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Old 07-10-2005, 08:36 PM   #1
papasan
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 88807
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Rural VA
Vehicle:
2000 Forester
Silver

Have a Nice Day? More Timing Belt Tensioner Questions

new (for me) 2000 Forester w/ 60k miles, it's got some bad engine knock when it's cold. some people seem to be describing it as vavle noise, but it sounds much deeper to me. more like driving up hill at low RPMs in a too-high gear. piston slap seems to better describe the sound. the sound is bad for 5 minutes at low RPMs after starting her up, give or take, and continues past the engine temp gauge hitting warm. the noise will usually go away when in motion at 3k+ RPMs (not just when reving the engine in neutral though).

i took off the driver-side timing belt cover to check it out. the timing belt was vibrating over prolly 1/2" - 3/4" of wobble. i also noticed a higher-pitched slapping sound from the passenger's side, presumably the belt slapping the cover over there. i'm kicking myself now for not doing this, but i didn't let the engine warm up until the knocking went away to see if the timing belt's motion smoothed out.

so are these things consistant with a timing belt tensioner failure? i live in rural Virginia and there's only 1 shop in the area the does 'imports' and they're mainly a Volvo shop so i don't really have anywhere to take it for a second opinion.

also, what is the exact part of the tensioner? when i do searches for the part i get different part numbers...
A5028-99245, A5028-161104, A5030-53920
...that cost between $100 and $140. but there's a TSB (02-93-04) that indicates a specific part number -- 13156AA062 Bracket Complete Tensioner -- listed on subaruparts-dot-com for $23.63. i figure they can't be talking about the same thing, so what am i missing?

thanks for taking the time to educate a noob =).
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Old 07-10-2005, 08:57 PM   #2
josh...just josh
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 82273
Join Date: Mar 2005
Chapter/Region: MWSOC
Location: little creek naval base, VA
Vehicle:
97 impreza L
now with wrx brake love!!

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any shop with a mechanic who knows how to tie his shoes should be able to give you a second opinion worth hearing, although our cars differ from most in big ways they have one of those internal combustion engines and therefore share a lot with every other car on the road. about the knocking noise what weight of oil do you use? thicker oil takes longer to become liqiud enough to flow up and lub the heads. You cloud also have a compression test done to give you some idea of the condition of you pistons (a simplier way to test for the possibility of piston slap then say removing the head). I'm not really sure what the deal with the knock is to be sure, my car had a slight cold knock this winter with 5w-20 flowing in it. the most important point that I want to make here is that at 60k you need to change your timing belt, I'm fairly sure that some 2.5's (i think it's the DOHC) are interference engines and 60k is right at the recomended service point. the fact that the belt is wobbling could actually be attributed to it being worn out, rubber loses it's ability to hold it's shape with wear, you can tension it all you want but if it's worn it wont remain tight. get that changed (you'll have to change your water too as it is ran by the timing belt and therefore wears with the belt so if a new belt with new belt tension is put on it, you'll have a screwed up pump in a really short amount of time) and go from there. after you get the tensioner off, check the spring tension and the pulley bearings to give you an idea of it's condition, I honestly doubt that after 60K it;s bad. on a side note the cold knocking was before I recently changed my timing belt, dosen't do it anymore. Not saying that it was for sure the belt....
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Old 07-11-2005, 01:42 PM   #3
papasan
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 88807
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Rural VA
Vehicle:
2000 Forester
Silver

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everything i've read says the timing belt is good for 105k miles. the belt looked fine; no cracking, no discoloration, no missing teeth that i could see. from what i understand back in '97 or so Subaru switched out to California-spec belts on all there engines, so it's barely gone through half it's life as far as i can tell.

i think i can swing a timing belt tensioner swap but i'm not sure that i would feel confortable changing out the entire cam belt. with an interfearence engine there's too much that can go wrong.

oil: according to the quicky oil change sticker there's Castrol 10-40 in there now. it's supposed to be good for another 1000 miles or so. i've got a jug of Mobile 1 10-30 that's going in next weekend.

Last edited by papasan; 07-11-2005 at 01:48 PM. Reason: oil comments...
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