Howdy folks, names Vic and now I may upset you I don't have a Subaru...YET! However I am looking into one. My wife has absolute horrible luck with cars. I personally am a VW guy and know nothing of the scooby world. She wants an SUV and she stumbled across this nice 2005 forester at the good ol stealership of nissan. It's an 05 with 85,xxx miles and an automatic. He turns it over no problems and I notice its not idling properly. its bouncing from 900 to 1100 back and forth. I lvoe the way it drove very smooth and handles extremely well. So what am I looking at for regularly known issues? I figured I'd ask the pro's and the people who love their cars. SO please help me out be honest not bias.
new guy needs help from enthusiast
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Well, I'm not the best person to ask, I'm sort of a noob and I have a 2010. Anyway, since you had no replies yet I want you to know this is an awesome site and there's lots of very knowledge people here. So with that said... I have read posts from other members with different years that have said they have an idle-bounce when starting up, for the first few minutes anyway. Plus, you will want to pay very close attention to the head gasket. Search head gasket failure and I'm sure you'll find plenty of info on that.
Hey, I have a '98 forester, it is generally a little touchy on startup, RPM's bounce and it takes extra gas when letting out the clutch. This usually only lasts for a minute or two and then everything is normal. From what I have heard this is normal for the engine and not something that should be worried about. If it were me though, I would take it to a subaru mechanic to get it checked out before purchasing it. That said, Foresters are GREAT! I love mine!
In general, a "rough" idle is normal condition.
I'm a bit surprised at the high side of the idle. Does it have a turbo? My 06 XT, "w/ turbo" idles between 600 and maybe 900 at the top end in drive.
05 should be fine in the head gasket department.
Points to pay close attention to:
- 4 matching tires with similar amounts of wear is a MUST for the Symetrical AWD. If the dealer doesn't provide them you will have to buy them.
- Take a close look at interior trim pieces. Anything missing should be replaced and can end up being expensive. Gas lever piece is a common missing part.
Other than that, check out the following sites:
For model specific information;
2005 Subaru Forester prices, specs, options and more...
And to get an idea of what it may cost to replace items:
Subaru FORESTER S11, USA ? Subaru parts catalog
Good luck with your hunt!
I'm a bit surprised at the high side of the idle. Does it have a turbo? My 06 XT, "w/ turbo" idles between 600 and maybe 900 at the top end in drive.
05 should be fine in the head gasket department.
Points to pay close attention to:
- 4 matching tires with similar amounts of wear is a MUST for the Symetrical AWD. If the dealer doesn't provide them you will have to buy them.
- Take a close look at interior trim pieces. Anything missing should be replaced and can end up being expensive. Gas lever piece is a common missing part.
Other than that, check out the following sites:
For model specific information;
2005 Subaru Forester prices, specs, options and more...
And to get an idea of what it may cost to replace items:
Subaru FORESTER S11, USA ? Subaru parts catalog
Good luck with your hunt!
thanks a lot fellas but in the end we decided to stay astray from the forester after researching on here and a few other things The dealer kept trying to pulling quick ones on us when in the end I knew more about the car than he did. his manager didn't like that too much either.
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