Ok, time to drain the diffs in my 06 Forester. Breaking the drain/fill plugs is usually the worst part of the job. Please, what size square drive to use? My 1/2" rachet looks pretty loose in the drain plug. Given the huge amount of torque usually required to beak loose the plugs, I'm afraid that I might strip the square drive hole on top of the plugs. Move to a metric square dirive? If so, what size? Thanks.

 

I like my '06 Forester, but it's a lot less maintenance friendly than my '99 Forester. Gas filter is now in the gas tank. The oil filter is surrounded by the exhaust pipes. And the drain plugs on the rear diff have restricted access due to the tail pipe.

never worked on the newer ones, but i can't imagine it not being 1/2", you sure it's loose? did you try putting and extension in there as well?

1/2" breaker bar is the trick. My '05 Baja's diff was not abnormally tight nor difficult to break loose. I did notice that the bar felt loose initially, but it turned out that I had just not pushed it in past the detent ball on the breaker bar. Once I did that, it was fairly snug.

Yes make sure it's shoved in all the way. You might be able to shim it a little with something if it feels too loose. Also you can get actual pipe plug sockets. I use these with an impact wrench since the impact end itself has a little ring at the tip and tends to damage the plug a little bit.