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Forester Interior & Passenger Comfort Questions
I have a MY05 Forester, LL Bean model. With the light colored interior I have found that the very nice floor mats (LL Bean logo, etc) get dirty very easily. I've tried a number of carpet cleaners without much luck. This isn't grease but just dirt and what all that sticks to the soles of the shoes. Anyone have any luck with a particular product? Thanks
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To clean yours, I would try Tough Stuff. But the best long-term solution is black rubber mats. they look good too!
When we go to the beach I swear my family pick up one pound of sand... :sick:
-juice
Sometimes the stain is better left alone. I remember when I worked in an office some years ago, and we had a manager who was very fussy about how things looked. He gave one of our interns some spot remover to use on carpet stains. I have to say, the cleaner worked flawlessly. The stains were gone. In their place, there were large faded spots about three to four times the size of the original stains. After all, the stuff was guaranteed to remove them.
Just bought an '06 Forester XT Limited and today was the first day I saw it in the morning in broad daylight. VERY distressed to find that the windows have NO tinting whatsoever!! :mad: Comparing it to my old truck-based SUV (that I will be be putting up for sale), the truck's windows are almost black in the back - you can't see in even standing and peering right into it. The Forester's windows are absolutely clear!
Anyone else do this? Is this a fair price?
Another thing - it appears as though the sunroof is letting in moisture around the edges - the inside cover had a few damp spots around one edge this morning and it didn't even rain last night! It was just from the morning dew! Is this normal?
Thanks, Samantha
Call some local tint shops. I know the price for a four door car at the shop I used is around $189.00. (LI, NY)
A small SUV like a Forester is probably only slightly higher. I'm sure the dealer is going to send it for tinting, and they want to make money on the deal. Get some estimates and check out some of the tinting work, before you make a decision.
Good luck,
Marilyn
Are the temps really cold? I wonder if that makes a difference. By the time you drove to the dealer, the interior of the car had probably warmed up a lot.
-juice
She runs a lot of errands during a normal day. Falling down into, and climbing up out of her 626, is exhausting. The truck has the opposite effect, but is not as objectionable and she doesn't use it as much.
I cannot find this measurement for any car/suv on the web and I am disinclined to visit all of the dealerships with my yardstick. I estimate it by subtracting the front headroom value from the overall vehicle height value, but I think this is wildly inaccurate.
Since the list of possible-next cars includes the subject of this forum, I was hoping that somebody would, in their spare time, measure the height above ground to the middle (more or less) of the seat cushion (i.e. the top-center of the horizontal seating surface) and post that value here.
I have read these forums extensively over the past few weeks and I have not seen any discussion of this. I beg your pardon if I missed it and am being redundant.
Thanks in advance.
Legacy 2.5i sedan: 17.5"
Impreza RS sedan: 20" (surprise, much higher than the Legacy)
Outback XT: 22"
Forester: did not measure but it falls between these
Tribeca: 26"
-juice
-juice
And all of your other door locks respond normally?
Seeing is believing for any dealer so try and figure out the exact conditions that cause the lock to stick. Maybe even leave the car overnight at the dealer?
Ken
If it helps - me mum (79 yrs old) has remarked on more than one occasion that the '05 Forester XS is a very easy car for her to enter / exit from the front passenger side because of the height of the seat from the ground.
'tis like the Goldilocks fable. Her Malibu / sis's Camry / wife's Prius are too low. Sis's Tahoe / bro's Chevy p'up / wife's old Caravan are a tough climb when you have creaky knees. The FXS is just right for her.
Again, you'll have to take the missus out to the dealers and try on a few vehicles for egress/exit friendliness. Some vehicles will pass the height test but may flunk because of interference from the center door post or from the door sill.
Have fun shoppin' !
Can it be corrected without replacement?
Thanks,
Joe
Mark
Thanks for checking in.
Yep, the rear hatch started sticking this winter. At first I thought it was that something was wedged against the door..a piece of paper or something or other. But then it happened again and I thought maybe frozen water droplets or something. The third time it happened I was at a loss for why. Must be a glitch. Of course it opened for him! But at least it was on the SECOND try, lol.
Oh, my Forester is a 2003.
I am trying to locate all the accessories that come with the Forester by going to all the sites I can find. I even looked in my booklet but couldn't find what I was looking for. Maybe someone in here can help me.
I have that handy wheel "bucket" that fits into the spare so you can use it for whatever. I also have this metal gadget that is one piece but one part of it moves. It is round at one end but indented like a really shallow cone. It's more flat than indented and it has a stem. On the stem is this piece that moves. I know this isn't much to go on but I never paid much attention to it until it was taken yesterday from some n'er do well employee where I took my car yesterday to get a new tire. I want to call the place tomorrow but I don't know what to call this piece. I always thought it had something to do with the tire (small jack?). Anyone know?
Thanks in advance
For faster initial cool-down, crack the 4 windows and turn the recirc mode on. Of course, there are the fan adjustments, position adjustments, and make sure the temp dial is all the way down.
Tinting the windows also helps as there is a lot of glass.
John
2003 XS versions had a handle flip on the shift selector side of the seat back.
You can also change the bottom seat height on some models, which affects where the lumbar hits your back.
John
I had the exact same problem -- 2003 Forester rear door electric lock occasionally would not unlock, but it was completely unpredictable. My wife nearly went crazy not knowing if her groceries, furniture, animals would be locked in or out. Desperate, I found this forum on an Internet search--and realized I was NOT alone. Thank you one and all... You gave me the strength to call my dealer who predictably said "maybe $100, maybe $500 to fix it, but it probably just needs lubrication."
I seized the next Saturday morning --when the rear door actually DID unlock properly-- and I kept the door open, took off the inside trim panel so I could see the lock, and then took out the lock mechanism while still attached to wires and cable...and observed how it worked WHEN WORKING RIGHT. Both the electrical locking/unlocking and the physical operation from the external door handle were perfectly normal. Oh, well....
So I applied WD-40 to the lock parts, removed the cable linkage and squirted it full of WD-40, PUT THE LOCK BACK ON, CLOSED THE DOOR, AND--OF COURSE---NOW IT WOULDN'T UNLOCK !!!
But NOW I was sure the problem must be on the OUTSIDE and fairly quickly I FOUND IT! HERE IS THE SOLUTION:
The external latch handle (the little horizontal flap your fingers squeeze when you open the rear door) was NOT QUITE FULLY RETURNING to its retracted position. This was due to some corrosion at the upper (hidden) corners of the flap, where it PIVOTS AND RUBS against the door. I PUSHED the little flap backward into its fully retracted position and it moved back about 1/4 inch. Suddenly the lock now worked fine. I applied more WD-40 on the FLAP PIVOT AREAS and VOILA! Flap now returned to correct position every time, and the electrical unlock mechanism worked fine once again.
Long story short, the sticky flap meant the cable link to the lock mechanism did not retract fully--missing by about 1/4 of an inch. This meant one little part of the lock mechanism was staying in an open position, which prevented the lock motor from pushing on the part that unlocks the latch....As the dealer said--all it needed was a little lubrication. MORE USEFUL INFORMATION: there is a virtually unreachable little Lock-Unlock Lever located on one end of the lock mechanism inside the door-- a dealer knows how to get to it through a covered hole on the inside panel. But this lever doesn't work when the above simple retraction problem exists with the outside handle. MORE USEFUL INFORMATION: The inside trim panel goes back onto the rear door much more easily if the door is CLOSED...you just sit inside the back, close the door, and pop the panel onto the door. I give Subaru an A-plus on the trim panel and a D-minus for lack of any keyed entry to the passenger side and the rear door. Still love the car.
Hello,
My wife and I just completed a great long road trip through California and Oregon in our 2005 Forester. We had a great time except for one thing: After sitting for a long period of time in the forester's driver's or passenger's seat, my wife's sciatic nerve starts really bothering her. It got so bad, she had to sit on frozen peas to finish the trip! She is a runner and that's what's causing the problem, but we've also noticed now that just about all of our long trips in the Forester give this kind of discomfort.
We've done long road trips in our other car, a 1997 Honda Civic, with no problems. There is something about the bucket seats in the Forester that don't literally don't sit well with her.
Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how have you remedied it? What kind of adjustments should we be making with the seats? Can we replace the seats with something more comfortable? Or should we just sell the Forester and get something with better seats?
I have a co-worker with hemorrhoids issues and he uses a pad even for his office chair. So I know they make 'em.
-juice
John
Either get a pad, or ask the dealer to do something about this - they can sometimes reposition the heating plates or add padding to the seat under the upholstery.
Turbos crave octane, I would not starve them of the stuff. As gas prices go up, the premium for premium as a % of your total fuel costs actually gets smaller. It's only about 6.67% extra cost at $3 per gallon when premium is 20 cents more, or $150 per year or so.
-juice
Hey that's my argument! :P Actually though, I've noticed a disturbng trend recently around here where the price of premium at some stations is now 26 cents more than regular. Let's hope that pricing model doesn't catch on
-Frank
-juice
Differential in Boise is still .20 between regular and high test.
Steve, Host
Hey, that's my argument too...or is that three now.
Wow, those 40 cent differences between the two kind of shoot down the argument, but here in Kansas it is like they can't sell the premium as I have seen it (last Sun) at my local BP only 16 cents higher and silver only 8 cents.
I have a plain old X manual, but I tow an 1800 lb pop up trailer in the mountains occasionally. People say I am nuts, but I know that premium at 8,000 feet works better than regular (87 in the mountains) while pulling. My observations are subjective, but I did utilize some rigor in my tests. I have done the same climb with both and was eyeing 2nd gear at one point with regular and didn't worry about it with premium. It was subtle, but distinct.
They are made by the New Zealand Australian Companies, Inc. And if you click this link it gives a list of dealers in Washington State, for that company, unknown if they sell the Miss Sideless sheepskins, or just some other products by that company...
Some of the search results were Amazon links, so they migh carry them there as well. I think the first link, and numbers will be the most help in locating what you need. I hope this helps you.
This was about a year ago and I don't remember seeing them since, but I haven't been looking.
As for cold, my model includes those nifty seat warmers, and I always recommend that people get them, as they are well worth the small amount you pay.
Sounds a bit urban legendish - anyone have any info from a tinting company or manufacturer?