Worst Subaru Timing Belt Video Ever (Part 2) -EricTheCarGuy

46 thoughts on “Worst Subaru Timing Belt Video Ever (Part 2) -EricTheCarGuy”

1. I'm in the process of buying all the parts to do the timing belt on my Subaru. I've watched a ton a videos, more complete, Subaru specific stuff. But even an incomplete video by Eric has worth. The general timing belt notes you were making were great..especially turning the engine by hand and double checking your marks. Some serious cover your sss stuff there! You calmed my nerves referring to this as easy too. I decided to do it cuz I do somewhat agree. Years later, thank you for actually putting this up, you're obviously not proud of it, but I took a lot from it.

2. If the factory paint Mark's are not on the notches on the cam pulley what do I use?

3. I hope the cam and crank seals wasn't leaking bc it would have been a waste of job done lol

4. Nice one thanks Eric. 'Think I've made a mistake though and was wondering… After putting on the belt and pulling the grenade pin and beginning one gentle rotation of the engine by turning the crank with socket and ratchet… I heard a noise that did not sound good so stopped and try to reverse back to TDC but heard the bad noise again. Mines a EJ206 DOHC . What does one do if one messes up? Take off the belt and adjust crank/cams separately?? Pull the heads? Light her up for the insurance money? : (

5. This may be a crazy idea, But here it goes…I have a 2001 Forester with a manual and a SOHC 2.5 with 160K on it. Is it do-able for a backyard mechanic to install a newer (2014) engine and trans into this older car without a bunch of butchery?
   Thanks Man, LOVE your channel !!

6. Which way does the bleeder hole go on the tstat, toward the front of the car or to the rear?? I do know the hole goes at the top of the tstat when it is mounted vertically…nice video..got one to do real soon..

7. Luckily the 2.2 is a non interference engine while the 2.5 is

8. I have seen people claim that it is easier to work on Subarus than Hondas, but what about replacing spark plugs? Head gaskets?

9. WARNING: The Haynes manual for the Subaru 2.2 engine states that the torque ft lbs for the harmonic balancer is 80. WRONG! It's 130. It's a misprint – and one that cost me hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Torqued to 80 ft/lbs my harmonic balancer lasted less than a month before it's noisy wobble alerted me that all was not right. The woodruff key had sheared off and the fix was over my head. Took it to my local pricey mechanic and threw $$$ at them. I'm lucky it didn't trash the end of my crank – that would mean new crank / engine rebuild time.

   Haynes cannot be implicitly trusted for torque settings. I recommend that if you're following their procedures that you check elsewhere for critical measurement.

10. Eric can you explain what you mean by tension side and loose side? Are you saying that anything by the tensioner should be looser than the other side? Why is that?

11. Known head gasket issues I wouldn't even bother with Subaru.

12. I know this video is old but I love your work good video

13. Thanks Eric!! parts 1 & 2 were what i needed to get er don!

14. HI ERIC, JUST WATCHED YOUR VIDEO THANKS . GETTING READY TO DO THE SAME ON MY SUBARU, HOW MANY MILES DO YOU SUGGEST BEFORE YOU NEED TO DO THIS ? THANKS RON

15. The 1.8L with two timing belts are even easier to change the timing belts.

16. Just to let ya know there are timing marks on the new belts that line up wit the cams timing and crank timing

17. What a legend! this video saved me $1000

18. TOO HARD ON YOUR SELF. yeah some shit is missing but it's well explained so it makes up for it. cheers for the video

19. LOL timing belt video with no timing belt? HAHA good job buddy! You weren't lying about this video!

20. I replaced the timing belt on a chevet and when I tried to start it wouldn't run re timed it many times come to find out the previous owner put the plug wires ad vanced to the next terminal on the distibuter

21. i have done the dual overhead cam engines.the belts are marked as to where everything should be and with a bit of patience the job isn't as bad as one would think.took three hours after the rad was removed to complete(first time around).burping the cars is more of a pain than i thought it should be.had to heat cycle them all several times. it was a good idea to get the idlers in a kit.
    i've never seen a set that was reusable….the bearings always seem rough. i am suprised though that the left cam was a tooth off.
    thats kind of a head scratcher.wonder if cat damage had also occurred?
    given the time line though we will never know,odds are.

22. did one of those legacy timing belts last year. wasn't too bad until I had to bleed the air from the radiator and engine. it wouldn't bleed the air until the engine was being driven and then the temp would shoot up and when you dropped to idle the temp would go back down. took a good hour to bleed the system

23. Timing belts suck. I won't buy a car that uses one.

24. Check your GoPro settings to make sure you don't have it set for a determined amount of time for your videos. This would explain why it was cutting off on you. Nothing wrong with the camera, you may have it set for 5 or 10 minutes per video.

25. Good day sir. May I know the brand part number of the timing belt, pulleys and water pump set that you installed? I am planning to do the same job. thanks.

26. on the removal of the air from the coolant system I tried for over an hour to get the air out it never quit releasing air I figured I'd try a short run down the road and it overheated.I got the car back home and the top hose was very hot and had alot of pressure on it.everything has been changed.and checked.I figured ok..it's a head gasket. so I pulled the plugs out to see if one had been steam cleaned and no sign of an issue. checked compression and was good. checked for a flow issues with the radiator and even swapped out just in case, fans are working. the car runs strong and idles smooth, no missing,no codes,but yet this thing will not quit overheating no matter what I do,there is alot of pressure in the system the cap when barley opened shot up to the 2nd floor like a bullet, as a last resort I took the old thermostat and gutted it to use the outer part and seal so the is no restriction now.still overheating. the system has been flushed.also before I installed the new pump I check the impeller on the pump to make sure everything was good and it seemed to be.I guess what I'm asking is there anything else that I have overlooked. any help would be appreciated. thanks

27. I believe that the timing belt pulleys and tensioner should always be replaced whenever changing the belt. We saw a couple people who destroyed engines when tensioners or pulleys failed or seized up. They aren't that expensive, especially when compared to the cost of a new engine.

28. I really enjoyed this video, I think that filming the job and explaining it afterward, gives a more profound meaning to this work plus you are adding so much more information, so definitively It is great.

29. I just don't get it every one does it they don't completely stop when coming out of reverse to drive they roll it and put it in drive that will mess up a Damn transmission for sure tear it up I see a lot people do that and I can't believe eric does that he should know about that idc idc what anyone says about ohh it won't hurt yes it will y sister boyfriend that works at dealership says won't hurt it but yet he does same thang and kinda even worse and he had put 3 transmissions in his suv so I'm telling u don't do it u tear it up not kidding

30. I just did this job on my Subaru 2001 Forester S. Engine is an EJ25. Essentially the same exact engine/job as this vid. GREAT new discovery I found is "rockauto.com". Got a complete Gates kit with a timing belt, all new idlers, new tensioner, AND water pump with WP gasket and thermostat gasket for $164 plus shipping (which is very reasonable). I don't know if Eric mentions where he bought his kit or how much it was, but I HIGHLY recommend Rock auto if anyone watching this is embarking on the same job. They also have SEVERAL kits to choose from (different brands and different qualities) if you want to spend a little more.

31. We had a 1986 Subaru RX turbo.  Absolutely the worst vehicle I have owned.  The engine crapped out and Subaru of North America rebuilt the engine because we purchased the extended warranty. I changed the oil with Castrol GTX 20-50w every 3,000 miles and used genuine Subaru oil filters. We documented each fill up and each oil change in a log book. It required four or five trips to two different dealers and contacting the service manager for the tri-state area to convince Subaru there was a significant problem at 65,000 miles.  I spoke with one of the mechanics who worked on it and "unofficially" it had the wrong pistons and con rods installed from the factory.  Evidently the turbo required different pistons and con rods.  I did not own a shop manual and I don't know if he was correct or blowing smoke.  There were three things I really liked about the vehicle.  It was on demand 4wd.  You simply depressed the clutch and moved the 4wd lever up.  It had a "hill holder" clutch.  The clutch had a second hydraulic circuit that kept the brakes set after the brake pedal was released.. This was an excellent feature. The oil filter was easy to reach as it was on the right front of the engine. This made oil changes simple. The biggest negative issue was the vehicle was listed by Car and Driver magazine as one of the 10 worst vehicles.  I explained the engine had recently been rebuilt and all issues corrected. This did not help and we took a bath on a trade in. This was our first and last Subaru.  We moved to Honda Accords.  Then we make the mistake of purchasing a 2000 Honda Odyssey Navi.  Honda transmissions in the Odysseys do not hold up and Honda will not stand behind their product.  This is my last Honda.

32. Don't all those parts have specific torque specs? Water pumps especially tend to get over-tightened. Some only need 7 to 8 ft-lbs per bolt. I assume the total torque on the part is the sum of all the bolts' torque.

33. How about a link to purchase the timing belt kit you mentioned?

34. Go pro was a great point of view gotta do this job soon do you happen to have links to where you got your timing and idler kit?

35. Thanks for the great video, Erik.  Just finished this as my first DIY project on my '97 impreza.  I wanted to share the one enormous mistake that left me with a non-starting car for 12 hours while I did more research.  The timing mark on the crank shaft is NOT the arrow/triangle on the toothed pulley.  That would be the piston position indicator.  I saw the obvious mark and the actual timing mark may has well been invisible to me.

    Thankfully the starter motor didn't jack up the valve for me.  Got everything sorted and the car is idling better than ever.  Now to rebuild that leaky power steering pump.

36. hi eric u have many repair video's here on youtube but do you have a video for buying a car?
    i mean what to do on a test drive and  what areas to look at? what to listen for leaks that are expesive to repair and witch you can do at home? sorry for the bad spelling.

37. rust neutralizer in the spray can would help with some of that rust so it stops eating away at the metal. Why not use quick dry RTV to run a new seal and wait until it completely dried so you had a seal close to the original and would seal better?

    Oh little tip for ya K050345 = 5 ribs 34.5 inches So if the other belt only had 3 ribs it should have been part number K030XXX Length where the X's are decimal carried over once. Duralast belts from autozone are a lot easier to read the part number for the one you can see would have been 345K5 and the other would have been XXXK3 x's are sizes again. And finally the Dayco belts are 5050345. They just use the Gates number but replaces the K with a 5.

     I work part time as a manager for a parts store and some people think they are gonna show how much more they know than the parts guy and try to laugh at them so they come in and say something like they need a 45 and a half inch belt with 3 ribs and want to watch as the person sweats trying to find out which one they need. I just go on over and grab them a 255K3 and 5030455 and ask them which brand.

    I've also had people come in and say crap like "lets see how much you know". I usually smile and say "OK lets see". And after they ask me some really stupid question like "whats the displacement of the chevy 350 engine" after I let them know its 5.7L then I tell them they need to answer my question next. And then I ask them the model of their transmission. A lot of those guys just think everyone in a parts store don't know their shit. But I personally work on cars and do so for others and have been told I do fantastic work. I do it as a hobby and refuse to make something I like doing a job so I opt to not be a mechanic. It allows me the luxury of working on cars and continuing to enjoy doing it. Some people out there can be very very annoying so I guess what I am trying to say is….Thank you for not  being a condescending asshole mechanic. That is the exact reason why some of the commercial customers who have an attitude like yours gets a decent discount.

38. Nice video. You call it the worst video ever but it was really quite informative. Thank you
    I just did this job last night on my 95 Legacy L 2.2.. It took me 5 hours by myself and I have never done a timing belt before now. One thing I felt you should have mentioned was the oil pump. The oil pump is only five more bolts and the backing plate screws have a reputation for loosening allowing oil pressure to bleed off. Having the timing belt out is a great opportunity to do that. In any event, this job isn't to terribly hard even for a non-mechanic do-it-yourselfer like me. One thing I would recommend to anybody trying this job though, GET AN IMPACT WRENCH. If you don't have one rent or borrow one it is totally worth it. I screwed around for over an hour trying to get the cam sprocket bolts loose and it is almost impossible w/out an impact wrench. Plus, it just makes everything so much easier.
    Thanks for the video!

39. lol the mechanics test flooring it great video

40. 2:00 so those components are defective and worn out right?

41. Nice Eric ! 

42. i change one camshaft chain & tensioner on a 99 vw passat 2.8.., 6cylinder, i also change the timing belt., put everything  back together & start it., it statrs but wont keep up., it runs for a few minutes then shut off., i change the fuel pump & it still does the same thing.., what do you think is the problem

43. the oil leaks are coming from the seals behind the crank shafts on the timing belt. be prepared to address those at some point in the future should you get another opportunity to work on this Subaru. Those seals do often dry out and leak overtime. sometimes pretty severely. same thing with the power steering leak, that's another common item to leak.

44. I just i would also throw something in, check out pivothead KUDU (safety lense option possible). I think you would love it better than a gopro for the application, basicaly no weight, confortable, standard connection/video in mp4 and not in the way; i think for you it would be better. lates man

45. For the GoPro problem it's a common problem i had too with my canon eos while recording. The problem isn't the camera, it's the memory it use; te memory can't keep up with the write speed the camera output. If you crank your camera at max resolution-max FPS for ultimate recording quality, you will notice it will stop earlier. Fix is simple, just buy a better memory flash card that is at least class 10 like me.

    check it up http://gopro.com/support/articles/software-update-release

    thanks for taking time making this video

46. i have the same car and my timing belt looks really bad if it breaks will that damage my engine?

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