Judd

You're very welcome, there is little more demoralising than having to hang about somewhere, not so bad in the summer and you know how long its going to be. Dsiatnce from workshops is the downside of Subarus sadly, i'm also in the same boat because specialists are at least 40 miles away. Glad you're fixed up.

Yes one each side of each disc, doesn't matter whether the caliper is a single double or quadruple piston, whether sliding or opposed piston design, the pads are either side of the disc and supposed to apply equal pressure to the disc when braking therefore wearing all 4 on the same axle at the same rate...in practice on a sliding caliper design you do find the pad on the piston side is inclined to wear just a fcation faster than the other, but that can also be the other way if the sliders start to seize through lack of proper maintenance, the pad on the opposite side of the piston no releasing fully due to said sliders sticking, or either pad becoming stuck in the carrier due to build up of crud...there clear as mud, there's a good reason i've never written a book 🙂 Did you see the discs perchance?

Regarding rear pad wear, our 2002 Outback H6 was the first car i've had where the rear pads wore faster than the fronts, SWMBO doesn't hang about and the brakes weren't prone to overbraking at the back so it can only have been the stability control (again first car with such a feature) doing its thing applying various brakes as it sensed slip developing, in other simpler cars the rears (often drums) would ast almost indefinately, usually corrosion rather than wear forcing replacement. You noticed one pad worn more than the others, that does suggest to me that something is sticking, in theory all 4 should wear at near enough the same rate. Most times i reckon on two sets of pads before the discs need changing, as do you and i'm fairly sure that is the case for most of us whatever brand of car we drive, its the same typical practice on truck brakes...just out of interest i got 350k kms out of the first set of steer and drive axle pads from my artic tractor unit (260k from the second set on the same discs which is what one would expect) running at maximum weights, if all cars had some sort of auxilliary or regenerative braking it just shows what the benefits could be, electric and hybrids being the obvious winners here if people make use of the regen systems. Regarding car storage over the ludicrous lockdowns thats a good point, i know from lots of previous experience with defleeted cars stored in compounds that if a car was defleeted in say March and stood 6 months the salt bath from winter would ensure everything underneath would be far worse than another car defleeted say in October...the former car having a strong salt mix baking into its nooks all through the hot summer, the latter car having had the benefit of 6 months of salt free rain to wash the worst of the salt off before being stood up....taken further, the latter car stood for 6 months all through the following winter would probably be a much better long term bet for all corrosion issues than the other...one of the many reasons i spend more time under a potential purchase than anywhere else.

The trouble with brake servicing these days is that full servicing isn't on most service schedules....Toyota do or did the last time i had a car new enough to require dealer servicing, peering at the brakes through the wheels and squirting brake cleaner about with !Removed! abandon isn't doing any good, if anything brake cleaner helps wash off any remaining lube. Japanese brakes ideally need a full strip clean and relube every year, especially the further north you live where road salting gets heavier, every other year at the very least even in the less salted south. Has anyone serviced the rear brakes? ok they don't offer much in the way of retardation but because they offer so little they are even more prone than the fronts to not giving full effort from light brake application, it might be interesting to ask a friendly MOT station to check the brakes on the rollers, see how progressive they are all round, whilst they no doubt pass the MOT thats at full pedal pressure application, doesn't mean the rears are doing their fair share when you are braking normally. If it were mine i'd first DIY a full brake service, ie remove one pad at a time and exercise the pistons in their bores carefully, throughly clean the pad carrier including pinging off the stainless steel spring clips the pads sit in and scrape the crud off which accumulates under them, use the correct brake grease (not coppaslip) in the appropriate places clean up and rebuild, do this for all the brakes. If you don't wish to DIY i'd find a decent indy mechanic or Subaru specialist to do this for you, it appears your main dealer isn't sympathetic or helpful, Japanese car brakes especially do not suffer salt well in my experience, have exactly the same issues on my Prado you have to keep the brake servicing up. Next time they need replacing maybe try Brembo or other decent quality aftermarket parts, which usually last longer and offer just as good if not better braking to boot, with shopping around should be cheaper than OE too. One other thing, have you had the old parts back, did you see them for yourself, were they really worn that much that they couldn't have easily lasted to the next service or is a workshop upselling bonus scheme rearing its ugly head here.

You want one that's multi layered, with a soft almost fleecy underlayer which won't damage the paint as wind moves the cover around, these tend to be pricey so don't be surprised if you're up in the £200+ bracket. In practice the weather, sun mainly, attacks the outer cover from day one, one cover (the brand of which i can't recall sadly) the outer layer started to disintegrate ie flaking, so my solution has been to put a cheaper waterproof outer cover over the expensive layered cover as a sacrificial offering to the elements, when that starts to deteriorate replace it, this way the original one lasts indefinately. This has worked for me for a good number of years now on my old Merc coupe.

Much obliged for finding that Brack, whilst more than i wanted to pay, bearing in mind there's nothing wrong with the plipper itself, for a complete new working key i dare say its a bargain compared to what they'd probably want at the dealer parts desk. Will leave it a while and hope a decent case pops up, but if nothing doing then this could be the answer. Thanks for the help.

On the open market remarkably little i expect, we had one and i'm of the opinion one its of the best cars Subaru ever made, fast enough rock solid roomy comfortable and glued to the road. However if it really is immaculate i wonder if a Subaru dealer would buy it as a showroom showpiece, it looks too good to just end up a bargain runabout for someone who probably won't appreciate it for what it is. Hope you find a good home for it.

Fair enough Geronimo, hope it works out for you. Both our cars were and are unusual spec, the OE system on the H6 2002 Outback was a single pipe system, the main silencer of which having a built in valved by-pass so at higher flow rates that silencer could go straight through, nothing available to suit aftermarket, OE over £1000, MIJ made and fitted for £299. The Forester is a 2.5XT, a 2.5" OE system, when the middle section rotted i was about to have an aftermarket mild steel fitted (some £340) but posted here a couple of days before and MrB a knowledgeable regular poster thankfully warned me to check the bore, he'd seen all this before, sure enough the aftermarket system was 2" and meant for NA engines no suitable aftermarket to be found anywhere as rare enough car, so cancelled that and another trip to MIJ for another £299 jobbie. Last visit was around 4 years ago and no doubt MIJ have had to increase prices since but in both case the stainless option was both cheaper and better...excluding the fuel costs there and back. Had to have a mild steel system fitted to our Prado this last MOT as it was leaking, sadly didn't have the time to get to MIJ for another SS system so have painted the welds and badly exposed sections with zinc paint, hopefully that will help it last awhile.

Consider having a day out at sunny Walsall, https://www.mijexhaust.com/ custom made and fitted a new stainless cat back system to our previous Outback and to the present Forester XT (pics of ours in the forester section if you search), in both cases it was not possible to buy the corrrect system aftermarket, plus the stainless worked out cheaper than having an incorrect mild steel system fitted and has a lifetime warranty.

I've bought from Westaway and Exol numerous times, nothing bad has happened and my wallet was much obliged for the savings. Both are handy suppliers for finding proper Diesel specific engine oils if you run a Diesel.

I have the standard 1 button key fobs which have the key as part of the fob itself. Both of the keys work fine, but one of the keys the bottom half which is rubberised is past its best where its been in and out of my pocket and work bag. Proving difficult fo find another fob case to transfer my working parts into, wouldn't mind a folding flip type that was meant for the 1 button key, Toyota OE keys are notoriously fragile and i bought a flip case for my Landcruiser which has proved much better than the original type which would break if you looked at them hard. Any suggestions where to find the appropriate fob please?

Interesting Brack. I've refined my starting procedures and things are working consistently well, the secret seems to be to turn the ignition on, then leave it (as one would a Diesel allowing the glow plugs to warm up) for about 10 seconds or so whilst you sort your stuff out, then start up..incidentally i too find giving it a little throttle helps it to fire up straight away. Might be interesting doing the above, ie leaving it a few seconds with the ignition on before attempting to start and see if that helps yours.

Remove and block and program them out of the ECU, my specialist indy did ours, there is a danger of the bolts sheering off so be aware it could rarely turn into a bigger job than one might hope.

Well explained Andy. However, i believe when they first made the changes they were indeed retrospective to include 2001/2006 high band cars, but within weeks or months had to make a hasty U turn on that decision, probably on dodgy legal grounds...that's how i recall it at the time but happy to be put right, i recall people making sale/purchase decisions based upon this retrospective increase when it happened so bearing in mind the differences in car values there were winners and losers. What concentrates my memory here was a phone call i made to a chap selling a 55 plate H6 Outback for a very fair price, the car was sold when i called but he made a statement i thought odd at the time (he was a most eloquently spoken chap, rather like Jacob Rees Mogg), he said don't worry there will be plenty for sale in a few weeks, sure enough couple of weeks later the news of the high bands being introduced retrospectively came out...he must have had insider info.

VED is based purely on the CO2 figures. Our Forester XT is also in the high band, though we get the dual fuel discount for the LPG conversion, a laughable £10 off, its a clean runner anyway and much cleaner running on propane to boot. Its why you can buy these high band cars so cheaply, we got the XT about £2000 under its value at the time some years ago, always avoided the highest band but after some man maths decided that £2k saving would cover the difference in VED for enough years to make it worthwhile. Your 2006 was probably registered before March 23rd cut off date (or was it a JDM import?), 2001 to March 2006 don't get stung with the highest rate, its why 55 plate large capacity cars are priced higher and sell easier than those regd after March 06...no doubt some prissy apparatchik is dampening his panties as we speak dreaming up plans to bring pre 06 cars into the high rate too.

My best results in the search for rare screens came from small independent screen fitters, the sort of chaps who car traders accident repair workshops hauliers and others in vehicle trade use, they are usually on first name terms with screen makers and wholesalers, ask around for who the car/truck trade uses for screen supply/fitting and give them a call. They're usually much cheaper than the more well known screen services too.

If you've managed to find a part worn same type same tread depth as the others then you/ve fixed the issue ideally, a better recourse than one odd new tyre. If its still pulling to one side and the pressures are correct (and you've swapped the offending wheel to the back with no improvement) then one must assume there's an alignment issue that needs investigating.

Replacing one tyre i'd hope to see no more than 2mm difference in tread depth assuming the same tyre brand and type is fitted, at 5k the tyres shouldn't be any more worn than 2mm with any luck so it wouldn't worry me unduly. If the new tyre is a different make and type it could explain the pulling to one side, you've obviously double checked tyre pressures, if all is well and this persists move the new tyre to the back...one thought here, was the tyre needing replacement damaged by pot hole or kerb strike if so its possible there could be some alignment issue. Its best on AWD cars to rotate tyres now and again to even wear up so you replace all 4 at once, its not ideal to replace in pairs as large differences inrolling radius means the centre diff is working constantly to balance the differing rates of rotation.

Why do we bother answering, that's the last 1st time poster i'll bother replying to.

You could pile a few empty carboard boxes up on suitable piece of ground and attempt to drive into them. I'm not a fan of AEBS, had the systems in trucks for a few years now, have had to modify and exaggerate the way slalom type hazards are negotiated or the vehicle can come to a shuddering stop for no reason.

Is the joint making clicking sounds, is it that the dust boot is split, or is it genuinely knackered. Assuming the boot isn't split, i'd repack the joint with the correct grease and see what its like after, you can use a long sturdy cable tie to reseal the boot temorarily after regreasing whilst you run the vehicle for a few days and see how it goes, if its just the boot split then get that replaced and repack the joint. If it cures the problem consider doing the same to the other 3 joints on the front driveshafts.

MIJ Walsall, they'll custom make and fit a stainless system for a surprising price. https://www.mijexhaust.com/ Have had two systems made and fitted by them, no complaints.

As a Spec B would this have limited slip diffs either front or rear or both. I have no in depth knowledge of Subarus with them, though possibly our XT may have one at the rear, but the LSD on our Hilux was so fierce you could barely manually turn the rear wheel with the vehicle raised. As above, these vehicles need very similar tread depths and tyre types all round. You've done the obvious, ie checked all transmission levels, prop/drive shafts all in good conditions and there no brakes dragging anywhere.

Slip one of the cambelt covers off and check the cambelt would be my first move.

All sorted, running sweet from a now instant cold start. Never again do i want to change a set of spark plugs on one of these, cuts and abrasions on hands and wrists total 17.