Gnuman

Blitz, that is actually a failure condition on the 4EAT. It is called "Excessive Slip". Diagnostics are similar to Torque Bind.

mattocs, Do this: put Post-it's at the bottom of each tire (on the sidewall). Have an outside observer watch you roll forward ten turns on any wheel. If all markers are within 2.5" of each others positions, you should be OK until you get tires. Bear in mind, however, that the mini spare is a lot thinner than a regular tire, and will wear amazingly fast. . .

Wheel berrings were redesigned in 03. If you have one go bad, you will get a replacement that reproduces that upgrade (this is a good thing). Yhe Forester is based on the Impreza platform, so it will have a slightly shorter wheelbase than the Outback, with similar power (same engine). This will make getting into tight parking spaces a bit easier. It is the tallest (except for the Tribeca) Subaru out there, so hualing tall things is easier (also big dogs). I have not heard much in the way of negatives with regard to the Forester, in particular. The main concern is the DOHC engine, if so equipped. Those were problematic, but not specific to the Forester.

Isn't it nice the way a bad dealership can turn, probably the best possable customer, into the kind that dealership "techs" complain about on thier coffee breaks? It is not all the fault of the tech, BTW. Management has a large part in the problems. If management does not enforce a policy of top notch customer service, then it simply will not exist. It sounds like you grew up in a dealership that did enforce such a policy. That is a breed that is sadly dwindling in numbers. . .

1 is false, 2 is true, 3 is true, 4 should not be an issue, 5: If you got the engine from Emily, talk to her about the timing belt. CCR is a very reputable company. They may have put one on for you, but I cannot even begin to speak for them. That may be in the area that they do not touch as the belt to use varies from state to state.

Interesting my FSM says Radiator fan function problem for P1502. . .

The solenoid is in the rear extension housing, which is removable with the tranny still in the car. The solenoid and the valve body should both be replaced, unless this is a '98 tranny. That year they used an improved valve body that resists the gumming up that happens with overheated tranny fluid.

NY, like several urban areas, have gone to a CA emission standard, to reduce the concentration of polutants in these areas.

I know where you can get a 1990 block. . . PM me and we'll see what we can do

Could you, perhaps, have a loose drive belt? If it is happening just as you start the engine. . . That would be a quick and easy fix. . .

depends on what you mean by "suck". The 4EAT sucks only by comparison to the rest of the car, which is stellar. Yes, the 5MT is more robust than any of the 4EAT trannies. but that is just the nature of any automatic transmission. Compared to other automatic transmissions it is a very good unit. What exactly are you asking for in the way of information?

So where do you plan to go with thiws? do you need a shop to do the work, or can it be done where you are? Do you have a replacement tranny to put in, or are you wanting the extension housing serviced (this can be done with the tranny still in the car)? Three things that may be going on here are that the solenoid may be gummed up, or bad. The valve body that the solenoid sits on may be gummed up and not allowing the oil pressure to drop, or the clutch rings may be bound to one annother. Taking the extension housing off (jack the car way up, drain the tranny, remove the exaust and driveshaft, as well as the heat shield that seperates the two, then remove the extension housing to gain access to the AWD section of the tranny. Work on this at a bench).

The problem is not that they check for the bulb (they do), but that they also check for codes. They will find them if the CEL is on, whether the bulb is in or not. It is less than $120 in gas to go to Belfast to get the codes checked. If the light is not going out, you have a problem that the ECU is not happy with, and is not going away. You need to fix this before it becomes a bigger problem.

The wire in question is inside the extension housing. I believe the signal to it is through pin 12 of the connector that is for the control signals (one connector is for the selector position, and the other one gives transmission info to the TCU, and sends control signals back to the tranny from the TCU. The connector we are looking for is the one whose harness goes into the left side of the tranny). Is that of any help?

My Subaru is not a Forester, buty I would be willing to bet that you will fall in love with your Subaru in fairly short order. My Subaru is one of those that are examples of why you will come to love your Subaru. I got the car just over a year ago with only 136K on the odometer. Look below for the current reading. . . In all that time, I have done very little in actual repair costs, compared to the upgrades I've done. Most of the maint/repair has been oil changes, in fact, because I use a 3K interval. IIRC, your owner's manual calls for more than twice that. With that little in the way of service done to the car, it still gets 27MPG on the highway (with the cruise set at 85MPH), and tops out wh3en the ECU cuts fuel at 115MPH (it is also rock stable at that speed. Feels like most cars at 90). Add to that the offroad capability, and general hualing. What you have at the end of all this is a car with so much raw capability that you don't dare try and say what it cannot do. You will find that as soon as you do, someone will do just that with the car.

Barring issues, a day should be plenty of time for the job. Less than 4 hours if all goes well. That time is without rushing anything either.

OK, thanks. do you know the actual install depth for the front doors? how much depth do I have to work with there? There are several speakers i could go with but I need the depth to be sure. . .

Take it to the dealer. that sounds like a mechanical failure that will only get worse if not attended to quickly

really. I never rev that low. . .

There is no way in hell that that answer flies. It may have flies, but that is something else alltogether. . .

that is not a dumb question. Actually there is no such thing as a dumb question, except the one you did not ask. so ask away, if you have any questions about your Forester. We will be glad to answer them. Oh, and that hose is actually a signal cable from the ABS sensor to tell the ABS computer whether the wheel is turning. It is large because they try to protect that wire as best they can, as no signal from that cable tells the the computer that the wheel is not turning, and it would disable that brake. . .

So the front mount depth is 1"? drats. most of the speakers I liked were around 2". . . I figured that the rears would not have much in the way of mount depth issues. Also do you have any opinions on the head unit in question?

OK, first off the alt is not on the same belt as the A/C, and the testing was done at 2K RPM. Belt tension was OK (no slipping at all), so that leaves low output. I'm a bit concerned that the A/C draws close to 40A, but that is something I'll have to deal with later. My car has almost all of the widgets: Good stereo, PW, PS, PB, AC, PDL, PM. . . My headlights stay on. Of those, only the AC, and maybe the PW would be an issue for draining the battery while driving. The brakes and steering are driven by the engine , not the battery, and are always there, so the ECU compensates for them at or near idle. Perhaps the stereo, but I do not see that as very much of a drain (it is an OEM stereo, and only 4x20W at that. Now if I kept it turned up to max. . . But I don't.) So I see the alternator putting out sub-par current as the most reasonable solution. My guess is that it contributes to the overheating by letting the battery discharge to the point that the reference voltage changes to the point that the ECU does not know it is overheating.

The CD player in my 92 Legacy is acting up, and I suspect bad power. I think that the alt is going out, and not producing enough power to run the main systems (lights on all the time, heater fan, Engine controls) at low RPMs (below 2K RPM). and even above those engine speeds, charging of the battery is slow as output is going. I had the output of the alt tested a while back, and it showed 40A witheverything off @ 2K RPM. Showed near 0 with A/C, lights, etc on. I'm thinking real hard about getting a new (reman) alt to see if this corrects anything. If it does, then my stereo upgrade will be put off for a while. Otherwise, I'm going to be in the market for some ICE. I'm looking at this unit in particular: http://www.pyleaudio.com/itemdetail.asp?brand=pyle&cat1=Car%20Audio&cat2=Radios&model=PLCDUSB78MP3 Can anyone tell me anything about this company (general quality, service, etc), or this unit (is it any good?) Big on my list are the USB input to play files from USB storage media, AUX input, and the general sound quality from the unit. I'm also thinking of upgrading my speakers. are they all 6.5" round? (I think I remember them being so), and what depth will the standard mounting locations take? I'm not considering adding any big amp boxes to the cargo area, or mounting in any locations other than the OEM ones, nor do I need the ability to blow the windows out of the car. I just want real good sound, with as many options as I can get for input methods. If I can get one cheap enough, I may go for the DVD version of this unit, and mount a flip down monitor for the display. That way the folks in the back seat can watch videos while going down the road, and I can watch them when I'm parked, with the seat laid back. . . Yeah, right. I'd have to get a really good deal to do that. . .

Bump and update with a few guesses: It happened again yesterday, the temp guage went to just below redline. I popped the hood and the fans were not running! Looking back, i would guess that if the alt was going, I would have been in a low voltage situation each time. I had the alt tested a while ago, and it showed 40A to the battery, with the A/C, and headlights off. With the A/C on, it showed near 0A. I'm guessing that the alt is weak (on the way out), and the times that the car overheats is when the voltage is low, giving one of two causes: 1) with the low voltage, the temp guage to the ECU does not have the range to show an overheat. 2) the ECU tries to turn on the fans, but there would not be enough power left over so it leaves them off (yeah, this is a long shot in the dark). Aside from that, perhaps the temp sender to the ECU is bad, or maybe the one to the guage. Should probably replace both to be sure. Along with the alt. Am I nuts to suspect the alternator as the cause of my various problems on the car? the overheating is one. I also have problems with the CD player skipping badly. I'm thinking that there is simply not enough juice to run it right (power is dropping out, but that is annother thread)