A/C Sensor and Timing Belt Casing Kaput. Help!

[stevemc6]

Hi everyone. I have a 2005 Legacy 2.5 GT with a little over 100,000 miles. My A/C drive belt blew over this past weekend and took out the sensor directly behind the A/C pulley, and also put a 4 inch gash in the timing belt cover. I had a mechanic look at it and he said I should buy a new timing belt, cover, and pulley system. Can this be repaired without purchasing these parts? It looks to me like I could get away with just patching the cover and buying a new sensor. Will this come back to bite me down the road? Please advise.

 

Steve

[Fairtax4me]

The cover is the least of your worries. The broken off pieces of the cover are the bigger concern because they probably fell down inside, and are in there bouncing around as the timing belt flies by them.

You're at the mileage where a belt change is necessary anyway. Timing belt interval is like 105k miles I think. But there are other things that should be changed while there is access to them such as the various idler pulleys that the timing belt runs on, the water pump, and the Oil pump should be checked for wear and be resealed.

 

If you just replace the belt, you still have 4 worn pulleys and a worn water pump that might go bad and seize up before the next belt change. If any one of those locks up it will shred the belt.

Your engine is an interference design which means that if the timing belt breaks and the camshafts stop turning, the pistons will hit and bend the valves. And that's a MUCH more expensive repair than just replacing the belt and associated components.

You don't necessarily have to fix the cover, there are several people on the board here who don't have the covers at all on their engines. But fixing it will help to keep other bits of foreign matter from getting in there and possibly doing harm to the new belt.

[outbackusjunkus]

I've got a spare '05 engine if you need parts...

[idosubaru]

have you ever changed your timing belt, it's due at 105,000 miles. sounds like a good time to just get all of that done now. i wouldn't worry too much about the cover, if it's in the middle i'd just leave it. i always run naked, without even reinstalling the timing covers at all. so surely a small hole won't matter.

 

if you already have a new belt then the belt should be inspected to see if it's actually damaged at all - should be very easy to tell since it's new. side cover comes off in about one minute - 3 10mm screws, then just turn the engine over by hand a few times to inspect, only takes a few minutes so shouldn't cost much to thorougly inspect and decide.

 

yours is an interference engine, if the timing belt breaks then you'll have internal damage - bent valves. so the mechanic is going to lean towards caution. imagine a customer saying, okay patch it, cool $50. then a year later they need a new $4,000 motor because of it - they'd be right back complaining they didn't fix it the right way first time.