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FindingForester

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Posts posted by FindingForester

  1. "Trade-in" values apparently are always low.

     

    About six months ago our 98 Forester was rear-ended by an idiot paying more attention to her cell phone than to the fact that the lane she was driving in had a car in front of her doing about 20 mph less than she was going. The car was totaled. When we were haggling with the insurance adjuster over the value, I contacted the salesman at a dealer where we were considering buying a replacement from. He looked up the KBB value, which turned out to be the same figure as what I'd gotten online, around $9400 IIRC. He added that would be for a car in pristine condition, and most cars would sell for somewhat less. Then he said,"as a trade-in, we would've given you four thousand." Man, I nearly dropped the phone when I heard that.

     

    Essentially, when you trade in you're sacrificing a great deal of value in exchange for the convenience.

  2. The practices at a dealer's service department IMHO generally mirror the policies set by management. I've had good and bad experiences with dealer service (not just Subaru), from honest ones that do and charge for exactly what was needed, to ones that pad the bill by $20 to $30 with things like uncalled-for oil or windshield wash additives (funny how the additives don't seem to reduce the amount of oil or fluid they charge for). If management presses service writers to boost profitability, they'll try to sell services or goods that the customer doesn't need or doesn't need yet. Your best defense against this sort is knowledge.

     

    Most dealer service departments I've dealt with are good, but pricey. That's why it makes sense to know what services should be adequately handled by a good indie and which are best left to a dealer.

     

    As others have pointed out, many car owners don't know anything about their cars or are too busy to bother. They are the low-hanging fruit for many sellers of auto service, both indie or dealer.

  3. Hello ,just joined because we are about to buy our first Suburu, been toyota folk for 30 years....

    We are in a fairly remote area, so dont see many fo rsale. Today we drove a 98 Forester . Might get it for 5 grand or a little less?. It has 195k, head gasket changed recently. At what point in price valuation is it worth it to gamble on all of the 98's problems? ....(which we now know of thanks to spending 2 hours reading the archives of this forum!) It looks like the sort of vehicle we are looking for, and I wonder how likely it is to find the more recommended 99 for anything like $5,000? We'll need to decide soon, thanks! Del

     

    You could look on eBay motors; many of the Foresters seem to be going for lower prices than average. Yahoo has used car listings, and so does cars.com and a lot of other sites.

  4. My Forrester 2.5XT is losing oil at about 1 oz. per 100 miles. I've read some threads about dealers overfilling at oil changes. Is it possible this is to compensate for the oil usage? I'm using Penzoil 10W-30 and have changed oil at 3000 and 6700 with approximately 8000 on the car at present. Anyone have a solution or suggestions about normal Subaru oil usage?

     

    Are there any drips under the car?

  5. Yes, the compressor works fine just as before. The socket is what died—there is no voltage on the center pin.

     

    Thank you, ferret. I didn't know the circuit went through a relay and another fuse. I'll check fuse 4 next. The car does not have seat heaters (except for whoever sits in them).

     

    I hate troubleshooting an electrical problem without an electrical diagram. It's like trying to work on a piece of electronic gear without a schematic!

  6. You probably have an "open" somewhere between the fuse and outlet. I always suspect connections and plugs.

    Does anyone out there have a wiring diagram?

    Yes, it has to be an open somewhere. I just thought it really strange for it to open suddenly as though a fuse had blown, but for no apparent reason.

     

    If I can get my hands on a wiring diagram, I'll have some more options for troubleshooting this thing.

  7. The rear accessory socket in my 98 Forester went dead suddenly as I was adding some air to the tires and the spare. I had a little 12V air compressor going in it and it suddenly stopped after running about 15 minutes.

     

    Must be the fuse, I thought. I pulled the fuse (position 19--that is, lower right corner--behind the coin tray) but it was okay. I even plugged in a new fuse, and still the rear socket was dead. I checked and found 12 volts present on the hot fuse terminal, but there is nothing at the socket.

     

    Before I try to trace the wiring out, has anyone else experienced this? What was the culprit? Is there another fuse or a weak link somewhere in series with the socket?

     

    Thanks much!

  8. There's nothing wrong with switching over to synthetic at that mileage. Better now than never. Some people report leaks after doing so, but many do not. IMHO, there's no causality demonstrated. Several of my friends have switched their cars--of varying ages and mileages--over to synthetic oil and have not experienced any additional leaking or seepage.

     

    I switched to full synth (Mobil 1 or Castrol SynTec) in my VW Golf at about 50,000 mi and have been using it for over 180,000 miles. The engine does not leak or burn oil and still runs like new. When I live in a northern clime there was a marked improvement in starting on very cold winter mornings.

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