I am looking at buying a MY98 impreza turbo. The engine has covered 119k, there was a little bit of tappet noise when warm. The workshop manual freebie that I downloaded mentioned that valve clearances should be checked every 60k,they should be due. I have searched on this site, and there's not a great deal of info on the subject. Has anyone had their valve clearances checked, is it easy to do (probably not), and how much is it likely to cost me if I go to a garage. Also how often should cam belts be changed, service manual says 60k or 4 years? The auxiliary belts on the two cars I looked at were in a shoddy old state, the little ribs were cracked, belts themselves looked ok. Obvisouly if the car needs work doing I'll knock it off the asking price.

Cheers

Goodo

 

Alot of 98 models suffer from piston slap and are a bit 'knocky' when cold and will go quiet usually within a mile or so. Some one else will advise for sure but I think the tappets are hydraulic.
Might be worth takking professional advices if it rattles when warm.

 

I'm having a used car check done on it this week. I started it up form cold and didn't hear anything untoward, so I don't think piston slap is an issue. I'll let the experts decide however.

 

some cars are hydraulic, some are solid. I think the later cars are solid but may be wrong on that. I know the earlier cars were definately hydraulic though apart from the sti's (possible v3 onwards)

 

On this model the tappets should be solid with adjustment by shimming. At 119k it's no suprise that there are excessive valve clearances. A clearance of only + a thou" or two above nominal would be clearly heard.
JohnD