Subaru Forester (up to 2005)

ateixeira · July 2003

I think you're right, Ken. They said something like "50% more torque at half throttle".

Sure, that may be true, but what they mean is 50% throttle position. It's probably the equivalent of where 80% throttle used to be, if you follow.

-juice

bsvoller · July 2003

<political commentary>

Hear! Hear!

</political commentary>

I'll leave it at that...

-brianV

subkid · July 2003

Hi,

I was wondering what does ignition kill feature on Forester's OEM alarm actually do? Prevents engine from running or just from starting. In other words, can manual transmission equipped car still be "hot wired" and then pushed to start or I'm safe from that with the OEM.

More advance question - does OEM alarm have a separate horn? Is it possible to have alarm armed with the ignition kill and not sound? Before somebody asks why I would do that - looks like sound is more annoying than helping. When somebody's alarm wakes me up three times in the middle of the night I can't wait for that car to be stolen, so I can get back to sleep

)

Kid

huxley123 · July 2003

We need to replace the original tires on our 2002 Forester S+. We have been thinking of buying it from Costo. Their recommendation is Michelin® XGT V4 P215/60VR16 for All season high performance.

I tried to search if this particular tire has been discussed on the board - but could not find any reference to this particular Michelin brand.

Any comments suggestions would be most welcome. I am an absolute novice in this respect and would appreceate any help from the experts on this board.

stever · July 2003

The XGT is probably a relabeled Michelin tire. I have some X Radial Plus tires from Costco that are really (mostly) X One's. Someone over in Tires, tires, tires may know, but I'd poll the Forester owners here for suggestions.

I guess the $50 Michelin coupon expires in a week.

Steve, Host

ateixeira · July 2003

Kid: I know the horn is seperate because I've seen it on S models. I don't have one so I can't comment on how it works, though.

-juice

krccrk · July 2003

I was told the oem alarm just disables the starter. It sounds like it does not use a separate horn, not sure how hard it is to disable.

On two of my previous cars I rigged up hidden kill switches that disabled the fuel pump relay. Required getting the electrical schematics.

Ken

mckeown · July 2003

Depends on the year...Earlier models have a seperate "horn" or speaker. Later use the standard horns. But ALL just disable the feed to the starter relay. I have an aftermarket and via a DPDT relay I disable the starter relay AND fuel pump relay.

ateixeira · July 2003

Makes sense, because I'm sure I saw the little horn for the alarm. I looked because I change my horns from "beep" to "honk".

Don't forget the chat tonight, folks. Last week was our biggest crowd ever expect for special events.

-juice

logtrail · July 2003

These tires were standard on my 96 Mazda millenia S (215/55VR 16). I got only about 30k miles since they are a soft compound and so recently replaced two of them with another type of Michelin. The XGTV4 is a quiet tire but not very good in snow and I dont think a particularly good tire for a Forester. Isnt the current price about $175 per tire. ?

stever · July 2003

$175 each? No wonder I've never heard of it :-)

Tire Rack may have some consumer reviews about it - see the ad on the left for a link.

Steve, Host

gened1 · July 2003

How many miles do you have on your 02? I was wondering about the life of my 02L tires.
Gene

mjsnd80 · July 2003

There was a reference a few posts ago about switching the beep-beep factory horn with real HORN.

I have an '03 Forester, and could not find the little beep-beep!! Where IS it??? It seems to be near the battery (driver-side front) but I about went deaf trying to find it (though my daughter enjoyed honking the horn!)

I've replaced car horns before. If I can find this one, I assume it's an easy thing to switch it out.

= = = =

Switched out the dirty air cleaner Saturday with a paper filter... and have improved from 32 to 34 mpg with my 5-speed '03 XS. Very excited!

russski · July 2003

mjsnd80,
"Beep-Beep" located behind left hand side fog lamp (under battery).You actually have to remove fog lamp to see it.

Vitaly

huxley123 · July 2003

We have put about 38K on the tires. I would say its been appx 60-70% on highways.
The car spent the first 34K of its life in upstate NY tackling the rain, snow and slush. Its now taking a break in sunny southern California (Orange County).

ateixeira · July 2003

I guess they've moved the horn around over the years. Mine has one right behind the grills and a second under the intake, behind the passenger side head lamp.

-juice

joseph50 · July 2003

Bottom line: the reviewer was decidedly less than impressed with the performance and look of the total package.

lark6 · July 2003

I also have the Hella Supertones; Ken actually gave me installation tips not long after I started posting here. I actually like their tone - they sound like something off the European Continent. They get people's attention but would do better with a relay installed.

Now for my Q: I'm always in denial when it comes to calling the Forester an SUV. I refer to it as a car or, more specifically, a tall station wagon. Yet today my wife asked me if she could "borrow the truck" this weekend. I've noticed also that some parts catalogs refer to Foresters as "Subaru truck." I'm curious: how many of you refer to your Foresters - or have had them referred to - as "trucks"?

Ed

gened1 · July 2003

Yep,
We say here in Upstate NY that we have two seasons...winter and the 4th of July. I've got about 11000 miles on my 02 so I guess the oem tires have a ways to go. I think I'll replace them with Nokian tires when the time comes.
Gene

ateixeira · July 2003

Truck? No, I would not go that far. I don't consider the Highlander, CR-V, RAV4, or Pacifica trucks either.

I usually refer to small car-based SUVs as "sport/cutes", it's a clever way to summarize "compact car based-SUV without low range gearing".

-juice

lark6 · July 2003

LOL juice. I just wondered whether it was a Freudian slip based on intended use. "Baby ute" is also a term I've heard.

Ed

ateixeira · July 2003

Remember My Cousin Vinny?

"What's a ute?"

-juice

PS I like that it's hard to categorize

kens · July 2003

I never call my Forester a truck -- in fact I make it a point to call it a wagon to my friends. However, there have been instances where people have called it a truck.

Ken

lark6 · July 2003

"What's a ute?" How can I forget? The line usually comes up when I try to explain grits to people.

Ed

stever · July 2003

How big is a grit anyway?

It's odd that Georgia ice cream hasn't come up in the chats with all the other food talk that happens in there.

Anyone ever consider an Outlander instead of a Forester? (Truck Trend)

Steve, Host

grahampeters · July 2003

G'day
This is what a ute looks like. A Ute is the shortening of Utility (Coupe) originally made by Ford at Geelong in the 1930's. A farmer's wife wrote to Ford asking for a vehicle that her husband could use on the farm each day but would be acceptable to drive her to town or church. http://www.fastlane.com.au/Features/First_ute.htm Ford produced the Utility Coupe which had a 2 door cabin and a tray area behind. Strictly, a ute should be a single body unit although Ford now makes a Ute with the tray as a separate section to the cabin and bonnet (hood to you).

This gives an idea of some current models. Holden produce them from stricly utilitarian to hot racer versions. Also have a look around the site generally as Holden are doin some interesting things

http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/vehicleentry?vehicleid- - =15

http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/jsp/homepage/homepage.jsp

The latter page is Holden's offering as an Outback substitute but it comes with 5.0l V8. Could be interesting.

Cheers

Graham

03xngreen · July 2003

hey, those utes are kinda cool. Reminds me of an El Camino or Ranchero, but better looking.

grahampeters · July 2003

G'day

If you want to have a look at how they are tricked up locally, try putting Holden Ute or Ford Ute into a search engine like google. They are geninely used for everything from tradesmen's vehicles to racing and many folk spend big money on tricking their ute up.

Cheers

Graham

ballistic · July 2003

"Anyone ever consider an Outlander instead of a Forester?"

Unless price is the sole determinant, why would anyone prefer the Outlander? What advantage does it offer that counters the Forester's higher resale value (which narrows and might even eliminate the price difference), greater room, better handling, and so forth? Finally, the Outlander is gutless, even when compared to the base non-turbo Forester.

joseph50 · July 2003

What, no reply, response, reaction, rejoinder or comment on today's review?
Not having tested a Forester turbo, I could not provide any of the above. But for those of you who have, what say you?

rsholland · July 2003

http://email.motortrend.com/cgi-bin15/DM/y/mCxa0CTVNu0XQ0C5p0B4

Guess who wins?

Bob

joseph50 · July 2003

Now that is "cool" reading. Thanks.

lowellk · July 2003

Forester = station wagon on steriods

--- Lowell

kens · July 2003

Nice comparo, but leave it to MT to get Subaru's torque split wrong. They mentioned a 50:50 split when they were driving a 4EAT.

Ken

ducktapeguy · July 2003

I wonder how the Forester would compare to the Airtek Turbo (aka Outlander Turbo) I saw them in overseas, they look pretty good. I don't know what the specs are though, but I like the small unobtrusive hoodscoop. Of course, I'd still rather have the Forester XT

jtm4 · July 2003

Has anyone installed the Polk EX350 5 inch speakers in the rear of their, 00 or earlier, Forester? We're thinking about upgrading the stock Clarion head unit in our '98 Forester. If we do that, we're going to upgrade the stock paper speakers. Since it looks like the Polks are the only fit, we were wondering if they are dramatically better than the paper speakers.

gened1 · July 2003

I upgraded my front and rear speakers in my 02 Forester to Alpine component fronts and regular Alpine speakers in back. According to Crutchfield they were, and proved to be, an exact fit. I don't think the 98 is much different than the 02 as far as speakers go. Yes they were much better than stock.
Gene

kens · July 2003

jtm4,

I've done the 5" Polk rear speaker swap on my 98 Forester. While the sound is better with the Polks, it's not quite as noticeable as when the fronts are upgraded.

The rear speakers are positioned fairly low on the back doors so you really don't hear the highs when sitting up front. If you put your ear in line with the speakers, you do hear a difference.

Ken

rsay777 · July 2003

This is a re post since the last time it ended up in "Forester Problems"

I have recently relocated to SLC Utah and am finding only one dealer that has Saturday service. Anyone out there with experience with Mark Miller Subaru? Bob L

ateixeira · July 2003

outaccelerates/brakes/handles/hauls/tows the Outlander

What else is there? LOL!

-juice

stever · July 2003

Congrats, and please report on your buying experience here:

Subaru Forester: Prices Paid & Buying Experience

Steve, Host

kens · July 2003

juice,

Probably outsells too!

Ken

forestergump · July 2003

I upgraded all of the speakers in my '99 Forester with Boston Acoustics. They all were perfect matches, and were very easy to install.

jtm4 · July 2003

Thanks, for the replies. Looks like we're going to upgrade the stock system. We just have to decide on the head unit. Gotta have MP3/WMA capability. That alone narrows the search. I'm a big fan of Eclipse (Fujitsu 10). Mobile One Audio was one of the few Eclipse dealers in our area but they've stopped carrying them. Once again, thanks for all the info.

Jim

njswamplands · July 2003

just bought a forester xt with one of the major reasons outside of the xt acceleration, better handling, subarus proven long-term experience in bad weather was that i needed a 4wd ( i moved to the mountains of NJ ) but my father-in-law can not 'climb' into even a honda crv due to his bad hip and knees. so thanks for making a good 4wd thats much cheaper than audi/bmw wagons and alot more dependable.

ateixeira · July 2003

Good observation. I remember at one point the Forester won an award from an association that rated accessibility for disabled persons.

-juice

dnos · July 2003

I think I saw from an old post that some other country's Forester came with a hard plastic cargo hold like in the Vibe/Matrix. I really like that much more than crapeting. Is there a product out there that can retrofit my 2003 Forester X? So far my current plans has been to buy a sheet of 1/4 ABS plastic for Tap Plastics, have a dashboard guy make me a perfect pattern of the rear hold and cut my plastic into 6 pieces. One big piece covering the spare and left/right sides, a piece to cover the front compartment (possibly screwed to the floor) with a 60/40 sprig-hinged pieces to protect the gap when the backseat is dropped, and two pieces screwed in the backseats themselves. I might use the "rough" side up or down with the smooth side up and Herculined. This setup would give me a stronger floor, currently I think the cargo hold isn't solid enough with all those voids. However this setup might run up to 300 bucks and a lot of elbow grease. My main concern are the pieces that is screwed to the floor and backseats. Anybody have any ideas good solid spots for the screws?

Leo

lbhaley · July 2003

Leo,

If I understand your question you are looking for a cargo tray. These can be purchased from any Subaru dealer for $100+. I bought one for my new XT. It's made of thick rubber and is somewhat sticky. It fits very well and covers the entire cargo area behind the rear seats. It looks good too.

-les

ateixeira · July 2003

I also think a removeable liner would be the way to go. That even came standard on 1998-2002 models, they should not have cost-cut that.

-juice

dnos · July 2003

I do have the rubber mat, and I think I might keep that too, but it doesn't protect the seatback and the gap (which could be punctured). I dunno, I was a converted pickup truck guy (now a raised wagon fan) and I love having a solid load floor. My mom's Accord was used to carry some heavy boxes and the spare tire cover bowed. My sister's Galant spare tire cover is also bowed. And I feel that if I decide to sleep in the back or put something heavy (like dumbells and weights - haha as if I actually work out), one of the panels might give. Then again, the biggest thing I hauled was my bus trainee's bike with no problem, except that I accidentally dragged the handlebar on the ceiling and now there is a crease. What does everybody haul with their Subies and were there any problems? I am also contemplaing on either getting stiffer springs or a self-leveling suspension like on the XS, so when and if I tow and haul, it doesn't sag.

Leo dC

Subaru Forester (up to 2005)

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