The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

After huge issues in the past with my 01 Forester GT and problems with it towing my camper im happy to report that this weekend i towed the camper fully loaded for over 800km without any issues and it did very very well. I wouldn't say the car didn't feel the load of the camper but it was far from not being able to keep up with traffic.

There is still some work to be done on it and a re-occuring wheel noise that comes and goes months apart but im rather happy with it.

Thanks to everyone that assisted in keeping me positive about trying to get it to acheive its intended purpose for me, to go on camping trips towing the camper.

Big extra thanks goes out to Paul for his help and countless hours of trying to fault find the performance problems with the car.

Dave

Great news Dave.. Glad to hear you could tow the camper like you always wanted it to

No probs with any help too Dave.. I'm like you and won't stop until it sorted, which is why I'd love to get the Foz down to the workshop so I can have a closer look at that wheel noise

Dave glad to hear the Foz is running well again, as for the intermittent noise from the wheel get it looked at sooner than later. the longer you leave it the more chance there is of it being something that needs to be replaced as apposed to something that needed to be tightened up.

TOONGA

"fully loaded maaaan!"

So what was the problem in the end? AFM?

I'm interested to know what the problems you had on your Foz and what was replaced?
Cheers
AP

It is good to hear all is sorted. I do wonder if everything could have been diagnosed with dealership diagnostics affordably (doubt it though) and where would al the fun have been then? It is always a case of weighing up your own panic and inconvenience, tinkering and begging versus handing over wads of hard earned to someone else who really was only just one step ahead of yourself.

I recall a non turbo Foz being diagnosed as either cat/blocked exhaust or afm. Instead of dealer shop being made to make the either / or decision and fix it the owner went on her way to get the exhaust attended to non genuine at a considerable price difference to genuine - and bugger, that wasn't it. Made it easy for the boys when she went back already spent $800 elsewhere instead of $2400. Swapped in a known going afm and found the problem. Shame they did not try the swap in method first, easier to kep customers that way.

You and yer mates have done well. A summary would be good, like symptoms where, fix was...

how come very time you post about this you never want to explain what the problem was? You might save someone a ton of headaches by sharing...

I thought i had cleared up all of what happened and what fixed it in the other post. Turned out to be MAF then a loose injector plug.

the whell noise can currently not be dianosed because the noise has stopped again after changing nothing... im sure it will start again in a few weeks... it always does.

Dave

Didnt you have dirty tranny fluid as well?

I rekon it's something to do with the backing plate. Even though there aren't any visible rubbing marks. Maybe there are but subtle so you can't tell. Have you very closely inspected it with the whole hub pulled apart? (can't remember from when I talked to you about it).
Might be worth just bending the backing plate back away from the disc rotor just slightly to provide a tiny bit more clearance - like a couple of mm. Can't do any harm.

The bearings are new right?

The 32mm nut is done up mega tight?

It could be possible that the caliper is not releasing fully - might be dragging just slightly causing a noise.
Those calipers might be due for a recondition job at a brake place, they are fairly high kms really if you consider they would have been in service without a rebuild since new most likely.
For reference it just cost me a little over $100 total last week for a full rebuild of a pair of 2pot rear calipers from a WRX. Your fronts would be 2pots so the cost should be similar. This included the seal kit, honing of the bores and re-assemble, they even painted them.
(it actually cost me a fair bit more but that was because they also supplied me with the 4 pistons from the calipers which were missing when I bought them secondhand from someone!).
This was at Perth Brake Parts - they've been really good over the years for my brake requirements.

More food for thought, don't ya just hate the niggles!

Glad to hear she's fighting fit for camping anyways.

Fluid went burnt after towing the camper with the dud MAF. I think there wasn't enough power to change gears properly. This burnt all the trans oil and heated the coolant for the motor and made the engine seamingly overheat.

Took about 5 trans oil changes to get it coming out clean but it seams good now. I kept all the samples and i was comparing the colour changes over periods of time and it doesn't seam to be getting worse.

When the trans oil was burnt and jet black the car didn't want to change down gears properly when i towed the camper making the car even slower than it was with the engine problems with the MAF.

Dave

All of what u have suggested has been investigated Andrew. Paul has had a bit of a look but after we stuffed about with it then noise continued... It was gone by the time i got home that day and occasionally now i get a clicking, but (touch wood) has not made the scrapping noise for a few weeks now.

Not sure about the caliper thing... it is a deadly loud scraping noise that scares animals and small kids away when it's doing it. For the MY boys out there... it sounds EXACTLY like a loose hub nut... but it's not the problem. Im pretty confident it's the actual hub or a weird CV joint problem. Unfortunatly there are not many parts about to simply swap these over just to test. And it seams to stop when i have the time to take it to a mechanic.

Dave

SuBaRiNo wrote: time to take it to a financial rapist.
Dave

Corrected for truth

Don't you dare, I'm sure it can be nutted out.
I can lend you a brand new front driveshaft to swap in to rule out the CV's if you like.
Someone must have a suitable front hub for swapsies.

Jarrod replaced many rear hubs/ bearings , no fix
replaced the diff a few times , no fix
replaced rear drive shafts , no fix
replaced the tail shaft , no fix
I stripped the gear box down, nothing there realy wrong

replaced the fuel pump , mmmm all good now

Noise is 100% coming from the LHF wheel when Dave backed it out of the workshop. I'm still under the assumption that the wheel bearing is either wrong type or failed prematurely