Mr B

Worth double checking all round for missed bolt. They do hold a bit on the dowls & bottom long studs sometimes . Download the service manual EU.pdf from link below & review gearbox removal, although not overly helpful it may give you some insight confidence in the job. http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/Forester/2003/

what bearing ? Kits come with 2 release bearings to cover options or was spigot the issue !

Exedy stage 1 clutch kit. Wouldn't bother with lightened flywheel on road car but nice refinishing/skimming on current one is a must for a proper job. Like Ricky says the box on the subaru as damn easy, far easier than many front wheel drive cars & you have quite good room around it for working. Other plus is nut & bolt quality is far better than french & german tat & some thought on dismantling is visible in sizing & design of things so compared to a hdi pug it an absolute pleasure of a job :-)

i would only bother on a spare machine, I never use preview builds on a good running machine.

^ You shouldn't of have :D Could waste a whole Sunday if I download that :P Good chance this 10 will be the revelation 7 was after Vista. Think a lot of the criticism has been taken on board & looks good on paper

Always surprised me more alarm makers didn't play on making key & fob all in one as selling feature as to be honest it is !Removed! better & would of been easy either via custom blanks or chopping standard key into a adaptable fob holder ! The Sigma is only one that has key & fob in one that i'm aware of, it based on the remote key 2 button fob like you have & you open it up & replace the board for a sigma one & comes with new cover for the key. Possible rip one out of a scrapped Subaru, I had one a few years ago as a friendly breaker had a forester breaker in & I noticed 2keys with inbuilt remotes in the car so decided spend few hours pulling the system out as price was cheap & spares handy. As you going need paperwork for insurance you ideally going need go new. Going with something that seems easy use for your needs & reasonable on support in your area & online info is good. Clifford is a bit over rated as is over priced.

Is a bit of a pain on the 4wd's when one tyre needs doing. Exactly what best or workable option comes down to what other axle tyre condition like. If it almost new then 1 new matching tyre could be used, if excessively worn so rolling diameter going differ too much then 2 new on same axle is best. If excessive rolling diameter between both axles is likely as all tyres well worn then a complete set is good idea. On 4wd it very good idea keep matching brand & wear on complete car or axle at minimum. Davids tip on rotate is good, don't have go silly on this but once or twice in tyre set life is normally all that needed in getting most from the tyres. **** tyres & mismatched tyres makes the 4wd kind of useless & possibly troublesome .. Upside is the Subarus if setup ok & no suspension issues are good on tyre wear so a set should wear quite well without much rotating hassle.

Well if that resolves piston slap post me the empty can & I will eat it. For sure additives can help in some engine matters but chances on proper piston slap is a no really .

Good start to the day & more enjoyable than a soggy weetabix :-)

I buy hardware only, mainly as prefer some of the older 14.1" notebooks for workshop use (tough & easy/cheap repair) & likes of hp dv6000 machines can be bought for price of take away & with cpu change to best in range & an SSD they perform better than many decent spec new but with huge saving in initial cost & also easily repaired/maintained as parts are in abundance. Windows 7 was easy to hooky licence with OEM certificates & bios 2.1 patch. Had good deal on 2 7 extra licences from MS though. Quite hard these days in UK to buy a PC/Notebook without an OS.

I think the 8 fiasco gave them a right rumping, throw in popularity of OSX & GPL. open source OS growth has forced the licensing to be free or damn close to it . Won't be as flexible as old days of a retail key & OS install media but if do backups & review setup media options before a disaster etc it should be good for most & hard to grumble if truly free ...

They are quite forgiving on pirated systems, treat you as an innocent & tend offer cut prices even if you contact them over your licensing issues. Never had any licence issues with them even when have been a bit naughty so they get a thumbs up for that ...

Eating doughnuts & looking at MS remarks on the 10 upgrade would suggest that current idea is a guaranteed 1yr window from release date to update free & that updated OS remains free for life on that hardware system. Is possible free update will become permanent pending on the market in terms of popularity & OS competitiveness . Not a bad deal if 10 turns out a winner, will have a use for my 8 retail key after all :-)

Lol , I do feel better after the rant :-) Productive day today & not going off the rails :-P No snickers but we have fresh decent large proper bakery doughnuts on a Friday lunch :-)

wasted most of my morning moaning over 8 & I'm not even using it besides on spare notebook :-S

^ You're fired ... lol

Yeh I would probably go with half decent cat1 system & dump the teardrop transponder & the key with fob. I would get 2 standard metal keys cut, maybe on scooby or STI emblem blanks & have the cat1 alarm fobs work the central locking direct. easy live with over current setup plus insurance will like cat1 cert. I quite like autowatch, sigma & Cobra alarms but worth doing some research so buy something you happy with, alarms are quite cheap these days ... Those touch style immobilisers are normally only done as cheapest option for importers (about £75 trade)

Quite old in today's world & after couple years they only really support current model range. Kind of one of those things and more canon than MS at blame. Beauty with 7 was even real old stuff we had for XP would work on 7 sometimes required compatibility mode & the admin trick like you doing on 8 but once tweaked it would run faultless. I run MS on everything & still on WM6.5.5 on the phone, like you say Windows Phone looks nice & tiles work good on the phone but man is it basic/incompetent, very much a dumb phone compared to old WM6.5 or Android. Fingers crossed on 10, let me know how your mum gets on with it :-D Best I get cracking, my own moaning is holding up the workshop today :-P

Office printer is canon. Indeed use compatible inks & all fine under 7. Could get around it with a canon service utility that would function on what was needed. Canon had listed driver as not full 8 compatible & not likely get updated. Main concern for me beside my personal dislike of 8 was our diagnostic software as that needs run without hassle.

yeh we have driver issues with diagnosis cables & software for gas analyser crashes. Also compatibility with our office printer was half hearted & some driver functions such as ink level & advanced maintenance would not work. do agree within reason that driver issues not exactly MS fault but they really need do best effort with backward compatibility & that was one of the big points of Windows 7 adoption success. Working with the OS was an eyesore & clever OS should be intuitive in use ! Will be using 7 in the workshop for some time I expect, will play with 10 once retail released & had some teething time but won't be swapped until support gone for 7 or because it that damn amazing it worth the money & effort to update.

I'll send you a tub of Vaseline & a strip of leather to bite on ... Most worthwhile things in life require some unpleasantness at first :-)

I like a chinese digital pocket planner more than Vista :-) Just amazing that some of the supposedly best OS development team in the world could produce Vista then top it with 8 8.1 So yeh bit of a 8 hater me, quite capable with PC's too - software & hardware but 8 & 8.1 was useless for my needs, sure some things can be resolved by extreme effort but that not how a modern OS should work. In business time is money & if i'm spending extra 20 minutes per diagnosis session due to driver issues & crashes someone got pay for that time . I still have 8.1 on the spare notebook on one drive & amazes me how !Removed! it is every time I have a play with it. design is awful, compatibility is awful, lack of inspiration & logical concept is in abundance, I have no idea what MS development team & testing had been doing to produce such a useless windows evolution :-/ Fingers crossed 10 is back on track & they put some effort in it ! Hope the Phone version of 10 half decent too as not great fan of Android or Apple. Proper ranting old timer me :-D :-P

Windows 8 & 8.1 is pig **** as simple as that. Interface is !Removed!, quite like tile design but f00king useless unless touchscreen & didn't go any deeper than the tile homescreen really. No start menu was huge *****-up & had huge potential for tile styling & widgets (apps) & was a must for user preference & hardware (non touchscreen) Driver issues is another disaster. I'm on 7 Ultimate for business & home use, Windows 8 & 8.1 was a disaster with our diagnostics kit so the free key I had was useless. Boot & shutdown times on 7 are just as good if use SSD & know how do a good install without useless bloatware & running services. Most businesses still on XP & 7, just look in a hospital or airport to back that up. Am hoping 10 has made vast improvements but not holding my breath as after using WM6.5.5 & then having that Windows Phone !Removed! supersede it proved how stupid & backwards MS are. I can datalog & live read faults on my Windows Mobile devices, on Windows Phone sending email with attachments was a challenge let alone any advanced usage :-D Totally going backwards with OS concept & design :-/ All sounds rather negative but I hold 7 in high regard as our computer usage on 7 has been faultless & easy in everything we thrown at it ... Don't like look of free offer on this 10 either, that just 1 year then you will paying Billy Boy ! I will test 10 on spare notebook but I can't throw away a working OS just to be up to date/trend ....

Transponder dongle looks like a Sterling to me possibly ! Maybe Toad but they normally have toad brand moulded on them !

You don't have an alarm do you !? or have you got a sigma as well !?, the 2 buttons on the key are purely remote central locking from factory unless upgraded by a sigma. When imported your JDM car would of had the tear drop transponder immobiliser fitted as part of UK conversion as vehicles of that age in UK need an immobiliser as minimum security requirement to pass testing. Your particular touch type transponder is a bit crap to use. What paperwork do you have for alarm as UK insurance would want this so you should have something. UK cars came with transponder inbuilt into key along with remote central locking. Sigma was a full secondary alarm option from UK Subaru dealers & added to work with original key fob housing. If you don't want use the teardrop touch responder you will have to remove & upgrade immobiliser/alarm system & have certificate for insurance ...