Hi, great site! I have a 96 impreza L wagon with what I am pretty sure is a very leaky cam seal. I took it to a local shop and the quote they gave me was about $1,000 for the cam seals, timing belt and water pump. 1. Does that sound like a reasonable price? 2. I am thinking of doing it myself, is this a job a novice can do? I am pretty handy and do most basic maintenance on the car myself. I paid $1900 for the car about 4 years ago, not sure if it is worth putting in a grand. Thanks!
$1000 seems to be the going rate for a timing belt and reseal job for the 2.2l at the moment. You might get a better rate if you contact David Wray Automotive and let them know that you are on MNSubaru. They do very good work and last I checked are much cheaper than the average local shop. It isnt horrible to do the job yourself. It take about 3 -4 hours depending on how good you are with wrenches and if you have help or not. The last one I did, Chux helped and we flew through it. You will need to pull the radiator, accessory belts, crank pulley (use the starter), and timing belt cover to get to the belt. While your in there it is a goo idea to do the water pump, thermostat and the seals. I highly recommend using a Subaru OEM timing belt as they have the timing marks right on the belt, and some aftermarket ones dont. I think its like $50 for the belt, $100 something for an OEM waterpump. The 2.2l (pre 97) is a non interference motor, so there is nothing to worry about if you dont get the timing spot on the first time (its pretty easy, so this shouldnt be a concern). I havent done cam seals myself so I cant say how much more work it is, but you will need to take the cam pulleys off (and retorque them), which could be interesting. I hope this helps.
my ex just had the crank/cam seals replaced on her outback for about $300, out the door.....timing belt and stuff was replaced recently, so new parts were not installed, but were removed. my post about getting the most out of your money when buying parts: http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showpost.php?p=544676&postcount=3
PM Snowbum or talk to the timshow. They both are very experienced. I did my timing belt, water pump, tensioner, and thermostat myself as well, and with Tom (snowbum)'s help we got it all done in under 5 hours, (on a wrx). Your 2.2 is a non interference motor so even if the timing belt goes, there wont be internal damage. You will just need to replace the belt and start it back up.
I see I was not of any help ;-) They are not hard to replace, but re-torqueing the cam pulleys is definitely an interesting task. You pretty much need to get the crank pulley on and then use that in combination with the timing belt to hold the cam pulleys while you torque the bolts. In theory it all works, but putting some ft-lbs on the cam pulleys can lead to skipping teeth on the timing belt which means taking it off and putting it back on a couple times. not hard, just annoying.
Thanks everyone for their thoughts so far. I am going to do it myself. Does anyone have the Subaru specialty wrenches that I could use/rent? crankshaft pulley wrench tool No. 499977000 and camshaft sprocket wrench tool No. 499207100 Thanks again!
top dead center So I am in the midst of the cam seal job, wondering how I find TDC and or the right compression stroke to have the motor in. I already have the old belt off and am went to break the cam sprocket bolt when the sprocket jumps forward. I rotated it back into place so the marks on the sprocket line up with the ones on the block. But what I think I need to do is to put the belt back on and rotate the crank until the motor is TDC, then take the cam sprocket/s off. But I dont know when/how to tell if the rotation is in TDC. 1. Does it matter if the motor is in TDC? I ordered the cam sprocket wrench but it won't get here till mid week so I think I will wait to continue till I have that wrench. If anyone who has done this before is wiling to come over and lend a hand that would be great, lunch/beer included! (PM me I am in NE Minneapolis) Thanks!
there is a ring on the crank sprocket, behind the belt. it has a number of "teeth" on it and various places around it, one of them will have a mark on it. this one should be pointing straight up. I'll see if I can find a FSM drawing or something of it.
