Dealership timing belt advice

[allwheeldad]

I dropped into my local Subaru dealership to get some prices on parts for my upcoming timing belt replacement. The car is a 99 Legacy GT Limited with 400,000 kms. The service manager, who is a good man and hasn't done wrong by me yet, told me that they only hang new belts on the motors and never get into any of the pulleys or water pumps unless there is an obvious problem. I have read many threads here about t-belts replacement and nearly everybody replaces many things at the same time. Is this just a precautionary measure or are most people here dealing with older cars with higher mileage that need these parts?

[Gloyale]

Definately need to replace the tensioners and pump at least every other T-belt.

 

I mean....let's face it.....these belts seldom ever break just from age.

 

99% of timing belt failure I've seen in EJ engines is from a tensioner or water pump bearing failure.

 

The big wide rubber is tough.....something else has to be wrong before it breaks. (I've pulled 250k mile motors with original T-belts. They got lucky, but they made it because nothing seized)

 

It not worth the risk of being stuck and having a wrecked motor for a little extra $.

[idosubaru]

It is more than likely that at least one pulley should be replaced. I rarely find last 90's Subarus with pulleys that feel anything close to new.

 

The water pumps on EJ engines are fairly robust and not prone to failure, but they do fail.

 

So it just comes down to personal preference really. I often prefer the ebay kits on older/high mileage vehicles. For $200 you get all new pulleys where you can only get one pulley for that price from Subaru. The 1998 I just did was the first one ever that didn't need any pulleys, they were all good. If you go "feel" what a new pulley is supposed to be like and compare it to your old ones you'll see what I mean, your old ones will feel noticeably free spinning and noisy probably. They'll still last a long time like that, but another 100,000 miles, I don't know?

 

And you have them all....kind of hard to pull it all apart then go get what you want, most folks want to have all the parts and get it all done.

 

Lots of dynamics in play. But yes - these are interference engines so it is wise to be precautionary, you can find threads on here with engines that have engine damage due to bad pulley bearings, failed tensioners, and failed belts and water pumps. So it's real and it happens, though not very often. Just depends how you view risk and how reliable you want the car to be, some folks are okay with that small percent chance on the old original pulleys.

[allwheeldad]

Thanks for the fast responses. I had the tensioner bearing sieze on this car about 75,000 miles ago. As mine is the DOHC when the belt jumped it did all kinds of strange things to all four cams. After a huge tow bill (was in remote northern ontario when this happened) the shop here replaced the tensioner and belt, dialed it in, and the heavens openned to reveal no bent valves. I dodged a huge bullet that time. I no longer work up north, but I still don't want to get stranded because I was too cheap to pony up for the accessories. If the Ebay kits are good enough to pass through GG's shop, I will trust that one will be good enough for me.

[lucid_door]

My timing belt idler pullies made it to 217k miles before one of them seized up and tightened the bolt holding it on into the block so hard it tore a chunk the size of a gobstopper out of the block......... obviously no helicoiling that one back in LOL wrecked the block because of one little pulley. Definitely a must to replace them, speaking from experience.

[Mike104]

I too had just the timing belt replaced at 136k miles at the dealer (before I knew about this place) because we were unable to determine if the PO replaced it at 105k. A year later the Camshaft or crankshaft oil seals went out and you guessed it, I had to pay for the TB change again.

 

I think the dealer is more interested in fixing what is wrong with your car when its in there and keeping the cost lower with the hopes of getting you back in again to pay for another fix! I honestly think that since there is no requirement or recommendation from Subaru to replace those components unless they are bad, there is no effort by the dealers to change them, "just because".

 

The advantage of fixing your own car is that you can do what you want yourself or if you have some knowledge you can ask for specific things to be done at the same time. I've driven long stretches of Northern Ontario roads (you know, the other side of the map) in my subie and it can be scary thinking about what could go wrong.

[idosubaru]

This run down might help. The best option is all new OEM parts, but that's cost prohibitive.

 

Best real world option is to take it all apart, inspect the bearings, and a make a decision from there. Hard to make a good decision without knowing. But this isn't very realistic for many people either.

 

What I suggest isn't best it's just the simplest "one size fits all" suggestion, I think other options are just as good or better though.

 

I personally run the ebay kits on older vehicles, on newer cars I start leaning towards only replacing the pulleys that are really bad.

 

If you can do all the work yourself it's really not that hard to pull the belt at 50,000 miles (halfway to the next belt change) and check things out real quick. Just another option to be safe.

[allwheeldad]

As if the fear of having to slalom around a couple moose or bear wasn't enough, some of the places I had to work in had no post office to even have parts mailed to. I was working for CN Rail and went to some very obscure areas. I only had six days a month at home with my family and if the car needed anything I just fired it off to the dealership because I didn't have the time to do it and needed to know that it was going to start and stop when I needed it to. Since leaving the railroad I have done all my own repairs, including swapping a blown motor out of my wife's 2000 Legacy. I am no stranger to tools, I just lack experience with some of the finer points of preventative maintainence. This was one time I definitely needed a second opinion.