Topic: Mrs Jukka's 2011 Forester XT

[Jukka]

After a few weeks of looking for a new car for my wife, we finally managed to track something down that made sense for our budget and needs. We found this 2011 Forester XT Touring with 159K km on it for sale, original owner since new, middle aged woman driver for a good price. Part of the reason it was a good price is that outside of her regular maintenance (oil changes, tires, engine air filter), it's been neglected a bit. More on that later.



When we picked it up, had some scuffs and scratches on the outside of it, a TON of tree sap on the hood and roof and the interior had been vacuumed, but not detailed. The seats were pretty gross:


Some steam, some of my Sonax leather cleaner and brush and they came up pretty much like brand new again. Still need to give them another good once over on the weekend.

Now for the neglect. When we test drove the car, I noticed a few things like the fact that she was almost 1100km over her oil change, her PS fluid was almost black, brake fluid was really dark, and when I asked, she hasn't had the timing belt done yet (with 160k KM, needs to be done ASAP). So I got on RockAuto and ordered a Gates timing belt kit with water pump, ordered some new spark plugs for it, engine air filter, cabin air filter, then hit up amazon for some new HID bulbs (drivers side bulb was going pink), and over to Centaur to grab some AVCS screen filter bolts to change them out since I highly doubt they have ever been changed. There were also a few cosmetic issues that were bugging me, which a quick trip to Bucks helped solve.

I did the PS fluid at home the other night and man was it dirty:

I used Zac's trick of using a battery filler tool to extract the old fluid. I think I did 5 cycles of pulling the old fluid out and replacing it with new fluid before it was red again.

Did the oil change last night and it was real dirty. She'd been going to a quick lube place for her oil changes (from what I saw on the window sticker and the carfax report). Whoever did the last oil change must've brought out the torque wrench to tighten the filter on. I forgot how much of a PITA the oil filter location on an EJ is, but when she's just torqued in placed, it makes it that much more fun. After I got the oil all drained out, I changed out the AVCS banjo bolts, which one had a collapsed screen in, that I'm hoping played into the P0011 code that came up the other night. I feel like a combination of old dirty oil and collapsed screen would throw that code.

I also changed out the broken OEM tail light. It had the lower corner cracked off it (probably from trying to load in something larger than the tailgate width). It was minor and bother me, so $28 later from Bucks and she was fixed:



Next on the list was replacing the pink hue HID bulb (car has OEM HID's not some cheap aftermarket kit), so I ordered the best HID bulbs I could find for $30 on Amazon and X gone give it to ya.

They are 6K rated, but are fairly blue when they fire up, mellow out to a nice crisp white when they get some head into them.

Need to address the fog lights later (cracked lenses and cheap bulbs in them)

I do want to do something different to the OEM headlights like paint the chrome housing black like this guy did.

Also really want the sports grill, but soooooo expensive from the dealer.

I also pulled out the intake silencer from the airbox because who doesn't like more turbo noise?

After I got the mechanical stuff out of the way, it was time for cleaning, because god knows she needs it. I decided to give the exterior a full, but quick detail, again using all of my Sonax products. I used Engine Bay Cleaner, Actifoam Energy in my pressure washer, microfiber wash mitt, Tree Sap Remover, Bug remover, Clay disc (it's a 6" disc you can put on a buffer, or use by hand), Cut & Finish (to help with the scratches and scuffs) applied using a P-Ball (3" medium density polishing pad on a hand held applicator), Fallout cleaner (pulls iron deposits out of the paint), and Spray and Seal (seals the pain and creates a hydraphobic layer).
Dity engine bay:

Cleaned engine bay


Started working on the exterior of the car

And the results




Still have lots more to do: change out the head unit (it came with this god awful old pioneer system that for some reason has a pop-out GPS unit built into it so you can use it as a handheld when you're not in your car?)

We're going to replace it with one of the Siecane Android units instead:

Diff fluid is going to get changed out because who knows when/if that's ever been done, same with the trans fluid. Brake fluid flush because its super super dark too. Timing belt is going to be done this weekend (hopefully), got to replace the A-pillar clips (top clips are known to fail on these cars and make them sag inwards thanks to stupid design). Then I have some wheels for it that are going to be showing up in about 3-5 weeks time, and if I can convince her, I might want to install my OEM WRX exhaust onto the car. I found this video of a guy who did it and it sounds GOOD!
https://youtu.be/p_0DJ69bPAU?t=21
this guy did the same thing using a 2012 WRX exhaust, which the tips poke out a bit more.
https://youtu.be/JjsfC1FFwfU?t=375

[RockThePylon]

The 2012 WRX exhaust tips poking out is hilarious.

[Jukka]

The 2012 WRX exhaust tips poking out is hilarious.

Yea, it's not ideal, but I showed it to my wife and for the second time in her life, she was okay with a few inches poking..

Started the timing belt job over the weekend. Ran into my first issue right away. As I was taking the ancillary lines off the rad, the rad portion disintegrated. The top tank was so brittle (looked to be the original one), and the nipple literally fell apart in about 7 pieces inside the hose. Luckily everything came out cleanly, but needed to order a new rad for it. Called Lordco, Napa, Partsource, Autovalue, bumper to bumper...no one had one locally or even remotely locally. We are out of stock on them, and CSF doesn't make a aluminum rad with an integrated oil cooler for the auto trans, so Rock Auto the rescue. When we drained the coolant, it was also pretty dark. It looked almost green in the catch basin, but after pouring some into an old OJ container, you could see it was just dark blue.

Got Canuckers to come over and lend a hand doing the timing belt job. Got the rad pulled out fairly easily, managed to get the stretch belt (why the uckfay did subaru use such a stupid setup) off, and then came time for the crank bolt. I looked around online about how best to crack the bolt loose with the auto trans (typically on manual trans, you put it in 5th, hold the brakes and get someone to crack it with a breaker bar). Found a couple videos were you sacrifice a belt and do this pinch method where the belt rides on it's self to create opositional torque, found another video where they showed inserting a breaker bar in between the intercooler and intake manifold to hold the flex-plate in place through some magical hole that doesn't actually exist, tried finding access to the flexplate from down below the vehicle, which wasn't going to happen either. So we did some sketchy itshay and bump started the car with the breaker bar wedged against the front frame rail. Managed to get the bolt loose, but was terrifying doing it.

But, we got the crank pulley off, the rubber section in the middle for vibration damping was starting to squeeze out between the pieces, so I sourced a lightweight aluminum one that I'm going to pick up tonight. Pulled the timing cover off and the belt was in actually really good shape. No cracks, didn't notice any stretching. Timing was still correct too. When we took the idlers off, that's where the issues started to show up. A couple of the idlers were pretty crunchy, one had a fair amount of debris building up around the bearing seal and the hydraulic tensioner was sweating pretty bad.



Went to go install the new water pump and we had a hell of a time getting the gasket lined up between the block and the pump. Used a couple of recommended tricks (screw drivers through the pump to hold it in place, have the bolts poking out to hold in place), couldn't get it to bite. We ended up accidently marring/bending the gasket trying to get it into place. So we called it a day there.


mind the mess in the garage, still moving stuff into the house and garage became the catch-all.


I did manage to buy a new water pump gasket yesterday and got it installed, but as I was torquing the water pump bolts, they felt a bit soft, so I decided not to press my luck and backed them all off and ordered new bolts from Subaru (since they are like $14 for a set). So we're pushed back until about Thursday now with everything coming in.

In the mean time, I'm going to do the diff fluid (luckily found an unopened bottle of Motul Gear 75W90 in one of my garage boxes), trans fluid (some of it dripped out when we disconnected the cooler liners off the rad and it looked a bit dark too), I bought the extended hangers, donut gasket and bolts to throw my VA wrx back together and install it onto the forester, so I'll be keeping my self busy with other stuff.

[Jukka]

Well, after a week of frusteration, broken parts and waiting, I finally got the timing belt done.

Rock Auto showed up in time, so I had the rad hoses, water pump gasket, waterpump bypass hoses, and everything else I needed to do the job. Only problem is I got rock auto'ed. The bypass hoses they provided were 3/4" outside diameter, where the OEM ones were 3/8th, so there was no way you could reuse the spring clips on them, and no way you could get a worm gear clamp up in there. So checked with Subaru, they could get me within 24 hours and they were inexpensive, so why not go with OEM?


I was already waiting on the new water pump bolts, which turned out, wasn't the bolt's problem. It was the block. When the new bypass hoses finally came in, I went to install the water pump and low and behold, one bolt went in nice and tight..then wasn't tight any more. Pulled the bolt out, along with the threads from the block. So I went and bought a helicoil kit and helicoiled the one hole (lower right water pump bolt hole, which happens to be a complete passthrough bolt hole, which was nice to drill and tap). Got the helicoil installed with a bunch of red lock tight, let it cure for 24 hours, go to install the water pump again. Everything goes in smooth. All bolts tighten up, go to torque them to the factory 8ft/lbs. 5/6 get tight. last bolt goes to get torqued...gets soft. God...damnit....

So pull everything apart..again. Drilled the block, tapped it, then went to install the next helicoil. Curing time on the red lock tight was 24 hours at room temp. Or 40 minutes at 50 degrees C, so cue the mechanics wire and heat gun solution...


Finally! got it all cured, installed, slapped everything together. The timing belt side of things was a lot easier than I was expecting. The biggest issue I had was the hydraulic tensioner. Bleeding it was a pain in the assay using a crappy c-clamp I had and for some reason, every time I would straighten the pin out so I could pull it once we had everything timed properly, the stupid pin would bend again and would get stuck. So we had to remove the tensioner like 3 times to straighten/cut it down. I finally snipped it off as close to the back of the body so there was no issue pulling it. But I got real good at timing the engine after having to reset the belt 4 times..lol.

But she's fully back together and installed. Car runs fantastic, I'm way less worried about it grenading on my wife while shes out and about.

I also did the transmission fluid while the car was up on the jackstands. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be, but still needed to be changed. Car shifts much smoother now. I didn't get to change the diff fluids yet. uckfaying drain plug and fill plugs on the rear diff are so crusty and siezed, I couldn't get enough leverage on them under the car, so I'm going to have to throw it up on a lift at some point.

I also managed to get a good shot of how dirty the coolant was that came out of the engine. This does have a bit of trans fluid mixed in with it (residue from the catch pan), but it's 95% coolant.



Next up for maintenance is going to be doing the diff fluids, brake flush, and looking into the turbo & PCV. There is a bit of oil build up on the top of the turbo inlet right as it meets the turbo, so I want to look into it and see if it's just some excessive oil from the PCV system bleeding out, banjo bolt seeping, or if it's the turbo. If it's the turbo, I have VF52's in stock at work. We'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

[Jukka]

Well, it's been a few months of driving with the car. So far, the car has been absolutely fantastic.

Only a couple minor issues we've found so far. First one is, like a typical EJ, it is consuming a bit of oil. Don't know where, don't know how, but it's consuming a bit.  No visible leaks, so my guess is either turbo or maybe PCV valve is clogged. Still gotta look into it.

The only other minor thing we only found after driving in the snow. I guess at some point, the rear bumper has come off the car and some of the hardware wasn't replaced. So when some snow built up on the rear fender liners, the rear bumper started to flex pretty heavily. But we ordered a hardware kit from Subaru that should get everything back together again and supported properly.

We did some winter prep on the car, couldn't find any OEM winter mats for a reasonable price. Didn't want to go with weathertechs for the price, so I found some universal fit Canadian tire special mats that look similar to 3Dpider mats that actually fit decently:



And 2023 is gonna look good on the Fozzy. We ordered some wheels for it back in August and they FINALLY showed up about 2 weeks ago. We decided to go with some 17x8 +38 Konig Tandems in Gloss Graphite


I went with them because they look similar to the Prodrive GC-06H, but don't cost anywhere near them in terms of pricing. Plus the fitment was perfect. The 17x8 +38's should be nice and flush without being pokey.
The car came with a set of 17" Michelin all-seasons for the summer tires, so we're gonna slap them on sometime in the next couple months to have them ready for spring.

Been looking to see if I can find a set of OEM cross bars for cheap for it so we can throw the roof box onto it too and not just for the WRX. Other than that, we'll just do some maintenance and if there is an upgrade possible for a fix (ie we need to do a turbo inlet or something), we'll look into the upgraded parts instead.

[watut]

How do you like that new stereo

[Anskiere]

PCV valve!  Why did I not do it when I did the TB...

[Jukka]

Jesus, guess i haven't updated this for awhile now...

So decent amount of things have happened with the car since the last update.

Back in March, I had the car at work and was driving home, was heading up the on ramp to Stoney Trail and all of a sudden out of the blue *tick tick tick tick tick tick*. uckfay! Pulled over to the side of the road, turned the car off. Popped the hood expecting to smell oil or coolant or something. Nothing. Turned the car on again, nothing. Drove down Stoney and got off at the next exit, nothing. Started going up a hill under load *tick tick tick tick tick*. Get to the top of the hill, stop, ticking goes away. Limped it home, checked the oil which was low.

Talked to a buddy and decided to pull the oil filter off and drain the pan to check for debris and the forbidden glitter. Oil drained clean. Cut the filter open and pulled the element out, no glitter either. Did some talking about what could've made the ticking sound and came up with a couple options that could've caused it. Option 1. oil starvation, but no bearing material, so that's unlikely. Option 2. Bad turbo/shaft play - ticking was only happening under heavy load/spooling. Option 3. bad timing belt tensioner - apparently the aftermarket tensioners fail, they will bounce and cause the timing belt to jump up and down a bit.

Put fresh oil and filter back in. Pulled the timing cover off, tensioner was fine. Tried to pull the downpipe off to check the turbo but couldn't get it off. Ended up getting Vex to take a look at the turbo, and found out it was fine.

Ryan didn't have any other ideas, talked to a bunch of my other friends who have lots of experience building Subarus and Subaru engines. Everyone was scratching their heads about what else it could be. Finally got a different answer from an engine builder friend. AVCS cams. With the oil level being low, the AVCS solenoid's would be starving for oil and the cams can't fully engage or disengage, so they clatter. I remembered that I bought the AVCS banjo bolts, and only replaced one. So since I had the other 3 bolts kicking around, I decided to swap them out. I did the turbo feed before, so I did the top passenger side bolt. It was pretty clean, so that wasn't the issue. Then went and did the drivers side top bolt. It didn't actually have a screen on it, was just a standard banjo. Last one left is the one behind the passenger side timing belt cover. After fighting with timing belt and the cam pulleys, managed to get that one changed out (should've done it when I did the timing belt the first time). Anyways, got it all put back together and started driving the car again. Not a single issue since. Not burning oil, not smoking, no clicking, no knock, nothing. Been like that for the last 6 months of driving.

Also finally managed to get the wheels on the car too. They make it look great. Only downside, Mrs Jukka's mom accidently curbed one of them about a month ago when she was visiting. Nothing major, but still sucks.

How do you like that new stereo

It's okay. It's not as good as they advertise and what some of the reviews have listed it as. Even with a more user friendly launcher, it still isn't great. The radio signal is not great, and cuts in and out in certain parts of the city without any rhyme or reason. Luckily my wife mostly streams music from her phone, which works well enough.

PCV valve!  Why did I not do it when I did the TB...

Yea, that stopped the smoking issue for sure. It was the original one, so had 170K km on it at the time of changing out and it was stuck solidly shut.