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2000 Subaru Legacy GT timing belt tensioner bad


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What are my options? It trashed the timing when it went. Luckily it didn't break. I pulled the tensioner off cause I could hear a clicking noise and when I grabbed the roller wheel I could actually wiggle it a little. Bearing on it went. 150 bucks for the stupid thing from O'Highlies is fricken ridiculous. I bought the timing belt kit new 4k miles ago from an eBay add I was linked too here. Will that mizumomotors or who ever they are work with me on warrentying it since I've only ran the kit for 3 months? Or should I not even bother asking?

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A little bit of wiggle is fairly normal. What did it do when it "went"? Did it lock up? Did it make noise? It's somewhat common for the hydraulic piston to fail but not on a new unit, unless it was compressed incorrectly.

 

How far did the timing jump? I hope you're not looking at marks on the belt for refrerence. Those will only line up once out of every 200 some-odd revolutions of the engine.

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It didn't lock up. It made a sound like it was clicking on a busted roller. I messed with it some more and found out it wasn't the bearing making the noise. The whole tensioner is moving up and down while the engine is running producing the noise I was hearing

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Well you dodged a huge bullet if the engine still runs. That's a common failure though I haven't heard of it happening with a new tensioner. Usually its an old tensioner, or one that someone tried to re-use after a timing job.

 

I would certainly get in touch with the seller and explain that it failed after only a few thousand miles. I've always had good luck getting parts exchanged with eBay sellers.

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Good to hear if I'm understanding right. The engine was still running, but the timing belt itself has been damaged?

 

I'm one who'd not afraid to throw some junkyard parts at it as a temporary fix. Just go really slow when compressing the tensioner.

 

And I haven't heard of these being brand specific. Some parts they say go Subaru or nothing. But probably count it as a fluke that you got a defective part. Buy a new one, or a good timing kit and heave a sigh of relief that you're not shopping for a new motor or looking at replacing the heads.

 

Was in your shoes similarly last year. One of the sprockets failed and could have easily jumped timing or snapped the belt. Had to grab one from a junkyard and do a timing job in a Dennys parking lot. Sprocket came apart in my hand when I pulled it out!

 

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You should go buy a lottery tickets while your so lucky lol. If it were me , and you bought the whole timing kit and one parts already failed. I would first see if then seller will help you out. 90% of eBay sellers are good sellers and usually make good on 90 days or less on new parts. If not, I am one of those for genuine Subaru parts on something like this, however, everyone on seems to be very comfortable with Gates timing kits and aisin water pumps from ebay . About 80 dollar difference in price between dealer and gates seems to be. But long story short, do the while kit while your there. May not dodge the next bullet so to speak.

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that style tensioner failing isn't odd - 3 months though is odd.

this style tensioner though is not all that robust. it would be weird/rare on *any other* Subaru tensioner ever made, but not this one. 

 

ask the seller, good chance they'll send you a new one. sometimes, warranty requires installation by a certified mechanic (ASE or whatever).   that's the best they can do without paying someone to fly out, watch you properly install, install it themselves and thereby raise the prices hundreds of dollars to accommodate that verification process.  so it's not perfect, but a company has to do something or it will get taken advantage of or replace improperly installed product, or replace product that wasn't even the original bought product anyway (think wal-mart return policy).

 

as a general rule - they may not replace it.  but often times companies will replace.  i've had lots of parts sent to me for free via the goodwill of the company when technically they owed me nothing.  and i've been denied.

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