Swayze88

Was behind a Silver XV today near cairn o mount in Aberdeen, reg ??66 MMO looking good in Silver with big mud flaps and and a dog guard. Anyone on here? I was in the works black VW Passat. (Yawn)

Forgive my lack of technical knowledge on this. Injectors Failing causing crankshaft to break? Would this be due to the injectors firing at the wrong time or too much fuel/ too little fuel? Would a replacement set from a Newer engine/upgraded set, be the fix or is it more complex than this? (surely it must be more complex?) Cheers.

Hello, I am considering replacing my Petrol SG Forester with a Diesel Impreza. But have been reading a lot about the early engines failing with a broken Crankshaft / Crankshaft Bearing. Does anyone know what VIN number or Engine Serial number was the last of the worst (Euro4) engines, that way I can try and ask around and avoid any lemons. - believe it was end of 2009 they changed the design but would rather go on serial numbers to be sure. Thanks in advance for any help!

Just Gamble on not needing it! Weight savings and all... But in all honesty, I've got a Can of Gloop in the boot and an electric pump stuffed under the drivers seat for any emergency. I've had one puncture and drove 18 miles wondering what was wrong with my suspension before I clicked that it was flat! Turns out, much like the original Citroen DS :) Foresters are not bothered by punctures.

I think (could be wrong) that the Tribeca is the only Subaru with a Legal 7 seat capacity. So that would limit your choices, Although I'm sure that you could squeeze 7 into any model of forester :)

Spent Saturday having a good clean of the car, and trying to polish out some of the minor scratches that come from driving down country lanes and parking in supermarket car parks. I was giving the door jams a wipe down and noticed a section of bubbling paint. Car is a 2013 model. Has anyone else had any issues with the paint in this area? or had any paintwork sorted under warranty? I'm fully signed off on the body and paintwork checks on the car so hoping that if it turns into an issue it should be sorted relatively easily?

I like it, but I think I prefer the old wheels. No mention of a hybrid version though.

Changed the rear Brake Pads on the XV yesterday as one side had got down to the metal! 40,000 miles and I think it was on the original pads. (I naively thought the garage would have changed them when we bought the car at 34,000 miles) Really easy to do, such a joy working on a car with next to zero rust, didn't even need to take the breaker bar out the toolbox! No awkward electronics, 2 bolts, re grease and just a simple wind back. I think the rear pads are fairly common over the Subaru Range, so they are not so hard to come by which is nice. not sure about disks though.

Hey, Just creeping over here from the Forester & XV pages.... My Friend is looking to trade his 09 WRX Hatch in for a 2016 BRZ. The one he has his eye on is an ex-demo with around 600 miles on the clock. Is there anything that he should look out for? My only concern was that it might not have had the nicest run in period with people booting it during the test drive. I suggested that there is the possibility of a 1000 mile optional oil change that he should bring up (think I read that on here somewhere) but other than that I cant think of any issues on an essentially brand new car. He has test driven it once already and back to back with the Toyota GT86 & an STi 330 and seems to be smitten with the BRZ, so just want to make sure he doesn't end up with a plumb. Look forward to your input. Thanks in advance

I Hope we get a hybrid in the UK soon, If its as nippy as the Diesel and gets better MPG i'll buy one as soon as I can afford it. Hopefully they make it a plug in Hybrid like the Misubishi Outlander.

Dug, Where did you get your little inserts? They look good, could be tempted to get a set if they are not too pricey.

Oh No. Have you spoken to your Subaru dealer regarding this? Is her car one of those affected by the wiring loom recall? It does sound like a software fault, I wonder if its something strange like an ABS sensor? Maybe its giving a strange reading that prevents the auto hold/hill start. Obviously that does not explain the central locking. Have you tried with both Keys? I take it its nothing silly like the battery going flat in the key? Let us know how you get on, hopefully its something that can be sorted easily.

Last week I had the other half take it in to get the check done on the wiring harness - it came back all clear as far as I was lead to believe. I've just had a few instances of it throwing up weird error messages, the low oil one, and "Vehicle Dynamics Control System needs to be checked" one. I wondered if it was related. I'll keep an eye out to see if they keep occurring.

Had mine checked yesterday when the car was in getting the tracking done. No issues found.

Organised for the XV to go into Subaru later for them to have a look at the wiring harness and check the tracking. Will be interesting to see what they find.

Looks like I will need to visit my sister up in Aberdeen when my next service is due, Sounds like you have a good dealership up there! We have had some ice, but no snow yet. The days seem to vary from about -2 degrees up to about 11 degrees at the moment, much weirdness.

Those centre caps didn't fit :( guess i should have measured before ordering parts from Bulgaria! oh well for £7 its not the end of the world. I guess the Forester centre caps must be smaller than 55mm.

Hello, I have a EJ205 Forester XT standard 177 bhp, which I had converted to LPG in March 2015 ~35,000 miles ago. The car has now done around 178,000 miles, so was far from perfect when the installation happened. Since owning the car I have tried to do oil & Filters every 7-8,000 miles and have Changed the plugs once. I paid just over £1000 including water pump and timing belts. The guys did it in a day, using a KING OBD LPG system - so if ever it was going to go wrong it would be with this one. As I was getting around 25-26mpg on petrol and around 22mpg on LPG and the price of LPG being half that of petrol, it took me around 10,000 miles to pay for the installation. During the last 35,000 miles I had very few issues that I believe to be related to the LPG system. The first being a leak in the radiator, which was easily rectified with an ebay pattern part radiator. During the last 2 years I have driven to France (from Scotland), commuted daily, towed caravans and trailers and driven hard. The installation is probably more difficult on Subaru's than any other car, due to the location of the injectors being buried beneath the inlet manifold. Other than this the biggest issue I believe for users, is bleeding the coolant system of air, this being difficult at the best of times in a Subaru engine but made slightly harder by the inclusion of a vaporiser. LPG systems do not seem to cause problems, but perhaps enhance existing problems (Eg. the radiator). I had my tank installed in the spare wheel well and got on average 250 miles per tank. (Not an issue for me as I have 2 LPG stations within 5 miles of my work) I do not have a valve lubrication system installed as I was informed (rightly or not) that the 2.0L Turbo block did not suffer from the soft valve seats. Now I recently put my forester into a ditch after a large puddle jumped out in front of me from nowhere, shortly after this I blew the bottom radiator hose and overheated the engine, resulting in a suspected(99%) Head Gasket Failure. I have no reason to suspect that this has anything to do with the LPG as for all I know the Head Gaskets are still the originals. Depending on how much time I have, I'm going to try an pull the engine to replace the HG's and inspect the valve seats for recession. I will post any results in order to help prove or disprove the LPG Myths if I am able to do so. I would say that today with the modern LPG sequential injection systems, and a quality installation there should be no issues running on LPG. I would certainly look for someone local, who has done an EJ25 before and who uses respected LPG Kit. Best of luck to you, whichever route you take.

http://www.scoobypedia.co.uk/uploads/Knowledge/sigma_m30_manual.pdf Page 8 - looks like you should just type in your code then turn the key...

Parked, went to the cinema and had dinner, came back out and it didn't give me the same warning, and no warning this morning when I left for work. All very strange, seems to be a few gremlins showing up in the electronics.

Just had an information/warning pop up saying Vehicle Dynamics Control system needs to be checked. Has anyone experienced this before? It was just after stopping and putting air in the tyres at a garage...? Had driven about 20 miles prior to that without it coming on.

I didn't do anything to my XV today, but came across this on Autotrader, and thought.... that's unbelievable! If anyone is looking for a second car here is the link. If I had a spare £10k and lived a few 100 miles closer id have bought it without telling anyone else! http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201511098559985?price-to=13000&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&year-from=2009&maximum-mileage=100000&sort=price-asc&fuel-type=Diesel&advertising-location=at_cars&make=SUBARU&model=XV&radius=1500&postcode=ml118lb&page=1

So Bouncer, to bump a 3 year old post what did you do in the end and who did you go with? I'm in central belt Scotland going through the dilemma of either doing the HG myself or finding a reasonable price garage to do the work for me. Just noticed that Bouncer hasn't been active since 9th October 2013.... cant imagine I'll get a response.

Has anyone wound back their brakes themselves? I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the rear brakes is binding slightly, i'm thinking of taking it to bits and greasing the pistons & Slider pins. Is there any fancy electronics needed or is it a simple push in jobby? I shouldnt have to wind them back as I dont think i need to replace the pads. But just in case it would be good to know.

Bump - Has anyone recently remaped a 3rd Gen Diesel Forester? What gains can be expected I see TDI- tuning and the likes offering a bump from 145 - 186bhp & 350Nm - 420Nm, all nice numbers, but are they legitimate? I keep considering changing my SG for something a little newer, and like the mpg & torque of the diesel, but would probably want to start tweeking and improving if possible. Has anyone gone further, changed turbos etc?