Brick

Cheers lads. It was travelling about 45mph uphill between bends at the time. Did't ralise at first it had snaped. There was an almighty ban, black smoke from the rear I first thought but it was caused by the tyres when the car locked instantly and briefly, the skid light came on and the tyres now have an area where they locked, not flat spotted but there is the clear colour difference. I gues that is "an undetectable by feel" flatspot. The incident happened in the flash of an eye.. Because I have no time and money I'm probably going to have to scrap it or see if anyone wants to buy it and repair/replace the engine themselves... 😞

Hi. Not been in here for a while. The timing belt on our Impreza snapped as I was driving to work. Don't know what to do with the thing now. I don't know how to tell if it's all messed up inside. I turned the crank with my ratchet arm and the end of the timing bely poked out of the new hole in the belt cover.. 😞 It is a 2008 2l Sport so not worth a lot and I don't want to waste money on a garage just for them to say it's ruined.. without putting a belt on it I don't know how to tell if it's ruined. Also I would have to learn on the go how to put the belt on... Time is my enemy.. lack of money too..

North Wales. Can a sill really fill up then overflow into the cabin? Never had a car do that before.

Hi. Impreza 2008 2.0l Sport, bog standard hatch. Had the clutch replaced at a Subaru garage, wasn't right, severe vibration at low speed and a warning light came on, Hillstop assist, never seen it had to look it up. Took the car back and they admitted they'd made a mistake, the gearbox was put back in slightly wrong and had to remove and reposition the gearbox andthere was an issue with how they had reconnected the reverse, that caused the hill light. Then 2 days later passenger side of the car filled up with water when my wife drove in the rain. They fobbed my wife off by removing the sill drain plug to let the water out and said no way have they caused anything that could allow water to get in. Have any of you guys got any idea where the water could be coming in please? They say the sill had filled up and overflowed into the caqbin?? Really, can that happen? It was a few inches deep and the car now stinks, there's still loads under the carpet to be sucked out. Another warning light came on the 2nd day of driving it too, again had to look it up. The auto headlight adjustment warning light is on but my fault code finder finds nothing. I don't go in to see them or I will end up falling out with them. Only started to have any trouble with the car when it went in to them...

I've checked the car over, should do this more really. Took an age trying to replace a drivers side side light, stupidly awkward to get to. Cleaned the air filter and put some gearbox oil in it as it was very very low. I **** you not I've just been gettintg 44MPG. I actually took a photo of it in case nobody believed me. Will take to a new local Subaru garage as the sump on the gearbox has a leak. The folk we bought it from had just serviced it and replaced gearbox and diff oils. Clearly they've not put a sump washer on it or it needs replacing.

Eyup. We've got an old much loved much battered, and I do mean battered 2001 Forester Sport. The forester has big chunky General Grabber tyres on it too. Also now got a 2008 Impreza 2L R. Bog standard with Yokahama road tyres on it. It's an awesome drive BUT the old battered (big AT tyre fitted) Forester is cheaper to run. We get an average of 30MPG in the Impreza and 35MPG in the Forester. Is this right? Not a big deal but had expected the more modern version of the engine to be cheaper to run. Expected it to be better to drive and wow, it is. Best car I've driven that I've actually owned, not the fastest but the best. Our driving is never short hops as we live in the hills in North Wales and it's minimum 5 miles on the commute which is half single track streep windy lanes, half nat speed limit. and regularly 45 mins on main roads to town so thats national speed limit mostly.

Sorry I meant the side rear window not the back door window. :)

In the end the DAB went into a different car, Hyundai Terracan and I bought one of those powered stick on jobbies from eBay and it's !Removed! brilliant. Huge improvement on the aerial that was installed with the DAB when I bought it. I was previously using an upright aerial that was magneted to the roof, never again.

It did make a good difference the Pipercross just never seen anything on it and I've never had this before. Previous ones just bog standard Mann or whatever, changed every year, knocked out dust every month. Pipercross never had dust, wasps, feathers etc.

Not seen one of those before. Probably going to end up with one of these but was hoping someone had tried an adaptor to use the one on the back window.

Going to transfer a DAB head unit to the Forester. Has anyone tried one of those adaptors that attempt to use the standard aerial for DAB reception? The forester has the standard window printed aerial

Eyup. I've previously posted about mysterious damage to my Pipercross panel filter. It is a mystery. But what has just struck me is that when I look at a bog standard or K&N panel filter they always have crap on them. This is a good thing. A clear indication that the filter has done a fine job. I've never seen any crap on my Pipercross and before you say the obvious, it was the same before it gained it's mysterious hole. Putting this filter on made a big difference to performance and a throatier sound BUT is this because it's very expensively doing bugger all to the air flowing through it? Recently got an Impreza III (love it) and was going to Pipercross it too but I'm going for a K&N panel filter I reckon.

Will do a pic when I get back from hols.

No, good idea though but the metal grill was still intact, foam in the other side.

Eyup. Went tocheck car over, had to clean oil out from down HT lead as it had come out of a seal and gathered in the tube, once cleared out it never came back and intermittent tick over issue cleared. When I checked the Pipercross air filter out it had quite a bit of oil in it and a jagged half circle cut/ripped through, roughly in line with the air pipe. Never seen this before, any ideas how that can happen? Deck not damaged when it went in, nobody else touches the car, there's nowt in the airbox to catch it on either.

Hi, not sure if I've put this in the right place, sorry if not. Looking at buying a 2009 Forester manual diesel. The clutch is going to need to be replaced. How much roughly would I expect to pay for this to be done. I'm wary of these cars because of the dual mass flywheel, I know these are expensive to do. Cheers

The Forester is on about 85K and I change it around 7K. The Forester never uses any oil and it looks and smells okay when being changed. Not a drip leaking from anywhere. I've gone to 5w 40 from 5w 30. Oil is dirt cheap at the mo so no need to skimp on using quality oil. In fairness the Rexton uses no oil either BUT it does stink when changed, guess it's deisel getting in as is the case with diesels. That bugger is due a gearbox oil change now but being the auto it's a bigger job.

I find that the Forester doesn't like hills that much and where I live it's all hills, we're 1000ft up. With the new air filter I can stay in gear longer, I don't like keeping a car in a gear till the engine is about to stall up going up a hill, complete false economy I reckon. The oil is changed about every 7k and makes the engine a smoother from cold and quieter. It's had gearbox and rear diff oil 7k ish ago. All these jobs done over the last month or so. The Rexton next. That bugger has about 9l of oil. :(

Service for the forester. Had a Pipercross PP1606 air filter, oil change and fuel filter change. New tyres too. New drilled and grooved Mtec discs Black Diamond Predator pads front, Mtec drums and shoes rear, General grabber AT 205 75 15, had to take off front mud flaps for these though. Has made a big difference to the car. The biggest difference being the air filter. My Forester is Sport, 2002 end of the MK1 but with oddness thrown in. Some parts are not usual MK1 parts, good example being the air filter, mine is 370mm, 2 mates MK1 Foresters are 280mm. It is rotting away though. Scissor jack popped up through the poor bugger at the front drivers jack point. :( Will have to do the anti freeze soon too.

I replaced the cat in the end and got 2 new sensors. BUT the back sensor they sent me wasn't the same connector as mine. Mine and new one a 4 wire but the new one much smaller than mine. I swapped the leads over and hey presto the fault went away..... BUT A new ofault has landed and it is gonna be right as it says there's a possible circuit fault so I need to re arrange the wires to get the right positions. I know Subaru do some odd things but to have 2 different conectors for the back cat sensor is bonkers. Even the bulbs for my car aren't the same as other MK1s. It is the Sport and clearly it's half MK1 and half MK2. Had the same problem ordering front brake pads online when first changed pads n discs. Still a cracking car, rotting away though. Had to line a front wheel arch in fibreglass as both rotted away, no time yet for other one. Went to jack it up with the scissor jack at the jack point and the sill/chasis now has a jack head shaped hole in it. :( Think its days are numbered, and just spent £330 getting 4 new tyres put on it too. I will do other wheel arch but hopefully my hillbilly garage will patch up the metal and send it back to me with an MOT in January ... hopefully, pity I can't weld.

My first Subaru was a blue 1800 GLF hatchback and the interior was similar to your beauty but the outside wasn't the same. Yours has twin front headlights and mine has single units. Mine was a manual 4 speed with lo ratio. Loved it but it rotted away to nothing. Hope you get a good price for that car.

Using Torque and Carista apps I get same code as the garages got: P0031 - HO2S Heater Control Circuit Low Bank 1 Sensor 1. It is listed as a different fault in that list earlier from Miggs: 31 Throttle Position Sensor Circuit. Clear it and it comes back on after a few seconds so is a genuine fault. Just now wonder which one.

Removing battery for a day did nowt and no the car doesn't shake or rattle when idling. There is nowt, other than the !Removed! engine management light, wrong with the car and my hillbilly garage just ignore it, for better or worse. The car always passes the emission tests and never misses a beat. Only missed a tiny bit a year ago but I changed the spark plugs and it sorted that. The plugs were just a bit worn down, no soot or crust or cracks. Doesn't use oil or water. I've just ordered a ODBII Bluetooth dongle from Amazon for my phone and gonna try out Torque and Carista. Amazon claim it will arrive tomorrow but the world has just gone white out there so may have to wait. Not a problem as the car runs okay. Cheers for the super quick replies guys.

I use Falken Landair LA/AT t-110 on my Forester. Use them in our muddy fields, sheet ice, deep snow, motorway, country lanes and city roads. Very good performance and they run quiet too Perfect tyre as far as I'm concerned. Way way better than the Bridgestone Dueller A/T 694 that they've replaced in every way. When I replace them in a few weeks I'm getting the same tyres. Had over 20k from them too, was worried as folk say they only last 10k!!