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Since my last post I have got what I believe to be the correct inner CV boots. I believe the lack of grease was caused by the boots being wrong, and so it all leaked out. I packed lots of grease into the joints, and re-assembled with the right boots and clips. So far everything seems to be good, no vibrations on the limited test drive I have been able to go on. Once lockdown is over I will be able to give it a proper test with some longer journeys just to check everything really is sorted once and for all. Ah yes, I worked on Classic cars for a few summers not long ago and they were all very old style, with 2 opposed roller taper bearings to hold the hubs on, easy to re-grease or change when we had to. But these were on race cars so didn't have quite the life a road car would. Ashame that a lot of cars don't have easy to service components, we live in a replace age, rather than repair. And interesting, I believe on steam engines they have an autolube system too, that keeps everything important coated with enough oil to ensure parts never wear out. A good idea on industrial vehicles that get a lot more miles piled onto them than a normal car.

@Judd Thank you for the advice. This evening I have pumped lots of Morris Lubricants K48 Moly grease into my subaru's front CV joints. The vibration has gone, just as you said it might. I wasn't sure this was going to be my only issue, I was worried I had worn the joints to the point grease wouldn't do anything. Having been on a test drive it is so much better. I put some re-usable clips on the small end of the boot, that I don't like, but are easy to undo too. Maybe this weekend I will undo them and pump more grease in. It is odd just pumping away, there is no way to tell if grease is actually coming out apart from the resistance in the lever, and so I wasn't sure how much to do. Having been on a test I am sure it is the solution, so can go crazier. Seems like they were really pretty empty. I think the boot doesn't fit perfectly on the larger side of the boot as the outdrive is not circular and the boot is, so grease was escaping. Now I know this is the problem I have an idea to stop it leaking ever again. Once again this forum saves me from lots of unnecessary wasted spending. Thank you

Why, does she not like using it? I have mine adjusted to a point I am very happy with and do find it handy. But I get that it wouldn't be for everyone, and slightly odd to start using, until you trust it to actually hold you still. And yeah, certainly a funny name for it 😂

Apologies on the massive delay, but I did say I would add photos, and here they are. The hill hold unit on my SG5 Forester is located on the right of the engine bay, quite hidden unless you know where to look. I have circled it here to make it easier to spot. This is a closer look at the unit. In the red circle is the spring which for me had sheared. I bought a second hand unit for about £20 just for the spring, maybe not my most sensible decision but I did find I use the hill hold quite a lot and was worth doing it properly for me. In black there are the adjuster nuts that set the clutch point when the brakes release. I took these off when the spring had failed, and moved the cable so it was no longer through the actuator arm, I left the cable sit where the blue line is. This meant that the hill hold would stay off and I could drive until I got the replacement spring. I did find a different spring that wouldn't allow operation of the unit, but that would ensure the hill hold didn't vibrate or move on. I hope this might help someone, if they get stuck.

I have found a sealey one that looks like the type you are talking about, and bought a separate grease gun to use with CV grease. I have several already but they are being used for other greases. I think it will be worth having a dedicated one even if it isn't used that often (hopefully). From what I can see/found online I think mine just have the sprung circlip, but if I can just re-grease that would be even better. I will check later but pretty certain I have some spare of the smaller diameter clips from when I changed the boots a while ago. The roll pin design sounds super. Much easier than it leaking oil everywhere! I know on VW's and maybe more, they have a flange at the inner, so it just bolts together. Again, makes it easy to replace the joint.

Hi Judd, Thank you for the reply. I have not tried re-packing the joints, and didn't know about the laser tool for a grease gun. I thought that as mine was making noise it would probably be bad enough I would just need to replace it, plus I have driven on it for a while whilst it has been making the noise, but I shall try greasing them up. I have also renewed the inner and outer boots on my forester, so I have had those circlips off before, and the joint taken off. I just wasn't sure how to get the gearbox side of the joint out. I shall have a look when I am next under my car. I shall get all the items I need for greasing and have a go hopefully at the weekend. Thanks for the helpful comments and advice, I shall let everyone know how I get on and if re-greasing fixes my issue.

Hi all Been enjoying my forester but recently noticed a vibration. It only happens when accelerating (first noticed on hard acceleration) and from about 40mph. From what I have read here and on other forums, this is likely to be the front inner CV joints. Over the Christmas break I did a tyre rotation, partly to check there wasn't anything with the wheels that could be causing the vibration and partly because I try to every once in a while. Whilst the wheels were off I tried moving the drive shafts, and the front left had 1mm or so play up, down, left and right at the gearbox end, so I believe this is my problem. I will replace both front joints whilst doing it. I already changed all the CV boots not too long ago, so thinking either I did something wrong then that has led to the damage, or just 147K driveshafts are worn out, but I know what I am doing to be able to swap the parts myself. So my question to you all - What is the best way to replace the front inner CV joints? I read somewhere, think it was this forum, that all the knock off shafts are not worth having, better to replace just the joint. I am happy to do this, and probably the cheaper option. So what brand is best for the inner joints? Should I be changing the whole shaft seeing as I am there? (I want to keep the car for at least a few more years so worth doing it properly) When I pull the gearbox side of the joint out the box will gearbox oil pour out and so I need to have replacement fluid ready? Can I tell if I have 21 spline or 25 spline gearbox outdrives without pulling them out? Any other advice from people who have done this job would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks everyone, Matthew

Had an interesting problem earlier this week and thought I would share this for anyone who encounters the same issue. Having parked on our drive (on a slope) I left my Forester (2003) and when I came back to it in a few days time to use I got in and tried to drive off. All the brakes were locked on solid. Couldn't get it to move at all. It felt like the hill hold was on permenantly which was weird. Turns out I was right. So after some investigation we found where the hill hold adjustment was. Decided it couldn't be much else. I had fitted new front brakes a few weeks prior, but driven to Lands End and back since, so covered over 400 miles on the new brakes and not had any issues with my car having been left for a week at times without driving. Also it was all the brakes so not something like the handbrake sticking on. Looking at the hill hold lever/valve it was immediatley obvious what was wrong. Whilst parking the hill hold had activated and at some point in the last section of my journey the return spring had corroded enough that is sheared. So there was only half the spring attached. This meant when parking and the hill hold activated, the valve was never returned and it stayed locked on, so my feeling like the hill hold was on turned out to be right! My temporary solution was to note where the adjuster was and unscrew it. This means I could take out the rod that actuates the valve. Now the rod for the actuator sits beside the arm. This means I no longer have hill hold, but also my brakes are not permenantly locked on! I am going to get another spring very soon and can put the system back together as I do enjoy the convenience of the hill hold sometimes. Just thought this might help someone who is panicing as they get to their car and find the brakes are all locked on! Certainly stressed me a little but fortunatley it was just to go to a welding store so not a time critical journey. I might try and get some pictures to add here when I put another spring back onto the system.

Thanks @Mr B I am trying to use decent branded parts as it should pay off in the long run. And found I can get them all fairly cheap from Buy Car Parts which is in Germany. Takes a week or 2 to arrive but I think worth it for the prices. They have a lot of cheap copies too so I just filter it so I can only see the few decent brands. Seems to have worked perfectly for the boots and brakes so far. Ok, I will have a look at castrol too. Still not too sure what I will go with and when, I just know it is one of the next upgrades on my list of things I want to do. Lol, the problem with getting money into the economy is I don't have that much at the moment! Waiting for a work placement year to start having finished my second year of University, so can't go out driving too much unfortunatley. Makes sense for caster adjustment. Didn't feel any different on the Impreza ones, but thought it best to stick with what it came with. Not sure how much it would actually adjust it by. And we did try threaded bars and sockets. Had some success doing that for the smaller ones but just didn't have the right size sockets. I will invest in a proper kit with a good selectrion of cups before doing any more. Thanks, I am having fun and still loving the car 👍

Got some more work done on my car. A few weeks ago I replaced all my front CV boots. I used SKF replacements and also bought Oetiker clips for the few that had a different style which I wasn't able to get as tight. I also had to buy the proper tool for these clips, but it was well worth it as it made it very easy to get the clips tight enough. Everything went fairly smoothly although the snap ring was a pain to get on and off for one side. Was able to just remove the lower ball joint and leave the drive shafts in the car. Had enough room to move things around. It was a good afternoons work, but was completed within this. Then for my birthday a few weeks ago I got some uprgaded brake discs and pads. I needed to replace these anyway, so went for some Brembo max discs with Brembo Xtra pads. Should be a nice little upgrade in brake performance. The change over went very well and I am now bedding them in nicely. Very happy with everything. Looking at a brake fluid change sometime soon as well, thinking Motul RBF600 but opinions as to the best for daily driving and some spirited country lane driving would be helpful. The back side of the old discs were really grooved, the front not as bad, but they did really need changing so glad I did it

I just used a manual wire brush with this, but it worked very well. Better than I thought but probably as there wasn't any corrosion and the mucky wasn't really caked on. And I think my photos are bigger than that. But I completley forgotten to add them so thanks for reminding me! Before and after cleaning up the rear mounts from the original steel arms Looking much better shiny, not sure how long it will last but was worth the effort The arms came out easily have only been changed recently. My dad helped as well, so in 30 mins we had both off This was interesting to see. So the alloy arms are compatible. But the rear bush housings are different. I used the impreza ones when originally fitting things to my car, which was not ideal. So hence putting on the original housings from the steel arms. You can see the different height which will adjust the angle the arm is at. I don't actually know if it makes any difference in terms of geometry, but imagine it will change the roll centre a bit or something like that? I will learn more about that in the 4th year of my uni course anyway so will know then! You can also see the stock Forester one has much thicker flanges where the bolts got through. Not sure if that is really needed but another interesting difference I think Poly bushes all fitted. Once the old bushes were out this was an easy process to grease things up and push them into place All sorted. Installation didn't take too long either, and they got torqued up with load on the front. This was the leaking cv boot. I will get on and fix that soon

Today I got the bushes swapped out for the poly bushes. Learnt a few things. The rear bushing mount that came with the alloy arms was actually not right for my car, but I had used it so put the arm at a slightly incorrect angle. This morning I sorted this by cleaning up the rear bushing mount from my original steel arms that came off the car. Amazing how quickly they cleaned up with a manual wire brush. So used them in re-assembly so everything fit a bit better. Otherwise it all went pretty well. As it was not long ago that I changed the arms they came off pretty quickly and easily. Getting the old bushes out was a pain, but once I found the right size sockets and applied some heat the front ones pressed out. And found that burning out and hacksawing the rear bushings was the best method for those. Got the polybushes in easily enough and put it all back together, torquing things up once the car was at ride height on the axle stands under the ball joints. I have a load of photos but currently my image hosting site of choice (post image) is down for maintainance so they will have to wait till tomorrow. Not done a test drive yet with the isolation we are in, but I will let everyone know what it feels like when I get the chance. Also found a cv boot has a small hole in it so slinging grease about a bit, so going to order some of them and probably change all the front CV boots. Cheap to do and I have the time at home for now so might as well change all of them at the front. Any that come off good will be kept as spares incase another punctures in the future.

Thanks. Progress will probably be slow as it is just when I can afford things or they need changing. And I don't want to mess with it too much yet, everything seems to be working well (done 140k miles) and I like the reliability I am getting. In the advanced technology department so not racing stuff, but should be a very cool year of work. It probably will get light off road use from time to time. Unlikely to be anything that serious, but keeping comfort and flex should help if I do. Just got to get them changed over now.

Hi All, Thought it was time I got a thread going for my car, for all the odd little jobs I do that don't warrant seperate posts. Just to generally document what I do as time goes on. So I bought my 2003 Forester in April last year. It is a 2.0 non turbo that cost me under £1500 to buy, and got an MOT just before I bought it. Had a few jobs to do since, and tinkering here and there. I should say I am a uni student studying Off Highway Automotive Engineering, and this is my first car! So not got the greatest budget at the moment, but I plan on looking after this car and hopefully it will last a while. I hope it will get a few nice parts through the next year as I will be on a placement year working at Prodrive!! Further in the future it may even end up with a different heart when funds allow. Work done so far: When bought to exhaust had already got a replaced back section to pass the MOT, but it didn;t take long for the cat section to cause problems. A lot of rust around a guard meant there were a lot of holes in the pipe. So whilst working at a classic car garage last summer (Wren Classics in Shaftesbury) I was able to buy a new cat section and install it one evening after work, using the 4 post lift. Before Then I had a look at the brakes at some point at Uni. Put some new front brake pads in, as well as doing an engine oil and filter change. Could probably do with some new discs in the not too distant future, but waiting till placement year when money should be more available, and probably go for some slightly upgraded road pads at the same time. The most recent fun, and the reason I found this forum was a failure of my lower control arms. Only one went badly enough I could hear it, but both were very dead when I actually looked at them closely. @Mr B was very helpful showing me some that would fit and so I now have second hand alloy Impreza arms in. Got new ball joints and drop links, but should probably have got new bushes as well. So after a little more research I have bought some strongflex polybushes which I plan to install on Monday, making the most of isolation. Only gone for the standard road replacement strength, not stiffer for now. This car is still my daily driver, gets a lot of miles (About 15000 in the last year) so I want it to still retain the comfort, whilst upgrading things a little here and there. Will be my first time changing things like this so any tips for polybushing the car would be appreciated.

I am struggling to find bushes by any of the above manufaturers that should fit on my car. Please can someone share a link if they have one? I need both bushes for the front lower control arms. I think part numbers are: 20204SA000 for the front bush 20201FA120 (Right) and 20201FA130 (Left) for the rear bush in housing. But please correct me if I am wrong, or there are others that will fit. Thanks

Typically I now realise I should have changed bushes at the same time, and will need to before my MOT in April. So now I have to decide whether I put new bushes in the second set of arms I ended up with (but that are a lot messier and need cleaning up) or use the messier arms temporarily whilst I put new bushes into the arms I currently have on the car. Either way the second set of arms means I won't need to disable my car for a long period of time, so right not works in my favour that I ended up with them. Just got to order some bushes up and decide how I am doing things

Thanks. Ok, that is good to know. I am guessing they are probably a bit stronger than the steel arms too? I like saving money, In total was somewhere under £200 for parts. And many hours spent switching bits over and checking them, but I enjoy that so don't mind it. I am planning to do nearly all of the work this car needs myself. Cheaper, good fun and interesting. I have a good collection of decent tools, and happy to buy more as I need. I do plan on making a general build thread for this car sometime very soon, as I plan on keeping it around for a while and inevitably upgrading things sometime. Those links will prove very helpful, thanks.

Hi All, I am pretty new to the forum. Found it when my car broke and I needed help sorting new front lower control arms. That is fixed now, but I have decided to stick around a bit, enjoy others builds and get help when I need it with mine. So, about me. I am currently still in my late teenage years, and at University studying Off Highway Automotive Engineering. Been into mechancial things for years, had my own projects (Been building and racing lawn mowers for the last 6 years) and would say I am alright with spanners. Spent the last 2 summers working with a classic car race team too. I have a Subaru Forester from 2003, 2.0 NA. Not bad for a first car I don't think. I plan on doing almost all the work that it needs myself. Already done an engine oil and filter change, plus fitting 2 alloy front lower control arms. Not got too much money being a student, but want to spend money where worth it on this car, make it last for years. I look forward to spending more time on here, and probably getting lots of nice parts for my car I don't really need and can only just afford as a result. Here are a few photos

On Saturday I changed over the right side arm. Whilst it looked fine on the way out, it was actually a bit scary once I saw it properly. Definatley the right choice to change both arms over. Good job I caught it when I did/that the left broke the way it did. Today I heard a bit of a knocking noise on my way into uni (Yes, I am at university). Much quieter than before but I had been planning to check everything anyway. So had a look on both sides. Everything seemed fine and I double check the torques of all the bolts. All good. Only change I made was the ball joint pinch bolt. I could find a torque of between 38 and 50Nm. When I did it up I left it at 40Nm. But I remembered the ball joints had slipped into there quite easily and so I checked they had not come looser, and then did both pinch bolts up to 50Nm. On a test drive everything seems super and no longer hearing anything. So in a few weeks after a lot more driving I will check once more (I know I am probably being over cautious, but this is the first big job I have done on my own car and I want to make sure it is fine). But so far all seems good.

Thanks. I think it is the 22nd that I have to wait till before Ebay will take action, but at least the process is started. And yeah, I think the second purchase was a better one anyway. Shame that my car has been off the road for as long as it has, but I have not needed to drive anywhere important so it has all worked out fine. Hopefully these alloy arms will last well, I would imagine they will last the lift of the car unless there is an accident? I just hope to stop the same issue happening again. If as things need replacing I go for upgrades the car should last me well and keep getting better, I am hoping to keep it going for a while, as I love the Forester as a car and it ticks all the boxes for me.

Finally got a pair of alloy arms. Didn't come with the cone inserts so thanks for noting them Mr B. It was the second set I ordered so they did have the bushed already bolted on, but the seller had done a very nice job of cleaning them up. Installation was fairly easy this evening and been for a test drive. All is feeling good. This weekend I plan to swap the non broken side over to the alloy arm. Then I want to get the car properly alligned and tracked. Thanks for the help. Certainly some things I would have missed or got wrong.

Well looks like I should have gone for your link @Mr B. Seems the ebay seller I bought the lower links from is dodgy (angliatuningcentre), they were suposedly sent on Friday or Saturday delivery. Still got nothing and they have not supplied a tracking number although I asked for one this morning. A few reviews say that items never arrived and no contact from them. So bought another set off someone else that definatley include bolts for the rear bush. Not sure if they have the cones for the ball joint, but I have a pair sat here waiting so that isn't a problem. I just want to get my car back on the road and this is irritating me greatly. Still, another few days wait it seems.

I am not sure if they come with bolts. Do you know what thread they are? Ok, I am surprised by that. Would have thought that can make them to last a little longer than 2 years. Hopefully these alloy ones will last a lot better. Thanks. I have already got the pinch bolt off on the broken side. It was tight to get going and I was worried it was about to shear, but came out fine. I was having more difficulty with the drop links bolt. I didn't actually use penetrating oil, but should get some for the rest of dis-assembly. Should have it all off by the end of Sunday. Then a case of waiting for all the parts to arrive and bolt it all back together. And I will do the other side very soon too. I shouldn't need to take apart the knuckle to damper but thanks for the tip, I shall remember that if I ever do have that apart. Thanks again for your help

Super, thank you. I have bought the ones in my link, but didn't know about the taper cone inserts, so that was very useful to learn about. I have ordered some of those as well as the needed bushed and joints. Thanks again for your help.

Hi All, first post here, and I am in need of help. Just been driving home and heard a loud banging a few times from the front left suspension. When I got home (5 minute journey) I had a look at the lower control arm has split along a weld. Going to need a new arm, and trying to find some. Been quoted over £300 from a Subaru dealer nearby, I don't want to spend that much if I can help it. So here are the questions: Are "Japan parts" worth getting? As found a complete arm with bushed for just under £100? Or does anyone know if these would fit? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-Impreza-WRX-2005-Front-Alloy-Lower-Control-Arm-Set/293328899567?hash=item444bc3cdef:g:tTUAAOSwpJRdzCdQ Impreza 2005 alloy links. A think I found a thread here where something similar fit on, but confirmation would be nice. As I really need to swap both sides, the right is showing signs of corrosion I would rather replace both to be on the safe side. So this would be a little cheaper and an upgrade whilst I am at it, if they are compatable. I am pretty happy doing the mechanical work to swap it over myself, already started taking it apart to get the arm off. Just want to find a decent parts supply. Any tips for removal and re-assembly also useful. @SubaruBlack and @Mr B ??? Asking for you 2 as I found a previous thread with similar issue so hope one of you might take a look and let me know if they would fit? Thanks Thanks everyone.