I have a '99 Legacy Outback with a 2.5l DOHC engine and 85k miles. The front crankcase oil seal had started leaking about a month ago, pushing up the 100k timing belt change inter- val to now.
Being a lazy person at heart, I decided that I would change everything that might be a problem as long as I had it apart. The shopping list included plugs, fan belts, timing belt, crank and cam oil seals, water pump, thermostat, gaskets, timing belt tensioner, top timing belt cover gasket, oil pump o-ring, Subaru gasket sealer, fresh antifreeze and spark plug anti-seize compound.
All Subaru parts were purchased from Jason at Auburn Subaru. The parts came 2 days after I ordered them, with a 25% discount, no sales tax and very reasonable shipping.
I started on the project Friday a week ago. The first issue was finding a loud squeak in the fan belt area that had been driving my wife nuts. Taking off the belts one at a time showed that it was the aircon belt idler pulley. I took it out, popped off the shields, cleaned out the hardened grease and replaced it with fresh grease. The squeak went away.
After the belts and fan were removed, the next issue was the crank pulley. After trying a bunch of different things, I fabricated a tool to hold the pulley similar to the Subaru tool. It's a plate with 4 pins that engage the 4 holes in the pulley. The edge of the plate rests on a vertical 4x4 that sits on the ground. The crank nut came off with probably 200 ftlbs of torque. I used my lathe and mill to make the tool. Your mileage may vary. I plan the keep the car for at least another 6 years so I felt that making the tool was a reasonable investment.
After I got the pulley and belt covers off, it became clear that I'd need more working room so I started pulling off parts. I removed the radiator, air filter box, battery, windshield washer box, and the 2 little covers under the car next to the fenders.
Next I removed the timing belt tensioner, oil pump, timing belt idler pulleys (3) and water pump. I checked the oil pump back plate and sure enough,
2 of the 5 screws were loose. I removed all of them, cleaned them and their holes, applied Lock- tite and reinstalled them. While I had the plate out, I popped out the old seal and pressed in the new one. I cleaned the RTV sealer from the mating surfaces on the engine and the oil pump, applied new sealer, put on the new o-ring holding it in place with some grease and re-installed the oil pump making sure to reconnect the crank position sensor.The water pump was trivial to replace, and probably did not need replacing as the old pump and thermostat looked like new.
Next, I removed the timing belt tensioner and unpacked the new part. It was clear that the tensioner that I received was for some other Subaru, not the one I had, effectively ending the job until I could get the right one.
A call to Jason on Monday got me the right part on Tuesday and a UPS pickup slip to return the wrong part.
The new tensioner installed with no problems, just one bolt.
The next job was the camshaft seals, all 4 of them. The Subaru manual calls out a special tool to keep the sprockets from rotating while they are being removed. I should have broken the bolts loose before I removed the timing belt. In any case, the sprockets on the driver's side did move causing me much concern about damaging a valve. When the mark on the crank sprocket is aligned at 12 o'clock, the drivers side camshafts are sitting with 4 of the valves depressed, giving a hair-trigger nature to the sprocket. The passenger side valves are all closed and are not a concern as they have no tendency to rotate.
I pried out the old seals and tapped the new ones in with a tool that I made from some thick-wall aluminium tubing.
Next, I replaced the sprockets and back covers. I then installed the timing belt. I decided to turn the engine over with a breaker bar the make sure that everything was free. There was a lot of resistance when the crank sprocket mark was at 3 o'clock. This caused me a huge amount of concern that I might have bent a valve and that it was sticking up.
I stared at the engine for a long time, pondering whether or not to pull the driver's side head to look for damage. I decided to pull the valve cover and see if I could tell anything. I took the cover off and felt the cups under the cams as I turned the crank to 3 O'clock. I couldn't feel anything. Next I removed the camshafts and cups, and with my fingers lightly on the valve stem ends, I turned the engine over. I still couldn't feel anything. Com- pression seemed to be fine as well. I decided to put everything back together and see if it would run. I noticed that when I turned the engine over with an ordinary 1/2" drive socket wrench, in- stead of a breaker bar, the resistance seemed to be reduced and the same for
3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, the 2 TDC positions.Anyway, after about 3 hours, I had the new plugs installed, the timing belt buttoned up, the fan belts on, the radiator and fans back in, the air filter box and battery installed.
I decided to refill the cooling system with water until I knew whether or not I'd be tearing it down again.
I was almost physically sick with worry as I first jogged the engine with the ignition switch. It turned over fine. I cranked it and it caught right away. There was some tapping as the oil started to flow, but it disappeared quickly.
I drained the water and put in 50/50 anti- freeze. I had changed the coolant before and I anticipated the hassle of getting the air out of the system. After about 30 minutes of fiddling, the car was driveable.
I put about 150 miles on it today. No oil leaks. The only issue is a squeek when the aircon compressor comes on at high RPM. I'll give it a few days to sort itself out before I'll much with it.
So, would I recommend a non-mechanic change their own timing belt? Probably not. I may have saved myself $300-$400 in labor, but I ate up 2 weekends. I also have a spare car I can drive.