can you believe this?

I drive my '99 legacy outback, bought new, from pennsylvania to florida and back quite often. Until now the car has been totally reliable. Even the tires have lasted 98,000 miles and only replaced because of rot with age.

Anyhow, about 4,000 miles ago I noticed a smell of burning oil which my local mechanic ("technician") attributed to leaking cam seals and charged me a huge amount of money to replace three of them, along with the timing belt. A few thousand miles later I smelled it again and he told me it was the crank seal and he fixed it. About 60 miles later the engine quit at 60 mpg. I had it towed to the mechanic who told me that the tensioner bearings blew and that the belt, tensioner, and housing would have to be replaced. Also, the engine was damaged (still checking out the extent of the damage) by the engine turning over after the timing belt had bad broken.

My question is: what, if anything, did he do wrong? The mechaqnic claims that, in each case, the problems were unrelated. Highly suspicious.

If there is any expert here who can come up with a reasonable explanation I would like to know. The car is probably next to useless now. Perhaps, being a general mechanic, he overlooked something in the procedures which caused the problem though he vehemently denies any wrong doing.

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Reply to
lumpy
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back quite often. Until now the car has been totally reliable. Even the tires have lasted 98,000 miles and only replaced because of rot with age.

mechanic ("technician") attributed to leaking cam seals and charged me a huge amount of money to replace three of them, along with the timing belt. A few thousand miles later I smelled it again and he told me it was the crank seal and he fixed it. About 60 miles later the engine quit at 60 mpg. I had it towed to the mechanic who told me that the tensioner bearings blew and that the belt, tensioner, and housing would have to be replaced. Also, the engine was damaged (still checking out the extent of the damage) by the engine turning over after the timing belt had bad broken.

in each case, the problems were unrelated. Highly suspicious.

The first time he worked on your car, he should have recommended changing the cam belt, the water pump, the tensioner, *all* the oil seals, and loctiting the oil pump screws. That would have been the last repair for a long time and would have added another $300-$400 to the bill.

Now if he was not experienced with Subaru quirks, or you told him to just fix what was broke, he can be excused. OTH, if you had visited this newsgroup back then, you would have been advised to ask him to do all of the above.

I can't see how you can blame him for not fixing what wasn't broke.

would like to know. The car is probably next to useless now. Perhaps, being a general mechanic, he overlooked something in the procedures which caused the problem though he vehemently denies any wrong doing.

Reply to
Jim Stewart

back quite often. Until now the car has been totally reliable. Even the tires have lasted 98,000 miles and only replaced because of rot with age.

mechanic ("technician") attributed to leaking cam seals and charged me a huge amount of money to replace three of them, along with the timing belt. A few thousand miles later I smelled it again and he told me it was the crank seal and he fixed it. About 60 miles later the engine quit at 60 mpg. I had it towed to the mechanic who told me that the tensioner bearings blew and that the belt, tensioner, and housing would have to be replaced. Also, the engine was damaged (still checking out the extent of the damage) by the engine turning over after the timing belt had bad broken.

in each case, the problems were unrelated. Highly suspicious.

would like to know. The car is probably next to useless now. Perhaps, being a general mechanic, he overlooked something in the procedures which caused the problem though he vehemently denies any wrong doing.

I concur with Jim. It's somewhat cusmtomary to do a sort-of an entire "front-end" service on the engine. On my '00 2.2 Impreza I pulled the radiator out and replaced:

Timing belt Alternator belt Power Steering belt Cam seals Crank seal Tensioner assembly All idlers Water Pump Oil pump O-ring Upper & Lower radiator hoses/clamps Thermostat

The biggest obstacle I encountered was the dealer (where I bought the parts) cajoling me for replacing "all that stuff I didn't need to" as they put it.

Reply to
Danny Russell

Reply to
Edward Hayes

Ed,

I'm not familiar w/ the 2.5l tensioner, but earlier models did have a bearing that can go bad (noticed mine were quite rough at last belt change, so swapped 'em out before something broke) and I could see a belt being taken out had one frozen up. How does the 2.5 unit work?

To the OP: sounds like your mechanic either wasn't that familiar w/ Subies, or was of the "it ain't broke, don't fix it" school. As Jim and Danny posted, it's a good idea to go thru all the seals, etc., with each belt change. My experience is they'll last longer than one change interval, but will often fail before a second interval is reached, so chalk it up as preventive maintenance. AND, since the labor's really almost the same whether you just do the belts or add the seals, etc., it's cost effective to pay for a few "unneeded" parts each time. Far cheaper than whatever it will cost to get your engine back in shape!

Good luck!

Rick

Reply to
Rick Courtright

Ed, on my motor there's 3 idlers plus the tensioner. Each one rotates on a needle/roller bearing assembly, no?

I've read stories of them having a tendency to fail about halfway to the next service interval if they're replaced at each interval. -Danny

Reply to
Danny Russell

Reply to
Edward Hayes

Ok I would suggest you find a better Mechanic as the one you use certainly isn't that good full stop it does not matter if you know Subaru's or not,If you get that far into a Cars front end you would replace all that it looks like will give problems,in paticular on Subaru's it would be,Water pump,cams and main seal,cam belt,cam tensioner(this should be done when changing the cambelt anyway).. Also the Modern Subaru engine is a non interference engine meaning that the pistons will not hit the valves when the cambely breaks,BUT saying this on a quad cam engine the valves can hit and bend

DJ Diesel Technician and Subaru owner I have these Subarus '88 Leone RX Turbo Coupe

90 Legacy GT 5 Speed Turbo 90 Legacy GT Auto Turbo

and back quite often. Until now the car has been totally reliable. Even the tires have lasted 98,000 miles and only replaced because of rot with age.

local mechanic ("technician") attributed to leaking cam seals and charged me a huge amount of money to replace three of them, along with the timing belt. A few thousand miles later I smelled it again and he told me it was the crank seal and he fixed it. About 60 miles later the engine quit at 60 mpg. I had it towed to the mechanic who told me that the tensioner bearings blew and that the belt, tensioner, and housing would have to be replaced. Also, the engine was damaged (still checking out the extent of the damage) by the engine turning over after the timing belt had bad broken.

that, in each case, the problems were unrelated. Highly suspicious.

I would like to know. The car is probably next to useless now. Perhaps, being a general mechanic, he overlooked something in the procedures which caused the problem though he vehemently denies any wrong doing.

Reply to
Darren Dempsey

Reply to
Edward Hayes

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