February 19, 201312 yr Hi all, as you can see we are based in Southern Spain where we have a rather peculiarly interesting Forester SF 2.0 turbo (1999) that started life in the French Caribbean. Over the years we have had a few problems with the vehicle gradually realising we had something of a hybrid when it came to obtaining the correct parts. We're hoping that your forum can help us in future by pointing us in the right direction!! Looking forward to using the forum soon. Thanks Oz
February 19, 201312 yr Hi welcome to the S.O.C And I'm sure if we can help in anyway we will do our best ;)
February 20, 201312 yr Author Outwardly it looks the same as any other Forester of the same age, it's more the mechanicals, we had problems with the centre dif, and it was because the crown wheel had a different number of teeth to the standard diff. Why this was had most people baffled. It's a great car, I have some land in the country and it's ideal for the tracks that lead to it and last year I fitted longer road springs to increase the ride height making it excellent for the rougher stuff. However, recently it overheated and so far the radiator has been off and flushed through, no leaks, new thermostat fitted, it's all ok until driving up hills when the temp gauge goes up and you have to pull over and let it cool down, top up the header tank and continue again very carefully, so not very practical. So it's parked up at the moment, head gaskets? water pump? something else, we don't know. What do you think? We can do the diy, what's the procedure for water pump replacement is there a test to ascertain that it is the fault?, and while we are in there anything else we should do? If we go down the head gaskets route how easy is that with the engine in situ? Down here we are in a technological wasteland particularly with regards to specialists in most fields, finding a Scooby knowledgeable mechanic is nigh on impossible, and parts supply can be problematic as well so we rely on mail order, e bay etc but we have had issues with that in the past because of its history and build spec. Hence the reason for joining the forum to receive and pass on information, maybe we aren't the only ones in this situation. Appreciate any advice, thanks Oz
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