Mr B

Yuasa & Banner are good & only 2 we really use due to good working life, warranty, fair price & minimal returns . For memory we have lighter socket/eobd/crock-clip power supply from mains but for battery swaps I mainly use a little cordless one that runs off a rechargeable pp3 battery (can be had cheap or home made-2 crock clips with short run of cable and a pp3 battery connector), super easy use & saves setting clocks and radio equipment .

worse case scenario is radio code pending on what radio you got. also don't leave keys in car with door shut, some alarms & some scenarios can lock doors when power reconnected, then you locked out & trying find your spare key .

Buy locally from motor factors, make sure buy one with 3 or 4yr warranty. keeping receipt & using local supplier means it easy make most of warranty . think your battery model is 005 but look on your battery & see if can see a code number. Banner or Yuasa brand is my favourite these days, we get very little issue on those & use them for most battery jobs we done over last 8yrs. Cost is indeed around £70 region I expect .

You can buy batteries for these for less than £2 for quality duracell long life (CR1620 I believe) Quite easy program other fobs yourself if need, no special equipment needed . You can also actually use subaru 2 button fob seperate from key & any decent auto locksmith can cut key & sort key transponder. ebay service on remote good if remote buttons or board bad & fair price. Key blade itself can be done too, locksmith can cut key & modify it to fit the fob part, not many will offer that service though. I done one for a customer, cut key blade was £14 & I charged 1 hrs labour for running about & customizing key into original key handle fob . £300 for new key is crazy money ...

actually another thing look for on SG is corrosion in rear inner wheel arch. Normally it near the lip seam to out arch & down side to sill edge tends be heavier rot & is mot failure. done odd one over years but done 2 for pre mot work and a failure in last 5 weeks so made me think about adding this as easy over looked, subframes & rear chassis rails always worth a good look too. Easy to inspect so do have a good nose/prod & take a decent torch when viewing (you can buy half decent 24LED inspection lamps on ebay for £4.50)

I would get a stainless backbox custom made either by longlife or powerflow, longlife do good work but powerflow has lot more outlets so most people got one close. Price probably about £145 ... The impreza exhausts fit badly in my opinion unless chop them about fair bit so follows standard exhaust line better, by time you buy materials/pay someone mod it the price is not so favourable. works out ok if get a decent impreza backbox free or real cheap & you handy with welder .

Meyle is good drop links. is dead easy fit. soaking nuts on old ones for few days before removing may make things simpler simple do on ramps, jacked up evenly on stands etc. Price you got quoted is ridiculous. new drop links are only 10-15 £ each & 30 minutes labour .

rear prodrive/sti rollbar & strengthened rollbar mounts can help but best gain is custom stiffer springs & shocks like kyb excel g or ultra, especially on ones that done a lot of mileage & some towing. 18" rims won't be great on uk roads .

Reinz & Payen both do gaskets for the EK42 engine if that what you got. Think Reinz P/N is 71-52522-00 They can be had online or through any good professional parts factors

Best 2 ways to be 100% is from part number on the shock or calling subaru parts with your chassis number or reg handy & ask for part price & confirm it sls. Most of the sls versions look same, springs are normally thinner but this hard notice without having seen non sls springs.

mix kyb with custom progressive springs with perhaps 20mm base lift from springcoil.co.uk would help keep rear at sensible level for your sort of usage I suspect. See what outcome is from test drive, prices won't be good unless you work for or marry someone from dealership. KYB & custom springs would be about £340-£370 pair fitted, shocks have 2yr warranty ...

kyb will be non sls if want sls it has to be subaru parts. Rear shock/shocks could have internal issues & no leaks. Stripping off vehicle may tell more . Don't sound right to me though as I would say good order suspension on these cars are far from bouncy. If car towed a lot or carried reasonable load then shocks & springs do work hard so could be fatigued. KYB shocks are good price, subaru sls will be 8x the price. The KYB's can be used with some custom progressive springs & slight base height gain to try & balance ride height better. sls is nice & strut quality superb but most people won't cough up well over 1k for new shocks - springs when can get above options for £250ish

Some new kyb excel G shocks would be less than £100 a pair. some new springs too could be good. kyb is heavier damping than original. roll bar will make no difference to this but drop links are cheap (£14ish each) so could be worth fitting 2 new ones if get rear shocks done so all A1 back end.

Not from part listing for it. looks to be same for SG 02/2002 to 12/2007

Take door card off & have a look, test feed & earth to motor. I find more motor or regulator faults due to wear or moisture damage over switch, relay or wiring. You can get a pattern part motor assembly for these should sourcing used becomes tricky although pattern part not well distributed in uk . It not that hard to remove & only a few screws .

Lots of parts get revised without recall, was indeed known issue but not a big amount of failures & many had 2 or 3 owners & nearing or over 100K by time it popped . One of the reasons I don't buy that gen diesel foresters is they are a big risk . damn shame really . think safest solution is later gen short block. had quite a few block design changes too .

what model forester & with what aim ! lowering ? cheap repair to failed sls ?

crank design, they had at least 2 revisions on the crank.

slight re-tensioning should do the trick, easy to do diy .

heater strips in the front screen where the blades sit in parked position .

Crank snapping is known issue on those year diesels .

quite shocking have this problem on a 3 to 4 year old car, between this injectors & dpf I can't be bothered with a diesel subaru for my own use as just not worth the hassle for the price they demand. Still not had one snap off yet but they do feel close to it at times. Subaru really needed help out on this & also introduce preventative measures for replacements ... Subaru really needed a good diesel but the introduction experience to owners has done serious brand damage ...

I would try video the issues so you got a record of proof then get them do something about as soon as possible. reality is you likely will need a replacement unit as I doubt faffing about will lead to resolve. I got no time for lazy dealers, be firm but stay polite, if it faulty even intermittently it must be fixed ...

2.0 litre is rated at 1500kg tow & 2.5 litre 2000kg. non turbo has low range, turbos do not & 2.5L was only turbo (XT) in uk market. 4wd is permanent & a very good system with a proper true viscous centre diff & LSD rear diff so need of diff locks is not really needed in most scenarios. Spares can be bit expensive but the majority of run of the mill parts are about average in cost & available from local parts factors or specialists like ICP & also you don't normally need fix them much as they are above average in reliability. I think your biggest issue will be towing weight & missing the torque of the TD5.

60k miles for N/A or 50k miles for Turbo, or 5 years . Europe has really low mileage for belts, in USA & Oz it more like 90 to 100K miles. Main niggles are ripped drivers seat on leather edge, mucky seats as light cloth stains easily, drivers window not working, roof bars faded & scratched, exhaust heat shields rattle (easy fix), sumps can get heavy rust spots (mainly as no oil leaks covering whole front car like most european junk) Do look for hard use from towing, rear suspension is (SLS) self levelling hydraulically internally within strut & they fail & rear sags, this costs good £300+ from garage to replace with KYB struts & matching springs, they not SLS as that only from subaru parts & at almost £400 a strut. Check transmision/clutch smooth & free from clunks. Check underbody not dented up from off road use etc. Check tyres for even wear as with AWD you don't want bad wear from possible accident damaged car or from faulty suspension They tough vehicles & if serviced well & had good owners even 140K foresters have loads of life left. Just take bit of time, test/look at everything & don't rush at first one you see. older SF models are better built & in my opinion far better design than the SG so if you see one of those around 99 to 02 they certainly worth a look ...