forester2002s

Does the letter from Subaru mention which VINs are affected?

Yes the $20 for 24-hour download time is a good deal. One word of warning: the download can be quite time-consuming, even with a fast internet connection. The Factory Service Manuals consist of hundreds of indivividual PDF files. Be sure to rename each PDF file with a meaningful description (the original file names are just a string of numbers), and download into a set of appropriately-named folders. This makes retrieval and reading much easier. Expect to spend several hours at the keyboard, but you'll get an excellent manual out of it.

Any debris caught under the car? Wedged again the exhaust system perhaps?

A while ago someone posted a method to reduce wind noise from the mirrors. "Place a piece of folded-up cardboard to fill the vertical-gap between the mirror housing and the mounting piece on the door". Haven't tried it so don't know if it works.

Another point about refilling the coolant. No matter how many times you flush the system, and no matter how well you think that you have drained it, there is always water left in the system (gets caught in hoses, heater cores, little pockets here and there). And so you cannot get the spec. volume of fresh coolant back in. So don't premix the coolant (60/40 or whatever), and expect to get it all in. IT WON'T FIT (in my experience on many cars, over many years). What I do is to measure out the amount of undiluted antifreeze that I need to add, and start pouring this into the radiator. Run the engine a bit to clear air-locks, and to allow the thermostat to open, and keep filling up with the undiluted stuff. If it all goes in, then top up with water. I always fill the overflow reservoir with the correct coolant mixture to the lower 'fill' line; it is best not to put either neat anti-freeze nor pure water into the reservoir, just in case this fluid does not mix straight away with the contents of the radiator. After running the car for a bit, recheck the coolant level in the overflow reservoir, and top up as necessary.

I also find these seat-heater switches annoying. Not just their location (they are lighted switches, but you can see them safely whilst driving), but also because they stay on for ever. On modification that you might want to consider, if you are going to rewire, is to add a timer-relay so that the heaters turn themselves off after a pre-set-time (like the rear-window defogger). Let us know what you do decide. I might also be in the market...

Loose battery connection?

Each time I have acquired a new vehicle, I run the fuel tank to empty, just to find out how good is the gas gauge. Obviously I carry a spare can of gas with me to refill from. My 2002 Forester ran 40km after the 'low-gas' warning-light came on, before it started to misfire, and stopped my test there. It took about 60L to refill the tank, so it must have been just about empty. Now I know.

Are you sure that it was a head-bolt that is loose? I thought that the head-bolts were hidden inside the rocker-cover (which has its own mounting bolts).

I have a 2002 Forester with the 2.5L engine (no head-gasket leaks yet at 40,000km). Does anyone know which of the 2002s have the old or the new head-gasket design? Can I tell from the VIN?

I have an Auterra Dyno-Scan tool (works on my Palm PDA), costs about USD289. It seems to do everything promised on their web-page (although I haven't tested all of its functions yet): http://www.auterraweb.com/ I have also read good things about the Harrison scan tool, about USD160: http://www.ghg.net/dharrison/obdscan.html

Duane B: In your very first post, you said that: "the oil was about twice the amount needed on the dip-stick!" I wonder whether you meant that the level on the dipstick was above the 'full' mark, by about the same distance as between the 'low' and 'full' marks? If so, that would only indicate an overfill condition of about 1 litre (1 US quart). That would be a far cry from twice the correct amount of oil in the sump. Is that what you meant?

My car developed an annoying squeak after I put a different spare tire in the back. It seems that the original spare-tire fitted into the well nicely. With a slightly smaller replacement spare (tread worn down), it could move around a bit in the spare-tire well, even when clamped in place. I inserted some kitchen-paper underneath the tire, and the squeak disappeared.

99obw: I suggest adding an extra line to your list of steps for doing an oil change: 1a. Turn engine off! Yes, yes, I know that this is obvious, but who knows who out there just might take your list too literally?

Frag: Now I understand! For a while I thought that you must have a battery that would have won a mention in the Guiness Book of World Records! The reason that I am so impressed with your cold starting, is that here on the West Coast, we shiver whenever the temperature gets to about 0 C! The coldest it got a few days ago was -9 C, and that was considered very cold. Today it is raining and +10 C. It is good to know that you are surviving this cold spell, and that Subarus Rule!

Frag: Let me get this straight: It was -32 C. You had summer oil in the engine. And you left the headlights on all night. And the car started the next morning. The obvious next question: What battery were you using???

Frag: Normal start at -32C. What engine oil do you use to get such good performance?

Where is Alias20035? You set off on a cross-Canada trip a while ago? Are you frozen in-place somewhere? We miss your insightful posts.

I do all of my car maintenance now. What prompted me to stop using dealerships was a loose distributor. This was not a Subie, but a Ford (a long time ago, in the days of distributors and contact-points). In preparation for a long trip, I took my car in for service; the dealership adjusted the timing, but failed to tighten the distributor clamp-screw. 100 miles later, on a dark highway, the engine died! Fortunately I had a flashlight, and found that I could rotate the distributor by hand. I restarted the engine, and adjusted the distributor timing for fastest idle-speed and tightened the clamp-screw; when I got home, I checked the timing and found that I had managed to set it bang on. I haven't let a dealership touch any of my cars since then.

I get frost on the inside of the windows quite often. I think that this happens when there is residual moisture inside the car, e.g. if the carpets are wet or damp. With the inside of the car warm, as when driving, the amount of moisture in the inside air is high. Leave the car overnight in cold weather, and all that moisture condenses out as the temperature drops, and freezes on all exposed surfaces, including the inside of the windows. A couple of ideas: Keep the inside of the car as dry as possible, especially shake off water or snow from shoes and boots. And lower the heater setting to 'cold' for the last few minutes of driving before parking the car; this reduces the ability of the inside air to hold the moisture, and the ventilation system will bring in colder (and drier) air into the inside of the car; not a very popular trick with my passengers, but it works. And if you park under cover, leave a window either cracked-open, or if possible fully-open.

I have experienced a misfire problem due to a cracked porcelain insulator on a spark plug. This was very hard to diagnose, because the insulator only had a hairline crack, that was barely visible to the eye. However, when I wiggled the top of the plug (still installed in the engine), I could detect a tiny amount of movement. The plug had cracked at the base of the porcelain where it enters the steel base of the spark-plug. This type of damage to the insulator can happen when the spark-plug socket is pulled accidentely to one side (very easy to do), and can go unnoticed (except for the annoying misfire). This may not be what you have, but it is worth checking.

I have had a torque wrench for years, but never thought about having it recalibrated. On the one hand, is this necessary? After all, what can go wrong with the torque wrench. Mine relies solely on the bending properties of the arm (which moves a scale/pointer to show the torque). Other than a change in the material properties of the arm (extremely unlikely), I can't see what would make the torque wrench not keep reading correctly for ever. On the other hand, I suppose it would be easy to check the calibration myself. I could hang a known weight at a fixed radius on the torque arm. Has anybody tried this?

Good luck with your trip. Let us all know how you fared. And throw a warm sleeping bag in the back, as well as a thermos of hot toddy!

In my 2002 Forester, the trailer wiring connector is located in the spare-tire wheel well (on the right-side as you face into the rear hatch).

The electrical resistance of spark-plug leads doesn't always tell you the whole story, in my experience. A lead may be faulty at high-voltage (causing misfire), but show a 'normal' resistance value at the low-voltage applied by a multi-meter. However if the resistance measures too high, then the lead should be replaced. While we are on the subject of spark-plug leads, what make do people use on their Subies?