Anton

A straight forward fix all being well, but expensive though. £170 +VAT, for a bearing supply and fit! Similar to your manifestation however -noisy when turning right and disappeared when turning left. This is why I suspected the exhaust which I discovered mounted in an all too 'temporary' manner at first. This is currently being fixed too. cheers

For the sake of people searching the forum, the issue was the wheel bearing on that corner of the vehicle.

The drivetrain is pretty dang similar so hopefully you guys have some insight on this here.. I have owned my UK Forester 'S' 2000 V reg for about 5 days now and had to drive home just now at 4mph due to a problem which came on suddenly then quickly worsened. Can you please diagnose? I had a noise from the nearside rear which at first sounded like the backbox coming loose so I stopped to check it and it had possibly moved over a little on some very ropey looking hangers which I just spotted the previous owner had fitted. Knowing this was probably the issue I continued my journey at much reduced speed. About 10 minutes later it the grinding sound became louder almost as if some metal was touching a driveshaft every so often as it rotated. Again I stopped but could not see anything of any note, so continued again much slower. I really didn't want to have to walk across the moors at 3AM in these temperatures. Then I didn't want to drive it any longer as the sound triggered my 'uh oh' response. Something 'sounded' almost as if it were fouling a tyre every so often with a rubbery squeal as it rotated, combined with a metallic clang sound every so often, almost as if a metal component is being struck and is swinging, if that makes sense? My thoughts are something is loose, basically. I could not see what it could be with the small torch I keep in the glovebox, and as yet I am unfamiliar working upon the car. Does someone have the knowledge to point me in the right direction so I can fix it today in the daylight? Much appreciated, Ant

Instead of a remap would it be a possibly too obvious swap to put the impreza ecu in the forester to go with the imprezas turbocharger? This suggests to me that the conversion could be a weekend cost effective conversion.. Any opinions?

I have just looked on ebay those turbos are really not that expensive. A valid option, thanks. I wouldn't know how much mapping would cost but for the increase in output I'm sure it would seem acceptable to me.

Thanks on the replies guys. I may think again about a Forester turbo in that case, or purchase a forester import from someone on autotrader as these appear to be running a proper power output.

Wow, that's quite a difference, more than I might have thought by a fair bit actually Would you know if the engine is significantly different ? Can the lost power be easilly gained back at all?

Why is the Impreza turbo wagon quicker than the Forester (classic shapes)? And how much quicker is it? cheers