EJ25 lost power, now wont start.

I changed the water pump, timing belt, and radiator just over week ago. The car ran great for that week. Tonight I was on my way to work when the car suddenly lost power, felt like it was only running on a few cylinders. I immediately pulled over and the car was running extremely rough. Shut it down, tried to turn it over again and for lack of a better explanation, it turns over "roughly". Like, fast, slow, fast slow. Hopefully that makes sense.

I left the car on the side of the road, and am still at work so I haven't been able to investigate. Does it sound like the belt jumped or something? If so, what could have caused it?

What else should I check?

BTW, I changed the tensioner, and all the idlers as well.

So, I figured I'd give an update, and maybe I'll get some replies with more info.

I got the car home, took the timing cover off, lined up the crank pulley, and the driver side cam gears were still in position. However the passenger side cam gears had clearly slipped quite a bit and the belt was very loose on the passenger side. Loose enough to where the lower/passenger side idler pulley would actually spin free.

Could the belt have stretched?? How can i tell??

Thanks in advance.

In the spirit of continuing my conversation with myself, here's another update.

I put everything back together, fired it up, and the car ran fine. I ran it for a few seconds without a timing cover, and the belt seems to flop around quite a bit, is this normal?

The tensioner seemed very stiff when I squeezed (squoze?) it back down with a C-clamp, but it seems to move more than I would like when I push on the timing belt. I called and a new tensioner is on its way, so hopefully this one fixes the problem.

Is there any way to test a tensioner? or is there any other reason I might have jumped a few teeth?

Count the teeth on the timing belt, timing belts will stretch, however if you replaced it with a new belt its highly unlikely you stretched the belt putting it on unless you used a prybar.

There are things you should check too, timing belt jump/cam/crank trigger tend to carry the same symptoms, pop you're timing covers off and inspect the lineup when you can and snap some pics if you got other questions.

Lol...sorry to reply late..but timing belt tensioners will go bad after time if they were "squoze" too quickly or too many times they will lose strength. Hopefully that has done it.

Rule of thumb on installing any belt is to grab the longest length of free belt after installation and tension is put on it and twist it..... if it twists past a 45°angle easily then its too loose.

Count the teeth on the timing belt, timing belts will stretch, however if you replaced it with a new belt its highly unlikely you stretched the belt putting it on unless you used a prybar.

 

There are things you should check too, timing belt jump/cam/crank trigger tend to carry the same symptoms, pop you're timing covers off and inspect the lineup when you can and snap some pics if you got other questions.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow when I'm back to at the car, however I did remove the timing covers, and the passenger side cams were definitely out of time.

My main concern, is how to prevent this from happening again, since I got lucky this time.

^^that you did, next step is to go buy a lottery ticket you may get lucky again.

If the tensioner isnt working it will likely happen again, if you got one on the way even better...if you win the lottery remember me

what year engine (this will determine what style tensioner)??

did you remember to pull the pin on the tensioner?

how did you compress the tensioner?

how old is the twensioner?

and as asked, what belt did you use?

^^that you did, next step is to go buy a lottery ticket you may get lucky again.

 

If the tensioner isnt working it will likely happen again, if you got one on the way even better...if you win the lottery remember me

I actually have a whole replacement kit on the way. I'm going to use the belt, and tensioner from the new kit.

You say to count the teeth. What am I looking for?

56 teeth per belt before 2001 for the 2.5

2.2 didn't matter they all use the same

what year engine (this will determine what style tensioner)??

 

did you remember to pull the pin on the tensioner?

 

how did you compress the tensioner?

 

how old is the twensioner?

 

and as asked, what belt did you use?

• it's a 99 LGT, it has the aluminum ?hydraulic? tensioner with the pulley attached.
   
  
• I did pull the pin.
   
  
• I compressed it with a C-Clamp. but that was only AFTER it skipped teeth.
   
  
• the tensioner was a week old
   
  
• it was a gates kit. TCKWP277A
  

56 teeth per belt before 2001 for the 2.5

 

2.2 didn't matter they all use the same

I'll double check that # on both belts. thanks.

56 teeth per belt before 2001 for the 2.5

 

2.2 didn't matter they all use the same

the ej22 belt 90 - 98 are all the same.

and the ej25 belts have over 200 teeth.

i think all the ej belts do. that must be a typo.

if the tensioner was new, a ''week old'' and the belt jumped i would complain to the supplier and the manufacturer. clearly it is a bad tensioner.

if you compressed it in the wrong position, horizontal instead of vertical or vice versa,(iirc) you can damage it. ruin it. so be careful.

I just saw a phase two 2.2 belt it is longer by an inch, did they move idler pulleys around or orient them differently to cause that? I don't know much about phase 2 subarus obviously.

Sorry about that guys.

the ej22 phase 2 heads are different. which positions the cam sprockets farther apart.

the 00 ej25 intake manifold will bolt on to the 99 - 00 ej22 engine, perfectly. not true of the 90 - 98 ej engines.

but the mounting surface of the ej22 99 - 00 is the same as the 90 - 98 ej22. this means you can swap the blocks back and forth.

i do not know if the phase 2 ej25 and phase 2 ej22 timing belts are the same. probably not, but could be, i don't know.

Thanks everyone. I got it running, unfortunately I snapped that stupid bleed screw. Brad new radiator too!!

It seemed to rub well though. I'll get a new screw tomorrow.

steal the one off of the old rad.

congrats on the fix.

steal the one off of the old rad.

 

congrats on the fix.

That one was totally trashed from the previous owner. No Philips head left at all, lol.

time for some JB WELD.

fill it up and then use a phillips to make new indentations.

iirc, some one had theirs leak at the very bottom center of the phillips ''socket'' . apparently the plastic is very thin there.

or find a short bolt with matching threads.

maybe throw an o-ring on the bolt for good measure.

time for some JB WELD.

 

fill it up and then use a phillips to make new indentations.

 

iirc, some one had theirs leak at the very bottom center of the phillips ''socket'' . apparently the plastic is very thin there.

 

or find a short bolt with matching threads.

maybe throw an o-ring on the bolt for good measure.

I just used a 10x1.25 bolt, and the factory o-ring.

FYI. The head on a standard 10x1.25 hex bolt is too bit to fit in the recess. I turned mine down on a lathe, then welded a small wingnut to the top to prevent over tightening. I suspect a 10x1.25 socket head cap screw would be small enough to fit in the recess, but I couldn't find a metric Allen bolt on a Sunday.