AndyMc

I have just replaced the cambelt on my MY98 today and so long as you know how to line up the pulleys with the timing marks its a straight forward job,if a bit fiddly. One of the main reasons I did it myself was because the tension is set automatically by the hydraulic tensioner so you can't get it wrong(In theory at least )

By the way the belt I took off was 3 years old but you could still see the date stamp on it ,it is shown as 8-12 which means, week 12, year 98

You could have another look to see if there is a date stamp on your belt

I could email you a pic of the date stamp on my old belt if you want

Andy



I

dmel

I have a 45K MY99 and Subaru Greece told me that they change them at 62,5K. Is it the same at Subaru UK?

kwakman

AndyMc, did the car run as it did after the job? Was the tensioner tricky to reset or did you just squeeze it in a vice? I'll look out for the date stamp on my old belt but I'm pretty sure it's over 3 years old. Did all the marks align acurately with the new belt on? What make of belt did you use?

Dmel, the recomended interval for cambelt change is 45000 miles/ 3 years, whichever is sooner.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Kwakman in my log/service book it says it should be done @ 37K for a MY99 not 45K, so as I rather not shell out for it right now, which one is correct? My car has done 36K and isnt 3yrs old until end of May this year (t-plate). So can I wait til May u reckon?

kwakman

I'd stick with what it says in your service book Bioforger. The recommendation for mine is 45k miles, but then it is a Jap Import 93 WRX, and while alot of tolerance is built into cambelts due to the implications of one snapping on an interference engine, its never worth skimping on (rather like using decent oil in a turbocharged engine).

The only thing that surprised me was the amount it cost to do. The books quote between 2 hours 10 minutes and 2 hours 30 minutes depending on if the car has AC and PAS, so converting labour time into cash and factoring in the cost of a belt does not add up to the £350 I was quoted from some of the specialists. My local garage has quoted me £150 all in for the job, so I'm just wondering if there is more to it than meets the eye.

How long did it take you to do AndyMc?

EvilBevel

Kwakman,

I'm not technical at all, but I just had my cambelt service done.

Dealer (whom I trust) found that the roller bearings of the tensioning roller and a smaller roller were less than optimal, and asked me/advised me to have them changed at the same time. This was on a MY99

So what I'm saying: check those rollers to see if they are in optima forma. Better than to having to redo the lot later on.

Also advisable could be to change the water pump at the same time.

HTH,

Theo

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Kwakker 350 sounds about right (if cheap), my dealer has quoted 400-450 or thereabouts. Dunno what your local garage intend doing for £150! U sure they realise its a turbo?

scooby nutter

When i had my93 wrx i think it cost me £160 all in(including belt which is £100!)
Any decent mechanic/garage can do one.

kwakman

Scooby nutter:
Any running/reliability problems since having it done at that price? How long ago did you have it done. I'm with you in that think about £150 is right for the job, but in that case why are Subaru main dealers charging so much more for the same job?

Bio:
The price difference does make me wonder. The garage is local to me and have always done a decent job for me at reasonable cost. They know its a turbo and they recently installed an AP clutch for me as well. No problems with that so far!

Evil:
Thanks for the tip. I will check all the bearings when its all apart.

dmel

My car's owner manual (MY 99) states replacing camshaft drive belt every 100,000 km (60,000 miles) or 48 months whichever comes first.

kwakman

This a bit confusing.

We have intervals between 37000 and 60000 miles for a cambelt service.

Quotes to do the job varying between £150-£450.

The cars can't be that different.

Anybody got any idea what is going on?

EvoRSX

The difference in price will probably come down to labour rates and estimates of time taken to do the job.
If your local Subaru dealer charges £50/hour and reckons the job takes 3 hours to do that's £150 before you even add on parts etc. whereas your local garage may only charge £20/hour and think they can get the job done in 2 hours.....

Andy

AndyMc

Hi kwakman

My car feels exactly the same as it did before I changed the belt.

I used a G clamp to compress the tensioner,and it needs to be compressed over a couple of minutes while in an upright position.Once it is compressed you insert a rod through the holes so it stays compressed while you refit it.The above info came from a Subaru dealer workshop manual!

I used a genuine Subaru belt which very helpfully has yellow timing marks on it which line up with the timing marks on the pulleys and cam covers.There are five marks on the belt,one for each camshaft and one for the crank pulley(which is dotted)there are also arrows on the belt (next to the Subaru logo) which should point in the direction of rotation.
Even if the belt you have doesn't have any marks you can still use the normal timing marks on the pulleys and covers.All the marks lined up perfectly on my car although I can remember somebody posted that they had trouble.

When you first take the covers off it looks like a nightmare,because in total the belt passes around 10 pulleys ,but only the position of the four camshafts and the crank pulley is important,you can forget about the rest.
I also drew a picture of how the old belt was routed around the pulleys before I removed it which helped a lot with refitting

Other stuff to bear in mind

-As Theo says you should check all the idlers for play and the sleeve and roller on the tensioner for wear(mine were all fine after 38000 miles)

-The crank pulley nut is very tight.I put the car in fifth gear and got my mate to put his foot on the brake to lock the engine,even with a 2 ft breaker bar the bolt was a bitch to remove(probably took about 200lb/ft to break it free).The pulley nut is 22mm

-its also worth checking all the small 10mm bolts inside the cam covers are tight as a few people have had them come undone

-before starting the engine turn it over by hand at least 2 complete turns to make sure there is no valve to piston contact
I checked and the valves WILL hit the pistons on my MY98 engine

-You may want to put some non-permanent thread lock on the crank pulley nut to reduce the chance of it coming undone.If it does come undone it damages the end of the crankshaft very quickly.This has happened to a few people on here

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to do the job on my non air-con my98 but I knew exactly what I was doing.A good mechanic should be able to do it in 2 hours.

Hope some of this is usefull to somebody,I'm off for a pancake

Andy

AndyMc

Take a couple of minutes to compress it fully



Here is a picture of the compressed tensioner ready to go back on
I used an allen key to keep it compressed


[Edited by AndyMc - 2/12/2002 9:46:41 PM]

[Edited by AndyMc - 2/12/2002 9:53:31 PM]

kwakman

Thanks AndyMc, that is totally sweet. Your post and pictures will be going to the garage with the car on Friday.

Does anybody actually know of an instance of cambelt failure and what state the engine turned out in?

You mentioned a Crank pulley falling off AndyMc, presumably with disastrous consequences.

AndyMc

On the crank there are two pulleys,one for the timing belt(inside the cam cover) and one for the alternator/aircon belts(big pulley visible from outside).The one for the timing belt stays on the shaft(I think it must be a press fit) even if you remove the outer visible pulley.So when the pulley bolt comes undone I don't think the cambelt is affected.What seems to happen is that the outer pulley which seats on the end 1/4 inch of the crankshaft rattles around damaging the crank and keyway



Here is a picture of the end of the crank you should be able to see what I mean



[Edited by AndyMc - 2/12/2002 10:43:17 PM]

WRX Youngster

iTrader: (1)

I have seen quite a few engines at work where there have been cambelt failures, and also camshaft pulley failures (Colin McRae days), and the results are not very pretty, it usually results in lots of bent valves. It is definitely best to get it changed at the recommended intervals.

Luke

chiark

Cambelt failure = expensive. A cambelt went on a Fiesta that I had, and I needed new valves and a new head...

The Impreza engine is an interference engine (to the best of my knowledge), which means that there ain't enough clearance between the valve at maximum lift and piston if everything gets out of sync: result - normally a bent valve, at worst, bent valves, damaged piston heads, gouged cylinder heads, completely buggered engine...

Timing belt maintenance is absolutely necessary on the scoob because the engine are quite expensive, especially compared to the fiesta

Nick.

Blackscooby

Had a cambelt let go last year on my Pug 205 GTi Sprint motor. Not a nice experience.

I'd warmed the engine up gently as per usual. Once it got nice and warm started to open it up. Coming out of a second gear bend buried my foot on the throttle, wheels spinning slightly on the damp tarmac, about to go for 3rd at 7200RPM when there's an almighty **BANG** with a shudder through the car. Engines goes instantly silent. Dash lights up like a Christmas tree. Oil pressure light comes on.

Look in mirror. Can't see through rear window as its covered in oil. Coast to side of road with clutch down.

Get out to see a horrendous slick stretching back 200 yds. Rear of car completely black.

The snapped cambelt had taken out the side casing which had dumped the oil on the road. Broken cambelt has demolished all 8 valves completely and damaged 2 pistons. Because the engine stopped soooo suddenly it destoyed 2nd gear as well !!!!

Needed a reskim of the head, valves and pistons.

All on the shake down before an event

Needless to say we didn't make the event.

kwakman

I've just bought a 45k mile 93 WRX with no history of a cambelt being replaced. I've had the covers off to inspect it and while it looks ok, I'd like to get it done for peace of mind. I've heard stories of it being difficult to do, but looking at the autodata manual, if the tensioner is reset, all the marks line up and the correct torque settings are used when the wheels are replaced, what other gotchas are there? Would I be unwise to entrust it to my local garage who have done hundreds of cambelts on other cars but never on a Scooby turbo. Is there any actual evidence of a bodged installation leading to engine failure/incorrect valve timing?

Any advice/feedback/amusing commentary gratefully received.

Andy

[Edited by kwakman - 2/11/2002 5:28:59 PM]