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Yee Haa! -Got My Forester

4K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  kenngo 
#1 ·
I purchased a 2010 Forester 2.5X Limited yesterday (auto tranny, spark silver paint, black leather interior). What a sweet ride! I have spent about the past 3 months test driving a bunch of different 4WD/AWD vehicles in the foot of snow here in Ohio and nothing compared to the AWD system on Subaru. After seeing what these things are capable of, I was sold. I like the fact that the AWD system is much more proactive than the "real time" 4WD systems on other products. In addition, the configuration of the AWD system appears to be much more efficient and simpler than a traditional 4WD with a separate transfer case.

Things I like on the car:
*AWD system
*Cushy heated seats with lumbar on driver
*Flip-open cupholders hidden in middle of rear seats
*Solid, tight feeling when driving
*Black plastic cladding on the outside of the door sills. Every previous car I had also got lots of dings in that area of the paint due to road debris.
*Humongous moonroof
*The spare tire is actually inside vehicle (not on the back door).
*Unlike many of the new CUVs, SUVs out there, the rear top of the Forester is not aggresively tapered down. We travel with a dog a lot (a BOXER nonetheless) and the cage wouldn't fit in other vehicles we checked out.
*Large, open engine bay is easy to work on and all fluids are easy to get to.
*There's a dipstick for the front differential. Cool -I've never seen that before.

Things I would change in the future if I was Subaru (all minor):
*Include lumbar on the front passenger seat
*There is no way to hold up the back cover that goes over the storage and spare tire under the cargo area. Put a clip on the underside of the cover and utilize the jack handle to hold up the cover. I may work something up for this.
*Integrate bluetooth button into the steering wheel.
*Replace the timing belt with a chain on the 2.5L engine


Questions -I will search the forum for answers
*The manual says the sparkplugs for the 2.5L nonturbo need to be replaced every 30K miles. Is that right? I'm surprised it doesn't have platinum or irridium plugs. How easy is it to change the plugs? It looks a little tight in there.
*What's the interval to change the front/rear diff. fluids?
*How accurate is the TPMS system? I've seen other cars where a tire has to be 10 PSI low before it will trigger the light on. I would assume the Subaru one is more accurate because if one tire is grossly underinflated with a smaller diameter, it could mess up the AWD system.

I off to inhale some new car smile! :icon_razz:
 
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#3 ·
Nope, my last car was a Prius, but I did test drive a CRV and did not like the Realtime 4WD. To transfer power to the rear wheels the front wheels had to slip quite a bit -to the point where the car was out of control by the time 4WD kicked in. The Prius had its own issues but that's a whole other story.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I purchased a 2010 Forester 2.5X Limited...
*There is no way to hold up the back cover that goes over the storage and spare tire under the cargo area....
*Replace the timing belt with a chain on the 2.5L engine...
*...How easy is it to change the plugs? It looks a little tight in there.
*What's the interval to change the front/rear diff. fluids?
*How accurate is the TPMS system?... if one tire is grossly underinflated with a smaller diameter, it could mess up the AWD system...
*The spare tire is actually inside vehicle...
In the photo of the FS spare at the end of this post, I carry a bungee cord that goes from the spare tire cover up to the hook provided in the ceiling.

The H-6 DOHC does have a timing chain:
http://www.subdriven.com/news/uploads/Subaru_News/1_002.jpg
The oiled and sealed enclosure would add a lot of cost to the basic 2.5 SOHC engine, and complicate maintenance. Our timing belt is easily removed to replace the water pump and oil pumps. This guy has it off in minutes:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f66/timing-belt-oil-pump-water-pump-video-65248/#post721459

It is not easy to change plugs:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f66/n-spark-plug-replacement-anal-55431/#post616080

The diff fluid interval is 30K miles, but you should do the first change of the rear diff at 10K if you want to keep it fresh looking. I put synthetic in both of mine at 15K, and the rear was already getting dark and gray. I plan on doing both again at every 30K service.

The AWD drive is intolerant of tire size differences so the TPMS works at 26-27 psi:
Subaru Tire Pressure Monitoring System operation
This is part of the reason using the compact spare is so complicated:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbull...ester-2-5x-premium-owner-tn-67674/#post750277

You may want to replace the compact spare with a full sized spare. I bought a wheel and tire on eBay and the support bucket from the dealer, for a total mounted cost of $200:
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/vintagefortytwo/Forester/Forester FS Spare/IMG_0746.jpg
 
#12 ·
Vintage42,
Thanks for the links and great info. What type of synthetic diff fluid do you use and did you also have to add any friction modifier? I'm assuming the diffs have clutchpacks. If not, then the friction modifier wouldn't be necessary.

I also noticed today that the tranny has a drain plug! I might sound a bit excited but I'm just used to working on other vehicles with auto trannys where I had to slowy drop the pan and angle it to drain the fluid because it had no drain plug. I'm actually looking forward to easier maintenance on the Forester.
 
#13 ·
... What type of synthetic diff fluid do you use and did you also have to add any friction modifier? I'm assuming the diffs have clutchpacks. If not, then the friction modifier wouldn't be necessary.
I also noticed today that the tranny has a drain plug!...
I used Redline Synth 75W-90 GL-5. I don't know about the clutch packs, but I don't recall anybody here adding modifiers to diff oil.
The tranny drain plug removes 3.75 quarts out of the total of about 10 quarts; the rest stays in the torque converter.
 
#15 ·
2010 Forester -8 Month Review

I've had the Forester for about 8 months now and still enjoy it. I have about 7000 miles on the vehicle. I do my own preventive maintenance and it hasn't been into the dealer for a single problem. Here's a summary of my impression of it now that the initial purchase high has worn off. I'm kind of a list person, so instead of writing a book, I just listed out things I like and dislike, in no particular order.

PROS
  • Offroad capability & high ground clearance. I don't have to plan ahead if I'm going somewhere where I'm unsure of the road conditions.
  • Decent mileage. I average about 25 MPG with a 50/50 mix of city/highway driving.
  • Suspension and steering is still very tight.
  • Square cup holders -yes, despite how most others feel, I like them. A lot of times I'll bring along my own insulated coffee cup with a handle and the square cup holder accomodates the handle nicely. When not using the cupholders for coffee, there's usually misc junk in them, for which the square holders are a plus.
  • Triptronic gauges. I suspect Subaru got these from their partnership with Toyota. I'm not sure if all the trim levels have them.
  • Large amount of room in rear seat area & reclining rear seats. I've have to take my family's word on this one as I've never ridden in the rear seats.
  • I know alot of people have complained about rattles. Maybe I got lucky or maybe Subaru has addressed the issue in later builds, but, the only minor rattle I had was from a wire harness under the driver's side of the dash. I tie-wrapped it with some foam padding and have no other rattles.
  • Sliding center armrest -nice on long trips
  • Easy to clean wheels -after I go mudding. :biggrin:

CONS
  • The engine could use a bit more power. It's adequate most of the time except for when I need to pass somebody and the engine is already spinning at a high RPM. The NA engine seems to lose it's get-up-and-go after about 3500 RPM. This problem can be solved with the turbo version -albeit at the expense of premium gas and a higher purchase price.
  • Very thin carpeting on floor. It almost feels like a piece of felt.
  • Winter floor mats that came from Subaru are very thin. I'm comparing this to Honda dealer winter floor mats that are 1/4" solid rubber.
  • Hard downshift when you almost come to a stop and then give it some gas ..but using sport shift mode seems to alleviate this problem. I'm convinced the hard downshifting in regular auto mode is deliberate in an effort to save gas. The tranny tries to stay in the higher gears as long as possible so the engine spins slower.
  • The stock head unit (radio) is very lacking in power. The volume goes from 0 to 40 and when I drive on the highway with the windows opened just a crack, I've got to crank it up to about 35 to get decent sound.
  • Exhaust is not stainless steel and started showing rust after 4 months.
  • Front passenger seat height is not adjustable. For the Limited trim level, I would have expected at least height adjustment and maybe lumbar.

MODS COMPLETED
  • Primitive front and rear diff skidplates
  • Rally Armour mudflaps
  • Coated all metal chassis and suspension parts with Eastwood rust encapsulator -as a rust preventive measure
  • DRL disable
 
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