Wow. Just dodged a bullet on the 2000 Outback.

[AdventureSubaru]

My day off was supposed to be spent kayak fishing the Santa Cruz harbor for halibut and lingcod to name a few. I was drivng down ocean street in Santa Cruz and the front end erupted into a horrible shrieking/screeching/grinding sound. Quickly sort of coasted my way into a Denny's parking lot. Had to break some of the timing cover off to find this -

 

 

pic doesn't really show how bent and bad it was. Was sitting at an angle and there were balls from the bearings rolling out from under the car. Called my wife and she brought the Impreza and we went to pick n Pull moss landing. Found a 96 Legacy wagon that had a decent looking idler sprocket.

 

 

Came back and managed to replace it and do the full timing job in the denny's parking lot before it got dark. First time I turned the cams by hand it stuck and I was scared that it jumped timing as I turned the car off and bent something. Reset everything and triple checked all my marks and this time it all rotated around just as it should. Started up and drove it home. Now i have to find a new timing cover to replace the one I destroyed. No biggie.

 

This is how roasted the sprocket was.

 

 

Came out in pieces! So glad that this was just a surprise roadside fix and the the belt didn't slip or snap. Going to budget a full timing replacement in the next month or so to avoid repeating this.

[Rooster2]

Good work....I like to read success stories like yours. Glad your rig is back on the road, at minimum cost, and valves not reported as bent.

[AdventureSubaru]

Yeah. It was a hour drive round trip and the yard charged us $12.88 Lost most of my day off, but at least there's a good story to tell.

[davidsain]

Had almost the same happen - chewed up idler bearings.  Found a lot of metal dust and none of the missing bearings when I pulled the cover.  Replaced all the pulleys with new except the tensioner pulley - I repacked that one because it was still good.  You might at the minimum re-pack the bearings in all of them.  Not too hard to remove the seal without damaging it.

 

Good job on the belt in a parking lot!

[Bushwick]

^ You can pack grease in through the sides w/o removing the seal. There is a slight gap and it'll accept grease into the bearings. I'll use a rubber glove and bearing grease. Using a finger I'll load up, and smush in the side around entire seal, spin bearing, then add more. Ideally if you could fashion a wooden disc with an OD of the ID of the seal area, and make a wood peg in the center of the disc that travels through where the bolt goes, apply grease to the disc, the grease would press it in better.

 

Either way, I redid all of mine instead of replacing them. All were at different levels of showing some age. After the grease was applied through the seam of the seal and excess wiped away, all the idlers and cogs were spinning with the same resistance and whisper quiet. Saved $90+ over complete replacement with bearings that still had life and were now extended to live a little longer (though this is a non interference unit so not worried). Thankfully none were as bad as Adventure's was, though I'm guessing his was squeaking or making some noise prior to complete failure.

[AdventureSubaru]

Yeah, I noticed a little squeaking the day before when I was making a quick run to the grocery store. Came and went in about 3 seconds. Listened to the car while running and couldn't pinpoint anything going on.

 

Good to know that they can be re-greased. We're going to replace everything anyway since the car has about 60k since we bought it. The previous owner did the timing belt recently before we bought it, but I have no way of knowing if he did the water pump and idlers and all then. And since one failed, I feel the others can't be too far behind. The tensioner also didn't "spring" back on it's own. I had to push it a bit and help it expand to get adequate tension. I think this may have been why the timing wasn't perfect the first time and I had to reset the belt to get it right.

 

And in general this is my wife's car. I use it since the kayak doesn't fit as nicely on the Impreza. But I'd hate for it to break down when she's on her own. Especially since Santa Cruz is just a little crazy in general.

[Caboobaroo]

I've just recently done a timing belt on an EJ25D that came in for a noise. Turns out it was just starting to loose the ball bearings and when I pulled it off, it fell apart.

[Bushwick]

Yeah, I noticed a little squeaking the day before when I was making a quick run to the grocery store. Came and went in about 3 seconds. Listened to the car while running and couldn't pinpoint anything going on.

 

Good to know that they can be re-greased. We're going to replace everything anyway since the car has about 60k since we bought it. The previous owner did the timing belt recently before we bought it, but I have no way of knowing if he did the water pump and idlers and all then. And since one failed, I feel the others can't be too far behind. The tensioner also didn't "spring" back on it's own. I had to push it a bit and help it expand to get adequate tension. I think this may have been why the timing wasn't perfect the first time and I had to reset the belt to get it right.

 

My outside pulley for the AC belt was probably just like yours where it was ready to completely fail. That one gets replaced. It actually wobbled and was completely dry meaning the race was rotted or damaged and wasn't holding the bearings correctly. The timing pulleys weren't nearly as bad, but were in need of some grease. I'd say it's more of a "try at your own risk" sorta thing after evaluating, especially with the later model interference engines which you are better off installing new. If the bearing has been run dry for so long that it's destroyed the bearings or the race, grease won't help.

 

Also, dunno how much different your tensioner is as opposed to mine, but I had to used a large c-clamp to compress it slowly over a couple minutes then stick a small welding rod end through the set hole to hold it. No way was it compressible by bare hands. Once the new belt was on and it was re-installed; after pulling the rod from the hole it tightened up against the pulley quickly on it's own, it was between a 1/8" to 1/4" from it's compressed height after providing full tension on the pulley. Way less extended then it'd been with the old belt.

 

With the timing cover off, and timing belt attached and engine running, your idler shouldn't be bouncing but rather holding nice, even tension on the belt. If you start hearing a knocking noise over time, inspect this as it might be bad.

[heartless]

the 150-200 bucks spent on replacing all the pulleys is just greater peace of mind to me, and well worth the cost.

 

sure, if you want to try regeasing them, go for it, but not something I am going to waste time and energy doing - if I have to take them off, they are getting replaced, along with the other major components - done with it for another 100K - no worrying about it failing sooner.