End of my rope...

Have been trying to change my timing belt (including water pump and new pulleys) and drive belts for almost two weeks and my 06 Legacy 2.5i is still sitting on the jack stands... Between Christmas travelling and some stupid little issues popping up on the car, I'm fed up and about to hire someone to just finish it so I can get it back on the road. Anyone ever feel like this or am I just too impatient?

I'm just dying to get back in my Subaru instead of driving my wife's Prius everywhere...

Meh, it is life. Always happens to me as well. Just have to relax and realize that you are only out a couple of weeks. You are going to live 1,000's of weeks in your life.

You KNOW we've all been there OP :-)
Focus on the amount of money you saved by doing it yourself, that always helps me.

but is that money saved worth this aggravation?

Depends on financial standing and mechanical aptitude I guess.
The quote I got for VC gasket R&R, while reasonable cost, it was still over half of our house payment.
So $44 in parts and 4-5 hours of work later (I really took my time as I was doing this "blind", car was a week new to me, and having beers) no more oil leak.
Now that I think about money like that, I've kinda accepted the fact that I'll be doing most of the work to her,excluding head gaskets if/when the time comes

PS- Working on/fixing stuff kinda turns the wifey on too, so it's like a triple win for me

Originally Posted by ripemeat

but is that money saved worth this aggravation?

I've been wondering that myself... I'm not sure if stress actually takes days off of your life but it sure feels like it, lol.

Originally Posted by TheBlackPearl

Depends on financial standing and mechanical aptitude I guess.
The quote I got for VC gasket R&R, while reasonable cost, it was still over half of our house payment.
So $44 in parts and 4-5 hours of work later (I really took my time as I was doing this "blind", car was a week new to me, and having beers) no more oil leak.
Now that I think about money like that, I've kinda accepted the fact that I'll be doing most of the work to her,excluding head gaskets if/when the time comes

PS- Working on/fixing stuff kinda turns the wifey on too, so it's like a triple win for me

I definitely don't have a lot of cash to drop on it and I can work on cars but I've never taken on a large project. So it's not so much the aptitude as it is my attitude. Makes me sick looking at it sitting on jack stands now.

Originally Posted by O.C.D.

Meh, it is life. Always happens to me as well. Just have to relax and realize that you are only out a couple of weeks. You are going to live 1,000's of weeks in your life.

One would hope...

if you paid a competent person to do it, it takes a couple hours max to do this job, and you'd have your car back and ready to drive. sometimes you need to live and learn. I've been down this road a few times with my lgt, there are just some things you should let others do, and there are some things that you can do.

Originally Posted by ripemeat

if you paid a competent person to do it, it takes a couple hours max to do this job, and you'd have your car back and ready to drive. sometimes you need to live and learn. I've been down this road a few times with my lgt, there are just some things you should let others do, and there are some things that you can do.

Count this as a LESSON LEARNED! Trying to be "that guy" that fixes his own car and gets it back on the road in the same amount of time as a hired mechanic has apparently not worked out for me, lol. Unless it's something minor, they can handle it from here on out.

No shame in that, right?

Originally Posted by ALHockeyGuy

I definitely don't have a lot of cash to drop on it and I can work on cars but I've never taken on a large project. So it's not so much the aptitude as it is my attitude. Makes me sick looking at it sitting on jack stands now.

I hear you there man. It's almost worst that way, huh?

FWIW, my VC gasket should've been a 4 hour job for both sides, but it took me longer than that on one side and I had to split it up between 3 days.

Originally Posted by ALHockeyGuy

Count this as a LESSON LEARNED! Trying to be "that guy" that fixes his own car and gets it back on the road in the same amount of time as a hired mechanic has apparently not worked out for me, lol. Unless it's something minor, they can handle it from here on out.

No shame in that, right?

lol! I couldn't agree more!
I always forget that they have the lifts, parts departments, and FSM's that I as a simple garge/shop mech do not posess :-)

Originally Posted by TheBlackPearl

FWIW, my VC gasket should've been a 4 hour job for both sides, but it took me longer than that on one side and I had to split it up between 3 days.

NO KIDDING. Jesus, it took me the same amount of time. I could not get that valve cover out of that confined space and I didn't want to use too much force... The problem right now is that when I pulled out the bolt on one of the idler pulleys, the STEEL bolt stripped the ALUMINUM threads for some reason. I am still pissed about it. On top of that, I was trying to line up the belt marks to the notches and it's off by one or two teeth... So, I'm stuck with no idea where to go from here other than calling up a few guys I know that work on cars to see if they'll come fix it without charging me out the ass for it since I've done the tearing down, etc.

Sorry about making this a "vent" but as the title of the thread says... I'm fed up, lol.

Originally Posted by TheBlackPearl

lol! I couldn't agree more!
I always forget that they have the lifts, parts departments, and FSM's that I as a simple garge/shop mech do not posess :-)

So do you ever take yours to an actual Subaru dealer to have work done?

Originally Posted by TheBlackPearl

You KNOW we've all been there OP :-)
Focus on the amount of money you saved by doing it yourself, that always helps me.

The labor portion for my timing belt etc was $180. Beyond well worth it. The mechanic (Subaru expert) called me back in <2hrs it was done. So he made money too.