I can do these things myself. During my test drive, however, the oil light came on and stayed on for last mile or so. I had to add two full quarts to get the oil back up to "full." After some poking around on the net, I learned that this car has both an oil level and oil pressure sensor, and I believe that it was the light for the former that I saw. I'm thinking (hoping) that the engine should be fine because the car has a 7-qt. sump . What are your thoughts? Does anyone have experience with keeping a used BMW going? Is it true what that say that "only a rich man can afford to own a used BMW?" I'm certainly not a rich man, but I can do all the work myself. And I've seen that decent quality aftermarket parts for this car aren't too expensive. Am I being foolish in even considering buying this car or should I go ahead and do something nice for my other half?

Coolant temp. sensor is also easy to replace. Does it stumble only after the engine has reached operating temp.? If so, the car may be running in open loop and, thus, running too rich. Do you smell unburned gasoline from the exhaust? If you're having power issues at higher rpm as alluded to in your original post, then it may very well be a defective knock sensor, as suggested by Fairtax, that is causing the engine to run in safe mode in order to forestall serious engine damage. Either way, both parts are relatively inexpensive and easy to replace.

Thanks for the good report. I'm glad to hear that some routine maintenance resolved your issues.

I suppose the chug-chug-chug you describe could be a slipping clutch. Does the tach skip around when this happens? In other words, does the engine seem to be racing when these symptoms appear?

It doesn't sound like a clutch issue -- more like a fuel or ignition issue. When was the last time you replaced the fuel filter?

Unless you're replacing the ball joint, I wouldn't touch it. As mentioned, remove the sway bar linkage bolt; then remove the pinch bolt at the pivot point of the lower control arm. There's enough flex in the rear bushing of the lower control arm to remove the half shaft from the transmission.

If there are balls inside the inner joint, then you right: it's a DOJ, and maintaining original orientation of the component parts is unnecessary.

1)Ah, sorry for the confusion. Yes, by housing, I'm referring to the outer race. 2)All half shafts use plunging joints for the inner joints that allow for axial movement for steering and suspension movement. There are several varieties: the double offset joint (DOJ), the tripod joint (TJ), and the free ring joint (FRJ). The front inner ones made by NTN for my '99 Forester are an improvement on the FRJ, which they call a Shudderless Free Ring Joint (SFJ). The rear half shafts ones are equipped with double offset joints (DOJ). I know that many people call all inner joints DOJs, but they are indeed different and as mentioned, the more generic term would be "plunging joint." Here's a link with photos of a DOJ and an SFJ: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1377786 Shoot me a pm with your email, and I can send you the pertinent PDFs. 3) Yes, we're talking the same language here.

Unless it's relatively new, you may want to replace the inboard boot as well, especially if it's the right half shaft. In my experience, the inboard boots fail more often than the outer ones on Subarus. You'll need to mark the inboard (SFJ) joint at several locations in order to maintain the same orientation of assorted parts during reassembly: 1) A line from the housing onto the shaft, you line these marks up when you reassemble the housing back over the trunnion. 2) The free rings should remain in their original orientation. They're hard to mark because of the grease so after I've wiped things down, I usually wrap some duct tape around the trunnion to prevent them from falling out. 3) With a cold chisel or etching tool, mark the orientation of the trunnion over the shaft after removing the snap ring. A couple other notes: 1)You should drive the spring pin in/out from the chamfered side. 2) I see you're also doing ball joints, so I would break the axle nut loose and then retighten a bit before hammering away on the ball joint. 3) I just did the ball joints on my '99 Forester, and the pinch bolt on the left side was a bear (the other one came right out). Penetrating oil, heat, impact wrench... nothing could budge it. After the fact, I read a helpful suggestion on this board about pre-drilling a small hole into the threaded section of the bolt. You'd be doing this from the rear of the knuckle. The theory is that this allows for a degree of torsional flex while you try to break it loose and avoid snapping the bolt. The pinch bolt is an M10 x 1.25 and can be had from from the dealer or Autozone (at least my local one stocked it).

I'm glad you figured it out and that the "CEL" pointed you in the right direction. Maybe the wiring was damaged somehow and removing it was the last straw. Silicone will also poison O2 sensors. Any reason you were spraying silicone around while things were apart?

Timken and National Bearing Companies have historically been suppliers to the domestic market, hence much of their stuff has been and may still be produced using machinery set up for standard measurements. Sometimes the conversions to their metric equivalents aren't quite precise enough. Beck and Arnley seals would also work. B/A specializes in aftermarket parts for foreign cars and sometimes source their parts from OEM suppliers. I've used the freezer method for seating bearings, but this shouldn't be necessary as the seals for the rear knuckle should go in rather easily. Oh, and pack only about 1/3 of the bearing free space with a decent grease. Overpacking risks overheating the bearing and blowing out the seals.

What kind of seals do you have? I once tried using Timken for the front knuckle and they were slightly too big.

14459 doesn't have an anti-drainback valve; 14460 does. And this may account for the difference in design of the end caps. Many other makers of filters for Subarus will include this valve in order to cover different applications. I'm guessing that the 14459 lacks the valve because as a former OEM supplier, Purolator made this filter specifically for Subaru.