so yeah, AK1 is pretty excited about her first car. 2010 forester, automatic, 124k. First stop: oh oh oh O'Reilly, for fresh wiper blades all around and a new H11 low-beam bulb for passenger side. Also picked up a RustOleum Wipe New headlight resto kit, which we'll apply whenever it stops raining.
It's got a noisy wheel bearing on right side, IDK if it's front or rear but I'm assuming rear since that's what y'all warned me about. It's also got a fuel leak somewhere, I filled it up on the way home from buying and I could smell it the whole way home while following her. Gotta do some reading up on these cars. We put my name on the title and will transfer the plate from the E60 so she can keep a little bit of her previous favorite car alive.
AK1 put in a little sweat equity on the headlights today, with the RustOleum Wipe New kit. Before:
and After:
$10 and 30 minutes of work well spent
Surprised at the results from the wipes! Looks like a good first car to me.
In reply to solfly :
Dusterbd13 turned me on to this product. The kit includes a foam sanding pad with fine on one side and really fine on the other. Keep lens wet with soapy water, sand with fine until the suds are no longer turning yellow, then flip to really fine and go over the lens until it feels the same everywhere. Rinse with clean water 3 times, dry with included microfiber, wait a few minutes for the lens to really dry, then wipe with the proprietary-hydrocarbon-soaked cloth. I did the Odyssey a year ago and they still look great.
Ordered new gas cap to address P0457, I hope that solves the CEL and the smell of raw gas.
Also ordered a new rear hub and bearing assembly, which i hope solves the wheel bearing noise. i didn't try to isolate front vs rear, i decided to roll the dice based on hive comments regarding Foresters' appetite for rear bearings.
I think you can buy knuckle and all for those a shiny happy person wheel bearings now.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
Ordered new gas cap to address P0457, I hope that solves the CEL and the smell of raw gas.
I had a 2011 Forester. There's a plastic box with a charcoal filter thats supposed to trap fumes coming out of the gas tank/filler neck. Mine was full of spiders and nests they made. There's also a sensor thats part of the system that complains when things get clogged up and will cause an error code and your CEL. Another symptom will be when refueling - gas pumps will shut off after only putting in a few gallons of gas.
This was apparently such a common problem that Subaru redesigned the filter box. I had the dealer replace mine when I was having my ECU reflashed and replaced.
Just did one of the rear bearings/hubs today. Pete's advice was dead on. Thanks, Pete! Tried getting it off earlier in the week by loosening the hub to knuckle bolts a bit and then hooning around. NADA. Bought a hub shocker, used my 7lb sledge and still NADA. Borrowed a 20lb sledge from a neighbor, finally got some movement. I wound up having to tighten the hub bolts to pull the hub back in, whack it down, tighten, whack several times before the hub was loose enough to pull out. For separating the brake backing plate from the hub, I took a dremel tool with cutoff wheels, ground down as much of the rust on the exposed hub flange as I could. Hit it with some penetrating oil. Threaded the hub to knuckle bolts back into the hub, then set the hub/backplate wheel studs facing up, knuckle bolts facing down on a hard surface. Took a pin punch and drove the backing plate down, hitting around the perimeter of the hub. Took a few tries but came apart eventually. It's all back together now with an OEM hub, and the back end of the car is still noisy. So, it's either the left side bearing is also bad, the diff is bad or it's tire noise. Jiminy crickets. I need to ride in the back while someone else drives to see what the deal is. Before, I swore the right side was louder. So, if the left side is now the louder of the two I'll feel like I'm on the right track diagnostically.
Rocking the hub shocker:
Success:
Totally forgot to post my wheel bearing update. Based on how quickly the noise increased with steering input, even very small steering input, I decided that it must be the right front wheel bearing making all that noise, so I picked up one front and one rear from Hodges Subaru in Ferndale MI.
Ruined the right front rotor by trying to weld a length of 2x2x3/16" tube to it to make my own hub shocker. I knew welding to cast iron would suck, so I ground the surface "clean", then went over it a couple passes with TIG torch only, to burn out some crap and homogenize the weld lines a bit. Then I melted some filler rod into the clean lines, ground them flat, and welded the tube to that.
After all that, it broke with 3 smacks of the sledge.
I ended up threading the bolts back in about 1/4" loose, holding the mini sledge (GRM NYG gift from Professor Brap!) against the socket, and hitting that with the other sledge. Not much room to swing, but it was enough.
assembly was a much easier reverse of removal, Plus one new front rotor LOL, and I was rewarded with quiet from the wheel bearings, hooray!
And in this thread here Pete (l33t FS) and some other GRMers walked me through a frustrating AC problem that turned out to be an intermittently not closing relay on the compressor clutch. I'll pick up a new relay when I return the unused rear wheel bearing and order a spare key.
New relay procured, AC cycles normally and is properly cold. Hodges had it on the shelf, $18.
replacing the relay was not without its drama:
This was at lunchtime. I still had to go back to the office for the afternoon!
Damn man, what happened?
Glad you got the AC fixed AC.
In reply to wawazat :
I was standing up a little too straight when I leaned over the fender. Caught the corner of the hood pretty solid. Lady on her front porch heard me swearing and looked up to see me leaking. She brought me a couple paper towels, which was nice. I told her I'm working on different ways to meet new people, and asked if she'd prefer this approach versus the more traditional plate of chocolate chip cookies.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
Ordered new gas cap to address P0457, I hope that solves the CEL and the smell of raw gas.
Hope that works for you.
Ours had the filler neck rot through causing the same P0457 and raw fuel odour.
BoxsterSteve said:
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
Ordered new gas cap to address P0457, I hope that solves the CEL and the smell of raw gas.
Hope that works for you.
Ours had the filler neck rot through causing the same P0457 and raw fuel odour.
$26 gas cap did not cure it. :-(
next step is to get the car up in the air and pull the belly pan from under the tank and see what I can see.
what year was yours?
I tried replacing the gas cap and the fuel filler vent tube before I quit on our 2004, and sold the car to a friend...
Turns out the metal balance tube that ran across the top of the gas tank between the left and right side had rotted. He had to drop the tank to get at it.
Good luck....
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
BoxsterSteve said:
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
Ordered new gas cap to address P0457, I hope that solves the CEL and the smell of raw gas.
Hope that works for you.
Ours had the filler neck rot through causing the same P0457 and raw fuel odour.
$26 gas cap did not cure it. :-(
next step is to get the car up in the air and pull the belly pan from under the tank and see what I can see.
what year was yours?
That issue in my 2011 Forester was caused by the evap canister / charcoal filter.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
and that gaping head wound is exactly why the 1969 Cougar is a superior design to the 1970 Cougar! Fight me!
In reply to wawazat :
I still prefer the waterfall
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Ours was a 2007.
AK1 calls me with panic in her voice: "My car just died in the left turn lane! I tried to restart and it shook really bad so I shut it off." So she called AAA (45 minutes out) and I got there first. She said "nothing out of the ordinary, it died when I stopped for the light." Quick look shows nothing obvious, so I say "start it up and let me look around." Starts up no problem, so I drove it home. No clues anywhere. Battery cables are secure and in good condition. 1/2-tank of gas. No smells, no noises, no smoke, no leaks. WTF?
Oil level is OK with no evidence of fuel or coolant. Coolant level is OK. Operating temp is normal, trans is shifting normal. I see absolutely nothing wrong. Code reader says P0457 current and pending, because I haven't chased down the evap leak yet. No other DTCs. No low voltage warning, nothing.
I don't like this car.
Is the "in left turn lane" a vital piece of info?
Meaning, was she executing a turn when it died or was the car just sitting, pointed straight, waiting to turn?
If, during the execution of a turn, is the fuel level low? Is the fuel pump weak as the fuel sloshed away from the pick up?
The restart but shake sounds like low fuel pressure for that start. If intermediate, the pressures could have been better after sitting there with the key forward while trying to diagnose.
In left turn lane only mentioned vs in parking lot or some other benign location. She was stopped with wheels straight ahead when it stalled. No sputtering, just shut off.
forgot to mention it's got an aftermarket keyless with remote start. PO said remote start quit working so he only used it to lock/unlock. I will google the brand name on the fob (Avital) and see what I can learn. Then I'll probably remove that POS as Step 1.
So, what would cause simultaneous P0301 and P0302? They are on opposite sides of the boxer, if the plug wire labels are to be trusted.
it fell on its face leaving a traffic light, CEL flashed a bunch of times, I lifted and the flashing stopped before I got off the road andd into a parking lot. Had P0301 and 0302 pending.
they definitely set on this key cycle because I reset it before leaving the house.
