210K Service Interval - 2.5GT Timing Belt and Water Pump Walkthrough

I searched around for quite some time and couldn't find any write up or video of a water pump replacement on a fifth gen LGT. For that reason I'm going to attempt to document my progress on this as I go. Without an extra set of hands, and the overwhelming frustration of running into rust everywhere I turned, I got a little lazy with the pictures. I'll do my best to get some pictures on the reinstall. I just finished with what I can do for now and am waiting for parts. As this is from memory, I may come back and make corrections to the order of removal and specifics as to locations of certain bolts as I reinstall.

Parts:

Here goes

Cold engine only...

Disconnect the battery.

Remove upper and lower engine covers

Drain Coolant. There is a drain plug screw in the center of the radiator. Philips Head. Remove completely and then remove radiator cap to speed up draining.

Remove plastic air intake scoop

Disconnect two electrical connectors for the o2 sensors.

Remove the plastic piece above the rad support that surrounds the hood latch

Two bolts on the rad support hold the radiator in place. 12mm?

Remove the two bolts.

Two hoses on the radiator. Pinch the hose clamp with pliers, slide it down the hose and twist/pull the hose from the radiator. I used a pick to break up the crud that held it on. Just be careful not to damaged the hose which could cause leaks.

For me the damage was a little worse as the turbo coolant pipes sprung a leak when a rubber hose was grazed when removing the radiator. Better to happen now then in a week when I'm driving down th road, but with all new hardware and hoses it'll be an extra $100

Disconnect the two connectors for the radiator fans

Wiggle the radiator out being careful not to bend fins

Remove tension from the accessory belt using a 12mm? wrench.

Slip off the belt.

There is some V shape bar that comes out in two pieces, in front of or around the accessory belt. This is held on by 5? bolts.

Remove the charge pipe. It's held on by a hose clamp at the intercooler. At the intake side of the turbo, I believe I disconnected the bypass valve and removed it as one piece. You just want the charge pipe out of the way.

Crank pulley, I went the risky, lazy, in a rush route, not recommended. I put the car in sixth gear with the e-brake on and broke it free with it a breaker bar on a 22 mm impact socket.

Next were a total of 15 bolts holding on the timing belt cover, one of which I think held on a bracket for two wires to mount to. I popped one bolt and stripped about 5 heads. Most were too rusted to get out without a bolt extractor.

After all that fun, attempt to maneuver and wiggle (but not crack) your passenger side timing belt cover from behind the four power steering lines.

All covers and 2 rubber baskets should now be off, all of which I plan to reuse.

Reinstall the cam pulley and align all timing marks. There are three marks on each cam, and two on the crank.

There is a specialty tool used for dohc 2.5l subaru engines that holds the driver side cams in place so they don't spin and bend valves. I wanna say it was around $70 and I took a chance trying to use a cam locking tool I had, that didn't work out. Instead I slid a thin bolt between the cams and tighten onto the teeth of the gear just enough to prevent the cams from turning. I also lightly locked on needle nose pliers. This can break the pulleys if applied to tight.

Around the timing belt are 3 timing belt guides that are held on by 2 5mm Allen bolts. They just need to be loosened to allow them to slide out of the way.

Next I removed two idle pulleys to allow slack to remove the belt.

There are six bolts in the front face of the water pump plus two holding on the thermostat housing. For now, just remove the thermostat housing.

On the bottom of the pump is your worst nightmare. THE WORST ONE..

There is a lonely 8 mm bolt through a heat shield on the bottom of the water pump, blocked by the downpipe.:spin:

You will now have to remove your downpipe...

(Jack up the car)

To do this for me required grinding away the two lower studs on the turbo.

The upper left bolt that is near the front of the car was grinded off after first grinding off part of the turbo stay. The top right nut (if looking at the turbo exhaust port flange) could not be reached with the grinder. Instead this one I hit with a chisel and 3 lb sledge for 30 minutes trying to split the nut. I hit it at an angle after I had a good notch dug into the nut and pooped it free. This was all after first using a map-pro torch and pb blaster. After it's free remove two bolts from the flange after that cat. I broke another stud here.

I had to pry mine over the broken stud, but it should be easier to get back in with the studs removed.

With the downpipe out of the way, get that stupid bolt on the bottom.

Remove the other bolts in the shield to remove that as well. I left the ground wire attached and let it rest on the frame.

On the back of the water pump is another bolt holding in place the coolant line that feeds the oil cooler. The metal flange slides into the water pump with an o ring to seal it. I had to pry this off as it had seized to the water pump. It bent, but because the o ring is making the seal inside the pump and not on the machined surface, I think I can still salvage the piece. Replacing it requires dropping the headers, turbo, and shield in order to remove the pipe, so I'll try my luck. Now remove the six bolts in the pump. The pump is finally out.

I will update as I continue. I wanted to get this written out before I forget it. It's been 3 days though so it's already fading. Pics to come as well. For what it's worth, the pump looks to be in great shape. I don't think it was listed on the service records with the timing belt job, so i think it has 210k on it. There's a little rust on the outlets, but aside from that the pump and pulley seem to still spin with similar resistance to that of the new part. I regretted removing the six bolts on the face the second i noticed the pump wasn't free with them out. The gasket seal broke though and some rust dropped in so I was committed.

I'll be back

I searched around for quite some time and couldn't find any write up or video of a water pump replacement on a fifth gen LGT. For that reason I'm going to attempt to document my progress on this as I go. Without an extra set of hands, and the overwhelming frustration of running into rust everywhere I turned, I got a little lazy with the pictures. I'll do my best to get some pictures on the reinstall. I just finished with what I can do for now and am waiting for parts. As this is from memory, I may come back and make corrections to the order of removal and specifics as to locations of certain bolts as I reinstall.

 

Parts:

 

Here goes

 

Cold engine only...

Disconnect the battery.

Remove upper and lower engine covers

Drain Coolant. There is a drain plug screw in the center of the radiator. Philips Head. Remove completely and then remove radiator cap to speed up draining.

Remove plastic air intake scoop

Disconnect two electrical connectors for the o2 sensors.

Remove the plastic piece above the rad support that surrounds the hood latch

Two bolts on the rad support hold the radiator in place. 12mm?

Remove the two bolts.

Two hoses on the radiator. Pinch the hose clamp with pliers, slide it down the hose and twist/pull the hose from the radiator. I used a pick to break up the crud that held it on. Just be careful not to damaged the hose which could cause leaks.

For me the damage was a little worse as the turbo coolant pipes sprung a leak when a rubber hose was grazed when removing the radiator. Better to happen now then in a week when I'm driving down th road, but with all new hardware and hoses it'll be an extra $100

Disconnect the two connectors for the radiator fans

Wiggle the radiator out being careful not to bend fins

Remove tension from the accessory belt using a 12mm? wrench.

Slip off the belt.

There is some V shape bar that comes out in two pieces, in front of or around the accessory belt. This is held on by 5? bolts.

Remove the charge pipe. It's held on by a hose clamp at the intercooler. At the intake side of the turbo, I believe I disconnected the bypass valve and removed it as one piece. You just want the charge pipe out of the way.

Crank pulley, I went the risky, lazy, in a rush route, not recommended. I put the car in sixth gear with the e-brake on and broke it free with it a breaker bar on a 22 mm impact socket.

Next were a total of 15 bolts holding on the timing belt cover, one of which I think held on a bracket for two wires to mount to. I popped one bolt and stripped about 5 heads. Most were too rusted to get out without a bolt extractor.

After all that fun, attempt to maneuver and wiggle (but not crack) your passenger side timing belt cover from behind the four power steering lines.

All covers and 2 rubber baskets should now be off, all of which I plan to reuse.

Reinstall the cam pulley and align all timing marks. There are three marks on each cam, and two on the crank.

There is a specialty tool used for dohc 2.5l subaru engines that holds the driver side cams in place so they don't spin and bend valves. I wanna say it was around $70 and I took a chance trying to use a cam locking tool I had, that didn't work out. Instead I slid a thin bolt between the cams and tighten onto the teeth of the gear just enough to prevent the cams from turning. I also lightly locked on needle nose pliers. This can break the pulleys if applied to tight.

Around the timing belt are 3 timing belt guides that are held on by 2 5mm Allen bolts. They just need to be loosened to allow them to slide out of the way.

Next I removed two idle pulleys to allow slack to remove the belt.

There are six bolts in the front face of the water pump plus two holding on the thermostat housing. For now, just remove the thermostat housing.

 

On the bottom of the pump is your worst nightmare. THE WORST ONE..

There is a lonely 8 mm bolt through a heat shield on the bottom of the water pump, blocked by the downpipe.:spin:

 

You will now have to remove your downpipe...

 

(Jack up the car)

To do this for me required grinding away the two lower studs on the turbo.

The upper left bolt that is near the front of the car was grinded off after first grinding off part of the turbo stay. The top right nut (if looking at the turbo exhaust port flange) could not be reached with the grinder. Instead this one I hit with a chisel and 3 lb sledge for 30 minutes trying to split the nut. I hit it at an angle after I had a good notch dug into the nut and pooped it free. This was all after first using a map-pro torch and pb blaster. After it's free remove two bolts from the flange after that cat. I broke another stud here.

I had to pry mine over the broken stud, but it should be easier to get back in with the studs removed.

With the downpipe out of the way, get that stupid bolt on the bottom.

Remove the other bolts in the shield to remove that as well. I left the ground wire attached and let it rest on the frame.

On the back of the water pump is another bolt holding in place the coolant line that feeds the oil cooler. The metal flange slides into the water pump with an o ring to seal it. I had to pry this off as it had seized to the water pump. It bent, but because the o ring is making the seal inside the pump and not on the machined surface, I think I can still salvage the piece. Replacing it requires dropping the headers, turbo, and shield in order to remove the pipe, so I'll try my luck. Now remove the six bolts in the pump. The pump is finally out.

 

 

 

I will update as I continue. I wanted to get this written out before I forget it. It's been 3 days though so it's already fading. Pics to come as well. For what it's worth, the pump looks to be in great shape. I don't think it was listed on the service records with the timing belt job, so i think it has 210k on it. There's a little rust on the outlets, but aside from that the pump and pulley seem to still spin with similar resistance to that of the new part. I regretted removing the six bolts on the face the second i noticed the pump wasn't free with them out. The gasket seal broke though and some rust dropped in so I was committed.

 

I'll be back

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

I did my WP with DP turbo and all still on but had the engine pulled. Just take the block to turbo bracket off and a flex head 10mm ratcheting wrench takes care of the oil cooler pipe. Just fyi the rear upper bolt on that bracket will not go back in if you do the bottoms first so put it back first then do the other 3.

When pulling the engine where do you disconnect the the exhaust system from the block? Unbolt the headers from the block, or the headers from turbo?

F$#% rust!! It's because of it that I no longer will do anymore work myself on the car. And I'm at 90k. I can only imagine 200+.

Yea, it's a northeast vehicle that I believe spent most of its life in massachusetts. It's probably worse up there than NJ in terms of salting the roads, and shows on the lower front hardware.

When pulling the engine where do you disconnect the the exhaust system from the block? Unbolt the headers from the block, or the headers from turbo?

It is really easy to just drop the turbo and manifold as one unit. Just the manifold bolts and two oil lines.

It is really easy to just drop the turbo and manifold as one unit. Just the manifold bolts and two oil lines.

Definitely the best way. I separated the j-pipe(cat) from the exhaust at the first flange after the cat. Those nuts are much easier to reach. Once the manifold and turbo are down it's much easier to get at the turbo studs if you need to separate the j-pipe.

I found this thread very useful in doing my timing belt. I used this thread, dropped the Turbo/manifold down, then used the FSM for the timing belt installation.

Just a couple quick observations.

-The radiator overflow is held in by a plastic push clip on the drivers side. Removing the overflow tank made it easier to remove the radiator assembly.

-The tensioner is a 15mm bolt.

-I only remove the 3 14mm bolts for the V brace and left the 2 12mm bolts in.

-The charge pipe was really difficult to remove. I disconnected BPV from the charge pipe.

-I disconnected the turbo inlet pipe, which I needed to disconnect to drop the turbo anyways. I remove the 2 bolts 10mm under the charge pipe. This allowed the lines enough slack, so the passenger timing cover was easy to remove.

-the bottom bolt on the water pump is also 10mm (not 8mm).

I found this thread very useful in doing my timing belt. I used this thread, dropped the Turbo/manifold down, then used the FSM for the timing belt installation.

 

Just a couple quick observations.

 

-The radiator overflow is held in by a plastic push clip on the drivers side. Removing the overflow tank made it easier to remove the radiator assembly.

-The tensioner is a 15mm bolt.

-I only remove the 3 14mm bolts for the V brace and left the 2 12mm bolts in.

-The charge pipe was really difficult to remove. I disconnected BPV from the charge pipe.

-I disconnected the turbo inlet pipe, which I needed to disconnect to drop the turbo anyways. I remove the 2 bolts 10mm under the charge pipe. This allowed the lines enough slack, so the passenger timing cover was easy to remove.

-the bottom bolt on the water pump is also 10mm (not 8mm).

Glad it helped somebody, and thank you for the extra notes. I wish I could’ve prepared the thread a little better, but with all the road blocks I hit during the work, it was hard to keep track of the whole process. I still have pictures to upload but I had some difficulties uploading them to the site. I’ll try again when I get home from work.

Check out this post for timing belt replacement including water pump on a 2011 Subaru Outback. Should be the same engine and procedure.

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/104-gen-4-2010-2014/484377-timing-belt-replacement-time-2.html

Check out this post for timing belt replacement including water pump on a 2011 Subaru Outback. Should be the same engine and procedure.

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/104-gen-4-2010-2014/484377-timing-belt-replacement-time-2.html

It is not the same engine or procedure for the Legacy GT. Your engine does not have 4 camshafts for the timing belt, charge air pipe for the intercooler and the intake hoses that gets on the way of removing the passenger timing cover or the low mount turbo and downpipe that gets in the way of the 2 lower water pump bolts.

It is possible to remove the bolt that goes into the water pump to hold in the heat shield. I tried to remove the j-pipe but the bolts were seized so I left it. You can fit a small 10 mm wrench from underneath the car and slowly loosen the bolt, dent in the j-pipe heat shield a little and it'll come out. This was on my driveway.

Assuming your replacing the water pump, what are you doing about the other bolt that hold the oil cooler pipe? Are you remove the driver side cam gears and rear timing cover to attempt access that bolt?

Assuming your replacing the water pump, what are you doing about the other bolt that hold the oil cooler pipe? Are you remove the driver side cam gears and rear timing cover to attempt access that bolt?

Yes I replaced the water pump. No I didn't remove anything other than the fans, charge pipe, front timing cover. The oil cooler bolt can be undone without removing anything else. This water pump is the biggest PITA. The hardest part was the heat shield 10 mm and getting the line out of the water pump, I had to use an 3/8 extension and a hammer.