Mr B

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 ...

Any chance in any paperwork you got with car you know what garage done work for him, a clever call may lead to fact they already know about car as tested for the seller & then you have some hard proof he new about issue prior to sale.

A lot of the problems can be caused from debris entering oilways during rebuild & also lack of good oil flushing cycle after rebuilt. If engine is evaluated well prior to work commencing & work done to a high standard then it not a problem, you always going get an odd job go bad but making a mountain out of a molehill just to cover your a55 on every job at expense of the customer is not professional service or good mechanical engineering.

^ It not luck

Absolute rubbish, I have done a fair few 2.5 heads gaskets only & had no come backs & have 2 which regular for servicing & mot & one of those done almost 60k with no issues. HG issue is breakdown of coating & normally it leaks external & any water ingress is minimal, obviously you gauge engine condition prior to planning route of repair but a lot of these leaks are so small they hard to diagnose let alone bad enough to do any major damage. Bottom bearings are engineered for greatest stress & that is not from compression or ignition but from inertia of sudden change of direction at bottom & top of stroke, that load can be around 10x that of combustion.