Well, this sucks.....

[Wlavs87]

So a few weeks ago I bought another Subaru, having previously owned an '01 legacy wagon whose life was cut much too short after getting T-boned 6 months after I bought it. I found an '05 Forester with 99k miles on Craigslist, and bought my buddy (a former Subaru Master tech) with me to check it out. He crawled underneath it and saw the head gaskets had already been done, the steering rack was leaking, and the rear diff. Was leaking a little bit. We popped the hood and started it up, one of the pulleys let out a little whine, so I knew the bearings were going on one of the pulleys. Aside from needing a new car, it was an older Subaru with low-ish miles on it, and it was a forester, I had to have it. So I bought it.

 

 

After putting roughly 1800 miles on it in three weeks, I start it up the other day and it's making the worst noise I've ever heard. I actually thought the fan blades were running against the radiator. It's loud as hell. I pop the hood and don't SEE anything wrong with it, proceed to drive to night school, and then give my buddy a ride home after that. Two days later I call my mechanic and tell him about it. I brought it to him yesterday, we check the pulleys, they seem alright.....He takes a cover off the motor and checks the timing belt (it's new!).

 

 

Mechanic calls me today. About 130 pounds of compression on the driver's side rear cylinder and only about 23 pounds of compressionThe on the driver's side front cylinder. The bearings on one of the timing idlers seized, causing a piston to smack the valves pretty hard,the motor is junk.

 

Is this a common problem with these cars? I knew the timing belt usually needs to get done around 120k, and the head gaskets by around 150k. The heads on mine had already been done (according to mechanic, not recently, but they had been replaced, and I saw the timing belt myself, it looked brand new)

[DaveT]

If they did not replace all of the idlers and tensioner, along with the belt, with oem parts, that's asking for trouble.

 

Those little isolated bearings are good for a bit over 100k miles, but they are not likely to make 200k.

 

On an interference engine, I don't take chances.

[Wlavs87]

I'm actually surprised the engine didn't quit out right, the shop I brought it to is a good 30 miles from my house, it did 80 mph on the highway the whole way there, effectively on three cylinders, although it had NO power

[Fairtax4me]

Bent valves very rarely result in major engine damage on these cars. Pull the heads and replace the bent valves. Back together with an all new timing kit and it will be good to go.

[Wlavs87]

Mechanic pulled the spark plug and stuck a camera down inside, the valves thrashed the piston head.

[Fairtax4me]

I suppose that's possible, but I would expect there would be ZERO compression on that cylinder if it is that bad off.

A valve typically has to be broken to cause major damage to the piston.

Bent valves happen often on these and leave nothing more than small tick marks on top of the piston.

[1 Lucky Texan]

not unique to Subaru - I once bought a Toyota that had a new TB, but evidently original idlers - one seized while I was out of town with my middle daughter.

 

PROPER timing belt system service must be done - not just a "belt slap".

 

if you rebuild, use MLS headgaskets on properly prepped heads.

[Wlavs87]

The words my mechanic used were "valves punched holes right through the top of the piston"

[sparkyboy]

Sorry about your luck man, these things happen no matter what you drive.

[Fairtax4me]

I would ask to see it. A good mechanic can pull a cylinder head off one of these engines in 30 minutes and show you the valves are damaged and the piston is trashed. If he has an inspection camera he doesn't even have to do any work to show you what's wrong. Even if you've been with this mechanic for years, You're talking the difference of a $1,000 repair vs a $4-5,000 engine replacement.

[pontoontodd]

A quick look on car-part.com shows you can get an engine for about $1000 in decent running condition, should probably do at least timing belt and idlers while it's out, maybe the clutch too.  A mechanic that works on Subarus often should be able to swap the engine in an afternoon.

[Wlavs87]

He found an engine with about 126K miles on it for $1800. I'll probably take a trip up to his shop on Tuesday and check things out/discuss options.

[idosubaru]

Subaru engines should always have the timing belt components all replaced. Belt pulleys and tensioner. Replacing just the belt is a really bad idea.

 

As to the pistons. Understandably He probably hasn't repaired or worked on many Subarus with broken belts. Most likely scenario is he isn't super familiar with Subarus and that piston face valve contact and damage can be benign on Subarus.

 

If the engine clock is good, which they often are, Easiest repair is install another used head. $100 head and $1,200 headgasket job. $1,300 repair.

 

$1,800 seems steep for a used 15 year old enginewith know headgasket issues and unknown headgaskets. Are you in thePNW or Denver area?

[Wlavs87]

I'm in New England, more specifically central Mass.