Hi,

Does anyone know about the a cam belt tensioner(s) on an MY95 WRX..???

As the guy at a garage who is puting a new cam belt on my car says that a bearing on a tensioner is loose...??? he says he has rang subaru for a kit but they say there is no such kit... and he recons he was told something is going to cost £275 what is he talking about...????

Any help would be great..!

Dan:D

On the my99/00's there were a few cases of noisy tensioners - causes a tap-tap-tapping noise for first 2 minutes after starting......but only when temp is below 8 degrees c (on my car, at least). Not sure if earlier designs are the same?

Richard

the tensioner itself is hydraulic!!
does he mean the cam tensioner wheel?? this is supposed to have movement but shouldn't be loose.......
any probs with tensioner or wheel should be fully checked out as if either fails it can cause serious problems
alyn - as performance
p.s. wheel assembly is in the region of £170 as we have just had to replace one on a legacy turbo due to incorrect servicing by persons unknown in the past!!

thanks..!!! ill try and get some more info... he may mean the cam tensioner wheel..

Dan:D:D

the pulley itself is not serviceable as far as i know. You'll have to replace the whole hydraulic tensioner assembly(includes the pulley) and they were known to cause a knock, knock, knock, noise on cold start. good luck.

jeremy

The guy says i need the tensoiner, toothed idler and two other wheels on the front, which comes to £275... surly i could just get the tensioner replaced..??

Dan:D:D

You have probably got the older 2 piece tensioner assembly - if so idler wheel can be changed without tensioner ... idler wheel is about £115 ish - I changed mine on UK96 as it was getting noisy ... left the tensioner as it seemed ok .... other idlers were not noisy so I guess it all depends on how much wear yours have ... mine had done 90k miles ... I also changed the crankshaft toothed pulley as it got damaged replacing the crank oil seal - no other reasons I could see to change it

Hope my ramblings help

Jantec1

Non of the idlers/tensioner have made a noise since i bought the car..?? so i dont know why he says they all need replacing...

Dan:D

has any one had a idler wheel fail? as when i done my cambelt one toothed idler and the bottom left idler were a bit noisy decided not to change just yet still doing fine though touch wood

if they are noisy or loose just replace them, it will save you a headache in the end, last thing you want it one locking up and launching the timing belt.

Jeremy

There must be loads of sec hand ones available. Ive seen cars with well over 100K and the pulleys are fine. Not sayin you wont get faulty ones occasionally, but there will be loads of blown up engines around, with good pulleys on them.
Anything pre 99 should fit. They changed the tensioner assembly after that, and IMO the new ones are crap.

thanks stevie..!!;)

Dan:D

I had my hydraulic tensioner replaced at my 45k service when the belt was renewed. Seals were leaking and cost me around £120 to replace. I couldn't complain as the car was 7 yrs old at the time. I do know these were prone to leaking through.

[Edited by caz1562 - 12/18/2002 10:23:17 PM]