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Timing Belt Replacement 2.5T


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No I didnt try that I was trying to put it on the driver side top pulley last and no I don't have the. Tensioner on.. It all started I got a belt from pep boys and then I decided to look in to a different one so I picked up one from national auto and it fit on no problem before I reset my timing and I now set my timing it was being a pita again I'm going at it again today so hopefully I get it
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Just make sure you rotate the engine by hand a few times before you start it. And make sure the marks line up when they should.

 

You may be able to do that before you pull the pin.

305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD).  CHECK your oil, these cars use it.

 

Engine Build - Click Here

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Yea I did notice that it is a little easier with two people to help hold the belt and I'll have to try what you were saying thanks man hopefully this works

 

Have you ever done one of these timing belts before?

 

If not, I can't believe you had the cajones to attempt this by yourself without having someone experienced with you.

 

More power to you!

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I have never done it on a Subaru before but I have done ALOT of research on it but I have done it on other engines before so I figured i would save my self the trip to a shop and money only real trouble I have encountered was the timing belt from pep boys being too small which was more annoying than anything but its all pretty well for the most part
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Have you ever done one of these timing belts before?

 

If not, I can't believe you had the cajones to attempt this by yourself without having someone experienced with you.

 

More power to you!

 

I'm going to do mine myself, I think. It doesn't difficult at all to be honest, its just a lot of steps.

"Remember Danny - Two wrongs don't make a right but three rights make a left."
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Hey I am in the middle of a timing belt replacement and after removing the old timing belt my cam pulleys on the driver side have shifted and are out of line now. I have since read that it is good to put vice grips on these to keep them in place before removing but I am past that now and was wondering if anyone knew the best way to get these pulleys back in line and keep them there? Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Edited by brich1414
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Hey I am in the middle of a timing belt replacement and after removing the old timing belt my cam pulleys on the driver side have shifted and are out of line now. I have since read that it is good to put vice grips on these to keep them in place before removing but I am past that now and was wondering if anyone knew the best way to get these pulleys back in line and keep them there? Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

 

Luckily, I have VERY strong hands and wrists and turned them back to the center and held them while my friend installed the vise grips.

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Yea I was hoping there was some clever trick to get around this but I ended up getting an extra hand twisting the pulley and vice gripping them. For anyone trying a timing belt swap make sure to vice grip the top and bottom driver side cam pulleys together BEFORE you remove your belt. And make sure all you lines are correct as well, both will save you some time. Other than that it is not that difficult.
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Awesome write up. Thanks a bunch. I did this today, after reading through your step-by-step, and I didn't even have to refer back to it. I had my brother to help, and an extra set of hands made things go much smoother.

 

We will do my brother's over Christmas (also an '05 LGT LTD), and we are going to try to set a record.

 

Just a note. Getting the pulley off is the hardest part. Impact wrench wouldn't fit. We borrowed my dad's BIIIIG pipe wrench. I think the handle is 3 feet long (no joke). We wrapped the old belts around the pulley to protect it and held it in place with the pipe wrench and broke the bolt loose with a cheater bar. I know most people don't have access to a pipe wrench that big, but if you do, it works like a charm.

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  • 1 month later...
Vice Grip method in use. Worked like a charm, just remember, you only need SLIGHT Pressure to hold it... any stronger and you risk breaking the pulleys.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh201/3400modified/Leggy/IMG_6632.jpg

 

I saw this and gave it a shot on my '08 Legacy GT 5MT at 104k miles, and it didn't go that well. I don't recommend trying it after my experience, but if you are going to it's DEFINITELY important to not put the vise grips on too tightly.

 

I clamped vise grips onto the driver's side cam sprockets and they stayed there. However, I must have put them on just barely too tight, because about three minutes later, I hear a loud BANG followed by a splash. I found the vise grips in the drain pan full of coolant that was under the car plus a few pieces of the lower (exhaust) cam sprocket which had broken off:

 

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag28/tomsanity/Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20timing%20belt%20replacement%20project/2012-12-26234258_zps62d8d649.jpg

 

I was then faced with the challenge of removing that cam sprocket. I tried a lot of things, most of which failed. This craftsman 10mm hex key is one of two that broke like this just on a breaker bar:

 

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag28/tomsanity/Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20timing%20belt%20replacement%20project/2012-12-28103318_zps23839feb.jpg

 

Eventually, I ordered an impact driver-rated 10mm hex socket and worked a deal out with my local Subaru dealer where they let me borrow their cam sprocket wrench for the weekend! Thank god for those guys. So this setup finally worked to get the cam sprocket off:

 

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag28/tomsanity/Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20timing%20belt%20replacement%20project/DSCN0671_zps624813f8.jpg

 

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag28/tomsanity/Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20timing%20belt%20replacement%20project/2012-12-29170633_zpsf64cfc6e.jpg

 

The cam sprocket was a $90 mistake, but I hope you guys don't make this same mistake. All said and done, I did eventually manage to successfully replace my own timing belt as basically my first work on my own cars. Feel on top of the world, man. :D

Edited by tominator19
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Oh man! I'm about to do this this weekend. I was nervous about how much pressure I should put on there, and now I'm really nervous. I watched Meaty's video which shows how to line them up if you don't use the vice grip trick, which doesn't look that hard but I'll have to run out and get 2 x 10 mm hex bits. I guess I'll try with reasonably light pressure, and if it slips, I'll just do it the old fashion way rather than risk breaking the pulley which would take A LOT longer to recover from!

 

Tom

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Here's a tip from another thread for getting the old one loose:

 

you can cut an old timing belt to make a strap.

wrap one end around the cam sprocket about 1 1/2 times. clip with clotheshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png pin or paper clip clamp, to help keep it from falling off.

wrap belt around the crank gear to make a loop, pinch belt to its self and clamp with vise grips. the belt will be to long so just clamp it close to the crank so it stays tight.

works great,, costs nothing

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/28266-removing-cam-sprocket.html

 

Not fun, but seems possible. I'm doing it saturday and the local part dept at subaru is open until 5 pm, but I don't think they would let me borrow a cam wrench, that was very nice of your local shop! :)

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Here's a tip from another thread for getting the old one loose:

 

you can cut an old timing belt to make a strap.

wrap one end around the cam sprocket about 1 1/2 times. clip with clotheshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png pin or paper clip clamp, to help keep it from falling off.

wrap belt around the crank gear to make a loop, pinch belt to its self and clamp with vise grips. the belt will be to long so just clamp it close to the crank so it stays tight.

works great,, costs nothing

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/28266-removing-cam-sprocket.html

 

Not fun, but seems possible. I'm doing it saturday and the local part dept at subaru is open until 5 pm, but I don't think they would let me borrow a cam wrench, that was very nice of your local shop! :)

 

I tried using everything with the old timing belt as a wrench to hold the cam sprocket, but the bolt was really stuck on there. For how stuck my bolt was, I don't think I would have been able to do it without the Subaru cam sprocket wrench. I'm so thankful for that dealership.

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I just finished this over the weekend (and a CV reboot. More than I wanted to do in one day, but with a family I have limited time to work on the car).

 

Subaru Outback XT.

 

My notes: I took out the whole radiator with fans. This also included breaking the lines from the transmission to the cooler. Wasn't expecting that. We'll see if there is any issue with that (i.e. I lost some fluid, but not much - less than a 1/2 cup). I wonder if it wouldn't have been easier just to pull the two fans, but it was nice to have all that room AND i had a lot of junk between the radiator and AC radiator that was probably impact cooling.

 

I got the kit from amazon, best price I could find with shipping. Gates kit. All the idlers and tensioner appeared to be OEM.

 

Crank pulley was easy using the two 3/8" extensions in two of the four holes and a Gorilla pry bar 30" that I had around. It has a small 'blade' side that slipped in between the extensions but cleared the socket. This was a lot faster than removing the intercooler to get to the transmission plug. I've used the starter flick trick on another car in the past, so that was my backup plan, but this was great because I was able to retorque. BTW, the bolt only turned 45 degrees, and per the FSM I need a new one. I didn't have one on hand though, so I left it. I suppose I should get a new one from the dealer.

 

I used the vice grip tip. It doesn't take much at all to hold them. Go light. And make sure you're prepared in case it slips (Watch the Meaty Sub timing belt change video) but it probably won't.

 

I replace the tensioner and idlers. THis is easy. The tensioner had oil sitting on top, so it definitely needed replacing.

 

I also replaced the water pump. This didn't seem worth it. I've done all the coolant changes on schedule. The pump seemed fine. The hoses where a bear to get off, and to put back together. Turns out I tore one (heater bypass) but I didn't know that until I had it all back together and was burping it. I used the gasket with the kit, cardboard. Torque was very unsatisfying and hard to judge if I had it right. It suggest 8.9 ftlbs. I want to almost 20 before I felt it was properly torqued. I think it would have felt better with the OEM metal gasket. The water pump took me almost as long as the timing belt.

 

I followed the FSM recommendation to get the belt on, which made it easy. Leave the lowest passenger side idler off until you have everything lined up. Then put it on BUT make sure the bolt is going straight on to the block. I got my cross threaded for a thread or two, and thought that I was in DEEP. Went looking for a tap to clean up the threads (M10 1.25 pitch turns out) but couldn't find one. Went back and started just the bolt really carefully, and it went in with extra running torque. Made sure the idler was on straight the next time before starting the bolt. Felt weird going in (more running torque that I would have liked), but it torqued up just fine. I think I'm in the clear.

 

The top left cam mark was ~ 1/2 a tooth off with the cover. It appeared that way before I took the old one one, I marked the old on, and verified all the marks on the gates. It was spot in. Lined all the marks on the new belt up with the cams and crank, everything looked good except that on. But there's no way it could have been right.

 

Started up just fine. But as I mentioned the heater bypass hose had a tiny tear in it. Ended up with one from the local NAPA store on Monday. Everything else appears fine.

 

Thanks everyone for the tips and writeups! Made it possible for me!

 

ADD: Also there are not timing belt guides in the XT with auto transmission. That had me scratching my head, some some folks over at outback.org cleared it up. Only on manuals.

 

Tom

Edited by tdelker
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first of all im in the procces of replaceing head gaskets and im doing my timeing belt now. engine is out of car.

 

so i saw the vice grip tip did it and stopped reading after i saw the pic and being the genius i am i decided to take it off once i took the tensioner off. and it sliiped like a 1/4 inch. came back on here saw that a guy said he just grabbed it and twisted it back.

 

so i tried it. and it spun some more, alot more.

kinda lost right now got any tips i could use

 

or am i fine since i would think the would have to unwind anyway since i have to take cams out to remove heads?

Edited by plumb
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You are fine, since you could have to remove the head. You just have to know how to put it all back together right! Mark things as you pull them off, which cam is on which side, and orientation. You can only turn them one way to get them lined back up. Get a service manual so you know...
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My local dealer quoted me $500 for the timing belt replacement, which seems amazingly cheap as my normal independent mechanic quoted me $1,000.00! I've done timing belts on Nissan Maximas before, but they are not my favorite job. I think I may let the dealer do this one.
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I have a question on the waterpump..., I've been reading a lot about these and watching the videos online. The vacation pix have you removing a cam sprocket but I have not seen anyone actually do this. Does the cam sprocket need to be removed to do the water pump? Thanks.
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Not for 2.5 DOHC. It might make it slightly easier if you pull both cams off and the rear timing cover (it is a little tight getting it back in with the gasket and sealant) but that's a lot of work for little payoff. Edited by tdelker
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I have a question on the waterpump..., I've been reading a lot about these and watching the videos online. The vacation pix have you removing a cam sprocket but I have not seen anyone actually do this. Does the cam sprocket need to be removed to do the water pump? Thanks.

 

NO not at all.

305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD).  CHECK your oil, these cars use it.

 

Engine Build - Click Here

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  • 1 month later...
I have a question on the waterpump..., I've been reading a lot about these and watching the videos online. The vacation pix have you removing a cam sprocket but I have not seen anyone actually do this. Does the cam sprocket need to be removed to do the water pump? Thanks.

 

No, you definitely do not need to remove any of the cam sprockets to remove the water pump on the DOHC turbo engine. This is a picture I took with the timing belt, water pump, and all of the idlers removed. You can see where the water pump was over on the center-right because there's still some green coolant left there. The cam sprockets are not in the way at all.

 

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag28/tomsanity/DSCN0656_zps0eff6054.jpg

 

Here's a close up of where the water pump was:

 

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag28/tomsanity/DSCN0652_zps6c67809a.jpg

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