Way back in the ancient times of late 2005, I bought a new Subaru Forester. I really liked this car; I could sleep in the back, it had a sun roof the size of Wyoming, and handled great in the snow and on the back-water roads that I tend to wander along down in the canyon lands of southern Utah. There was one thing about this car that bugged me though, was the Hill Holder clutch.
The magic of this annoying (and unavoidable) feature, was that if you pressed in the brake and the clutch at the same time, you could release the brake and yet it would stay applied until you released the clutch. This makes it easier to take off from a standing start on a hill, as you wouldn’t roll back until you were coming off the clutch. Now, not only was this a solution to a problem that in my mind didn’t exist in the first place, but it also engaged with every shift. Well, that’s not technically true- it wouldn’t engage if the car was pointed downhill, but on every flat or uphill surface and you now had to overcome the brake to get moving, which makes feathering the clutch impossible, parallel parking a lesson in frustration, 4-wheeling unbearable, and backing out of parking spaces downright dangerous. And to top it off, since it didn’t work when you were pointed downhill, you only got the supposed “benefit” half the time.
Now, when I first bought my car I asked the dealership to disable it. They told me this was impossible, which I totally disbelieved. I did some research online to see if I could do this myself, but didn’t find much out there. About a year later I dug up some more information about the location of the adjuster cable, but it sounded like a huge pain to get to, as it was recommended that you remove the windshield fluid reservoir, etc. Bah- at that point I had adjusted myself, to the clutch that is, and kinda just got used to it. Of course, people hated driving my car, and it still annoyed me every once in a while when it would egregiously make a parking experience, well, suck.
So, this weekend I finally got up the nerve to disable this bitch. And you know what, it took about 5 minutes total. If I had known it would have been this easy, I would have done it on the sales lot and taught the stupid dealership repair shop that you get a lot more bang for your buck when you fire both your neurons at the same time.
For posterity’s sake, here is what I did to disable my ’05 Subaru Forester’s Hill Holder clutch. First off, locate where the mechanism is. It’s pretty much in front of the driver, and has a cable that attaches to a short arm that is held in place with a spring. In this picture, I’m actually grabbing it with my right hand:
Here’s what the mechanism looks like close up. You can see the cable passing through the little axle on the swing arm, with the adjuster nut (grey) and the lock nut (copper) on the right side. As you can see, at least on my ’05 Forester, there is plenty of room for my hands to get down there.
Now, simply disconnect the cable. You’ll have to pop the two nuts apart; on my car the adjuster nut was a 14mm and the lock nut an 8mm. Unscrew both nuts off the cable, push the cable back out the axle, and replace the nuts. You’ll want to be a bit careful here- the mechanism is inline with the brake system, so you don’t want to beat it with a sledgehammer or anything. Really, this is just loosening two nuts, and then putting them back on once you’ve disconnected the cable from the swing arm.
Viola- that’s it! Driving today was a joy- I hadn’t realized how much the Hill Holder clutch had really torqued me off until I drove my car with out it. I should have done this years ago.
-c
your a good man for posting this, a good man indeed.
5 mins? More like 3 minutes!!
Our is car now ready for my son to learn to do hill/handbrake starts properly – without ‘cheating’.
A really useful posting.
Is it easy to reconnect again, say if you want to sell the vehicle. Does the cable sorta get lost or is it easy to retrieve again.
Mate , you are a legend !!!!!!!
Apart from now having a normal car to drive ,it also seems to have cured the very ” touchy ” brake pedal.
Thanks a bunch.
wow on my 97 legacy it was driving me crazy. took me two seconds to undo the spring and disconect the cable. thanks for the info!!!
Just removed the cable of my 2001 Impreza. Exact the same sytem as on the Forester. After years of agony I’m driving away without brakes applied. Many thanks for the very useful pictures and text !!!
Caution: I bought a Subaru with hill-holder disabled–didn’t even know it had a h-h. While downshifting, the disconnected cable interfered with and jammed the clutch DOWN. Lost all power to the wheels when I needed it most–to accelerate away from a semi bearing down on me from behind. Prior to this, there had often been a light “click” in the pedal stroke. Will modify to eliminate any possibility of interference.
Thanks got to give this a try although I am concerned about the loose cable so I will try to find a way to secure it in a safe manner.
When securing the cable, be careful as the cable still gets retracted when you step on the clutch. So if you make it too tight, you could impede the travel of the clutch. I was able to zip tie the cable to the bracket the hill holder is attached to, but without tightening the zip tie all the way. This kept the cable from flapping about, but left enough play in the system so that I could step on the clutch without feeling any resistance. Certainly helps having two people when setting that up.
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This isn’t nearly as easy on a newer turbo model. Lots of hoses in the way.
On the turbo model remove the windsheild washer fluid tank……..makes it alot easier.
Hey thanks for posting this. When I was replacing the clutch in my ’91 Legacy, I stumbled across a disconnected hill holder cable. I traced it to the brake master cylinder and was just confused. Now I know what this annoying cable does I won’t connect it! Thanks.
Curious, I had bought a 95 Subaru legacy and right now the hill holder needs replaced because it has failed and now has the wheels locked in place and won’t allow me to budge the car.
Anybody know if I do disengage the hill holder everything will start working as it is supposed to? Sorry but this is one of the most dumbest features I’ve seen on a car.
If I remember correctly, Subaru slightly changed their design of the Hill Holder clutch some time ago, so you might have the older version. I read online that the adjustment cable for those was off of the clutch itself, rather than the Hill Holder valve. I know for my new-style HH, disabling it turned my Forester in a real car again, but I don’t know much about how the older designs were linked in with the clutch so be careful. That older design was around for quite some time though, so there should be good info to be found.
Have you tried digging through Scooby Mods for info on the older-style HH?
-c
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Interesting mod if needed, but it sounds like the troublesome units simply weren’t correctly adjusted. My 2004 Forester XT (turbo) hill holder has never given me a problem, and is one of the features I particularly appreciate when some dumb ass stops too close behind me when I’m stopped on a hill.
LEGEND!! After 7 years of the Hill holder engaging only if you really gave the brake a good shove & it worked great… AKA only if you really wanted it too. Then I has a new clutch in (by the dealer) & couldnt understand why i couldnt pull off… park…drive without kangarooing. Pull a trailer…dont go there. The dealer adjusted it “as much as they could” i think i’ll give your technique a go.
Thanks for letting me know i am not alone.
dom
The hill-holder is touchy if not adjusted properly, and probably needs to be readjusted once in the life of a clutch. There was good info on adjusting it in Haynes and Alldata manuals. On my ’90 Legacy it was OK, after some years it got touchy but I used the info in the Haynes to adjust it. It eventually quit; I replaced it (it did not jam, it quit holding).
Installing the new one was not too bad but adjusting it required, ahem, finesse. Does not surprise me that some technicians would rather not. Basically you get somewhere that you can run it (a parking lot on a Sunday morning that has a rise steep enough to engage it and no one around) and once you’re familiar with the adjusting screw (it’s in the service manual) you can turn the adjusting screw in/out to get the behavior you need. It’ll only take 5 minutes or so to get it right.
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