Subaru - Forester :: 2000 - Front End Shimmy
Dec 2, 2012
I have a 2000 Subaru Forester S model with 143k. I have been chasing a front end shimmy since we bought the car used a year ago. I have replaced the front rotors, and pads, cleaned and greased the caliper pins, made sure the calipers weren't stuck, and had an alignment done. There was a bent front passenger wheel that I changed and had the wheels balanced. I have also checked the fuse for the ABS thinking that may have something to do with it. After the alignment provided no change I am stuck.
I just realized that I left out a critical piece of information as I was reading the posts. The shimmy is only under braking and is more pronounced under extra load such as down hill.
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I have a 2015 forester & the seats are not wide enough so my right leg rests on the front corner of the seat & after driving 70 miles my legs & back are hurting. I think the outback has seats 2 inches wider , that could work.
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My door ajar light is stuck on in my 2000 Subaru Forester, whether the car is on or not. I had to replace the battery as it ran down the old one. Sometimes it goes off for a week or more at a stretch, but it always comes back on. As of now it has been on continuously for about 8 months. I have tried everything minus taking the door panels off.
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I have a really weird problem with my car. Every time that I apply the brakes, I get a bit of a shudder. It just started a couple of weeks ago and we checked the brake pads which were fine and the bearings were good as well. What could be causing this problem?
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My 2000 Forester recently started shaking while driving at highway speeds or while under engine load (hills, accelerating, etc). My first thought was that it was a problem with the alignment so I took it to my local tire shop. The car has 164K on it and has been without a Subaru specific mechanic since my last guy got fired a year ago, though I am trying to get an appointment with the only other Subaru mechanic in the area, outside of the dealership.
The tire shop found an issue with cupped tires (naturally they'd want to sell me tires) and told me that my passenger side rear CV joint was bad and they'd have to replace the axle. Since this sounded credible for the symptoms it was showing and they found me an axle, I told them to go ahead and replace it.
When I got it back the first time, I didn't see any great improvement in the shaking. I also noticed that they'd forgotten to put the bolt back into the bottom of my shock absorber. o_O When I brought it back to them, they fixed the missing bolt and agreed to keep it for a week to troubleshoot where else the shaking might be coming from. In the process, they replaced spark plugs and wires (which it probably needed anyway) and did an oil change, but the shaking is still there after all their tinkering. They suggested the problem may be in the timing and that I should have that checked out.
I don't think they're right about that. The vibration feels (to me) even more like a CV joint problem now than it did before. It shakes more violently and at slower speeds the longer it runs so by the time I get to work (40+ miles) it's almost constant. It stops shaking when you pop it into neutral and let it coast suggesting it's not timing or alignment - and making me think even more that it's something to do with the drive train.
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I have a really weird problem with my car. Every time that I apply the brakes, I get a bit of a shudder. It just started a couple of weeks ago and we checked the brake pads which were fine and the bearings were good as well. What could be causing this problem?
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I have a 2001 Forester with approx. 130k miles 5 speed MT. Sometimes when making a low (5-15mph) speed right hand turn I hear a mild thunk thunk thunk thunk emanating from the front pax corner. The frequency seems linked to the speed. Curiously, I do not hear the noise every time I make a right and I have yet to notice a trend. My partner drives the vehicle more often than I but doesn't make any connections either.
I am relatively certain that we replaced that cv joint/axle this past June.
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I have a 2003 Forester, recently noticed the front brakes locking up, especially on hot days. Completely immobilized car, to get going again I would have to wait for them to cool and/or cool them with water if pads smoking from trying to drive with brakes engaged, and tap on calipers and master cylinder to allow pads to release. Problem got worse as it got hotter out, due to job I rarely drive car and didn't get in for service yet. Last time pads burned a whole lot and braking felt odd (less pressure and uneven like rotors were messed up or pads burned up).
Took it into brake place, they had never seen before. When they inspected, discs were in bad shape with one cracked, but I don't think that was original problem, just caused by driving with them hot. Shop at first said fluid seemed clean but I left and later they said it was contaminated but I don't trust them. Shop solution is replace everything: calipers, pads, hoses, flush system, and replace ABS (the most expensive part I am hoping isn't actually necessary). I don't trust shop for several reasons including because they admitted having never seen this and seemed content to take maximum amount of money just to replace everything without knowing what actual problem was.
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My 1998 Forester suddenly began pulsing / crunching sound, from the front brakes. I had just performed full brake inspection 2 weeks before. So I removed the ABS fuse (20 amp), and the problem disappeared. Of course the ABS light is also on now, but I can drive the car. I disconnected the 4 wheel sensors from the car harness, connected an oscilloscope to each, and spun the wheels pretty fast. I get 150 MV peak-to-peak from each sensor. Must I replace the "tone rings", or just wire-brush them? Replacing the rings are a BIG job, and the wheel bearings & seals must be replaced, since they don't survive pulling out the axles from the steering knuckle (front), or strut assembly (rear).
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My 2000 Forester has 96,000 miles on it. A few months ago, the CEL came on. At first it would turn off every couple of days but would eventually pop back on. I first thought it was tied to putting gas in the car, now I think it was just a coincidence.
Over the past two months, I have replaced the catalytic converter with a aftermarket piece (done by a mom and pop muffler shop) and replaced the front o2 sensor three times. The first two times, I used Bosch sensors from an auto parts store and had the code cleared. After about 50 miles the CEL came back on. Just yesterday, I picked my car up from the dealership where they installed a Subaru fron o2. After about 30 miles, the light is back on again. Code is P0133 - heated oxygen sensor, bank 1 sensor 1, circuit slow response.
Now, the dealership is suggesting I need to replace the catalytic converter with a Subaru converter before they can source the issue.
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Wind noise around front windows just inside the side mirrors. ཀ Forester ...Is this a common problem and is there a fix for it?
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my '02 Forester with standard shift (112K miles) has for some time made a clunking noise in the front CV axles on tight manuvers like parking, etc., once driven for a while but mechanics, even 'Subaru gurus' have never been able to tell me what it was. Recently during an 800 mile highway trip a transmission noise developed and the local AAMCO shop diagnosed a chipped gear, requiring a gearbox rebuild. Today they called to say the problem was a destroyed viscous coupler at the rear of the gearbox "and as the gearbox is out", clutch replacement. My question is, since the problem was misdiagnosed, should I pay the labor for having the gearbox removed/replaced when in fact it had nothing to do with the gearbox ?
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I noticed something while riding as a passenger in my 1999 Subaru Forester lately. I was riding in the front passenger seat with the window down, and noticed a strange "spritzing" noise coming from the passenger side front of the vehicle. The sound is very brief, about a second in duration. I heard this repeat several times as we went down the road, and decided to time it. It turns out that this sound occurs exactly every 33 seconds while the car is in gear going down the road! It sounds like a pressure relief valve going off....but what could it be?
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What is causing this strange noise. I have an old 1998 Subaru Impreza that runs well but has this mystery squeaking noise coming from the area near the front left of the car. It seems to happen most on cold, dry days, and I can hear it when the car shakes, but only when it is driving, never at rest. I can usually make the noise if I let up on the gas while still in gear, and it happens sometimes while going over bumps, but typically only if the bump only affects one side of the car. If I am accelerating quickly or braking, the noise usually doesn't happen. It also usually only happens when I am in gear and have the gas pedal pressed, but it can still happens on bumps even if the car is in neutral, the noise is usually much quieter if the car isn't in gear.
I can't tell if the noise is coming from inside or outside of the car, but it seems to be louder inside and I can't hear anything from outside when driving through a parking garage with my windows down.Now this noise first appeared a few days after I got my clutch plate, fly wheel and axles replaced several months ago but I haven't been able to find anything on my own and the shop said they didn't see anything that could be causing it.I have included a recording I took while driving, if you listen its the high pitched squeaking. So far the only thing I have done is checked the sway bar and bushings and those are all in good condition and covered in lube.
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I have a 2010 Subaru Forester that looses pressure in the front left tire much more quickly than the other 3 tires. For example, I just filled up all 4 tires to 33PSI, and when I checked it a week or two later, the front left was at 26PSI, while the other 3 were still at 32-33PSI. In the past, the tire pressure light has come on because the front left tire managed to get as low as 16PSI, while the other 3 tires were still at ~26PSI. Is it possible to have a small leak that leaks a couple PSI per week?
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I have a 2005 Subaru Legacy and the steering wheel shimmies all the time. My Subaru mechanic can't find a reason for this. I did try another general mechanic, without telling him that this appointment was really a 'second opinion' and after rotating all the tires, numerous test drives he couldn't figure it out either and referred me to my original mechanic, telling me that he's the best Subaru guy in town.
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Have an '03 Subaru Outback Ltd. 184k miles. Great car all in all. Has been burning 3-4 qts oil between changes every 3-4k miles. Stated idling rough after warms up [intermittently], slight 'shimmy' at stoplights. Check engine light on always, flashes at times when warms up but even then doesn't flash all the time. Took it to dealer for upcoming smog check, have a bad oxygen censor and possibly bad catalytic converter, but also said low compression no.2 cylinder--which is what I'm wondering about.
Without further diagnostics they're talking about perhaps new pistons, and/or valve job and/or short block rebuild. My questions are 1-is there any more diagnostics possible to narrow it down without pulling it apart? and 2-is it worth a rebuild or should I sell? Great car otherwise, they're talking 3-5k range for repairs, blue book on the car is 4-6k rough estimate? Been a great car all in all, aside from clutch replacement this is the first major repair issue.
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I have a 2004 Subaru Forester xs and the a/c goes out intermittently. I was told I need a new compressor clutch and that the whole compressor assembly will have to be replaced. I contacted another mechanic and he said that he would fix just the clutch but I should replace the whole thing. So, what do I HAVE to do? Are these prices in line? Can I get used parts or discounted parts?
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I have an '06 Forester XT 2.5 turbo that has, what I can only describe as a stumble around 2500 rpm. The car's maintenance is always up-to-date, and never has anything under 91 octane run in it.This started out when you had the cruise set and now does it all the time whether or not the cruise is used. I've had it to 2 shops including a Subaru dealer that had it for a month and couldn't find the issue. We've been through injectors, coils, maf sensor, etc. to no avail. The trouble code that we're given is a misfire in cylinder 1. We discovered, while trying to find the issue, that there was only 30psi in that #1 cylinder and the valve guides were the issue. So the motor was pulled, heads planed, etc. and new guides installed. Also, put in a new timing belt, and so on, that is usually done when the motor is out.They have done a leak down test and compression tests as well. This is my wife's car and she absolutely love it, so I need to get this figured out.
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I just bought this car for my daughter. It's in very good shape; runs like a top. But the gas mileage is a lousy 20 mpg. All of my trips are local (no stop and go stuff as we live in the country). A buddy of mine with the same car and similar driving habits says she gets 25-28 mpg. So far I have changed the oil, oil filter and air filter.This can't be the best I can expect, can it?!
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At 56,000+ miles on my 2006 Forester, I was horribly shocked to learn while having 60,000 maintenance done that my head gasket was leaking. inclusive of timing belt replacement required. I have read some discussions in this vein, but none regarding a car with this few miles on it. It does not seem right. I have had other issues with this car, my 2nd forester. I do not know what I should do.
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