coolant leak , passenger side timing belt cover

[johnceggleston]

i just did the timing belt, water pump, crank and cam seals, and cam cap o-rings. when i started it up it ran fine, when it warmed up it started leaking coolant off the bottom of the passenger side timing cover. once it got to to full operating temp, it was leaking on to the bottom side of the head at the exhaust and dripping on to the exhaust.

 

96 ej22, 125k miles, a/t.

 

i'll pull the timing covers the next time i'm working on it, next week, but i don't remember any coolant lines in that area. any ideas??

 

one more thing, there is a 2 inch by 3 inch hole in the driver side timing cover on the bottom, and the belt appears to be dry. ( did you know it takes about a second for he timing belt to make a full revolution at idle?)

 

thanks,

john

Edited February 7, 2009 by johnceggleston

[muffman]

Is there any way that the water pump or thermostat housing could be leaking and the coolant could be running down there somehow? Those are the things that were distrubed while you did the t-belt, so they are the things that you should look at first.

[EVOthis]

well if you say you just did the H20 pump i would def. be looking there...what kind of gasket did you use to seal it? did you use any RTV or anything?...you supposed to use just the subaru OEM gasket and no sealant or anything...

[johnceggleston]

i used the gasket that came with the pump, i can't remember if i used rtv, but i may have.

 

so how does the water end up on the passenger side??

[crash321]

i used the gasket that came with the pump, i can't remember if i used rtv, but i may have.

 

so how does the water end up on the passenger side??

 

Could be just gravity putting it to the passenger side. But like the other guys said, check the water pump.

[davebugs]

I always get a Suby WP gasket. I like the rubber covered metal one much better than the cardboard ones that come with aftermarket WP's.

 

I'd pick one of them up - I think 3 bucks.

[idosubaru]

there's not much over there on that side. just the hose from the radiator to the engine. but i'd assume you'd see that if looking. you checked closely under the hose/engine connection?

 

JCE - coolant may just be running down the inside of the timing covers and for some reason coming out on the P/S.

 

if the belt gets wet at all, i'd plan on replacing it. i had one get oil on it from a leaking crank seal and the new belt only lasted a summer - less than 10,000 miles. i didn't think anything of it when i replaced the seal. just wiped of fthe belt and reinstalled it since it only had a few thousand miles on it. broke soon afterwards. posted here and folks said oil/coolant degrades the compounds in the belt.

[johnceggleston]

so i got back into it last week and found i only torqued 5 of the 6 water pump bolts, duh!!!

 

i went ahead and pulled it to check the gasket, it looked fine. but since i had bought a new one i decided to replace it any way. i didn't want to have to do it again. i'll save it for another time, maybe.

 

so i put it back together, and as i was starting to install the radiator, i remembered i didn't pull the pin on the tensioner. so back into it i go, yet again. by the way, how tight on the a/c and alt belts?

 

i'm getting pretty good at this now. another 6 or 7 tries and i may get it right.

 

thanks for tall the help.

Edited March 10, 2009 by johnceggleston

[davebugs]

Sometimes we all go brain dead.

 

Something I've done more than once is tighten the crank bolt without the TB cover in place. I step back thinking i'm done. Then notice how nice the idlers and new TB look - then it occurs to me. I usually use permatex red on the back as well - just for extra fun.

 

And one time I forgot to pull the pin on the tensioner. Luckily I realized my mistake before re-installing the engine.

[subaruhelp12525]

On 2/7/2009 at 6:36 AM, idosubaru said:

there's not much over there on that side. just the hose from the radiator to the engine. but i'd assume you'd see that if looking. you checked closely under the hose/engine connection?

 

JCE - coolant may just be running down the inside of the timing covers and for some reason coming out on the P/S.

 

if the belt gets wet at all, i'd plan on replacing it. i had one get oil on it from a leaking crank seal and the new belt only lasted a summer - less than 10,000 miles. i didn't think anything of it when i replaced the seal. just wiped of fthe belt and reinstalled it since it only had a few thousand miles on it. broke soon afterwards. posted here and folks said oil/coolant degrades the compounds in the belt.

Thanks for saving me a lot of grief and money.  Coolant was coming out from the timing belt cover on the passenger side, and as you suggested, the radiator hose was leaking.  The radiator hose clamp broke and I guess it was installed by the previous owner, who replaced the engine with a newer one, but of course all the hoses are quite old (1999).  It's not leaking anymore since I added a new hose clamp.  Luckily I only drove 2-3 miles while it was leaking.  Guess I should try to use an OEM clamp instead of the hose clamp.

[idosubaru]

Awesome. Hoses could be bad or those clamps or the hoses could be low quality aftermarket. 

sounds like you got it. If you have more issues you might consider new Subaru hoses and clamps as they’re higher quality and checking to make sure the radiator isn’t cracked. The part the hose slides onto can sometimes crack or break. I’ve seen some where the hose only fits over a couple millitmeters of the radiator, less than the width of the clamps and that’s with stretching the hose a little. Not an ideal long term situation.