Hey all,

Well I not long got back from a 4000km road trip in my Forester XT.. and I've got a few concerns about it.

I got the car serviced by All Star at Malaga, they did a full service and reset the ECU back to factory for me.. it was factory, but was messed up a bit or something.. I don't know.

Anyway, we left Perth the next day on our road trip north and back. I decided to do some recording on fuel usage and the such. In one stretch of relatively flat roads, 100% cruise control at 110kph, no overtaking or exciting driving.. I used 28L in 200kms.. so 14L per 100km, the sort of thing you would expect around town with a little bit of exciting driving.. not highway kms with cruise control and next to no wind or hills.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what to look at, I've already checked all the clamps on the air intake and the such the only mods on the car are:

HKS Airfilter to replace the standard filter, it was cleaned by Allstar before we left.
Snorkus was removed before I bought the car, I'm considering putting in a bit of PVC piping to direct air straight into the airbox..

The other issue I've had is that the car frequently smells like it's lost radiator coolant and that it's overheated.. yet the temp gauge sits where it's supposed to and there hasn't been any visible loss or drop in coolant.

Any ideas would be great.

- paul

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2003 Subaru Forester XT

Oh and I should mention I used Caltex Vortex 98 fuel..

- paul

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2003 Subaru Forester XT

bit of petrol heyy, if you got a service im guessing that they would of pumped your tyres up to at least minimum 36PSI

and when it comes too smells, could be from degreasing under engine bay too broken cv boots

remove the belly plate and check it out

@ajayjay yeah, I checked the tyres myself before I left anyway.. something I always do.. oh and the spare, the jack, the tyre iron.. lol.

It smells exactly like an overheated engine.. I've done that before in my dad's VT.. lol

- paul

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2003 Subaru Forester XT

well one common thing i have noticed at work is that all the 01 to 04 foresters, leak from the head gasket really really early and always seems to be from the passengers side too(blame subaru)

but surely all star would of spotted it
other then that, i dont trust caltex that much

BP ULTIMATE FTW

sounds similar to what my lib was doing. is it overheating at all?
and are the radiator fans turning on? also.... when the car is heated up, feel both of the radiator hoses - check if there is a noticable difference in temp.

as to fuel consumption... was your car towing a trailer/loaded up with a bit of weight? and what rpm does the foz do at 110km/h?

@Jezza

No it's not overheating at all, there's no leaking or anything either. The radiator fans are turning on fine. I checked the radiator hoses, from memory they felt about the same, fairly warm, but not enough to burn my hand or anything.

about the fuel consumption, I wasn't towing anything, all we had in the car was a suitcase that can't have weighed any more than 25kgs, a small car fridge that would have weighed less than 5kgs and my 2 camera bags, which weigh 28kgs combined.. so no more than 60kgs in total extra weight.

- paul

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2003 Subaru Forester XT

next long trip...try bp ulitmate
or even when you feel up next

would love 2 see the results

I tried BP Ultimate for 2 tanks while I was away, didn't notice much difference in consumption, that said, both of them were in Mullewa.. I'm not sure what the quality of the fuel is like there.

- paul

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http://paulpichugin.com | http://paulmp.com.au

2003 Subaru Forester XT

maybe just normal for a XT... best bet too see what other owners get outta their forrys