Mr B

No, as the gearbox is just splash fed by internal component movement & grooves & small bores get fed oil this way to feed more precise points, there is no proper oil pump system with filtration & due to no combustion gas entering the oil unlike an engine it only has metal swarf that naturally settles to the bottom of the box casing, Good quality magnetic drain plugs are good for retaining some of the debris & sometimes give useful visual indication that a problem may exist by unusual amounts of metal swarf or a large chip or perhaps a small shattered part from a syncro assembly thus giving good indication on faults/severity & required course of action.

yes

Obviously your forester 2.0X will not have the alloy intercooler but in that position will be the black plastic air filter box. If you stand buy the drivers side wheel & look through the gaps you should just make out the dipstick as it quite low down & invisible until you choose the right path of view. An inspection light or torch maybe handy & just feeding your hand down will enable you to feel the eyelet on the dipstick to pull it out. Kind of easy once know where it is but still have odd days where you can never locate the tube easily to put it back in lol :-S One grouch I have with Subaru is bad location of that dipstick & poor oil level reading of main engine oil unless do it just right & on very level ground as even the slightest uneven drive can really ***** it up & give useless readings, think US guys had an aftermarket engine oil dipstick due to user complaints ...

Those irwin bolt grip soctets are particularly good & should be on the serious diy mechanics christmas list as far more useful than socks. Very useful on heavy rusted head bolts & can even be used for removing totally fubarbed torx & allen socket bolts. Quality set of wall drive sockets is worthwhile too as when just corners rounded of these tend to work fine, also walldrive of good manufacture cause hardly any obvious deformation to tight bolts & dont ride of the head of the bolt so easily so save knuckles & keeps the fasteners looking neat & tidy. Is amazing what damage some people do when working on cars & things like that are hard to spot when purchasing a vehicle & if unlucky can create some highly unwanted frustration & expense ...

Quite easy with some planning, the gearbox dipstick/filler tube is found on drivers side of gearbox (look down gap in line with air filter box housing & you will see the bright yellow level dipstick) Use a funnel & suitable diameter tube to comfortably reach & get fluid to filler tube. Drain bolt is 21mm bolt near y section of exhaust (later subarus have a torx T70) manual box - diff & gearbox oil is all in one

by then it warmed up & has oil pressure, from cold & zero pressure many engine builders really frown on it.

lol ... & amount of engine builders I know who complain at people loading pressure on crank thrust bearing by clutching when starting a car ...

Gulf is fine but if new had a crunchy gear change I would of gone for Motul 300 75/90 but even that is only 50% likely of helping the issue. Tested motul 300 on a few car that came in with notchy changes or ones found with notchy changes during service & used the expensive oil but charged at standard castrol oil price, being a 50/50 gamble makes it hard to push at the cost but we wanted test claims of the Motul oil. Not had much luck with additives for syncro issue but likes of mollyslip was very good on noisy landrover gear & transfer boxes. Xado maybe worth a shot if price is reasonable & has properties helping syncros & changes. Certainly worth doing a bit of digging on peoples experience on additive for your symptoms then trying one you feel happy with. What mileage has this one done & does the gearbox sound a little groany if listen to it with drivers door open while idling & dipping clutch a couple times to help distinguish the transmission from other noises .

Have a garage partnership business which is very Japanese vehicle orientated & due to our location we see a lot of Subarus but I mainly work on contracts for various companies these days. xado is eastern block equivalent of likes of mollyslip products, if they do a gearbox additive & cheap & easily available to you it is worth a go. would hate for you spend out on likes of motul 300 & have no major improvement.

Mechanical engineer on a good day ...

mollyslip would be cheap to try but unsure how it would help with a syncro issue, can be good at reducing bearing noise. Standard transmision service oil we use for your average Subaru is Castrol Syntrax 75/90 (now branded as universal) An oil that has helped in past experience is motul 300 75/90. Another good one being Valvoline synpower 75/90 but I have not used that personally but have heard it to be good. Motul 300 has made a long term difference on a couple of notchy boxes we tried it in, bit of a lottery though as a particularly bad syncro needs replacement but sometimes the right oil can make huge differences & for thousands of miles too. Do also check your clutch is in good health & adjusted correctly but would assume your syncro is worn. this syncro gets a lot of use & as the 2nd gear is big & thus quite heavy the syncro needs good grip to bring it into speed match for smooth engagement.

If disconnect it will run on fault mode & safety map. Don't just assume it too sensitive, many people using poor fuel (turbo model even more so) are possibly experiencing some det. I would check for det with independent det meter & also check condition, resistance/voltage of current sensor along with fault code reading & test drive with data logging plus wideband for fuelling check & replace or consider repositioning pending on what results I got from inspections/tests. Point being I have replaced a few bad ones on older Subarus & come across the odd bad/damaged connector but never needed reposition one. A good knock sensor can be had for around 18 to £25 from good autofactors or even eBay these days .

Dual mass flywheel failure (vibration issues), issue with early Diesel particulate filter (revised to close type). Crankshaft/main bearing issues on pre 2010 cars, had at least 4 revisions to crank & block changes, few owners globally have had snapped cranks on early diesels. Could be oil feed issue to a bearing causing failure or crank production issue but not much feedback on it to conclude ... going cam chain was great move & something that should of been done long ago on the petrol boxers, not all maintenance jobs on the diesel are easily carried out with engine in situ so some nasty labour bills can occur if you unlucky.

if rest of car above average condition & drivetrain A+ could be worth getting a used replacement engine perhaps ! Shame this happened & one of those used car purchase nightmare scenarios :-S You could recoup quite a bit on basic parts such as wheels, brakes/hubs, alternator, starter, engine sensors etc & even then what left would be worth 130 plus as scrap metal ...

Worth 160 to 200 at a breakers on average . Worth being 100% on what wrong before throwing in the towel but does sound highly likely cambelt could of been a poor replacement effort & not all tension pulleys & water pump replaced or just simply fitted badly. Bit of bad luck as the old legacy can run over 200,000mls without too much trouble & see plenty of healthy ones in the 160k & 180k region ...

Shop around well as I know the prices for XT are only a little more.

I always recommend matched set to axle in terms of make & tread depth too as too much difference is a bad thing on your transmission. If all tyres are quite well worn you could buy a full set as indeed all 4 matched is the preference but not absolute requirement ...

Systems are available from huge amount of aftermarket exhaust makers & most decent motorfactors stock it or have it in 24hrs or less. Simply call 2 or 3 local motorfactors & give them reg of your forester & request price of rear exhaust silencer & mid-pipe plus gaskets. We pay around £45 for back box & mid-pipe about £35 for cheapest steel systems, gaskets & any new bolts & joint sealant would be no more than £10. We do cat back in aluminized steel with 2year warranty for £210 fitted & just back box for £115 fitted as an example. You could also go for a custom fabricated stainless exhaust but expect prices from £200 to £380 for this ... Stay away from likes of KwikFit as stuped prices & not great quality parts either. Could also send an email to this ebay seller as another option: If you buy parts any decent local independant garage can fit them & 1hrs labour for backbox & 2hrs tops for cat back & job should be perfect with that allowed time ... http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=subaru+forester&item=321099443394&_osacat=0&_from=R40&clk_rvr_id=584501967258&_ssn=car_parts_giant&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.Xsubaru+forester+back+box&_nkw=subaru+forester+back+box&_sacat=0

Not at time of making it, only done it as found the Subaru one quite poor without dedicated fixing points.

Couple of the earlier ones are on eBay but having seen them I personally would not use one as don't like the design of loading the rubber into the roof lining as same principle as the universal ones. I made one out of meshing with some planed baton shaped as a frame in-filled with the mesh. made lower bracket off of the load cover mounting slot trim screw & upper bracket was a thin alloy bar mounted behind the rear seatbelt fitting meaning no drilling and as does not touch any trim or roof lining you get no nasty marks or rattles. Quite easy to do & used winged screws for fitting to the frame so easily removed & light/compact for storage, doubt cost me more than £20 but I had metal for brackets from offcuts so was just decent timber & mesh to buy, stained frame black as makes it blend betted to car trim & silver mesh. Dogs didn't complain :-)

The valvolene durablend is gl4 spec, better oil can be had & would be advisable but if valvolene is gl5 or they do a gl5 then good enough & it your prefered brand & has availability in your area.

If its in a real state then taking it off could be best option, just reviving the c-clamps on the covers & general tweek over & stitch welding on front Y pipe has them rattle free for years to come. Have done a few including the 2 I own & the 03 SG I bought recently was a right rattling mess & one of a few minor reasons it was for sale, took about 3hrs using a pit (not so much fun on your back) to do a good job on it but all bolts came off covers without cutting. Stitch welded y-covers together at front as best really long term & now rattle free ... Have a couple of regular subarus in for servicing that been done like this & been fine for almost 3yrs now. Does work but needs doing right or you back at it chasing the next point to rattle.

Very common problem on older and high mileage subarus. Reasonably easy to cure but can take some time if lots of the cover bolts are siezed & need trimming off with grinder/dremmel. Main dealer can be silly money on these issues so seek out a good independant if you don't get dirty yourself. Basically you need remove offending sections, mainly the mesh vibration pads in the c-clamps become loose with age & adding a layer of heat wrap ribbon to the c-clamps normally resolves the issues. On the Y section adding a tack weld between the vertival covers off the manifold to the horizontal ones can also make things a lot better but you best sorting out the clamps first as with that little extra effort it cured in one hit & for a long time too.