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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