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We get a lot of engines and some folks get what we call clips. If you bought the front of a Japanese home market Subaru and you are wondering what to do to service it, just the usual stuff. The engines and cars from Japan I have seen in Kiwi were quite well maintained.

very interesting.

take a piece of wire and run it from the positive battery terminal to the small wire on the solenoid. Make sure you are in neutral or park first. If it still does not turn over it is internal in the solenoid or starter, if it does it is switch or connection.

about speed limiters? I think my BMW is limited to 155 or so becuse of rules for Germany. If it true that there was a deal with the Green party to limit top speeds of production cars in trade for not putting a speed limit on the autobahn, or is this urban legend?

most manufacturers will step up to the plate. Ford did a whole lot of head gaskets on those V6s a few years back, and they sure did a bunch of Firestones didn't they? GM replaced the entire engine 20,000 miles off warranty on an early V6 for a fleet car I was in charge of. Frankly I am glad to see Subaru recognise this problem. Like many folks when I had the dealer do my head gaskets the techs admitted they saw a lot of them. If they do a couple a week I wonder what percentage of Subarus they sell that is? Even if it is 10% it is too much. On the Mazda we have in Kiwi the dealer gave us a new head gasket on warranty and called us to come down and get it. I thought that was pretty nice.

the shade on those head gaskets! At this point I can' remember wether I spent $5,000 or $6,000 to bring mine up to the condition that it should have left the factory in. This coming year it will get new struts and I will probably do the brakes while I am in there.

did you see the post that Subaru is finally going to do something about our head gaskets? It is a bit too late for me and a number of others but it looks like they had it fixed way before yours came out. I don't think its fair that you get the best beer and the best Subarus!

is standard stuff you fit for off road. Jeeps need all the help they can get on road, if they are lifted they really need it. Off road you pull a couple of pins and get the droop you need to get good traction.

part of a modern suspension. It controls body lean in corners and can have a huge effect on high speed handling. At low speeds and off road you would not notice much. Most folks would agree it really is a safety item.

maybe a bit late for me and many others, but this will help folks for sure! I was also interested in 2 Outback's reply as I had the clutch sticking to the floor defect. I followed the TSB and replaced hose, slave and washers. Still not enough volume and replaced the master and it is cured. I wonder how many folks had that problem? I really like the car to drive and this makes it worth the problems to me.

I alredy paid for my replacement head gaskets and I hope it was not issued at that time.

It sounds like a bad connection or a battery with an internal short. Since I have seen about 100 bad connections and only one battery with an internal short brand new I say connection. Pop them off, clean with a battery terminal cleaner, set the connector to the correct size and tighten securely. I would say any idiot could do this correctly, but apparently one did not.

I have not heard from Aussie friends and Kiwi relatives about Forester, Outback, or legacy problems at all. As I say I think you got the good ones with the reliable engines and I quite envy you. My brothers inlaw have maybe seven Subarus between them. Jed owns two and Norm owns a rental outfit in Queens town and I am not sure how many he has today. Since they are fine skiing cars he always has several. Jeds legacy wagon has a bit less power with the smaller engine but it has been as solid as a rock and no unusual problems at all. I would trade in a minute for the less power of the 2.2 for the fine reliability. Hopefully by the time you folks got the 2.5 they got it ironed out.

approach. I think this is dependent on your situation. I am just doing shock mounts on my BMW and the shocks are about half gone and so are the brake pads. So I am doing pads, shocks, mounts, and front struts. I don't plan to get under the car for another five years. Your choice, On my Forester at 89,000 I had a head gasket leak so I had head gaskets, oil pump seals, water pump, crank seal, tensioner, and belts. I may not have that sucker apart on the engine front for as long as I own the car.

I am a Forester owner not an Outback, but you have the most expensive stuff covered I think.

just so I could leave that end together for a long time.

I would say I found at least 100 engines that the valve clearance had tightened on. Many of the engines I worked on had hydraulic lifters so most of them you did not measure at all other than during assembly. I saw quite a number that had loosened also. I would agree also with the statement made that two folks in a row can get slightly different measurements out of an engine. The good thing about them is that there is a tolerence built in. As long as there is running clearance they will work.

are related to cold weather. The clutch shudder is far worse in cold weather, the piston slap was really loud on mine this AM as it is cold. Many of the head gaskets on the latest ones start to leak when it is sub zero. I am hoping that by the time your 03 came down the line they had addressed many of these issues as Subaru knew about them for several years. A lot of these are not just Forester issues, but 2.5 issues. I still envy the Kiwis and Aussies that had the good old reliable engines in thier foresters till just lately.

young age that they must do everything in thier power to impede traffic. We now issue them with cell phones to make driving exciting.

I have a 99 that had every named issue except wheel bearings. Lucky me. I got to experience them all first hand!

people have noticed ill effects from using synthetics in high mileage engines. If you have 100,000 miles on a BMW engine its weak spot is rattling cam chain tensioners. If you add a synthetic to an old one the guys say the cam chain noise gets far worse. I am a believer in syns for a low mileage engine, my BMW has 27,000 miles and gets the BMW syn. This will be the first car I try to run syn in for its whole life. My 100,000 mile Subie gets the finest dino and fairly frequent oil changes.

you might have some leakage there as it is pretty normal for an old Subie. You only noticed the pressure being a bit low because you added the newer and thinner oil. Do you have any external leakage? Boy would I be surprised if you don't have any, these cars have a lot of gaskets that tend to need replacement on old ones due to the boxer layout. If it was a Chevy or any other brand with that many ks you might see the same thing with low pressure. Subies do have a fairly easy oil pump resealing procedure, but you have to remove the cam belt, covers, etc. I am sure you did nothing to cause it, the oil pump seal is not a proud moment of Subaru design. It might even be fine and you just have low pressure from general wear on bearings and pump. To be honest when I was a broke kid I would have just run it with heavier oil till I had the money to do it up. As an ex mechanic I can also tell you that the best thing to do would be to tear off the front of the motor and do all the service that needs doing, but sometimes you have to do what you can afford.

everthing thses folks on this board told me about needed to be done to my Forester at the first belt change interval. There was slight leakage of oil so it got crank seal and oil pump done. The water pump had a bit of play but I was going to have it changed regardless after hearing of it taking out timing belts and valves. Of course I had the usual leaking head gaskets and the second rate clutch. If you are going to do the clutch you might as well change the plastic oil slinger on the back of the engine for metal. I would change the oil seals and the water pump on your car for sure with the belt.

that many K I suspect you may not want to throw money around. When I was a student I would have just drain out one quart and put in one quart of the same brand in a heavier grade. This is to keep the additives the same but the oil would become slightly heavier. I used to have a couple of old cars that I had to run straight 30 in to keep the oil light off in the summer. One Volvo I ran 40 in till I did an in chassis on it. If it is winter out your way you don't want to get very heavy on the oil or you will run into starting problems. I know a lot of folks are very picky about thier oil and one guy wants you to run the best in old heaps. When I was broke enough to run old heaps I ran Valvoline or what ever dino oil I could get my hands on that was a good brand.

knock the ice out from under the fenders.