farmerpug

The big end bearings? But this noise doesn't seem to be there when the car is stationary, I'm thinking its something in the brakes or transmission.

Im getting a bit of a whine noise off the forester, it sits for weeks on end not used which i suppose isn't good for it, the other day i tried to start it but the battery went flat, so i rolled it down the hill and it started, although now its making a grumbly whine noise from underneath: Any idea of what this could be, any chance I've damaged the gearbox or differential?

A lot of stripping at the car yes but on the plus side having cleaned up as many earthing points as i could find should keep future electrical issues away. I actually give the screen a whack there when i seen the flea walking on it, thats very realistic :D

Ah, i solved it Quite embarassing what the problem was, the drivers side brake/tail light is a 2 filament bulb, i test bulbs with a multimeter set to bleep not by looking at them so it didnt show up a problem, but the filaments were touching eachother, a pair of new tail light bulbs sorted out the problem. Anyhow all the earthing points have been cleaned up and i have working headlight washers.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the video, you should see it when the ground is wet, then it feels more like a back wheel drive car. As for the lights, i took apart the boot area the rear left indicator and reverse light were blown, the earth seems ok but i haven't checked the middle brake light in the back window (the wires could be frayed in the rubber thingy that connects the boot to the car, it happened on a mk4 golf with me during the summer except it kept blowing the wiper and central locking motor) I took off as many earth points in the engine bay as i could find, wire brushed them all, WD40 sprayed everywhere and big blobs of copper grease put over them to prevent future corrosion still no luck. I took away the panel below the steering wheel away (to find electrical spaghetti :D ), i can hear and feel the relay clicking when i press the pedal it also turns on the fog lights if their buttons are pressed in, if the fog light relay is removed there is a relay clicking up round the front of the car for the sidelights. I know the wires that come from the door into the car give trouble because pushing them about can spontaneously lock and unlock the car, or cause the leccy windows not to work, but thats because water has corroded the plugs that connect the door loom, ill need to clean them up. So the problem with the lights hasn't really been solved, all i can say is that the fog lights are also connected to the problem, on a more positive note when i was checking round the engine bay fusebox i managed to fix the headlight washers, the plug was very badly corroded and the pipe cut, a terminal block and bit of spare copper pipe got them working again. A CD service manual off ebay has arrived so hopefully the wiring diagrams give some clues.

I just need to get a look at this light, there seems to be bulbs out in the back tail light and rusty looking earthing points round the front. I emptied out the spare 406 parts, left the tools in it and took it for a run through the fields: I suppose compared to some of the imprezza turbos about it isnt fast, but its good fun for £200

Thanks gambit nice to see you aswell, the hands are dirty, im stripping at another 406 i bought, foresters make a very good mobile shed for tools. It seems to have only started recently, my aftermarket central locking kit was installed long before this problem, but i suppose with the forester sitting unused for long periods of time an earthing point could have corroded, it also has LED sidelights fitted but i doubt in 1997 cars had any trouble with CAN BUS wiring.

I'm having a bit of an unusual problem with the old forester when I press the brakes and the light switch is off the headlights come on, as does the heater control and instrument cluster backlighting, is there any chance that this perhaps is a known issue, or will I need to look at some wiring diagrams

Thanks for the response, ill need to get a day off to go looking for the battery. I mentioned japanese cars i did not mean JDM spec subarus, i mean other japanese cars that would be a bit more common over here (as there are not many subarus on the roads here), ie nissan primeara, toyota avensis etc something that would be easy to find in the scrapyard, would these sort of cars have a battery with the terminals "the wrong way about" :D

I went to start the forester, its been sitting for a few weeks unused, the battery was so flat i had to unlock the car with the key, its completley done, ive had it on the charger in the past and it didn't work only parking it on the hill/pull starts gets it going. There is nothing round the farm that fits or has the terminals on the correct side, what type of battery should i go looking for, is there any other japanese car that i could get a battery out of in the scrapyard that would do?

Ahy the dirty hands was there for you :D The screw in the handle was needed, trying to get the doorcard back on any other way is a nightmare. it kept popping out of alignment with the door as soon as the handle was opened to go through the door panel The only thing i need to do is supply the reciever ecu with a permanent 12v, at the moment i just have it running off a lawnmower battery but it shouldnt take too long to put right.

I got the faulty key fob and gave it a few decent whacks with a hammer and then threw it in the bin. No point in spending any more money trying to get the factory setup to work, so i got a Hawk central locking kit for £20 used one of the 4 servos and mounted it in the drivers door, and after a few hours, some scratched hands and some curse words it now locks the car: not the tidiest looking job some of the duck tape is there to stop rattles: It might be possible to wire up the hawk kit so that it sends power directly to the subaru solenoid but i was messing about with the wires for quite a while and couldnt get the subaru solenoid to work out of the car, it would have been much handier if it did as it would save the mechanical instalation of the second solenoid. I also added a screw to the door handle, getting the froester door panel back on with the handle unit not staying in place is a bit of a nightmare so i put in a screw to keep it held in place: All back together: Its a fiddly job, especially threading the wires through the door grommet into the car, but a lot cheaper than buying a new or reprogrammed key fob.

It arrived 2 weeks earlier, maybe thats to cover them incase stuff arives here late My hands clean, never really thought of it, i always wear gloves when working on cars, swarfega is also good stuff, and the knock sensor isnt really in a mucky place. Ah blue print, that sounds more familiar i think my air and diesel filter in the 406 are blue print. When i had the forester out in the field today the ground was a bit damp and the handling was much different, in the corners it was very tail happy which i did not expect, although it was also revving a lot more than it used to, 4000rpm was the limit before, now it was going into the redline with no problem.

I was pleasantly surprised when the knock sensor arrived today, took the old one out and: Who needs to check the resistance with a multimeter, this is much better proof the part is Fecked :D The new one went straight into place, the electrical plug fitted correctly and the car started, i drove it flat out and it spluttered to a stop, added some petrol and it continued, no check engine light, no funny intermittent limp mode its cured for £10.

For the 406 i just purchased a Gates timing belt and water pump kit, its not genuine peugeot but i think Gates make decent enough stuff to trust. One reassuring thing is the box actually has very good well written instalation instructions. Whereas the Chinese knock sensor may have directly translated instructions, although they are always good for a laugh :D

Ahy something like them lights would be perfect for a bit of extra light and to cover up the rust a bit better than the duct tape. I will need to get something mind, the normal high beams are just not quite bright enough compared to the suzukis lights: Wired up in the good old days when i didnt have a clue, low amp wire, no in line fuses, no relays, and plenty of switches = sparky dash :D I noticed a button on the dash marked "BRIGHT" hoping that it would make the headlights brighter but i have come to realise all it does is dim the clock when the headlights are on but all the other dials have brightness controls on the indicator stalk. The odd buttons continue; there also is a button to raise the antenna, but it does that when the radio comes on anyhow, and there is a separate switch mounted on the steering column for the sidelights

Thats what im thinking, the forester is used at the weekends and it still works although just occasionally the rev limiter goes down to about 2000 rpm when the light is on. Its also the sort of part if it fails its not going to cause a load of destruction like a cheap timing belt.

I connected the wires under the dash and counted the blinking of the check engine light I think its saying 22 which is the knock sensor, prices range from £10 for a chinese one to £330 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Front-Knock-Sensor-For-1996-1999-Subaru-Legacy-Impreza-Forester-2060AA061-/370733884237?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Cars+Year%3A1997%7CCar+Make%3ASubaru%7CModel%3AForester%7CCars+Type%3A2.0&hash=item565176234d would the cheap one do, has anyone used them?

Had it out over the weekend, its been everywhere around the farm a fantastic off roader, it can go anywhere yet its still quick and handles good. My dad also had it out the other night to lamp a few rabbits, its great for that with the big sunroof, in low range it crawls along very quietly. Here are some pictures after driving it for a while.

I had it round the garden, no proper off roading yet, still need to put the front wheel arch liner back in, then its ready

The new springs arrived, the back of the car is now 3 inches higher: It can now go over a kerb without scraping its undersides to !Removed! :D

I had a read at this: http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html#code%20alarm Thats the same as the fob i have, i have one of them PDF repair manuals off ebay for my forester and checked all the things, i also found the central locking ecu in under the dash and its ok, so its the fob which is faulty. I wonder would one of these 2 do: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151020284426 (slightly different design but probably same inside) this looks the same: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUBARU-2-BUTTON-REMOTE-KEY-ALARM-FOB-1-665-320-31-CIRCUIT-BOARD-/140943503276#vi-content The car is in a good state to have any of the ackward to reach stuff looked at: Somone had a very badly wired phone kit, (ie exposed positive wires) so i took the dash apart to sort out any previous work, removed a few blue scotch locks and replaced them with solder, also addressed the non lighting heater bulbs, just wired in LED's ill get a picture when its back together. Also ordered a replacement electric antenna so the the dash needs to be left this way to route the new cable in.

Are subaru dealers as expensive as other dealers for parts?

The forester has got central locking and a remote key fob, but even after changing the battery and checking all the fuses the car doesn't lock/unlock remotely. I think the key fob has been in the water at some point and got damaged. Is there a way to reprogram old 1998 key fobs or even test if this one is doing anything, it has no LED indicator, is there any way to detect the radio signal coming from it?

Got all back together, no screws or plastic clips left behind so the job didnt go too badly. Here is the door all back together: there is a dent, the filler didn't really hide it but i suspect it was caused by the heat of the welder, anyhow there is no hole in the door A much more agricultural apporach was taken to curing the rust along the top of the windscreen: The car seems to be fairly solid underneath, i went along with a hammer to inspect the sills, a chunk of rust fell out and caused a small hole to the chassis above the rear passenger wheel: the rest of the sill are rusty looking near the back wheels but this could be cured with a bit of stone chip paint, here is the bit that was previously repaired: No outdoor pictures of the painting, went to drive the car out but the dome light has been on as a result of the door being open which drained the battery.