Souperoo

Thanks. I *thought* I saw in the manual showing the assembly out of the car and pressing the bearings in on a work bench but I don't see that now. Still, pretty involved. Maybe when I have a lot of time I'll check it out better.

From what I've read, I'm guessing mine are starting to go. It has 200,000+ miles. Is this an acceptable kit? Funny, for another $10 you can get a new hub also. https://www.rockauto.com/en/parts/dura-go,29513248SK,wheel+bearing,1672 And do I have to take it all apart like the factory manual shows on page 2315? I'm guessing I may have to in order to seat the new bearing into the hub.

I saw them on Amazon but am skeptical since it's directional in shape. What kind of antenna did it replace and why? The old fashioned kind is a 100% pure omnidirectional antenna.

Must have sent the wrong one, it's $66.11 shipped. Still a good deal, but I already ordered the gears so I have to wait. Plus I don't know if the gear that broke in mine is a common problem and this one won't last long? If the gears I ordered don't work out, I go the ebay route.

Since the eject is the only problem now, I couldn't give up. I managed to gain access to the broken gear fairly easily and ordered 3 different gears, hopefully one will work. I'm one of those who will sometimes spend an hour on a $1. part, that is if I don't have the part. Fixing things like this gives me pleasure, it's not work. Well sometimes it's work, but I still get pleasure out of a good outcome.

Since complaining about the window antenna, I bought a cheap metal post style and right now, I'm ashamed to admit, but it's cable tied to the passenger side mirror. Without a preamp it works better than the window one on most weak stations, but there are a few where the old one works better. (I've had the radio loose and when getting a poor signal I've switched antennas to the radio to compare (no, not while driving!)). Today my very cheap FM antenna booster arrived and believe me, the old fashioned antenna with the amplifier is WAY better than the factory one. So I have to decide where and how I want to mount it. Possibly make a bracket for it that I can attach it to the car under the roof rack mount. Beats drilling a big hole in the fender!

The op here. This morning it didn't work again. Oh well the FM booster I accidentally bought from an Asian shipper arrived early today so I have to pull it anyway to hook that up. I know superglue doesn't always work with plastic/nylon, so if the cracked gear is slipping I'll *try* to epoxy it. I don't understand how shipping from China or around there is so inexpensive? The part was cheap and shipping was free. I'll have to pay more attention to the shipping from location since it still took 11 days and part of it's trip was air mail. Does our USPS loose money on shipping like that?

My cd player was dead when I bought the car. Trying to eject cd's it sometimes made a little click sound but not much else. I finally took it out today and removed the top. Looking in the left side and left front I could see some of the lower cd's were not lined up with the upper ones so using a small screwdriver I popped them into place. Plugged it in and I got some more noise out of it. It appeared to be cycling the cd's up and down but it sounded like a bind when it did 4 or 5 "clicks" and stopped, then after 10 or so seconds did that again. After 3 times it quit and I had to turn the key off and on till it tried to cycle again ... or sometimes I pulled the main plug out and in again, found that putting it in half way it was easier to pull the plug out and in again. Kept repeating this over and over. Then when it got as low as it would in the cycle, I pulled the plug. I managed to pull a broken cd out of the lower slot in pieces. Who knows how it broke, it was a home made cd and it looked like it may have seen too much sunlight. Now things were moving up and down the full 6 slots but it wouldn't eject. It would run a gear near the front right up top but the gear had a crack in it and I think it was just spinning on the knurled part of the shaft that pulls the CD's out so when in that mode I managed to push all the cd's 1 at a time out of the player. I found another piece of the broken cd and removed it. Back to the eject, I slid the little white cracked gear to the left about 1mm, sprayed the shaft and side of the gear with some carb cleaner. A drop of super glue and slide it back in place. Now it tried to pull the cd's in and out but slipped. This is a bit overboard so don't try this at home. It looked like the rollers to pull it in and out were on the top, so I sprayed some carb cleaner on a cd (shiny side up) and worked it in and out. After the second time the cd came out sort of melted on top. When the cd dried I popped it in and the sucker grabbed the cd and tried to play it, but of course it didn't play since it was upside down. Put another cd in and it grabbed it and voila, it played! I added a couple more cds and they all worked except one and it didn't look scratched or dirty. From previous experience I knew sometimes the center hole is just a tiny bit too small so I "bored it out" a tad. Now that cd played also. The insert and eject sounds a bit funny from the broken gear where the space between the teeth at one spot where it's cracked is a bit larger than it should be, but it seems to be breaking itself in. Played with it a bunch putting cd's in and out and playing them and all seems well! I'm really glad I didn't have to remove the next "layer" of the top because there are a lot of springs attached to it. Now thinking about it, I suppose I should have tried to measure the gear and count the teeth. Maybe someone here knows a source for that little white gear? Although it looks like replacing it could be very difficult. Maybe with a little bending of the part of the cover over it I could get it in and out, but for now I'll just see how long it lasts. Edit: I think I got the eject part half working to where I could push the upper cd's out before I got to the broken cd and got it out in pieces.

Thanks!

It's still me asking, I can now tell it's an XS, but it appears there were two letters before that, what could they have been?

It's still me asking, I can now tell it's an XS, but it appears there were two letters before that, what could they have been?

No it's a hydraulic clutch. Like I said before, it's only done this once. It's below freezing now so after some coffee I'll go try it again. The hydraulic clutch works like the brakes (without a booster). A little master cylinder like on the brakes compresses fluid and that fluid moves the the slave cylinder which moves the clutch arm. The fluid level is good. The master cylinder could be going bad. If the slave cylinder was going bad I believe it would leak fluid.

What alerted me to it being called a truck, was when looking for parts. I enter 2004 Subaru Forester and it says it's a truck. I just checked the title and it says "UT", I'd take a guess that Utility Vehicle or Utility Truck.

Sparkboy, the big difference here is that rev matching didn't help at all. I haven't seen this tranny open so I don't know exactly how it works, but it has a 1-2 gear or something on the bill and often there will be a gear that simply slides on a shaft disengaging with 1st and engaging to 2nd. To me it felt like it wasn't even getting to the synchronizer. It felt like the gear that should be sliding on the shaft wasn't easily sliding, I say that because in the driveway with the parking brake on and the clutch in all the way, it wasn't only hard to put into 1st or 2nd, but it was hard to pull it OUT of either gear to the neutral position. And that was true after a few times in and out. But hey, I think tomorrow morning may be the coldest day to what's left of winter so waiting is an excellent idea. See how it acts all summer long.

This morning it was almost as cold as when it shifted hard, but today it was fine. I think in the following days it's supposed to get colder so I'll check it each day.

Re: 2004 Forester key fob remote, Letting you know that I received my remote with the second part number above today and it took me 3 or 4 tries but I got it programed to work! $15 well spent. Oh, although on Amazon they give that part number, the remote I received doesn't have a sticker on the back with a part number. Only other thing is the little ring that goes on your larger key ring is a lot lighter duty. I don't know if it's a problem or not.

Hey Tex, are you in an area that gets below freezing temps? And have you driven it when it was that cold?

Interesting article. I'm curious now if the rear seats folding down has anything to do with the classification, or can the seats actually be removed to make a flat cargo area. Because folding down my seats, it sure isn't flat without a good amount of weight on them.

I did not know that. Now I do!

Nowadays even all the cheap walmart lube is GL-4, GL-5

Yes the Brat was cool. It would have been my first Subaru if my dumb brother in law didn't sell it to someone else for $100. That was quite a few years ago.

The manual just calls for GL-5 75W/90 or some other single viscosity grades depending on climate.

By the way, why is a Forester called a "truck"? Are they any different than an outback wagon?

Hmm, I guess limited slip is NOT what I should use. Unless an 04 is different. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/146861-slight-grind-in-gears-after-changing-manual-transmission-fluid/

Come to think of it, the transaxle is limited slip I believe? Those in most vehicles take a different oil, or a little bottle of additive. Not that that and my problem are directly related, but if could be the problem. The additive makes the posi clutches slip easier, so maybe it would make the gears slide easier? Like said, worth a try to put in the REAL stuff. Especially since I read the repair bill better and only the parts have about a 1 month warranty left, not the labor. (the labor was just over $1300) Probably should take a peak at the rear also, that may have 200,000 miles on it's lube. I'm assuming the manual trans axle it the same lube as the rear? Anyone know the size of that plug in the tranny? I think it was hex shaped when I saw it? Oh, the front takes 4 quarts I believe, how much does the rear hold? Happy daylight savings time (if you play that game).