Quick one for all you lads who know their stuff, I'm due a cam belt on my 55 wrx soon. Been phoning a few garages, $tealer wants 400, the clinic about 190! However Manx engines who are highly respected around here can't give a price just yet! Reason being is, he reckons the water pump also needs changing, aswell as the tensioner and obviously the belt! Is this true, he reckons the Bearing in the pump is as likely to fail as the belt itself so it's worth replacing! What's your thoughts folks, is he trying to have me over or just being professional?
Cheers for Reading!

 

Well in my experience the water pumps fitted to Subaru's are almost bullit proof... Out of all the Franchises that I work with (Subaru, Izuzu, Citroen, Seat, Rover, Honda & Jaguar) Subaru are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to water pumps sold.

As for the cam belt tensioner, less than half of the cars I have seen have needed a tenioner fitting whilst renewing the belt, but just in case I would budget up to another £150 just in case.

Phil

 

as said, belt will need changing (be ware of extreamly cheap offers, an oily rag will make a belt look new) and alot of cases a tensioner will need to be changed, again be ware of places that say it def wont without seeing it (if the tensionsers duff just ask to have it shown to you and explained why, even as a layman mechanics wise its easy to understand and will help you understand y it needs to be done) or not keep tensioners in stock.

 

Have scooby clinic got the good reputation I believe them to have, I would use the dealer
As a rule but they are just taking the p@*s with prices for anything at the moment!

 

some of the dealers i know are shocking, i know of one that don;t even check tensioner when chaing the cam belt

 

people normally change the oil pump when doing cambelts on subaru's to be on the safe side!

 

Its also time for getting my timing belt done on my wr1, I have been told that the water pump should be changed at the same time aswell, so just going to replace it to be on the safe side. Its also recommended that the idle wheels need replacing aswell as the tensioner?

I have also heard that some garages take the front end off the car to gain acsess to the cam belt, is this true?

 

I've never heardof that and no one has ever done that to any of my Imprezas when the belt has been chaged

 

See what I mean? So many different opinions, as I said I'd use beechdale (my dealer) but they are trying to have my pants down! Triangle of Chesterfield phoned me back earlier and geezer was dead honest, 230 all in, but if it needed a new tensioner then it would be another 150+ vat! I'm still torn on what to do, and being a tight ****** don't help ha ha

 

take it to clinic and get some proper serivce lol

 

Ive had 3 cambelt changes on 2 different imprezas, 1 by dealer, 2 by independents. Don't think tensioner has ever been replaced. Dealer and 1 independent about £300, other independent about £200 (this was most recent, about 6 weeks ago).

Think front sometimes has to be removed and was the reason other independent cost £300 as some bolt had seized, could not remove it so had to dismantle some of the front to get access. Got charged extra labour in this case, fair enough.

I would think Scooby Clinic would be a good bet.

HTH

dnc

 

I have owned Subarus for just coming up to 6 years and have always taken them to the same independent. They have got an excellent reputation and loads of fellow owners locally use them and swear by them.

My knowledge of car mechanics ranges somewhere between zero and nil. But when I took my 2004 STI in to be done and they told me it needed the tensioner replaced with the belt I didn't doubt it at all. I trust them enough now to think if they tell me it needs replacing, it needs replacing.

Bottom line is I guess that you need to get to that level of comfort with a garage or ask Subaru owners local to you whose advice they trust. The water pump one is a new one on me though.....