Author Topic: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB - For Sale!  (Read 35213 times)

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Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #200 on: November 19, 2013, 08:03:11 pm »
Thanks for all the info in this thread. I would love the part numbers for the timing belt if you don't mind, as well as where you ordered it? If it is easier to email it - drbekker@yahoo.com. Thanks

Hey man, I bought a kit for the forester xts from an ebay seller "barnfindbernie". All OEM quality pieces. No complaints.

Offline snelson

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #201 on: November 22, 2013, 03:25:37 pm »
Tom can I ask you, is your engine really stinky? 
I have no oil leaks that I can see, but man it really stinks on first start up for a while like burning oil or gear fluid or something?

Are the turbos on these EJ20s prone to leaking?  It's so hard to diagnose when I can't find any leaks...
Oh, piston slap. Yours? Mines fairly rattley on start up, but goes away once warmed up.  Don't think there's anything to be done about that really?

I did the block heater a couple days back but go a little hosed at Napa - $80 for the block heater!
Cheers,
Steve

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #202 on: December 11, 2013, 09:05:09 pm »
Tom can I ask you, is your engine really stinky? 
I have no oil leaks that I can see, but man it really stinks on first start up for a while like burning oil or gear fluid or something?

Are the turbos on these EJ20s prone to leaking?  It's so hard to diagnose when I can't find any leaks...
Oh, piston slap. Yours? Mines fairly rattley on start up, but goes away once warmed up.  Don't think there's anything to be done about that really?

I did the block heater a couple days back but go a little hosed at Napa - $80 for the block heater!
Cheers,
Steve

I still have an oil leak from my valve cover unfortunately. It's only when driving fairly hard, however, and I'm monitoring level regularly and she's hardly losing any. You should check your valve cover on right side as any leaks drip right onto exhaust manifold and cause the smell.

Turbos not very prone to leaking IMO unless they are very high mileage. But you could take heat shields and take a peak to be sure.

Piston slap, YES. Every time until it warms up. In this -30 it's even more noticeable, but I've accepted that I was just lucky with no slap in the Rex. Nothing to be done except maybe thicker oil? I run Rotella T6 but still decently loud slap when cold. Subaru blocks change in size quite a bit when cold compared to pistons so if clearance isn't correct there will either be slap or overheating (obvious which one you'd prefer).

The Napa on CGY trail and ~64ave is a wholesaler and can get most napa parts for about half price in my experience. For future reference.


Build thread update coming tonight as well

Offline James8308

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #203 on: December 12, 2013, 10:15:59 am »
Great thread!
I hope to order one as soon as I get my VW fixed up. Get it out of your system now please ......  ::)

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB - New Axles/Bearings
« Reply #204 on: December 12, 2013, 08:51:20 pm »
Update: Lots of maintenance/repairs to document

-Haven't received my new starter brain back yet unfortunately, but Forester hasn't failed to start once in the -30 and colder days :) Piston slap is loud though when it's that cold.

-After cleaning up my Foz interior at the parents place I was heading back into the city on the Henday, when I suddenly had serious shaking/vibration through the shift knob and steering wheel. As it's happened before, I assumed it was a bunch of snow/ice packed in my wheel well/inside my rims as I had been driving through some very deep snow at the parents.

Took the first exit to Gateway/south common and pulled into the Wendy's parking lot. At this point there was decent rattling/scraping noise from wheel well. I think "maybe a CV as it's dependent on speed and had heard some terrible noises during turns". So I crank the wheels all one direction in the parking lot and take a look. No visible grease that I could notice, not a lot of snow anywhere (but I cleared it all out anyway by hand). Here's a pic of the CV in the parking lot there:



Figured I'd take it to the carwash and blast the underside to ensure there was no ice blocking axle or something at the transmission/steering linkage. As I was pulling into my stall at the husky carwash on 91, loud bang and front wheels instantly lock. I pulled out the jack and took off front right wheel to see my hub-end of the axle sitting at the back of the wheel well, with the outer cv torn in half. The ball bearings where sitting on the ground along with the mangled retainer ring.





So yeah... I cranked the wheel all the way left enough to slip the loose axle end into the hub so that the car could at least roll (it couldn't come out until wheels went all the way left again), rolled it onto my dad's trailer, and  brought it home :(.



The next day I put her on the lift and checked out the damage. This photo was after I moved the axle back into the hub. When it had come out, it grinded up part of the caliper (more on that later). Nothing other than axle was damaged though, luckily. 







Insane how fast these CV's can fail after getting a small crack, especially with all the sand on the road for de icing.

So the next day I priced out some new axles from Subaru with seals: $250 each!!!! So I headed to Napa on Cgy Trail and 64ave and picked up new ones for $120 ea with the corresponding seals (I decided to get the front left axle as well as the inner boot on that side was starting to leak). Anyone need part numbers let me know and I'll dig up my receipts. All parts were for a 1998 Forester 5spd, so I can confirm that axles, wheel bearing, hub, etc are all identical :).

It's super easy to replace axles with subarus, just make sure you have a method of removing ball joint and a 7/32" drill bit, punch, etc to pop out the axle pins. I could post up a DIY of changing them but honestly there are decent guides online and it's not too complex.



Be CAREFUL with the ABS ring (more on that later  :-\ ) when removing hub.

Technically you don't need to remove hub, but when I had brakes and everything off and tried playing with the hub, I felt a small amount of notchiness in some directions, so I said F it I'm already in here, might as well do the front wheel bearings as well (Again, bought for both sides in front).











Be sure to mark camber bolt before removing:


This side went great, everything went according to plan until I got main bolts torqued and was reinstalling the top piece of caliper that covers the pads (the 2 14s at back). Bottom one would not start threading, and after removing the piece I saw the axle had grinded up the caliper when it jumped out from cv. So I put this piece in the vice and grinded/cleaned up and finished the job.









-After that fiasco, Foz was handling good but I had it in my mind to do the other side soon as there was a slow leak at inner cv (not as critical as less motion and road grime and no clicking yet). If you'll recall (and if I posted it in this thread?) I've pulled my starter motor before to disassemble and clean up due to it not wanting to disengage easily (dragging). Well, a few times when I was starting it I would hear either a grinding noise (starter not sticking all the way to flywheel) or just a whirring (starter not even reaching the flywheel) so out it came again.

Again, the starter is stupid quick to remove/reinstall on subarus. In an hour I: removed tmic, unconnected and unbolted starter, put it in vice, hooked up power, saw how gummed up it was compared to my wrx starter I had on the table (didn't want to extend), so I sprayed the itshay out of it with WD40 and continuously engaged/disengaged, and finally I had it moving freely in and out all the way (TWSS), reinstalled in Forester and reconnected/reinstalled tmic. So that problem was solved, starter didn't make a peep now.


Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #205 on: December 12, 2013, 08:51:52 pm »
-So... the other axle.......

First issue: ABS sensor bolt instantly strips the head off when I tried to loosen it. Awesome. My older bro who's a welder is over, however, and he makes short work of welding on a nut and extracting the remains of the bolt.

So we get to the point of pushing the hub out of the knuckle so that we can replace the bearing. After pumping up the press with the assembly blocked up (like we've done for all 3 other bearings), it does not budge even slightly. FInally after hours of changing up mounting, double checking how level it is, we damn near max the press' 20ton limit and the hub instantly flies through the knuckle and onto the ground with no hesitation and the top mounting point of the press came out of its holder... never seen anything that tight in there. As a result of this catastrophic event, ABS ring was in several pieces :)



You can see how well this side is going. Not only that but one "ear" of the knuckle that mounts the brake caliper had BENT slightly under the press load. We confirmed there was no cracking, and checked how we could mount the caliper to keep it level, and determined it would be okay to reuse.

I had no choice but to delete the ABS ring for now as I didn't want to wait to find one (Subaru wanted $350!!) and I disabled mine anyway with a fuse.

Next, when removing the half of the race pressed on the hub, my puller scored up the hub mounting location. So rather than risk it I got a new one from NAPA (again, Subaru's prices were criminal) for $60 c/w studs (Subaru wanted $7.50/stud). It has the mounting points for ABS so I can add one later if I bought one or for resale.







Pressed it in (went easy as it was supposed to when I pressed the new bearing in) and finally finished the job.





So yeah, not the most fun I've had but really it's not a bad job other than those few complications. And now I'm confident of all 4 wheel bearings and front axles :).

In other news, damn I love this thing in snow, it's stupid how much traction the hakka 7s find :D

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #206 on: January 11, 2014, 04:03:06 pm »
Couple Updates:

-Couple pics of her setup with the new Yakima Fatcat 6 to go along with the crossbars I had. Such a slick system, the locks were matched to my cross bars so I can use the same keys all around as well.





During a ski trip the day after boxing day, however, I was on hwy out of calgary, shoulder checked to change lanes, when I looked back forward the vehicle ran over some car part that was between lanes. Large bump so I pulled over as soon as I could (there was another car pulled over who must have hit it as well). Checked all the control arms, suspension, etc and didn't see any dents/damage and didn't notice any change in alignment which was lucky. My exhaust had a huge dent, however, some of the paint underbody was scraped off, mudflap pointing straight back, so it was something of decent size. Wish I had a dash cam to see what it was  :-\

Anyway the main issue is the front rim was clearly bent in, but wasn't losing air. Drove to the hill and back home to Edmonton, slight shimmy but tires held air the whole way back.

Once I got her on the lift I found some more problems, however. The rear tire/wheel looks like this on the inside:



Tire is torn but both front and rears were still holding air luckily. I'm currently working with Kal Tire to order in a new tire (they should warranty it) but they're proving very very hard to find in Alberta/Canada in that size. I bought a used set of steelies to replace my dented ones with as well.

In the mean time I've swapped the Geolandar's back on. Reminds me what its like not being invincible on ice anymore :(.

Also, the starter was again starting to make noises when the Bendix didn't properly extend out to the flywheel. So I got sick of pulling this out so many times so I picked up a replacement from Partsource. I know its probably not the highest quality, but will give me time to rebuild mine more completely and sell or keep as a spare. FYI, not the same as the WRX one. The WRX one was made by FHI and never had an issue. This oem one was by Mitsu, and itshay the bed on multiple occasions  ::).












Offline chico_kj_23

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #207 on: February 06, 2014, 08:17:26 am »
Another great journal by yourself. It kinda sucks all the little ittshay things you've had give up on you, but its good to see you were able to properly correct it all yourself! When it's time to do my wheel bearings I might need to enlist your services. If anything at least to tell me what things to hit.(Maybe use of the press also...) ;D

Looks like you have a nice daily there!

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #208 on: February 06, 2014, 09:53:20 am »
Another great journal by yourself. It kinda sucks all the little ittshay things you've had give up on you, but its good to see you were able to properly correct it all yourself! When it's time to do my wheel bearings I might need to enlist your services. If anything at least to tell me what things to hit.(Maybe use of the press also...) ;D

Looks like you have a nice daily there!

For sure man, are your bearings making any noise yet? They're pretty simple to do providing nothing goes wrong lol.

Had lots of bad luck with things happening to the foz (rear ended, CV boot/axle, wheels/tire damaged), but fixes have all been pretty straightforward and I'm even more confident about her now that I know certain parts are brand new.


Offline chico_kj_23

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #209 on: February 06, 2014, 01:23:34 pm »
For sure man, are your bearings making any noise yet? They're pretty simple to do providing nothing goes wrong lol.

Had lots of bad luck with things happening to the foz (rear ended, CV boot/axle, wheels/tire damaged), but fixes have all been pretty straightforward and I'm even more confident about her now that I know certain parts are brand new.

Last I remember they were still fine but my memory is getting foggy. I will have to wait and see once the streets clear up a bit and I reregister/insure the car again.

Offline AdrenalineXI

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #210 on: February 26, 2014, 08:53:44 pm »
My boots are split, Just running them until something happens. I just have smelly burning fluid air in my car when I stop driving and the outside air is on. It may also just be leaking oil burning up too. haha.  ^-^

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #211 on: February 28, 2014, 10:06:52 am »
So...clutch is slipping :(. In 5th primarily, don't notice it in lower gears as I'm babying it.

So the plan is to hopefully last until wrx is operational, then pull motor, replace a bunch of parts, clean it up, replace clutch, etc. And slam it back in asap.

kinda depressing, but a good chance for cleaning it up.

Offline RallyX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #212 on: February 28, 2014, 12:23:08 pm »
Have you just noticed it slipping in the super-cold weather by chance?  I used to have a hydraulic clutch car that would slip 5th gear if it was around -30 but fine otherwise.  Figured it might have been water in the fluid or just fluid too thick or something.

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #213 on: February 28, 2014, 12:42:04 pm »
Have you just noticed it slipping in the super-cold weather by chance?  I used to have a hydraulic clutch car that would slip 5th gear if it was around -30 but fine otherwise.  Figured it might have been water in the fluid or just fluid too thick or something.

Hey man, no it seems to happen no matter what now. I should be able to hold off for at least a while though.

Offline GC8REX

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Re: Tom's 1997 Forester S/TB
« Reply #214 on: June 02, 2015, 08:07:23 am »
Final Update:

Haven't updated this in quite a while, but I ended up pulling the engine out, changing the clutch to a brand new exedy, replacing seals/gaskets, etc and reinstalling. I'll add photos to this post when I'm at my computer.

Other than that its been business as usual with the Foz, been serving me pretty well although it could use a clutch and brake fluid bleed.

I've decided to upgrade to something LHD and a bit newer, so I picked up an 04 Forester XT 4EAT. Loving it so far and already done a couple small upgrades. Its the loaded model with leather, moonroof, etc. Build thread will be created soon.

Here's the for sale ad for the 97, please pass on to anyone interested. Obviously you guys have the advantage of being able to review my entire build thread for it haha: http://m.kijiji.ca/cars-trucks/edmonton/97-forester-s-tb-turbo-rhd/v?adId=1076880022&locationId=1700203.

Thanks!