The Dude

If by "back in full force", you mean that your problems have returned, I'm not at all surprised. I've never heard of a glowing e-brake cable before, and I doubt that anyone one else on this board has either. At this point you may have a damaged wiring harness with burnt and intermittent connections. BTW, wiring harness problems almost never put a smile on the face of a professional mechanic. You may be looking at: 1. Trying to find what caused the e-brake wire to glow. 2. Carefully inspecting the electrical connections in your car 3. Inspecting, and mostly likely, replacing the wiring harness in your car. This likely to take a lot of shop time, and therefore, a lot of money. Good luck.

A special tool will help you to easily remove and install the number 4 spark plug. But what about torquing the plug? I am a big believer in using a torque wrench whenever possible. I know of a large number of cases where a spark plug has been "spat out" because it was under torqued. Usually the threads on the head are ruined.

There have been a number of posts on this board where someone either installed a battery backwards or reversed the cable clamps when jump starting a Subaru. Frankly, I'm amazed how little damage resulted from reversed polarity. You may be lucky, the voltage regulator or the diodes may be fried in the altenator. That might be it.

My question is: did the positve battery cable insulation melt because excessive current was first drawn through it? Or, was there first a cut in the insulation and when the bare metal cable touched the starter case excessive current was drawn thereby melting the cable insulation? Either way, when an automotive battery has a dead short a huge amount of current will flow. The flow of currrent should be from the positive battery cable through the case of the starter motor, then through the engine block, then through the negative battery cable and into the negative battery terminal. If this was the path of the currrent your electronics may have been spared. I'm surprised that your battery didn't melt or boil over. At the very least, I would replace the battery and cables. You had your car serviced by what you describe as an unskilled repair business. So, now you have an added complication. Are your exisiting problems due to the batttery shortening out? Or, are your exisitng problems due to substandard repairs your car was subjected to while it was in the shop? You will probably never know. Your intermitttently clicking relays and loss of power makes me think that you might have an intermittent short, or more likely, an open in your car's wiring. From your description, a stray currrent path turned your parking brake cable into an outsized, glowing toaster heater element. A lot of currrent flowed through your car. Tracking down and repairing all the damage may prove to be time consuming.

Spud, have the coolant tested for exhaust gas. It's quick, easy, and relatively cheap. That way, you know for certain what is going on with your engine. Don't play with this, overheating is very bad for your engine. You could warp the heads or even lose the entire engine.

Bite the bullet and change the timming belt, pullies, and tensioner. If you're not absolutely sure what was replaced at 105,000 miles on your car, you can not afford to take a risk. There are plenty of posts on this board where somebody bought a used Subaru and assumed that the belt and pullies had been replaced by the dealer or the previous owner. They were wrong, and now they're looking for advise on how to fix an engine with bent valves. BTW, $3,500 seems to be around the average cost to have a dealership repair an engine with bent valves. A small percentage of the time an engine that has lost timing is beyond repair and must be replaced.

Manual transmission? Can't Methusalah just put his car in gear, set the parking brake, chock the wheels, and just torque away? I'm NOT sure on this, so I'm asking. Anyway, I believe that the nut on the crank pulley is torqued to 130 foot pounds. I removed the crank pulley nut on my Forester with an extra long 1/2" breaker bar from Harbor Freight and a 18" long "cheater" pipe. Whatever you do, make sure that you use a torque wrench when you tighten the nut. You must use a torque wrench. Undertighening this nut is a common mistake.

You have a lot of helpful experts on this board. There are also a number of execellent videos on YouTube on how to replace a timing belt on a 2.2L Subaru engine.

Just so you know, the water pump is driven by the smooth backside of the timing belt, not the inside which has cogs (teeth). The idea is IF the water pump siezes the smooth backside of the timing belt will "slip" on the water pump pulley. Of course, the water pump is no longer turning and the car will start to overheat. IF the driver sees the engine is overheating and immediately pulls over to the side of the road and stops the engine there will be no damage to the engine. Now you're looking at replacing valves and possible additional damage from the engine overheating. BTW, usually only valves are only needed after the timing belt break, but rarely the entire engine is trashed due to piston and/or cylinder damage. When a driver sees an car engine overheating he, or she, should stop the car and engine at the earliest possible safe opportunity. No person should be able to sit in the driver seat of a car without this knowledge.

I recently changed the timing belt on my 2006 Forester. This is how a broke the crank bolt: Forget about the Habor Freight chain wrench, it is no longer available. I bought the Duralast 19" locking chain wrench (part 77-519) at Auto Zone. I bought an 18" piece of galvanized pipe at Home Depot. I wrapped a piece of the accessory belt around the crank pulley to protect it from the chain wrench. I then put the chain wrench on the pulley. The 18" piece of pipe went over the handle of the chain wrench. The pipe "hits" the driveway surface and keeps the chain wrench from spinning This set up worked like a charm for both breaking and tightening the crank bolt on my Forester. Obviously, I can not say that it will work on your Brighton. You will need access to a torque wrench with high enough capacity properly to tighten the crank pulley. DO NOT FAIL TO USE A TORQUE WRENCH ON THE CRANK BOLT OR YOU WILL REGRET IT. Depending on the amount of space in the engine compartment, you might want to pull the radiator. The problem I saw with the "screwdriver" method is if anything breaks or goes wrong you'll probably have to pull the engine. One poster had his screwdriver break and he considers himself very lucky that he was able to fish the broken blade out with a magnet.

I hope that it isn't one of the timing components. But if it is, could you tell us if all of the components in the timing belt system (timing belt, 2 pullies, water pump, and new tensioner) were replaced? Also, were GENUINE Subaru parts used ? Subaru does not recommend mandatory replacement of the pullies, or water pump, at the 105,000 miles timing belt service interval. However, some on this board feel that all of the components in the timing belt path should be replaced at 105,000 miles. Some posters believe that 210,000 miles is really pushing your luck with timing path components. I reached 200,000 miles with the original tensioner and pullies on my 1999 Forester. Now I think that I might have been the beneficiary of dumb luck. I replaced all of the timing belt path components at 105,000 miles on my 2006 Forester. Nothing is guaranteed, but I think that gives me my best shot at reaching 210,000 miles.

I believe that a cracked flexplate can also sound like engine bearing knock. In my view, some mechanics are very, very quick to diagnose an expensive engine replacement by ear alone. We're talking about a substantial amount of money, it's worth a little trouble to confirm the diagnosis.

Is this your first timing belt replacement? I just recently replaced a timing belt for my first time. It was very nice to have a genuine Subaru timing belt that I knew for certain was the correct belt and had accurate timing marks. Whatever the price difference was between the Subaru belt and an aftermarket belt, it was worth it to me. I didn't want to get halfway into the job and then find out that I had a wrong part.

I HAVE NOT USED THIS PRODUCT ON ENGINE BOLTS But I have used sliver, zinc enriched spray-on trailer paint to prevent lug nuts from rusting solid to the hub lugs. The paint worked great, preventing rust even after the trailer was dunked into sea water on numerous occassions. Spray the paint so that it makes a paint "seal" around the bolt head. Do the same for the nut side. The paint is easy to scrape off when you want to remove the bolt. You might want to wait until one of the very experienced posters weighs in on this subject. There might be a reason to not do this that I am not aware of. Anyway, since I moved to South Carolina from NY rust has become just a distant memory. You get rid of your car only when the engines wears out, without snow and salt car bodies stay rust free almost forever.

You are really on borrowed time with the timimg belt, it was due at 105,000 miles along with a valve adjustment. Clearly, the previous owner considered scheduled maintenance to be optional. Did this car get regular oil changes? Was the coolant and AT fluid replaced on schedule? Where the tires rotated every 7,500 miles? It makes you wonder doesn't it? A well maintained high mileage Subaru is one thing, one that was ignored most of its life is another. Can you do your own wrenching if this thing turns out to be a horror show? Ignoring a flashing CEL is not something you generally look for in a previous owner. You don't mention the asking price.

I'm not certain, but your engine may have two coolant temp sensors. Some years had one temp sensor for the ECU, and another one for the temp gauge in the dash. If you have two, which one did you replace? Also, a loose, dirty, or corroded, connection at the coolant sensor itself can cause the problem you described.

Timing belt is due for replacement at 105,000 miles. If you have a dealership replace all the timing related components with genuine Subaru parts it will run you over a grand. But then with a little luck, you're good for another 105,000 miles.

Without a lot personal experience, how do you know when a pulley needs to be exchanged? For even an experienced mechanic, it's an educated guess at best. How did the mechanic at the dealership learn to recognise a failing pulley? He does a timing belt replacement without replacing the pullies. When the customer comes back in 20,000 miles with a shredded timing belt the mechanic says to himself, "you know, maybe that cogged pulley did sound a tiny bit rough maybe I should have replaced it. Oh well, maybe I'll replace it the next time I hear a pulley like that". At one point the pulley sounds "good", but at some point later it sounds "bad". How fast does that change happen? Does anyone know for sure, not really? The pulley that sounds ''good' during the timing belt change could sound like crap 50,000 miles down the road. 105,000 miles is a very long interval. If you change the timing belt at 105,000 miles and plan on keeping the car to 200,000 miles, I say change all the pullies. Even that guarantees you nothing, but it does give you your best shot.

I have a good deal of experience with RTV. Old RTV will NOT harden, it will just stay a semi-gelled blob. Do not use old RTV.

1. You don't want to do a DEFINITIVE exhaust gas test 2. You don't want to "upset" your mechanic by asking him if geniune Subaru head gaskets were used in the repair. Who the heck can possibly help you with all these strange restrictions that you have placed on yourself? You have "sat on your rights", anyway. It doesn't sound like your mechanic is very interested in redoing your head gaskets even if the exhaust gas test came back positive. You very possibly got a bum head gasket job. You don't want do an exhaust gas test. You don't want to "upset" your mechanic. And it really doesn't matter, because after one year it's too late to do anything about it anyway. If I found a mechanic putting an unknown powder in my car's cooling system without my permission, it might possibly result in a pool of blood on the shop floor. But that's me. Given your self imposed restrictions, what can you do? Continue driving the car while keeping an eye on the coolant level. Once the head gasket blows completely your engine will overheat and you will be able to diagnose blown head gaskets without having done an exhaust gas test. You might have warped the heads. You might have toasted the main bearings. You very well might be stranded on the road and need an expensive tow. You will be towed to a shop, where given your situation, they will pretty much have you by the tender parts. Hopefully, you are towed to an honest shop. One that uses genuine Subaru head gaskets. But you will have your diagnosis without having done an exhaust gas test. Good luck.

I own a 2006 Forester. In 2005, the 2.5L got two position variable timing and went back to mechanical valve lifters. What's the best way to service the mechanic valve lifters? Is it like the "bucket and shim" mechanical lifters on the 2.5L DOHC? Do the valves need to be adjusted at a certain mileage , or do you wait to hear some light valve tapping? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

I read an article on the web that noted "OEM" has lost any meaning, and has become an ambiguous term. Genuine Subaru part has a clear meaning. Did you use a Genuine Subaru thermostat? Numerous posts have proved that only a Genuine Subaru thermostat should be used.

You're crusing down the highway in your Subaru and the 2.5L engine is purring like a kitten. In a split second the engine goes completely dead. No sputtering or hesitation, the engine instantly drops dead. You coast to the edge of the highway. Do you: 1. Hit the starter and try to restart the engine. 2. Assume the engine has lost time and leave the starter alone. Have the car towed to a place where the timing components can be visually inspected. If an engine loses time, how much more damage, if any, is done if you try to restart the engine? What should you do?

You are a highly experienced Subaru technician. You have the knowledge, tools, and equipment to handle many, if not all, repairs yourself. Sometimes I think your perspective is different from many other Subaru owners. I have no doubt that plenty of posters on this board can remove a Subaru engine in under two hours. Many other posters lack the experience, tools, equipment, or even the necessary space to remove an engine themselves. Same thing applies for a head gasket replacement. My point is that what is "small potatoes" to you may be a very big deal to someone who is not equiped to handle the problem themselves. If a head gasket fails and you have the all the resources required to fix it yourself, you're out half a day's time and $109. If you're not situated to do the job yourself, you're out $1,500 of take home pay. If you're raising a couple of kids forking over $1,500 for an unexpected repair may not be the most pleasant experience in the world. Am I unreasonable to expect that an engine not seep coolant without using stop leak? I don't think so. I think requiring the routine use of stop leak in a brand new engine is a "work around". I think using stop leak in an engine presents a risk. I think adding stop leak routinely over a period of time adds to that risk. Anyway, you're right, in general the 2.5L SOHC is not a crappy engine. It's an engine, that like any engine, has several flaws. However, I would prefer that Subaru address those flaws through redesign and not through the expediency of requiring me to install a proprietory stop leak.

I dislike, and not trust, stop leak. At least some the of the time, it is a temporary "fix" to a serious problem. If you have a leaky radiator, repairing or replacing it is probaly a more reliable way to go than simply adding a container of stop leak. Reportedly, by clogging radiators, stop leak has destroyed many engines through overheating. It is very dangerous stuff, in my view. Why does Subaru advocate the use of stop leak? Wel, in my view, it's sure as hell not for the benefit of the owner. Well designed, and well manufactured, engines do not seep copious amounts of coolant through their head gaskets. Crappy engines do. In my view, Subaru uses stop leak so that the new owner doesn't immediately realize that he may have bought a brand new car with a seeping engine. It's just that simple. I do not use the Subaru stop leak in my Forester. If, and when, I see seepage I might install the stuff. There is a real risk to using stop leak. I wouldn't use it routinely, only if it is need. I agree 100% that if stop leak can stop minor seepage it's a much better way to go than paying for a head gasket replacement. Another thing with stop leak. When you change the coolant you can't possibly get all of it out of your cooling system. If you rountinely add stop leak with each coolant change you're going to end up with more, and more, of the crud in your cooling system. Then someday, your radiator or heater core clogs up. If you're lucky you don't blow an engine through overheating .