Baja compatibility with Forester

[MNbuckshot]

I know a guy getting ready to part out a Forester and I had heard that the suspension parts are interchangeable between Baja's Foresters and Outbacks is that true and if so are there any other parts that may be a direct swap over?

[greymud]

Depends on the year. I think 04, they changed the forester but not the baja.

[anarchy1024]

What year is the Forester? Many parts may be compatible, almost-compatible, or completely incompatible, depending on the part.

A good place to find guaranteed-interchangeable parts is Subaru's own parts website: https://parts.subaru.com/

They have exploded diagrams of everything on each car:

subaru-parts-diagrams.png (267.84 KiB) Viewed 5700 times

Then in each diagram, there's a list of parts included in that diagram:

subaru-parts-list.png (85.44 KiB) Viewed 5700 times

And if you click on a specific part, you can find the list of vehicles that use the exact same part:

subaru-parts-compatibility.png (204.57 KiB) Viewed 5700 times

Now, if the parts vehicle isn't listed, it doesn't necessarily mean the part isn't compatible; it just means each vehicle used a part with a different part number. Whether or not the two parts are compatible depends on the specific part.

However, most of the parts on the site have some kind of picture of the part, so you can usually determine if there's at least a hope of them being compatible. For example, if the Forester rear strut has three bolts into the chassis (I think it does) while the Baja has two (it does), you know for sure it won't fit (without considerable modification).

[anarchy1024]

Some parts, like the manual transmission mount, have been in use for over 20 years! (Or, at least, they're compatible with vehicles that span 20+ model years; I imagine some improvements/changes have happened over that time.) Others will be Baja- or Forester-specific.

tranny-mount-hasnt-changed.png (358.1 KiB) Viewed 5699 times

[MNbuckshot]

He thinks it's an 07 his nephew rolled it over the weekend I will probably be over there tonight. And check out the vin for the year.

[mike-tracy]

When you say suspension, the Baja got the new multilink rear suspension, whereas the 98-08 Forester still has the older style McPherson struts. No way to make those work.

The 2000+ Outback and Legacy got the new suspension, whereas the Forester didn't get the suspension update till the following body style which happened in 2009.

[Guacamole]

I know a guy getting ready to part out a Forester and I had heard that the suspension parts are interchangeable between Baja's Foresters and Outbacks is that true and if so are there any other parts that may be a direct swap over?

Baja is Legacy-based, Forester is... Forester. There is little to no parts interchangeability outside of the engine and sensors. Suspension will not cross over.