I replace a Subaru timing belt, water pump and timing belt covers on a 2.2L SOHC in a 1995 Subaru Legacy Wagon.
I replace a Subaru timing belt, water pump and timing belt covers on a 2.2L SOHC in a 1995 Subaru Legacy Wagon.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
){kind=link}
Thanks for the reply. I actually managed to figure it out. I got everything back together and drove the car for a few minutes around the neighborhood, it felt great. Unfortunately when I parked I noticed that my new water pump was leaking from the gasket. I already took everything apart again and it looks like I’ll need a new gasket for that. What an unfortunate amount of work for so small a problem. I’ll get it done though!
I didn’t spin mine after I got all the marks on the belts lined up. I’m not sure if they should line back up in 2 rotations or if it would take more than that.
Hi. I replaced the timing belt on my 2004 Outback today. The instructions that came with it said to do two full rotations of the crank shaft and check if the timing marks are still aligned on the belt. What does this mean? After two full rotations the timing marks do not line up with the tick marks on the camshafts anymore. (I have not yet released the tensioner)
I have all of the pieces in place but I’m afraid to put the car back together just in case I did something wrong.
“No Subaru’s were harmed in the making of this video.” Lol
Nice.
Thanks
Thanks!
Thank you :-)
this is the best i’ve seen describing timing belt and water pump replacement! straight forward, good shots, an great explanation! a job i once was scared of has become doable!
It’s humble of you to claim that you are not an automotive technician, but the way you did the job gave you away.
Good video, it had the info I needed. I’m replacing the water pump on a 1996 for a friends Legacy. His water pump failed and was leaking badly. When we got it apart, we found the tensioner bearing failed and the belt jumped timing…common. People who don’t want to do the job 2x should get a water pump, new thermostat, thermostat seal, and timing belt kit with all four idlers. Line up the timing marks before disassembly, mark on the old belt, then transfer the marks to the new belt to save time.
you always need to replace the idlers and tensioners when doing this job. if the bearings in those things go bad then you’re belt will jump and you’re back at square 1
This was very informative. I was talking to someone today about the belts and she said that the water pump went out and took the belts with it. Now I understand how.
DUDE…you say you are no mechanic, but I don’t agree with you, you kick ass.
Just about to do this job on my recently-bought ’99 Outback Sport with the same engine. Your video is pretty much my training manual for this job before I try it tomorrow. Thanks for posting!
Thanks, hope all goes well 🙂
Very nice Ryan- I like your humility- it is refreshing today with all the smack talkers…
I just bought a ’97 Legacy Brighton Wagon as a beater third car/winter vehicle for my wife and I
and will be replacing the belt, maybe water pump as well in the next week or so. I purchased
a dealer service manual on Ebay for ’bout $9 but the Haynes can be easier to understand and have photos whereas the dealer service manuals are always line drawings.
THANKS RYAN!!!
Great video for us regular guys…
just did one thanx for the walk through!!!!
in case nobody answered you you turn the engine by hand in case something is off. when you turn it by hand you put enough force on the engine to damage anything. nice vid by the way very helpful
How did you reinstall the harmonic balancer? I can’t think of any other way than stuffing a prybar into the flex plate access hole.
in case you got the thing a tooth off
you can get the main pulley bolt loose with the starter, just brace your breaker bar to something sturdy, like the ground, and hit the starter for 1/2 a sec…boom
because you want to make sure that everything sets correctly, things can slip, the tension pulley may not be fully tensioned…etc You could ruin your engine if it is the interference type, and your belt is off a bit. I think this is an SJ22, non interference. but its still better to be safe than sorry.
quick question how did you install the tensioner pulley and the hyrdo tensioner?
Thanx 🙂 Why do you turn the engine twice before hitting the starter? I didn’t know about that.
Good video. You can save time by compressing the tensioner gently with a pribar before you remove the belt. I presume you did but always turn the engine twice by hand before hitting the starter!
You’re welcome 🙂 Good luck with yours.
thanks for the tutorial, i’ll be doing this same parts swap in the next couple days. Almost didn’t make it home when mine just died this afternoon.
really. i paid $25 for my timing belt from the subaru dealer in Oregon. oh and for your tentioner you need a special pin to hold that tentioner, a drill bit will work too but there is a special pin that you can get when you replace that hydro tentioner. you always replace every tentioner that there is. no matter how it look. and yes the whole block is made out of aluminum and when i had my legacy wagon it had 6 bolts striped cause of an inexperianced person.
You’re right about “easy to strip the bolts (threads)” in the aluminum block. The guy before replaced the timing belt and 3 pulleys. I got it soon after to replace the cams and crank seal and found all the pulley bolt holes cross threaded. Needless to say I purchased a M10x1.50 Thread Repair Kit. It comes with 12 Helicoils, tap, and insertion tool. They say to use a 13/32 drill bit to ream it but it wasn’t necessary.
Thanks for the video. Just wish it was in higher res. 😉
will do…was wondering where the hoses are for the heating core…i was thinking of connecting them(hoses) until i can replace it so i will still have circulation. do you think thats a good idea? they should be somewhere on the firewall close to each other right?
It doesn’t sound like you’ve been having a good week. Please let me know what finally fixes the problem.
gd point i gotta refill the ratiator again anyway so maybe i’ll recheck it. my engine light was on and they said it was just the knock sensor so i might need another tune up. but interestingly the guy told me i need to fill the radiator from the top hose on subarus and that it is factory recommended to get the air all the way out. (gonna call them to verify) now i have water on the passenger side so i need a heating core…this has been a nightmare!
I was actually wondering if your electric radiator fans are coming on. But since you say that your car is overheating but you have no heat out of the heater, I’m still thinking your brand new thermostat is bad. I know you said you boiled it in a coffee cup but that could be up to 212F, your thermostat should open at 185 to 195F. Sometimes they are also intermittent. I’ve had a couple like that. Anyway they only cost 10 or 20 dollars.
I changed my knock sensor on mine one time too. When mine was bad the engine would shudder and shake if you put in too high of a gear and gave it gas. Since I replaced it you can put it in a higher gear and floor it and it smoothly picks up speed. I’m glad I replaced it.
and yeh the fan comes on but i have no heat…how would the heating core effect this problem? also i was looking for the whole cooling system diagram to try if i can see something i missed. if anybody has one that can share please msg me thanks..
actually tested it out today by putting in in a coffee cup and throwing it in the microwave for 1:30 on high! (the test works) yup the therm is good. i kinda was hoping it wasnt so i know what needs fixing. yesterday i bought a coolant sensor and had the same prob…seems these cars are really tuff to get the air out when things like this are replaced so ill try that again but there is an engine light on i think pep boys said it was a knock sensor….not sure what else to do here.
Maybe your brand new thermostat is bad. It happened to my brother once. Other than that it sounds like you’ve got most of the stuff covered. Are your fans coming on?
Respond to this video… any ideas? is there a censer or something?
thanks for the quick reply and i figured as much..some things are just better off doing by ppl who know what there doing that being said i had a guy do it and really gave me a great price but…my dam car is still over heating.i changed the radiator,thermostat,the cap and a hose…changed the fluids and made sure there were no air bubbles…still over heating! i thought for sure it had to be the waterpump not circulating … it only runs hot when driving not while parked & running
I’d maybe give it an 8. It’s don’t think it is as easy as it looks in the video. Getting the belt on is kind of tricky because the cam on the driver’s side always wants to spin. It did take me a while to get them all lined up at the same time. The white lines on the OEM belt line up with the timing marks on the pulleys so that helps. If you’ve never done one I’d make sure I had a Haynes or a Chilton manual to look at.
hey ryan, nice job. you made it look simple. i just replaced my thermostat & radiator and i’m still over heating so i’m thinking now my water pump is gone. i never done a timing belt before and i realy dont have the cash for a mechanic to do it so how hard is this on a scale of one to ten? and can you explain again about lining up all the pully’s so i dont screw it up? thanks for ya help nice vid btw..
Yes, you should be fine.
An extra tip that I didn’t show in the video but you might want to do is put some clips on the pulleys to keep the belt from slipping while reinstall your tensioner. Mine did that several times on left one because I think that one is holding open some valves and if you move it just a few degrees the whole came spins 180 degrees. However the 1.8 Liter engine might not be that way.
Hey! I’m about to do a 1.8SOHC impreza engine. If my timing belt never broke, and all that, I should just be able to manually turn the engine over (from the crank pulley bolt)until both of the cam pulley notches line up with the notches in the back timing belt covers, right? Then pull the belt, and put the new one back on with those marks lining up, check for the one at the crank sprocket/gear and I should be set to go, right?
Just confirming. About to get my hands into this.
Mine was the same way. I think what you are talking about is just because on the passenger side it’s not lifting any valves when the timing marks are lined up, so it spins easily for a ways . On the drivers side if you move it either direction just a few degrees it does a complete spin 180 because it must have some valves open on that side.