George's Garage

[Phil_SS]

My 2013 Impreza had buttons on the dash for hour and minute. I'm surprised the Forester is much different. My Wife's VW, you set the time in the LCD Menu between the speedo and RPM gauge. It even has a daylights savings time check box. So you only have to check or uncheck the box in the LCD Menu.

And yes, an AWD car will chew up tires. Make sure you get an alignment while putting on the new tires.

And I agree with Cuda, just get a USB adapter for the 12V plug. The only time I ever use the built in USB is if I want to listen to music on my phone.

[CudaMan]

Forester time hint: Look for the Date submenu. Logical, isn't it?

It took me several road trips to find out the Forester had Bluetooth audio streaming, too. It's poorly executed but it's there.

[dodint]

The E46 BMW time change might be the least intuitive I've ever seen. You have to use the BC button to bring up the time in the gauge cluster, then reach up and twist the odometer reset stalk clockwise or counterclockwise depending on which way you want to go. It's nuts, I'd never grab an odometer stalk in a car and forcibly twist it.

[Cam]

Near Columbia, G? Send me a PM if you have the time to visit.

I recently noticed our Forester's tires like that as well. I neglected to check the tire pressures in the past few months. They were at 25 psi. However, it is much colder now than in the summer. The pressure sensors do not warn you of a low tire until it is below about 20 psi. I know because it has happened to us when we got a slow leak. We've had a few slow leaks, so I am sure that would account for the unusual wear.

I've noticed the menu options in the onboard dashboard computer thingy are different depending on if the car is actually running/moving or not. I am pretty sure there is a "Date and Time" option in there somewhere. You can even put a birthday and anniversary reminder in there.

My wife uses the Bluetooth feature all the time. I never bothered to connect my phone to the car.

[George]

Thanks for all the comments, gents. Cam, it won't be for a few days yet but I'll PM you if it's possible. Thanks for the offer, either way! I've driven through Columbia a few times lately and wished for more time for fun things.

I found a video of how to set the clock on YT. Seems like the steering wheel controls are involved. I never paid any attention to those. Oops. Will take the phone out to the car when I get a chance to follow along with all the play-by-play action (and the one CudaMan linked to me for the Ridgeline too, when I get home).

I might not have noticed the clock being wrong, except I had to go to an office yesterday where I didn't have an appointment. I saw the clock said 11:58 AM when I got out of the car. I said something like, "sorry to bother you at lunchtime." Then I went to the post office where the line was long. I figured, "I guess it's crowded because all these people are here on their lunch hour." When I looked at my iPhone to kill some time while waiting and saw what time it is, I realized I had just gained an hour in my day! To add to my confusion, I'm working on my laptop and it's still on Mountain Time (can't figure out how to change that either - sigh...) so I don't know whether it's time to fish or cut bait.

New tires go on tomorrow morning.

[CudaMan]

All this time I figured you wore a wind-up wristwatch, George.

[George]

Ha. No. I mostly stopped wearing a watch when I got one of those fat, rubber-covered Nokia cell phones in the early 2000s, perhaps. "What? No dial tone?! How do you use this thing?"

But, now that you mention it, I recently got a good laugh from my Dad when someone asked if someplace had just returned from was busy. Maybe he was picking up pizzas. Or getting an oil change. Whatever. Doesn't matter. His reply:

"No, they were standing around winding their watches."

[Cam]

I sent you a PM.

[George]

You can even put a birthday and anniversary reminder in there.

Serious-sounding remarks like that, so obviously impossible but funny to consider for a few seconds, are a big part of why I like this forum so much.

Well, I figured it out, once I found the right buttons to press. I also fixed my Aunt's Honda CRV which had the same problem. The Honda was a bit easier to figure out.

The Forester was pretty simple too, once I found these switches in the 7 - 8 o'clock position. The arrows let you scroll through screens such as mileage, which wheels are doing the driving, and trip odometer functions. Maybe more. Didn't spend too much time studying the screens while barreling down windy country roads at night in a typically deep, dark east-coast forest.



Yup, was quite simple. Then I saw them...

[Cam]

You thought I was kidding?