Subaru - Forester :: 2003 - Stalling Out At Long Red Lights
Jan 9, 2013
2003 Subaru Forester automatic non-turbo. Vehicle stalls out at long red lights. No sputter, shudder, or warning. Idle just drops to zero. May happen twice in one day or once in two or three months. No rhyme or reason. Runs great otherwise. No drivability issues until I am stopped. I replaced the idle air control (IAC) solenoid valve last week and thought I cured the problem. But the vehicle cut out on my wife while she was stopped, waiting to yield into traffic this evening.
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Car: 2010 Forester
Situation: Occasionally (3x a week or so) the car when recently started will, at a long light, start to stall and then catch itself. The last time rpms got so low the dashboard lights lit up for a fraction of a second before the engine caught itself and revved up to a normal 650-750 rpm.
I have taken to the dealer 3 times; one time they kept it for 3 days, they can't reproduce it. Took it home and the next day the gremlin was back.
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I love my 2011 Forester except for one thing. (you all knew this was coming) it seems to take forever to warm up! My Forester has a blue light on the dash (Coolant temperature Light) It turns red if the temperature is too high and it is blue when the car is started and then goes out when the car is warmed up. To me, this seems to take too long. My Forester has 50,000 miles on it. The other day I timed how long it took to warm up. The forester sat at work for 8 hours. When I started it up to go home, (it was 42 degrees), it took almost 4 minutes for the blue light to go off indicating the car was properly warmed up. All my coworkers were long gone. I bought the car new and I intend to drive it for many years so I have been waiting for the blue light to go off. I get a hard time from friends and family telling me to get going...I don't think it takes this long for other cars to warm up.
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My mechanic told me that the burning smell I've been getting in my '02 Forester when I'm idling is a leaking head gasket. It seems to be a slow oil leak. If I keep an eye on my oil level can I continue to drive the car without doing further damage or having to worry about breaking down?
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I have a 2003 Subaru Forester, bought it this past January. Got 163,000 miles on it, and we've driven it mostly around town. Over the last month, it has developed an intermittent problem with stalling and rough "putt-putt" running, and will only keep running if the gas pedal gets pumped. This seems to happen about every other time we turn it on, but without a pattern. It can be running fine, and then switch mode, as it were, to running rough and tending to stall. I've gotten ignition codes (check engine light came on and I had my guy check it out on the computer) twice. My mechanic (a long-term Subaru mechanic) has checked out the injectors, and replaced the head gasket, but the problem has not changed. I'm thinking that this may be an electronics issue or possibly something in the gas tank/line.
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The check engine comes on and goes off intermittently. Because it was not on when the situation was checked the diagnostic scan did not show a problem. I have noticed that the gas cap has been extraordinarily tight on two occasions and after the car was refueled, the light went out when it was supposed to when the car was restarted. Today the light came on, but the cap was just normally snug. The car has been scrupulously maintained. It is a 2001 model with 145,000 on the odometer. No other problems are evident.
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Out of the blue, our Headlights and Parking Lights would not switch on. Checked the fuses--OK. Tested the Relays--OK. Tried a used switch from my mechanic--no change. In the course of doing that, the Parking Lights came on and would not turn off. Tried disconnecting battery, locking/unlocking with the remote and starting it with the remote--no effect. Had to remove lightswitch 20A fuse to turn the P-lights off. Signals still work ok--with either switch. The car does have a HarmonKardon satellite radio which I've never used but have to turn off every time I start the car. I believe it has some sort of security system which annoyingly flashes a red button which sticks out of the dash.
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I have a 99 Forester L. My headlights, taillights, fog lights and dash lights don't work. checked all fuses both under hood and on driver side. Relays are fine bulbs are good as well as switch its self.
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My car horn starts honking and the lights start flashing, spontaneously. The neighbors are going to kill me if I don't die of sleep deprivation first. The problem started a few minutes after 6 a.m. yesterday, and stopped when I turned the car on I left the car running in the driveway (illegally) and then cut it off after about 30 minutes, and all was quiet until around 8:45 a.m., when it started again. The only way I can get it to stop is to press the UNLOCK button on the car's remote; but that doesn't make it quit for good, sometimes only makes it quit for a few seconds.
Anyway, I drove the car to work and it was nice and quiet all day. (I went by the mechanic's on the way to work and had to set an appt. for Monday but I don't think I can stand it until then. This morning the honking/flashing began at 1:52 a.m. I pushed the remote. It stopped until 2:08. It kind of went like that until I finally started up the car. It is now emitting carbon and I am a zombie. What can I disable or override until a mechanic can take care of this? Is it a mechanical problem? A goofed-up sensor? Is this tied to a computer chip problem?
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I have a 2003 Forester that has low air flow thru the vents if you try to use the AC or heater.
If you turn the speed from 1-4 you can hear the blower fan turning faster but the air coming out of the vents is very low. YOu can hardly feel it. I checked to see if there was a cabin filter and there was none.
Even though you can barely feel the air coming out, when on AC the air feels cold and when on heat it feels hot.
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I have a 2003 Subaru forester w/ 148k and manual transmission. Recently I have notice two new symptoms, but am not sure if they are connected. First is some bluish exhaust just at startup. Second is a wining sound out of the front of the engine. It fluctuates in time with the rpm. When I pop the hood it sounds like it may by coming from the generator or AC unit which has a wired red powdery substance on it. The wining seem worse for the first 1/2 hr of driving.
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I recently bought an automatic 2003 Subaru Forester 2.5x. Great car but....... There is an intermittent problem with the automatic shift stick. It locks "Parking" mode. When I put the key in and put my foot on the brake, The dash lights up, radio turns on everything is alight but the car won't start. It locks "Parking" mode. I am forced to over ride the lock system by inserting a key into the slot on the right hand side of the stick, putting it into neutral then I can start the car. Its been to the garage three times and is scheduled for a forth visit. Because its an intermittent problem that never happens when they have it in the garage they are having a devil of a time sorting out the problem.
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I have a 2003 Subaru Forester with 44,000 miles. How will I know when to replace the timing belt? Is it more a question of miles or age?
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I have a 2003 Subaru Forester. It will cool just fine while not moving. It will also cool just fine if I'm coasting down a hill with my foot off the gas. However, on the highway I have intermittent cooling. It cools for 10-15 seconds and then it blows what feels like straight vent for 10-15 seconds. It has a new compressor, receiver/dryer, and expansion valve and is fully charged.
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With the very cold weather I'm having problems getting my car to start again after it's been running a while--starts okay initially no matter the temp, run it for ~15 minutes then go to my first work stop. One hour later sitting outside in 0F and I can't get it to start, won't turn over. Just got a new battery, had the spark plugs/starter/fuel line checked "looks okay". Starts after it gets really cold again, needs to sit out for a few hours in the single or negative digits. Dealer is 100 miles away and I have not been happy with the service there.
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I have an '03 Subaru Forester and my mechanic recently replace the rear wheel bearings and seals. Afterward, I noticed a high pitch squeak from the rear right wheel at slow speeds. I brought it back for my next oil change and had them look at it. I watched them take off the wheel and brake drum. He hand-turned the wheel mount and it made the squeak sound from the bearing. Then he said that it's no big deal and put it all back together.
So, is it really not an issue? I'd rather not have noises coming from something brand new, but I also like my mechanic and don't want to make him do a lot of extra work if this thing is just going to go away on it's own.
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The other day my 2003 Subaru Forester was getting its oil changed and when it was done the mechanic informed me that my struts were leaking and needed to be replaced. He didn't seem to think it was urgent or anything. He mentioned something about roll overs and the wearing of the tires, but I'm not entirely sure what this means for the car. It has 140K on it, and I drive it a lot on the high way. I'm also planning to go on a trip in Mid July that's about a thousand mile drive. So, how soon should this be done? What do leaking struts mean for a car?
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I have a 2003 Forester, recently noticed the front brakes locking up, especially on hot days. Completely immobilized car, to get going again I would have to wait for them to cool and/or cool them with water if pads smoking from trying to drive with brakes engaged, and tap on calipers and master cylinder to allow pads to release. Problem got worse as it got hotter out, due to job I rarely drive car and didn't get in for service yet. Last time pads burned a whole lot and braking felt odd (less pressure and uneven like rotors were messed up or pads burned up).
Took it into brake place, they had never seen before. When they inspected, discs were in bad shape with one cracked, but I don't think that was original problem, just caused by driving with them hot. Shop at first said fluid seemed clean but I left and later they said it was contaminated but I don't trust them. Shop solution is replace everything: calipers, pads, hoses, flush system, and replace ABS (the most expensive part I am hoping isn't actually necessary). I don't trust shop for several reasons including because they admitted having never seen this and seemed content to take maximum amount of money just to replace everything without knowing what actual problem was.
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When the weather gets really cold (below 30) I intermittently smell a gas/exhaust smell in the cabin but also on the exterior. I have on two occasions had my mechanic check this and each time he has replaced an "old and cracked" hose.
He has to use the smoke tracer to find where it is leaking and replacing hose. On both occasions he urged me to make the repair immediately as it could be extremely dangerous. (Makes sense if I am smelling gas.)
I am wondering if this could be an exhaust/heating system problem. The car is 11 years old with 120K miles and I want to keep it running a few more years. I am due for front brakes and new tires soon...
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I bought my 2003 Forester a year ago from a friend with 90,000. I love this car, I put a new timing belt on it and off we went. The car worked fantastically from January to August 2011. One night I was driving to watch a show and rather then shifting into gear, it jolted. Pulled over, checked fluids and so on, car worked normally for a while. It started doing this more frequently. It has a hard time shifting into 2nd and when it does, (at about 40MPH) it jolts and same thing for third and so on. I took it to my mechanic but it never misbehaved for him sop I took it back and drove some more and dropped it off at a transmission shops. They get it to do what it does, ran many tests, decided it was the throttle sensor, replaced it, car worked great for two weeks and then reverted back to this behavior. Took it in again three times but they can't seem to figure it out. Anyway, I have taken the car to five different mechanics and no one can quite figure it out. So my car, the Diva, as I like to refer to her, continues to jolt to shift gears. If I put it into reverse it will shift normally until I stop again or slow way down. I am stumped and sad because I love my car. It now has 101,000 and I want it to be kind to me.
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My car is hesitating when I shift and accelerate, and revving up the tach after I shift into 5th but the speed doesn't match.Also, in order to start the car I have to press the clutch practically all the way to the floor.
It has 53,000 miles on it. I took it to the dealer, and they said I need the clutch and possibly flywheel replaced.
This seems low mileage to me. I have driven a stick for over 31 years. My previous car was a Honda CRXsi and it was over 110,000 miles before I needed a new clutch.
Is a clutch replacement this early normal for this car? Or is it me? I don't think I ride the clutch.
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