My son has a 2001 Subaru Forester that has a 5 speed manual transmission (transaxle) that is leaking from the drive axles . The question is how difficult is it to change these seals?
View 2 Repliesmy '02 Forester with standard shift (112K miles) has for some time made a clunking noise in the front CV axles on tight manuvers like parking, etc., once driven for a while but mechanics, even 'Subaru gurus' have never been able to tell me what it was. Recently during an 800 mile highway trip a transmission noise developed and the local AAMCO shop diagnosed a chipped gear, requiring a gearbox rebuild. Today they called to say the problem was a destroyed viscous coupler at the rear of the gearbox "and as the gearbox is out", clutch replacement. My question is, since the problem was misdiagnosed, should I pay the labor for having the gearbox removed/replaced when in fact it had nothing to do with the gearbox ?
View 3 RepliesI'm having a problem with my 2009 Subaru Forester.
When I start the car from "cold" (i.e., it hasn't run in several hours, regardless of the actual temperature), the automatic transmission cannot engage drive for several minutes. I can shift the car, and reverse functions normally. When shifting, I can feel the car engage reverse, and feel it shift into neutral, but when I shift from neutral to drive, I can't feel it engage. I can rev the engine, and it will just act as if it is still in neutral. I also cannot use sport mode to manually get the car into gear. After a few minutes (3-4), the car will engage drive. However, at least initially, it still seems to be pretty rough, with a few times where it will rev as if it's half in neutral, and then jump a little. Once it does get going, it settles down and is fine.
I took it to the dealer, but wasn't able to leave it over-night, so they couldn't get the problem to re-engage. They inspected the car, thought that the shift cable was a little stiff, so they took it off, lubed it, and put it back (they recommended replacement, but didn't have the part in stock). The next morning, the problem repeated itself, so it certainly appears that the cable is not the issue. The dealer checked the transmission fluid and said that was all fine.
My 2002 Subaru Forester is making this weird clicking noise and unlocking as I drive. It seems to get worse at night, and especially when turning left, or braking. My mechanic can't figure it out.
View 10 RepliesMy 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?
View 4 RepliesI recently moved to Pittsburgh where I constantly use my parking brake from Rochester, NY where I rarely ever used it. After I've moved to Pittsburgh (7 months after I've owned this 2004 Subaru Forester). After I drive for a significant amount of time (30+ minutes) and come off the freeway and stop or even slow down, the cabin of the car has a distinct, but faint burning smell. I am wondering if this could be the parking brake rubbing just slightly and when I slow down the smell stays in the cabin or if it is possible that the brakes are smelling (or something entirely different). Keep in mind that the smell doesn't happen when I only take a short drive, which is often. And of course, no I haven't taken this into an auto mechanic yet.
View 9 RepliesMy mother, who is retired, has a Subaru Forester, probably a 2001 or thereabouts. It runs great, but recently whenever you let off the brakes, there is a high-pitched whistling sound that comes out of the dashboard on the driver's side. My mother claims that she took this to a mechanic and they told her that there is a small vacuum leak in the power brake line. They also told her that the leak was small and that there was no hurry to fix it (that was in April). Now it is August and my mother is still putting off fixing it because of the cost. They will have to pull out the engine and the dashboard to get to the leak. In the meantime, she continues to drive the car saying that the worst that will happen if it fails is that the power brakes won't work, but she'll still have her regular disk brakes, she'll just have to mash down her foot a little harder. Is this safe?
View 6 RepliesBoth seats stopped heating at the same time. The lights on the switches don't light up anymore either. Winter is coming to Colorado- where do I start to try to figure out the problem?
View 2 RepliesRecently had a quickie oil change on my Forester (manual, 118K, blue) and have just noticed an unusual noise. After I drive a bit and the engine warms I hear a whir or whine even though the RPMs are normal. What I've learned is that the whir/whine isn't heard when I first drive the car (when it's cold), it increases in pitch with increased speed, and is most noticeable at 35/40 mph and above. The noise remains upon deceleration but decreases in pitch, and then goes away altogether when the car comes to a stop and idle.
View 3 RepliesMy son has a 2001 Forester that's engine will from time to time suddenly rev up while driving on the highway as if the clutch was suddenly disengaged. The clutch only has about 20,000 miles on it and there is no burned clutch smell. What else could this be?
View 7 RepliesI'm getting smoke from the catalytic converter area on my 2001 Subaru Forester. The smoke smells of rubber or oil. I've only noticed it after the car has been driven up a long, steep incline of at least a couple of miles. I've never seen it happen after normal highway driving. The car runs fine, gas mileage is good, CE light is not on, 85K miles, regularly serviced.
View 2 RepliesI have a 2001 Forester with approx. 130k miles 5 speed MT. Sometimes when making a low (5-15mph) speed right hand turn I hear a mild thunk thunk thunk thunk emanating from the front pax corner. The frequency seems linked to the speed. Curiously, I do not hear the noise every time I make a right and I have yet to notice a trend. My partner drives the vehicle more often than I but doesn't make any connections either.
I am relatively certain that we replaced that cv joint/axle this past June.
When I make sharp turns forward left or right and when I back up and turn left or right my car feels wobbly/grinding. My mechanic says he thinks it "may" be the rear differential needing servicing. I have 135,000 miles. Does that sound right? There is no noise associated with this sensation.
View 19 RepliesI have a 2001 forester. it had a misfire which has been fixed but I can't get the "check engine" light to turn off.
View 3 RepliesHad the head gasket replaced and metal machined due to HG failure. 2001 Forester, 120K miles. After I got it back, a bad oil smell. Cleaned and sprayed it, still there, though less; seems to be on drivers side. Comes into cabin from the air vents below windshield when stopped.
Could it be the line from manifold vacuum to brake master cylinder ie servo amplifier? Or something else?Should I worry? The car seems to get about 15 mpg, used to get 18 mpg, and the check engine MIL is on.
I have a 2001 Subaru Forester which has 165K miles. I had the timing belt changed at 105K per maintenance recommendations. I had the car in for service recently for brake pads, etc., and the dealer recommended replacing the drive belt for the AC.. which I did. 100 miles after this service, the car broke down unexpectedly. The dealer told us the AC compressor seized up... and this caused the drive belt to get caught on it and be shredded ... and with that, the sudden resistance from the drive belt on the crankshaft pulley caused the timing belt to slip out of sync and damage the interference design engine. Can that really happen? I surprised that this happened a few days after replacing a drive belt and wondered if somehow the service work done with the drive belt could have caused the problem. The dealer states the service work did not cause the problem. Is my recent service and damaged engine a coincidence as the dealer said or are they related?
View 3 Repliesheadlights on 2001 Forester not working. I checked the fuses ,bulbs and they look good. The highbeams,taillights,and interior lights all work. I do hear the relays click when I turn on the switch.
View 1 RepliesMy car is making a sort of whining noise; it sounds like some sort of tire noise, but I checked the tires and don't see anything that could be problematic. My husband checked to see if anything was rubbing, and doesn't find anything. The car is quiet when it is not moving, and the noise gets somewhat louder and slightly higher-pitched as I accelerate. It almost seems like the noise changed on a different road surface, but again, I don't see anything different with the tires. The car has about 140-150,000 on it. The noise has only been noticeable for a couple of weeks. No other problems, no change in steering or handling. No incident that I can think of that could have been a catalyst.
View 4 RepliesWhat would cause noise grinding type and feeling after having axles/boots replaced this morning on my 2005 Outback.Car seems noisy and vibrating
View 5 RepliesMy 2001 Subaru Outback H6-3.0 is at 215k miles (I bought it for $4k at 201k miles). It overheats only when I drive for a while on a hot day. I was trying to get to Yosemite with my whole family in the car, and rather than do the intelligent thing and go back home and get it repaired, I kept going, stopping when the gauge started going past the middle to let it cool down and replace any water it was missing (after the engine cooled, of course). Amazingly, we managed to use the car almost normally during the trip, as long as we did short-ish trips and kept some water in the car. Having to pull over randomly isn't so bad when you are in Yosemite anyway.
There was a mechanic shop in the little town we stayed in, but they weren't equipped to to do a head gasket job in the little time we were going to be up there, and we needed the car to get around anyway. So I tried putting some of that coolant leak repair gunk in there and it seemed to work. We made it the hundreds of miles home, no problem (but it was downhill, where the trip up there was uphill). Problem solved, right?
Well, about a year later of only driving the thing about 50 miles in any given run, and not terribly hot weather, we decide to go a few hundred miles south. Sure enough, it was a hot day and after about 60 miles I saw the temp gauge go past mid and immediately pulled over. After it cooled a bit, I drove it (in two hops, because it started heating up again quickly) to a shop. They tested it and sure enough it's a head gasket leak. They said it'd be $2500 to fix it.
So far this car has been pretty good to me otherwise. Numerous times, I've taken it up 300+ miles into the snow and ice covered roads to go skiing and LOVE not having to put chains on. I am guessing that all the cold air up there kept it from overheating while I was pushing it pretty hard up some steep inclines without issue. It seems like there is a temperature threshold beyond which it starts to quickly overheat, and below witch, the gasket is holding fine, or something along those lines.
So, given that I like this car, is it worth another $2500 to get her back on the road? Should I just try the leak stopping junk again? Should I have been using "SUBARU cooling system conditioner" this whole time, even though it's not one of the supposed head-gasket-problem engines? Should I just drive it until it finally overheats to death? It's probably still fine to drive in moderate to cool temperatures (winter is coming), but I haven't driven it since the leaking head gasket diagnosis. I don't know if I did permanent damage to it that day, or if it's just its usual self still. It didn't get into the red, heat-wise.
I had a problem with the CV Axle and the Wheel Bearings. I replaced them already and I ran into another issue with the Wheel Studs and the Ball Joint, so I ended up replacing them as well. Yesterday I put everything back together after replacing all the parts mentioned before and I made sure everything was bolted down and tightened, and then the tire back on and lowered the jack. I started up my car expecting it to drive just fine and it was harder to get into gear than before and it wouldn't move in reverse, neutral, or drive. I called a Monroe Muffler around here and they told me that the CV Joint is probably not seated all the way inside the Transfer Case.
So later the same day I took everything back apart and made sure that I put the CV Joint back into the Transfer Case and I put the pin back in and made sure that both CV Axles would turn at the same time, which they did. I figured it was good so I put it all back together again and went through the same process as before, making sure everything was tightened down, all the bolts and nuts and pins were where they needed to be. Everything seemed to be good. I put the tire back on again, lowered the jack, started the car and attempted to drive it again. It still won't move. Why this is happening.