heartless

2002 Forester, 4EAT, 266K - After getting home from town, pulled into my usual parking spot at home, went to put the gear selector in reverse to back up by the porch to unload groceries.. only it didnt feel right... tapped the throttle gently and it wanted to go forward... uh-oh! No matter what I did with the selector, it wanted to go forward - even with the selector in park. so... I am guessing the selector cable is broken, but is there any way to determine for sure from INSIDE the vehicle? the drive is a mini lake right now, with more rain in the forecast.. do NOT relish the idea of crawling under the car in a puddle. also, is there anyway I can manually move the trans side selector from inside, to put it in either neutral or park? (apparently it is supposed to be in neutral to change the cable) and which way would i move it if I can get to it? the reason i suspect the cable is because the selector has always been stiff & difficult to move between the various gear settings.. right now the selector moves super easy, so I suspect the cable has finally let go

hopefully that fixes it for you for the long term. and thanks for coming back to update!

put her to the test today - had to go get some groceries now that we finally have a working fridge again (yes, our fridge died just about the same time - ugh) was getting to be slim pickings for food. two different stores, had to back out of parking space at each, plus backing out at home, so yeah.. she is all good to go! I just need to learn to use a lighter hand, lol - keep going into 3rd instead of drive now cause it is so easy.

honestly, that situation is not real common, so I would go with a used OEM one matching your year, or close to it. that was what I did - grabbed the coil pak off my old 1990 Legacy and plopped it in.. no more problems and yeah, you would think it would show more than one misfire code, but it only ever threw the one cylinder, and it was always when it was damp out.

Thanks guys. yeah, it feels REALLY good to have my wheels rolling again! but i really need to give a shout out to my other half (who has the patience of a saint, lol) for the final fix. @Stelcom66 - the metal part (left side) has a pin on the back (circled bit) of it that is supposed to be in the slot of the piece on the right.. once those two were properly aligned (by straightening the metal bit on the left some more and getting the pin to engage in the slot), and the cable readjusted correctly, all is right in Suby land again. I did learn a valuable trick with all of this... to get proper alignment, and to adjust the cable per FSM instructions, you are supposed to have both the interior shift lever and the tranny in neutral... to have tranny in neutral, you align the two levers, and the hole in the switch plate, and shove a pin thru all 3 to hold things in the proper orientation - small allen wrench worked a treat. shifting is stupid easy now, especially when compared to how it used to be, LOL - was really stiff, and had to work at it to get into the lower forward gears.. now I know why!

i will get the camera gear out and we can record it for posterity

And we have LIFT OFF!!! it was indeed because the shift linkage was not engaging the inhibitor switch.. poor tranny didnt know what was up, so.. got the lever straightened out a bit more and engaging the switch correctly... readjusted the cable, and everything seems to be a go.. we have park, reverse, neutral and drive! yay!

yes, it definitely was and in broad daylight, too! LOL just goes to show how bad it really was

yeah, i know, LOL and if I was in dire need of a car, would definitely consider it right now, i just need to get the one i have sorted out

well.. definitely have problems with the inhibitor switch - not being engaged...

yeah, dont really want another Forester.. they are ok, but like the cargo space of the Legacy wagons - yup, yup and the 95 seemed to have the best size to space ratio.

try running it when dark out.. pop the hood, start the car, and look for arcing. can be done at anytime... humid or not.. just use a spay bottle to mist moisture over the coil area.. if it is the coil, you will see it sometimes the arcing is bad enough, it doesn't even need to be dark out lol this was on my 95 Legacy... https://youtu.be/jMNfF-vcUDs

Larry - if I need something from rust free Colorado, I want a whole car! LOL tbh, i would love another 95 Legacy.

so the saga continues... new cable arrived Friday, as expected.. what was not expected was the original order came thru as well.. so now I have 2. but anyway... went to install new cable, only to find that the bushing from the old one was stuck on the pin on the tranny side.. after much cussing and swearing, the lever moving to and fro, and at one point, actually getting slightly bent.. the old offending bushing was removed. used a small file and emory cloth to clean up the pin and got the new cable put on.. and more frustration trying to get the pin installed that holds it on. arrgh. after much fiddling around.. got the new cable adjusted - or so we thought.. it has park, it has neutral, and it has forward... but no reverse... thinking that when the lever got bent, it popped out of the inhibitor switch, and when straightening we did not get it back in properly.. that is the hope, anyway. will be futzing with it more tomorrow.. just too hot & tired to do anymore today

the block should work fine, swap intakes to keep the matching wiring harness.. altho, i am hardly an expert on this topic. you are talking 2 different generations... the 07 in one, the 09-10 in another. so there are bound to be some differences.

Congrats on the new ride! Looks nice. my other half has a 2006 LL Bean Outback... in the champagne gold color. But his has the H6 & 5spd auto... honestly, for the most part, it has been a pretty darn good car. Yeah, sure, it has had a couple of issues, but for the most part, relatively minor, and mostly specific to the H6 - like the serpentine belt tensioner pulley.. gets bad frequently (every 2-3 yrs it seems) and yeah, the hatch wiring is a problem area... just fixed his late last summer.

i plan to slather the new one up with plumbers silicone grease when it gets installed. lol that should help for a while but yeah,, this Forester was a hard shifter from the day i got it. the select lever has been cleaned and regreased as well. the lower part of the lever has been replaced, too - did not feel like trying to get the old bushing out and trying to clean up the lever end - it would just rust up again and probably fairly quickly. New cable should be here Friday.. Can hardly wait! I want my car back!

Also did this...

in all honesty... nothing wrong with the actual cable part of things.. it was that stupid bushing that seized up that caused all the problems. the cable itself - or what is left of it - still moves smoothly in the carrier housing.. but the connector bushing it attached to was seized solid.. with any luck, once i get all the pieces & parts here & get this all put back together, I will never worry about it again - should outlive the car. LOL

and the original cable order from SubaruPartsDeal has been cancelled as of this morning. placed new order for the cable with SubaruPartWholesale (Liberty Auto City) including one additional item that was not on the original order, and it STILL came out cheaper than the original order. Just my two cents worth.. SubaruPartsDeal is not worth messing with. They really dropped the ball on this. Order was placed on Friday, May 21st, Shipping label was created Thursday, May 27th (took nearly a week to process?) - and then nothing... USPS never scanned the item in, so they apparently did not get it.

yeah, well.. label was created on Thursday.. still not in USPS hands i knew I shoulda cancelled that one and just ordered from the other site - they are closer, too

whelp - this is probably the last time i order from subarupartsdeal.com - placed the order on May 21st - shipping label was created on May 27th... still has not actually moved. There is no tracking history as of this morning - just that the label had been created. Meanwhile, the stuff i ordered from SubaruPartsWholesale.com on May 25th is on its way and will be delivered most likely on Tuesday. Really kind of irritated at the moment.

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/ have had good luck with those guys.. and they have chips & codes to look at to make sure you are getting the right color they even had the right color for my old 1967 F-250 pickup can get it in touch up size, rattle can, or larger sizes for painting an entire vehicle

yeah.. i have yet to get back out to the garage to get pictures.. but the number one location for problems is gonna be that swivel joint on the shift lever and possibly the cable itself if the boots are damaged. Larry - I got the pics, and yeah.. not gonna work.. wiring is different and mine has 6 screws, not 4, so.. thank you anyway. (mine is the older version, straight pattern, not gated) otherwise, yeah, that looks like a nice unit - so if someone needs one, hit him up!

driveshaft is connected to transmission, which is connected to front diff, which is connected to front axles.. so yeah, it can cause shaking in the steering