2001 Subaru Forester S with 67,800 miles

[sja68]

Hi, I am new to the board and need some help for a friend who owns a Subaru Forester S. I have cut and pasted her question below. Thanks for any help you can offer her.

 

Information:

2001 Subaru Forester S with 67,800 miles.

 

Around November 12, 2005 the front passanger side headlight went out.

 

Within a day both headlights, brights and fog lights were out. The

 

repair shop said some wires were crossed and burned out the fuse. They

 

fixed the wires and replaced the fuse. I had noticed and reported then

 

also that there was some periodic but random hesitation (the car slowed

 

down even with my giving it gas) when going up hills and making some

 

turns. The repair shop couldn't duplicate the hesitation so there wasn't

 

any diagnosis of a problem.

 

One month later - around December 15 the same headlight went out (and

 

the brights and the fog lights). The repair shop said it was the same

 

problem but now on the "other side" (I think he meant different wires).

 

Now less than one week later the same headlight went out etc. I noticed

 

that again there was the hesitation going up hills and now a sudden kick

 

of acceleration after about 10 seconds. I replaced the one 20 amp fuse

 

for the headlight but nothing changed - have the same problem.

 

Does anyone have an idea as to the problem, solution and cost of the

 

solution?

 

thanks

 

[Skip]

My first inclination is the repair shop is feeding her

a baloney sandwich.

 

Sounds to me like the voltage regulator is causing a high voltage situation.

 

This will burn out lamps and could cause the ECU to get it's panties in a bunch.

The result could be hesitation or eventually a french fried ECU.

 

Easy test is to purchase a voltmeter that plugs into the cig lighter.

 

She can then monitor the charging voltage to see if this is the situation when these problems arise.