Cougar

I think you've got the idea now about being safe. A lot of people would still be be around if they stopped what they are doing, looked things over, and asked themselves "what if" before they started the activity. I'm glad you were shaken by this incident as you will probably think about this for the rest of your life in whatever you do that could cause an injury or worse. I think it is also a good idea to have someone else around when doing things like this just in case something does happen. Hopefully a rescue will get the person out of the situation without injury. Folks have died because there was nobody around to get them out of the situation. A commom thing I hate to see is people trying to work on cars on the side of the road close to the traffic lane. Especially on a highway. I think most of us have seen videos of close calls with non-attentive drivers. The person who does this is risking their life. They are counting on all the drivers seeing and a avoiding them. Is it worth the risk?

You most likely have bad solenoid contacts causing this to happen. The solenoid is mounted on the starter motor. It is the smaller round cylinder on the motor. The contacts can be replaced for a small amount of money. The symtoms are just the thing you are experiencing, a clicking but no action from the starter. The worn internal contacts won't pass the battery voltage to the motor windings because of the high resistance so the motor doesn't turn.

I think you need a scanner for OBD2 to do that.

An interesting observation I have made is that Subaru drivers seem to use their lights more than drivers of other cars.

Torxxx, It sounds like your radiator cap is not relieving pressure as it should if you are blowing hoses like that or, exhaust gases are getting into the coolant and building excessive pressure. Good to hear you made it back to Fairbanks ok.

You may be able to get a replacement from a local salvage yard. You should be able to splice a replacement in. If you feel up to it you should try doing it yourself. If I was doing this I would try using some none insulated butt splices and solder the wires to it and use heatshrink over the splice, then tape over all the connections. This is a pretty simple job so I wouldn't be afraid to do this if I were you. If you just don't want to do this yourself you should be able to contact a shop that does automotive electrical work and let them do it.

I would have liked to been there and meet you all. Perhaps next time one of these things happens again I will be able to make it. PS: If anyone is interested in a good set of studded snowtires mounted on the white spoke Jackman rims let me know. I am selling the set of 4.

Are you sure the larger relay is closing the contacts as it should? Does the coil have voltage getting to it when it should?

I can turn the lights off on my OBW by pulling the emergency brake handle up one notch. This may work the same for you also.

Welcome aboard and hope the new addition serves you well. As far as things to do you may want to get all the fluids changed or at least inspected so you know where you stand with them. I would also have the undercarridge checked for any problems.

I found out my wife set up a dinner meeting with some friends. Sorry, I won't be able to make it.

This may be a liability issue and you might want to contact a lawyer that handles such cases. If the airbag failed to deploy because a known problem you may have a case. I have not heard of any issuses with this though. Checking for TSB's about this may help. With the extended warranty you should be able to contact the company who provided it and tell them you want to cancel the remainder of the policy. They will prorate the remainder of the contract for a refund. You should be able to apply the money towards another contract for a replacement vehicle also. If the contract was through the dealer you may want to just get the refund and start another contract through your own insurance company. It is usually less expensive to do it that way.

This is just a guess on my part but it seems to me that the spring would go behind the pin. I say this assuming the spring pushed the pin out of place when you opened things up and the spring came out with the pin.

Welcome to the forum. Lots of good Subie info here and friendly advice to help keep our favorite mode of transportation going.

Good work on the problem. Thanks for the feedback.

I think this would be good but I do prefer the newer models more. This is just my personal preference. Hopefully you know the history of the Forester you are interested in.

I just got back to town and read about the meeting. Has anything been decided yet as to where this meeting is going to be? I may be able to attend if I feel up to it.

This does sound like a HG problem. You can get a block check done for a small amount of cash and this will tell you if that is the problem. The same kind of thing happened on my '88 GL-10. After the HG's were changed the coolant temperature didn't vary by much, and in all kinds of outside temperatures.

Have you checked for any codes stored in the ECU for clues to this problem?

Your welcome for the help David. Glad your back on the road again.

1. In my older model the switch was on the dome light. It had three positions. One of them kept the light from turning on. 2. Not sure about the actuators on your model but I would assume that you will have to do the same to it. 3. The vent door may be sticking and causing this to happen. It is controlled by vacuum lines I believe. If the vent door is ok then you should check the selector switch and make sure the vacuum line is working ok.

I think the problem you are having with the pump is due to the fact that the ignition is not working. If there is no ignition pulses being sensed then the fuel pump circuit is shut down. This is done for safety reasons. Have you checked all your fuses for a problem there? Also check the distributor and see if you have voltage getting to both sides of the coil with the ignition on, and if you get pulsing voltage on the minus side of the coil while cranking the engine. If you don't see any pulsing and have voltage, then you need to look at the distributor area for a problem with the pickup sensor.

Thanks for the feedback Scooby Dooo.

It sounds like you have something wrong in the distributor. You should see the voltage on the minus side pulsing when you try to start the engine. This pulsing helps generate the spark for the plugs.

I think what was stated about the middle number is incorrect. Using the size 175/70/13 for instance. The 70 represents a ratio for the sidewall, or 'profile' of the tire. The lower the number, the smaller the distance between the outside of the rim and the tread of the tire. So a 175/60/13 will be smaller viewed from the side. A lower profile will give better stability. Here is a description I copied that tells what the numbers mean. The following is an example to help to decode a tire size like 185/65R14 185 = tire width in millimeters, measured from sidewall to sidewall 65 = sidewall ratio, the ratio of sidewall height to tire width 14 = wheel rim diameter in inches