SchwarzeEwigkt

You know, that’s a really good point. My wife’s ‘05 Forester would be hard to start when the engine was warm in cold weather sometimes because of the coolant temp sensor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I used the stock Idemitsu stuff in mine. It did help some of the issues I was having in regards to the periodic violent downshifts into first while coming to a stop. I wonder if your “skip” might just be the torque converter unlocking at an odd time. I noticed mine will do this thing when I accelerate a certain way after taking a particular right turn on the way home with work. I noticed it’ll shift normally up to fourth, then accelerate either when converter locked up until about 42mph, then unlock the converter causing the tach to pop up a few hundred RPM — and causing a quick interruption in power I might characterize as a skip — and then accelerating up to about 48 before shifting into 5th and locking the converter again. I’ve heard other people describe this phenomenon and most people seem to think it’s just an idiosyncrasy of this transmission. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You definitely want to get some top tier gas in there just in case you got a bad tank. Might not be a bad idea to put a bottle of Dry-Gas in in case you have some water in there. If you’ve got a code reader that’ll tell you fuel trims or a cable and FreeSSM or something, you might want to check your fuel trims. If you’re historically running lean (lots of positive long term fuel trim), you might have a vacuum leak or be working on a plugged fuel filter. I just went through this exact thing on my other car. Turns out it was both, but the fuel filter would make it misfire from time to time and eventually made it not start. Cold seriously exacerbated it. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like you’re at like 110k or something, which means you’re pretty far overdue for a fuel filter if you haven’t don’t it already. I think the interval is 60k. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You should take one off and have a close look at the bearing. I’ll bet you’ll find a part number on it, can drive it out, and drive in a new one. Mine were 6203’s, so I bought some nice 6203ZZ’s (“ZZ is for double shielded) and drove them in with a small bearing race driver. Took all of about 10min and cost me all of $20. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Has KYB gone off in the last several years? I put two sets of KYB struts in my and my wife’s cars several — like ten — years ago and they were fine. I hope not! I’ve had that experience with Meyle parts for my German cars. They were great until them moved their factory to someplace cheaper than Germany and now half their stuff falls apart. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In all seriousness, the question of whether the car sucks the fluid in through the cooler is a valid one. In some cars — I don’t think this one, though — the pump pulls the fluid from the pan and *pushes* it through the system and through the cooler, eventually depositing it in the pan. There’d be no suction created on the line going from the cooler back to the pan, or at least not enough to draw fluid in from a bucket, since transmissions are generally not airtight. Many have a vent on top of them, in fact. You’d blow all the old fluid out into your dirty bucket and then run it dry. You could get around this by putting the pressurized line into an empty bucket and feeding fluid in through the dipstick at the same rate it comes out, but that seems fraught with peril. I feel like I’ve seen a device for exchanging fluid that’s a sealed container with fresh fluid in it that has an empty bladder submerged in it. The pressurized line is connected to the bladder. The fluid is pumped into it, making the bladder expand and push on the clean fluid around it, which gets pushed into the line running to the pan. Personally, I use a fluid extractor to suck the fluid out through the dipstick and then fill it back up two or three times. Before I got the extractor, I would drain the pan and then fill it back up. So far, so good. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

By “AC,” do you mean the air conditioning? If you do, not only does the key have to be in the ON position, but the engine has to be running to turn the compressor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve found the NHTSA website fairly good about listing outstanding recalls and whether or not they’ve been done. You could check on there and see what it says. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just for fun I might have to log timing advance and cam phasing — if that can be done with FreeSSM, anyway — to see what kind of a difference 93 makes over 87. As for getting a tune, I may consider it one day, but $500 at least plus $200 for the cable is a fair bit more than I want to spend on the car that’s supposed to be my reliable daily while my fun car’s holed up in the garage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve not installed that camera (or any yet!), but I have read extensively on the subject. For that exact configuration, in fact! The short of it is that our cars definitely lack the wiring on the trunk harness for the camera. They *may* have the wiring in the intermediate harness and the harness going to the head unit. You’ve gotta pull it out and look. Complicating things, the factory camera is powered by the head unit itself and runs in 6V. If you want to use an aftermarket camera, you’ll need to wire a certain pin to ground (8? I forget.) to enable the camera display when you put it in reverse. Then, you’ll need to get an adapter to change the weird Toyota/Subaru plug to a composite. Metra and others sell a gizmo that does this. I hear that it’s common to pull power for the camera from the reverse lights supply as most cameras use 12V and you generally only want the camera active when the car’s in reverse. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Eh, I don’t know about that. It’s definitely programmed to run on a minimum of 87 and rated on 87, but depending on what exactly would be holding the motor back, it mightacould do better on higher octane gas. If the primary problem is it pulling ignition or cam timing out due to knock, higher octane gas absolutely would allow for higher output. Of course, there’s also the possibility that something (carbon buildup?) could be causing some instability issues leading to knock, that might be making my engine run “normally” on 93 and less well on 87. You’d think I would have heard it ping if that was a problem, though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I for some reason decided to fill up with 93 this tank. Car feels more powerful and is getting about 3mpg better so far. Is this consistent with other people’s experience playing with 93 on a stock ‘13 3.6R? I almost always buy gas from the same station and the results on 87 have been consistent barring the weather. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My mom’s Outback did the same thing after her battery died. Checked for codes, had a bunch of weird ones that didn’t make any sense. Cleared them, it’s been fine ever since. +1 on addressing that battery. It’s not going to get better before it gets worse. If it’s only two years old, it might even still be under warranty. Many have three year warranties that have a pro rata after two years, so you might be able to get one at least for cheaper. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I asked the same question when I changed the oil in the gearbox in my old Audi. I ended up going with Gear 300 myself and was very happy with it. Turned a gearbox that wouldn’t shift into second in the cold into one that worked kind of okay in the cold. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not that it’s totally relevant, but I had to put a new idler and tensioner pulley on my 3.6 this summer because they started to squeal. The new ones I bought only lasted a few months before starting to make noise. For some reason I kept the old pulleys, so I bought some really nice bearings, drove out the old ones and drove in the new ones. Of course, I used a socket that was too small and dented the shield so I have to do it again, but you know. TL;DR: if the 2.5i pulleys are like the 3.6 pulleys, you can just replace the bearings for less than $10, or about $20 if you buy top shelf double shielded NSK bearings. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not only is the factory camera not a 3.5mm jack, it’s powered by the head unit and it’s 6V rather than 12V. The wiring is a little odd. They do make adapters to convert it to aftermarket stuff, though. I had a link handy until yesterday when I accidentally cleared out all the browser tabs in my phone. I think they had it as one of the available accessories at Crutchfield, though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Every car I’ve ever owned has done that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I used the Idemitsu stuff. The car was immediately happier after having changed it. If it weren’t so damned expensive I might have used the Amsoil stuff. I got some serious sticker shock when I found out what 10qt of it would set me back. If it’s really that much better, maybe it is worth it. I hear tell that it helps some with the infamously slow 2-3 shift owing to it’s better viscosity characteristics. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Me too.

My car had a Duralast Gold battery in it when I bought it. I had to replace it recently since it was getting tired, cranking slowly and making 11.2-11.5V since it’s been getting colder here. It was only three years old, but naturally the warranty isn’t transferable. I got a screaming deal on an Optima Red Top and put that in. So far so good, though it’s only been a month. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You’ve gotta let it break in. The engine will be tight for quite a while. The fuel economy didn’t really settle on my wife’s ‘18 Forester until it was about 10k. Really anybody I know who has bought a new car has reported the same thing when they’re paying attention. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I lied. I downshifted while cruising on the highway the other day. At 60, it was doing about 2000 in 5th, about 2500 in 4th, and 3500 in 3rd. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My Legacy is doing something like 2100 at 60 after the torque converter locks. Hell, it *shifts* at like 2400 while I’m accelerating into the freeway with the converter *unlocked.* The Outback might have a shorter differential ratio, but not *that* much shorter. It kind of sounds like it’s not shifting out of third. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do Outback’s go for a lot more than the Legacy sedans? I paid $7200 for my 2013 Legacy 3.6R Limited this summer with 89k on it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m pretty sure there’s a cam bolt on the strut. Can’t say as I’ve ever needed to look at it, though. Not ready for new dampers yet. Camber not being adjustable might explain the prevalence of aftermarket camber plates for E46’s. I distinctly remember the static front camber changing when I got an alignment last, though. It wasn’t much, but it did change. I don’t think the geometry of the suspension would have camber change if you adjusted toe, but I’m not a suspension engineer. Who knows? It’s in spec now. That’s all I care about. But that joker with his caster adjustment. Man, what a goof. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk