By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
b. your transmitter is defective.
b. your transmitter is defective. "
I guess (a) is a possibility, but my XT is less than two weeks old. I'm leaning to (b).
jb
There are tubes going to this thing and it has japanese writing and R134a on it (which is the only reason I have to think its part of the a/c!).
a/c works great in terms of cooling but it does make a rather prominent knocking sound occassionally.
anyone know what that cylinder is? will have them check it out when I go for my 82.5K service, thank goodness for my extended warranty!
Sometimes the batteries are either defective, or the button on the key fob was pushed in for a while accidently.
Either way, you should have gotten two key fobs. How did the other one respond?
Also, for curiosity sakes, I know the XT really hauls (what is your take on it?). How does it handle? Did you get a chance to test it vs. the WRX wagon? Nice car.
It still cools? How strange. I wonder if it's a slow leak in the lines. They'll have to pressure test it.
-juice
Anyone else ever see one of these die from too much sun exposure?
Larry
My wife's been carrying it, so it hasn't been used since my XT was delivered two weeks ago today. I swapped mine for hers this morning, and it is even worse! Neither the lock nor unlock functions will work unless I'm practically touching the remote against the driver's side window. That's when my XT is parked in a huge open surface lot outside where I work. I'll try it today in a few other locations, but is it possible that the receiver might be defective? Is there a way to increase the receiver's sensitivity? Does it have an antenna that could be lengthened?
More Kevin: "I know the XT really hauls (what is your take on it?). How does it handle? Did you get a chance to test it vs. the WRX wagon?"
I've never driven a WRX. I seriously considered buying one (wagon) a number of times over the past couple years, but didn't for two reasons: (1) the WRX packs a lot of punch in the upper rev band, but not much from idle to 2,000-2,500 RPM. Once upon a time I'd have enjoyed a peaky, keep-it-revved car. Now I prefer cars that simply go when you ask, without necessarily having to always have the right revs dialed in or be in the "right" gear. For my driving style, the XT is vastly better. (2) While I liked the original (1st-get) Impreza body (both sedan and wagon) very much, I've never warmed up to the second generation. The current Forester won't win any beauty contests, but it looks more like a car for grown-ups than the current Impreza/WRX. (3) Despite that, if Subaru had made the STi version available in the wagon body (as the WRX is), I'd have bought one in a heartbeat. Because it can only be bought in the less-versatile sedan, with the huge wing and fairly garish interior, it never made my short list.
Thus, the XT was the answer for me. I can't say much yet about how it performs, because I'm barely at 500 extremely gentle break-in miles, with at least 1,500 to go. Along about September I'll finally be able to let 'er rip. I consider the handling to be quite good - maybe a little more body roll than I'd like, but that's easily remedied with a stiffer rear sway bar that will also shift to neutral or slight oversteer at breakaway.
I can say that the poor gas mileage (along with the very high cost per gallon of premium - $1.749) are main disappointments so far with my XT. These result in part from the ridiculously low 4.444 final drive ratio Subaru chose to install. The XT should have been fitted with 3.9.
jb
Is there a way to modify something so that the cruise circuit always goes 'on' when the car is started?
jb
Is this the standard day-night mirror that you manually flip back and forth, or is it the automatic-dimming unit?
jb
Larry
Sorry, can't help on that. I've always preferred the instant-acting manual-flip mirrors.
I didn't catch what year your Forester is. If you're still in bumper-to-bumper warranty, I'd think this would be a covered item.
My wife's '97 Concorde has an auto-dimming mirror, and she frequently parks with the sunroof open; no adverse effects seen yet.
jb
Thank you, Crashton. So it's a CARB thing and not necessarily EPA-- my bad. I knew the 100k maintenance was coming from some standards body. Not necessarily a rational one.
-Colin
My wife's 03 Outback took a lot of cabin heat yesterday , over 110 degrees, but no direct sun exposure. Her mirror is still fine.
Larry
Neil
The same thing happened to me last October. The mirror started to "leak" a black fluid, and the glass looked like it was loosing part of it's coating. My dealer replaced it under warranty, no questions asked. Since then (knock on wood), it's been fine, even with the hot days we have had.
Mark
-juice
- Every car I have ever driven in with Cruise control - Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Ford, etc. does this. It is annoying to have to keep turning it on when you first start-up the car, but it might be a safety feature in case a different person drives the car, does not know the cruise control is active, and accidently engages it. Reliabity and lawyers probably have something to do with it.
BTW, is your car a manual or an auto? If it is an auto, then I understand your concern and purchase.
On these models the on/off master switch is now incorporated on the end of the cruise control stalk, and is no longer tucked away on the lower left of the dashboard. This a much better solution, in that all the cruise control functions are now grouped together in one unit. I've found with my '01 Forester, that the dash-mounted master switch to be hard to find, and I often have to take my eyes off the road just to locate it. It's really a lousy solution, IMO.
My only other complaint about the new-generation Forester's cruise control, is that the green cruise control instrument light should only go on when the cruise is actually engaged, and not when the master switch is activated, which is the way it is now.
BTW, I find it ironic that the STi—the ultimate "driver's Subie" and "max-speed-infested" Subie, has the best cruise control switch of any current North American-spec Subie... It's almost oxymoronic, if you know what I mean.
Bob
As Bob points out in the message following yours, it isn't so much having to always turn it on every time you start the car (or else every time you first use the cruise), it's the lousy location of the pushbutton, way down low on the dash. For something that gets used so frequently, it needs to be in a more accessible place. Our Concorde puts the on-off button on the steering wheel hub along with the other cruise controls; that's far more convenient.
"BTW, is your car a manual or an auto? If it is an auto, then I understand your concern and purchase."
I'm not sure I follow your direction, but mine's a 5-speed. My wife was not thrilled with my adamant insistence on the M/T (but it's mainly my car, and hers already has an automatic). Thinking back now to how fabulous the automatic XT I test-drove was - truly lovely, I didn't have a single negative thing to say about it - maybe she was right. Because of the 4.444 axle, the rather low 1st gear, and the very large jump to 2nd, I don't find the 5-speed box to be quite as much fun as I anticipated. I pretty much avoid 1st gear unless it's required to get the car rolling.
jb
Now they're squealing again. Would it be a wasted trip to mention this to the dealer again? I've thought about belt dressing, but don't want to put a "band-aid" on if it's a bigger problem.
Thanks,
Dennis
Make sure they're snug but not overly tight. Be especially careful not to bottom out the adjusters, you'll snap the tension bolts.
-Colin
-Dennis
I'm curious because I'll do mine at 60k. The dealer wanted $140 and that didn't include the timing belt.
-juice
Labor on the accessory belts for the EJ series engine is absurdly low. I can change both belts in 10 minutes without power tools.
-Colin
-juice
Anyone thinking of adjusting their belts please go read my first post above about not bottoming the tensioner bolts! Seen so many people snap them.
-Colin
I think one of the Impreza modification sites (Ravensblade, perhaps?) had a copy from the service manual on setting the proper tension. In order to do it, you need a special gauge and measure the deflection of the belt when you push on it with a given force.
When I adjusted my accessory belt, I just used Colin's eyeball method.
In my case, the tensioner bolt snapped on it's own, not when I was tightening it. Good thing it happened when I was pulling out of my driveway. Losing the bolt allowed the belt to slip off the alternator and stopped my engine dead in it's tracks. A quick trip to the local hardware store and I was good again.
Checking the bolt integrity is probably a good regular maintenance item. It takes 2 seconds -- it's located right there by the alternator housing.
Ken
-juice
Steve
Warning - some LC that we use in the labs are considered low level carcinogens, so clean up with care!
Steve
Thanks,
Ed
Larry
The Subaru filter, at least on the Foresters, is made by Purolator. Purolator's web site lists the same filter cross references for the 04 WRX's and 03 Forester's.
Of course you can just buy a case of Subaru oil filters off the dealer or the web then they can't squawk at all. But be sure to keep good records or its a safe bet they might try to wiggle out of doing warranty repairs.
HTH
Larry
If you do the belts anyway, the labor is covered, so why not change the O-ring as well.
-juice
-juice
The bolt extends beyond the alternator so even after the head snapped off, I was able to twist it out by hand.
Ken
Or someone who has a OBDII scanner (like me!) Of course, my nominal charge would be waived to any Subaru Crew members ;-)
-Brian
You're too far, but how much do those cost? I might buy one.
-juice
Let you trigger or clear codes as well. Amazing all the things that the ECU keeps track of (MAF, IAT, spark advance, etc.)
-Brian
Ken
I have the ISO version which fits both my MPV and Outback (as well as any future Subies I may have).
-Brian
Greg
BTW - congratulations on your new car. Baby it for the first 1K miles.
Greg