Operational characteristics:

- The hill holder has no connection whatever to the transmission, so it functions in all gears, including neutral and reverse. As a result, the hill holder can kick in while backing down a driveway, as all three of the conditions may be satisfied in this situation. It takes a bit of experience to get comfortable with this - light application of brakes, coasting in neutral with the clutch up, etc.

- Since the hill holder only retains brake system pressure and doesn’t add any pressure by itself, the Forester might begin to roll backwards if it had been stopped with just gentle brake pressure on a steep hill. The solution is simply to add more pressure to the system by pressing the brake pedal again, a bit harder.

- It would be nice if the hill holder could provide a similar capability when one wanted to back up while facing downhill, but this fails to satisfy the uphill condition and will not work. The reason for this is that the gravity/inertia-based mechanism in the hill holder can't distinguish between a downhill orientation and a normal braking condition while traveling forward, and one would not want the hill holder to engage in the latter situation.

Maintenance:

- There's only one adjustment available, and it deals with the linkage between the clutch and the hill holder. When releasing the clutch, there should be just a brief interval between release of the brake and engagement of the transmission. If there's an overlap or too great an underlap, see Peaty's post at www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2746 (his pix are posted below) for directions regarding this adjustment. Note, that if you really hate the hill holder you can "adjust" it as to effectively disable it completely. Our Peaty got himself written up in the New York Times for his discovery of this. You can also disable it by removing the cable that connects the clutch to the hill holder mechanism. One member actually removed the mechanism itself and replaced it with a custom-made fitting that spliced the two ends of the brake line together.

- The hill holder relies on a simple gravity/inertia-based mechanism to determine whether or not it should function. Not that many of us carry inclinometers with us, but if it fails to function when the Forester is at an angle greater than 3 degrees (about 1 foot in 20, i.e. slightly uphill), or functions at angles less than that, its mounting must have gotten bent or something such as spring sag or suspension mods altered the Forester's orientation. There's no simple adjustment specified for this.

the way the valve works

Where to adjust it:

how

Same thing mostly

I attempted to take a pic of the mechanism for the HH. It's in a bugger of a spot and I couldn't get any light down there. I had to peek and shoot under the fuel lines to the right of the fuel filter just to get this pic and it's not very good IMHO. But till I take the IC off and redo it I don't think I can get a better one.

wolfie from the i-club was nice enought to contribute this info:

just fyi, i managed to adjust this myself thanks to the pics above. i didn't even have to take out the washer fluid reservoir, and i've got big hands so this is definitly doable for anybody interested...

i used two wrenches - 8 & 10 metric, one in each hand - and put them on the locking and adjusting nuts respectively. once i had them, i held the adjuster while loosening the locking nut, which was easy. i then checked to see if the cable was rotating when i turned the adjusting nut, which it wasn't, and so i just gave the adjusting nut about 5 spins. then i tightened up by repeating the same two-wrench procedure as above in reverse to tighten. worked like a charm.

Better shot of the setup, I was able to get it when I had the IC off:

Info from JM1 of the Forester Forum informs me for the 2005 MY:

I just adjusted my HH per instructions here.

My adjusting nut was a 14mm, not a 10mm as is mentioned above.

I just adjusted mine and not sure if I fully resolved the issue. At least the car doesn't have some grabbiness anymore when I release the clutch on flat ground. On a relatively steep (for my area) small hill in my neighborhood the car is rolling back a little bit from a stop but I'm not going to keep adjusting it. If it holds on moderate hills, great. It's not like I need it.

Adjustment, IMO, is a *****. How anybody could do this without removing the fluid reservoir is beyond me. Another note, I'd recommend painting one side of the adjusting nut before adjusting so you have a reference point to whether you truly tightened or loosened it before tightening the locknut.

Also, the adjuster is a 14 mm nut on my vehicle, while the locknut is 8mm.

My steps were as follows
1) Remove two screws holding fluid reservoir.
2) Empty fluid reservoir if full
3) Unclip both connectors to the sprayer motors
4) Place reservoir on battery, making sure not to kink lines
5) Adjust HH to specs
6) Replace components
7) Test drive

If you need to make continual adjustments, just put the fluid reservoir back in and lightly screw in bolts for reservoir.




A change made between years.

Peaty

another bit of info