2006 Forester 2.5 XT issues...

2006 Forester 2.5 XT issues...

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Discussion

Lefty

Original Poster:

16,666 posts

209 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
Morning Subaru chaps (nice to have this as a separate forum now, thanks mods!)

My wife has a '55 plate 2.5XT Forester and we have a few wee problems with it.

I was in the local Suibaru dealership this morning getting diagnostics done and they have quoted me over £1500 to replace the secondary air pump and the two headlight auto adjustment sensors.

My understanding is that the air pump sends hot air to the cats to help warm them up. The car is running fine and passed it's MOT a few weeks back with the pump not working but presumably this will shorten the life of the cats? Anyone know if the pump can be rebuilt or if there is a cheaper place to get a new pump rather than from Subaru? Obviously, I could try to get one from a breakers. Does anyone know if this pump is common just to the 2.5 or is it also used on 2.0 engines?

Is it possible to set the headlight height nmanually and do without the auto-levelling system? The sensors are "only" £170 each but the garage say that the connectors are corroded and cannot be replaced indivdually so it needs a new rear loom which adds significantly to the cost. This sounds a bit like main dealer BS to me, do you reckon a decent auto-sparky would be able to make new connectors?


Cheers for any help.

Mars

9,093 posts

221 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
Lefty said:
Morning Subaru chaps (nice to have this as a separate forum now, thanks mods!)

My wife has a '55 plate 2.5XT Forester and we have a few wee problems with it.

I was in the local Suibaru dealership this morning getting diagnostics done and they have quoted me over £1500 to replace the secondary air pump and the two headlight auto adjustment sensors.

My understanding is that the air pump sends hot air to the cats to help warm them up. The car is running fine and passed it's MOT a few weeks back with the pump not working but presumably this will shorten the life of the cats? Anyone know if the pump can be rebuilt or if there is a cheaper place to get a new pump rather than from Subaru? Obviously, I could try to get one from a breakers. Does anyone know if this pump is common just to the 2.5 or is it also used on 2.0 engines?

Is it possible to set the headlight height nmanually and do without the auto-levelling system? The sensors are "only" £170 each but the garage say that the connectors are corroded and cannot be replaced indivdually so it needs a new rear loom which adds significantly to the cost. This sounds a bit like main dealer BS to me, do you reckon a decent auto-sparky would be able to make new connectors?


Cheers for any help.
Air pump cleaning DIY:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f88/second...

Suggestion that you can remove it and delete the search for the problem code from the ECU:
http://mrtperformance.com.au/forums/showthread.php...


I would reject any suggestion that you can't clean-up/replace electrical connectors too.

It sounds like you either pay "the man" or spend a weekend on your back on the drive. For £1500 I would definitely spend the time rather than the money, and I'm someone who habitually pays people to service my commuter.

Lefty

Original Poster:

16,666 posts

209 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
Cheers for the links. The pump is beyond cleaning, it's actually in bits

frown

Going up to my local breakers to have a look through some Imprezas they have to see if I can find a new pump.

The sensors, yes, I'm going to try and have a look at them. If they need replacing that's fine but replacing the loom? nono

Lefty

Original Poster:

16,666 posts

209 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
I'll take the pump to bits and have a good look anyway. Presumably the car will run fine without it in place?

Mars

9,093 posts

221 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
Breakers sounds like a decent alternative to spending your monthly income.

Until then, it sounds as though the engine light will be on but as long as you're confident there's nothing else wrong, you will be OK to run without the pump.

JollyGrnMonster

887 posts

204 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
It possible to remove the pump and turn all the error codes off in the ecu via a remap

Lefty

Original Poster:

16,666 posts

209 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
Yeah but I don't really want it to bugger the cats...is it likely to?

And I don't know a friendly MOT man whio would pass the car without cats frown

Mars

9,093 posts

221 months

Friday 13th January 2012
quotequote all
I have to say, it's a peculiar implementation. When you consider the heat coming off the exhaust gas so close to the engine, I'm amazed that there's a need to heat up the outside of the catalyser too.

I **believe** the reason is emmissions only - in that the cat works better when hot, so they heat it up more quickly using this method. I do not believe the reason for this is to assist with the "burn off" of the water that condenses in the cat, and thus increasing the cat's life.

In other words, I doubt there's a long term issue for you or your wallet if you remove the air pump but you might want to spend a bit more time on Google than I did.