jonboy

A slightly newbie here but I have had a forester for eleven years...never been anything to ask about really .... but...a load of cars here in Sunny Portugal suffer from a scabby deterioration of the clear 'varnish' on top of the base car colour, all makes, Bmws, opels renaults... (interestingly no mercs and there' s more mercs per capita than Germany Taxis in Lisbon often have 6-700 thou kms and thats already round the clock once....!). the old forester, always parked outside in sometimes full-on sun, 40ºC , 55-60º inside, .... had just started to get this peely effect ,, as its the clear coat that is affected , the average paintshop simply cuts right back and resprays, and clearcoats again... Anybody got any recommendations for a car polish that has to work like factor 50 sunblock.? My new forester, actually six months older and with half the Kms at 175000, and most importantly LPG, has been a one-owner always in the garage and is pretty well perfect, but is just starting to get the peely scabby on its forehead above the windscreen after a couple of months in low - mid thrties ºC and it ain't summer yet...

No probs no hijack, but thats my point.....how can one find out what fits what? Stant's info above should help...but no-one seems to know or won't say... I just wikied 'platform design' where the principles of general standardisation of certain componentes is explained... But another thing... i have just been sourcing two front discs for the Forester, to be told by the motorfactor ooh thats a tricky one we'll have to do some research..... are you seriously telling me theres no other vehicle on the planet that has the same format as the forester?. its a steel disc of a certain thickness a certain diameter and certain stud hole and central hole specs.. there should be a way to feed that info in and up comes yeah its the same as a Toyota blah and a mishitibus blah and a nissan blah or ... but I go to the factors and they say best off going to Subaru ... pleeez...

thanx but i should have explained the issue is the well is full of lpg tank so i need to relocate the spare somehow, and a skinny was one of the options

Any Soobs come from the factory with those skinny spares....? apparently over half of all new cars dont have the traditional spare now...tyre repair kits or skinnies or run-flat tyres...looking for a skinny for an old sf forester ....any specialist wheel guys to recommended...or other tips ? Anyone know if the forester 15" rims have the same stud pattern and position as any other cars so I can widen the search a bit...Thanx JB

Fair point Daz, but at the end of the day , unless you spent the 1500 beer tokens on the lpg when you really should have spent it on the tranny or a heart transplant, you will still be halving your running costs therefore subsidising either a major repair, or the pimping and tweeking you want to do for the wow factor. Its a personal thing of course and for me the car is a necessary tool for work and leisure, but Ive been down that road on motorcycle customs a few times.....spent a fortune on building specials, that either end up unsaleable or get broken up for the next Project. On the other side, I have just bought a superbly rebuilt and modified Harley for 4K , with bills for over six grand and that was just pieces....the man hours that went into it are uncountable....and the original donor bike must have cost four or five K. But honestly as its a 'special' it will probably fall into that category mentioned above of never being worth its value invested. Except to me because its worth what I paid, but maybe not to someone else. But It is a head turner and there's a huge wow factor. 'If I have to explain you wouldn't understand' I suspect applies to all of us here more or less

well i used to have one but now its scon

No such thing as a wrong country lqq and we do have the best seafood in yurp, what with our coastline being almost entirely atlantic..and barbeques are the normal way of cooking in 9mths of the year. oowillavafishyonalittledishy me here

interesting in theory Daz RSK, but in eleven years with my 98 forester , apart from a head gasket issue i never had anything but maintenance every car needs. tyres brakes clutches, ..timing belts and pulleys .. exhaust... a few leaky seals that were sorted at timing belt changes,... 200000kms and never touched the rear brakes. never needed any suspension attention apart from a couple of droplink things and still on the same shockers...but three clutches, I tow and launch a boat on steep slips a lot in the summer, a slave cylinder failure and other minor stuff . My cars work for their living... before the forester I have had a couple of old Merc station wagons likewise a Volvo 240 diesel, and an old and faithfull Peugot 5 series diesel that finally died at one million kms. Never did any of them get close to the Subaru in terms of reliability and level of equipment. Thats why when the old Sub was getting a bit clapped and ratty, I found the six month older half the kms '98 and GPL, and there was no competition. Unless I win the lottery I wouldn't have another car. theyve reached the age after ten years when all the depreciation has happened, most stuff has been fixed or has still got multi miles left and the Subarus are better than almost anything for that. Don' t not fit lpg in case the gearbox might fail soon, if thats the attitude don't do anything becsause something might fail soon.

Next question ... about two years ago my old forester blew its head gasket...( a whole other story about sorting it , but watch this space.) all sorted and running well but after a few months the interior heating radiator sprang a leak ... footwells full of water and all the associated problems. two years of no heating and no demisting, but not a big issue as I don't live in freezing conditions not such a big deal... but finally i am going to tackle it. But where to start ! I cant find a single starting point and the chiltons manual conveniently doesn't mention it at all Anyone done this job ? any tips before I start ripping out acres of dash board plastic and scary airbags and not a screw or fixing in sight. I really don't want to start jemmying bits off just to find its not tyere after all...

thanx for the advice MrB Im still looking at the tailgate option as it could look kind of neat if I do it well... but the tyreman's advice about it only being an occasional issue is hard to beat. i'll let you all know what road I go down on this one. Ta.

chatting with my tyre man today and his view is ' dont spend the money dont mess up the back end ...if its only a few times a year you might need all the space stick the spare on the roof, or the luggage. or the inlaws. now that's a a thought....

Hi all, I have just got a 1998 Forester already fitted with a BRC make multipoint lpg set up. There's a few good sites if you just Google LPG conversions UK or some such.for general FAQs and info... my personal experience in one month and about 2000kms is definitely a good idea should have done it to my first forester I had for eleven years and 200000kms but it was way more expensive to convert then... in 2006 I was quoted 2000 euros, my one was done by the previous owner in 2013 for 1600€, and there's a company near here that will do it same day turnaround for 1400€. Not much good unless you want a trip to Portugal part paid for by the cheaper costs here.! But there are catches.... my fifty litre tank never takes more than about 38 litres so my range is limited to about 300 kms . Always got the petrol of course, and even here in Eurp where GPL is popular , it is sometimes a bit difficult to find a gas station that does GPL . Not allowed in underground carparks....but who's to know its lpg Definitely less economical on GPL. 9-10 litres to 100 km on petrol, and 11-12 on GPL. Definitely less powerful, but only slightly, I'm no engineer but I'd say it was a torque thing....still flies down the highway and generally round town ok but there's a noticeable need to drop a gear on a hill or when towing, that doesn't happen if I flick the switch over to petrol. so i drive it a bit harder, keep the revs up a tad, and then the economy suffers. Maybe its a tuning thing. Where to put the spare wheel....99% of the time it sits behind the front seat, but what's to do when I have four in the car and baggage... see my other posts about this but I'm still looking for advice / answers Still, autogas is half the price of petrol, and so even factoring the above things and the upper cylinder lube needed , automatically dispensed as part of the system, I reckon my costs are about 55 -60% of running on petrol. And its supposedly greener....still fóssil fuel though and though lpg is cheaper to produce, the main saving is because of the low tax..... What might happen if a govt decides to equalize the tax rates. ? back to diesel maybe as its still about 30% cheaper ,( here anyway) 30% better economy and half to two thirds the road tax here. depending on other factors. hope this helps... JB

Hi ..its a 1998 2.0 non turbo lhd, original and un-modded apart from the BRC LPG multipoint kit My other car's a Forester, '99, same model, engine etc, but a bit ratty and 350000 + kms...

Has any one else got an LPG conversion? What did you do with the spare wheel... I've had a Forester for about a month / 2k kms already converted to LPG and as the gas tank sits in the spare wheel well I have been thinking about mounting the spare on the tailgate...options seem to be fitting hefty gas struts and just mounting it like other 4x4s, or maybe fabricating a side opening gate that you'd open before opening the tailgate.. or what about one of those skinny spares that come standard on some cars... Any ideas?? or point me to a thread thats already been started... thanks all !

Hi from sunny central Portugal (except its cold and wet today) I have had a '99 Forester for eleven years, its now done 350000kms and while looking for a source of spares I came across a late '98 in almost perfect condition and with LPG fitted and less than half the kms. So now I have two! I'll be asking some questions on the relevant topic pages about mods, repairs and general sorting of the old one regards J