farmerpug

Got the clutch changed, got a blueprint kit for £80, a bit of a good deal i think, took the gearbox out and left the engine in place not too hard all bolts came out easily enough. the service history had a clutch kit at 150k and the previous mechanic was kind enough to use copper grease on the bolts, i just snapped the front lower balljoint bolt putting it back in: The old one: The gearbox lost some oil during the change, what sort of oil do these gearboxes take?

Ah right handy enough, a bit like an old jeep then but with front driveshafts, the gearbox drops out. I thought the engine would need to come out, but this shouldnt be too bad, rusty bolts aside. Hello Gambit, yep havent really done much work on the forester it doesn't really give much trouble, its been great fun round the fields that probably caused the clutch to finally let go.

The clutch has completley let go in the old forester, i see replacement clutch kits on ebay about £80 upwards, are there any particular ones to avoid? Also how much work is it to get the clutch out of a forester, ive only done a few clutches mostly on small fwd cars, with the 4x4 system is it handier to remove the engine or the gearbox?

Fords are quite good at rusting all over especially the old smiley transit; very strong mechanically but very rusty. I dont know why they dont just come with an aluminium/alloy sump from the factory. Im thinking of getting a bit of 5mm plate plasma cut at work and making a bit of a sump guard that bolts up into whatever free bolts there are sitting under the car, i think getting another dinge would be more likely to happen to this new sump than it rusting away.

I wonder does many people get sumps zinc plated, i just got a load of parts for the 305 sandblasted and plated, the finish seems very good, but i wonder would it withstand the heat from the engine?

I got it a bottle of 10w 40 and a new filter, almost a full service. Its back in the mushroom house, but its good to be able to move it again: Its got a new bit of cardboard sitting under it now to see if the oil leak has been cured, the old sump leaked quite a bit of oil out but it was easy to see it weeping.

Its semi synthetic, just the oil i put in the 406.

I fitted the sump this evening, the back bolts are a bit ackward to get at, but putting a jack under the engine and lifting it up gives just enough clearance to undo the bolts: One question though, what sort of oil does these subarus take, ive tonnes of 10w 40 lying about but i dont want to put it into the subaru if it will do damage

I didnt film it, it was a bit unexpected although its the same ditch the car went into the last time. I found the engine code in quite a handy and obvious place, the vin plate: Its an EJ20J

Is there an Identification plate on the engine that has the engine code that way i might be able to check. Its been caused either by the rust or another meeting with a ditch, which caused some damage: I have got a new wing, and mirror for the car, but its a good job i havent fitted it yet :)

I noticed today that the Forester had a fairly noticeable oil leak under it, i took a closer look under it and it looks like the sump has got rusty and is leaking oil through the rusty area, since most of the sump is rusty it doesn't look like there is much point in trying to weld it up as it would just leak again. Would a sump from a 1995 Imprezza Fit the forester: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-SUBARU-IMPREZA-2-0-PETROL-OIL-SUMP-PAN-/221454750036?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item338fbb5154

A bit off topic but i bought myself another car, a 1985 Peugeot 305 Estate: It has bits of rust here and there, (nothing structural though it still passed its MOT before i bought it), so i will definatley be getting a mig welder to sort it out, so the forester can also get its rusty bodywork addressed at the same time.

Thanks for that link i think i used this last year for the knock sensor, it actually seems like a good setup having a diagnostics setup like this. The MOTs here in NI are much stricter than they are in england, all the stations are run by the DVLNI so there is no case of a friendly mot tester letting you away on anything, its good for anyone buying a car second hand, but its a nuisance when trying to put the car through, my 406 failed last year on the alignment of the headlight being out. \

Its running a bit lean at the moment and without any way to get a scanner to read i can't tell if its an 02 sensor problem, its only used across fields so i wouldn't want to spend a big pile on it, (can the forester pass emissions tests if it had no cat?) The damage is still there, i took the wing off and pushed the dent out, and treated the exposed metal to some zinc paint to stop the rust, tbh ill leave off doing any serious repairs until i get a mig welder ideally the rust above the windscreen and rear sills needs cut out and new metal welded in. i still use it mainly to store tools in the boot, and because i do most of the tinkering at cars when i get home from work i thought it would be useful to add some lights:

What way are the pre 2001 cars remapped, does the ECU need taken out of the car and sent away or can it be done through the obd like port under the steering wheel?

I broke the foresters exhaust a while back and took it out last week to weld it up, but when it was off i forgot to hold onto the gasket that goes between the middle of the exhaust and the catalytic converter, this looks like it is the same part: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-Forester-2-0-97-00-Exhaust-Gasket-/390840703852?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5affebdb6c is there any difference in the gaskets used for the other parts of the exhaust, they all look fairly similar. Also i was wondering is it possible to decat these foresters, can it be done?

I took the starter out and brought it to an auto electrician, he said it was scrap, he showed me the inside of it which was in bad shape, but conveniently he also gave me the number of a place up the road which breaks subarus, a replacement part was bought for £30 and it starts very quickly now.

I remember getting the starter in my clio refurbished by an auto electrician back when it was giving trouble not starting, it cost £25 and was as good as new. I know the same place could probably do the foresters starter but id rather give it a go myself. I might have asked before, but does subaru have the equivalent of peugeots service box? Ie an online parts catalogue for each car, giving part numbers, and diagrams?

The starter in the forester is getting quite weak, I've charged the battery recently but it still seems a bit sluggish at turning over, and eventually the battery goes flat. Sometimes the starter makes a crunchy grinding sound, most of the time it just struggles to turn the car over, i normally keep it parked on a hill and roll start it but the handbrake seizes up in it which makes pushing it tricky. Instead of buying a starter is rebuild kits available?

It looks like subaru strengthened the area above the passenger compartment, the boot area has caved in completely but over the back seats still looks like it would have been safe enough to sit there. The green forester wouldn't be too bad a car. get a bit of Mot on it, tax it and sell it on, there could be a bit of profit especially if it snows.

I was on copart bidding on an old 406, but had a look at what subarus were on the site, this forester looks like its in much better nick than mine: http://www.copart.co.uk/c2/homeSearch.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e46s1&lotId=34305743&returnPage=SEARCH_RESULTS Someone seems to have gone into an even bigger ditch than i did: http://www.copart.co.uk/c2/homeSearch.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e47s1&lotId=33981373&returnPage=SEARCH_RESULTS

I think the forester will just live with this new look, theres not much point in spending any money on the bodywork when the chances of this happening again are quite high Im also noticing the repair i did on the drivers door to cure the rust is showing signs of rust coming again, thats despite grinding it back to bare metal and using plenty of the green krust stuff.

I can remember my dad had two metros, great cars they were; very economical, with a very early stop start feature, they mastered the stop bit but the start was not great. There was also a sunroof, but for some reason it was in the floor hidden under the carpet. There was the metro 6r4 rally car, I'm not sure how good it was but didn't they put its engine into the jaguar xj220?

The noise is still there, i think its possibly the brakes or a grumbly bearing, i had to push the car later on today after it wouldn't start and the noise is there it sounds like rusty disks, the handbrake also sticks on it if parked up for a while. After this however the noise is less noticeable when the car is running, the exhaust is now louder. The steering and suspension all seem ok.

I have not really used the forester recently, but today i gave it some petrol, a jump start and it fired up on the first turn of the key, i took it up the field, went round the first corner and a hedge spontaneously created a gravitational field and sucked the forester into the drain: It has changed the shape of the bodywork on the affected side slightly, the most noticeable difference is the wing mirror has moved to the back door: A more slab sided wing: The aeriel has been tuned slightly better for the DAB switchover: and some scratching, dents below the roof bar, and the seal for the back window has came out: