tintop

Sold it for $400 to a mechanic - turns out it was a $50 idler pulley that is part of the standard $200 conti timing belt kit - still a moral sin in my book not to replace. Thanks for all the advice, looking at a used forester xt - wondering what the dependability of the 2.5 turbo is??? BTW, not impressed with the 3 Subaru techs that I've encountered so far.

400-500. There are a lot of door dings though.

The 60 k motor would have new head gaskets/seals/belts pulleys and they guaranteed it for as long as we owned the car. Wasn't cheap though, $4300 installed. $3500 w/o the warranty.

Thanks Mike, how about I sell you our bottom end + everything else! In all seriousness we were thinking of getting a motor with 60K, but I think that we'll get something that has come off lease under 36k and then add an extended factory warranty for up to 100k. It's too bad though because I just did all the shocks, front wheel bearings, rotors + pads, alternator and added new tires.

Spend the money now man! :)

Thanks. 0 compression in cylinder one told the me the sad story - game over. The tensioner + pulleys don't seem to be over $200 list. So when they drop the engine for a $3,000 job, I'm not sure why they'd ignore a troubled and potentially catastrophic item like that. Especially since we are footing the bill and told them to do everything right to justify this expense on a car that had 128k miles. But, I'm learning + we looked at a Forrester today!

Hi, long time lurker - 1st time poster. Long one, sorry in advance. I race and restore BMW's but my fiance is a dedicated Subaru nut. She has had 3 Subaru wagons, the most recent being a 1999 Legacy Outback. Unlike any of the RWD BMW's I've had, this car is magical in the NE winters and I've really come to appreciate it. It's a little more difficult to work on than the older German cars, but I've done most of the basic suspension, brake + exhaust replacement without too much trouble. About 3 years ago (128 k miles), we noticed the fabled head gasket failure starting to develop and (gulp) brought it to the dealer for diagnosis. We then had to make the decision to spend 2-3 grand on a 7 year old car (I had them do a compression check which was very good, as I recall) and bit the bullet knowing or hoping that a dealer would do the right thing as far as proper interval maintenance - tBelt water pump, etc even if it came at a premium. I was traveling at the time, but my GF indicated that all was well with the repair. Last week (185k) I left the driveway and heard a little "pop" and the engine stopped. I performed a scan and got a crank sensor failure, open fuel loop, etc. I know from my BMW experience that these things can fail, but I also know that it's usually an indication of something far more sinister. The replaced $25 Crank sensor cleared the fault but didn't solve the problem as feared. Knowing that it was an interference engine, I had a bad feeling, but I didn't suspect the T belt knowing that it had less than 60 k on it and that it was just 3 years old. My Fiance had the car towed to a different dealer and it turns out it was the bearing on the tensioner that failed (belt jumped) and low and behold the tensioner WAS NOT replaced when they changed the timing belt at 128K (we found the original receipt for the service). I don't have the factory service manuals for this car, but I cant imagine that it wouldn't be a mandatory replace at that mileage. Does anybody have anything that I can reference when I approach this dealer regarding their negligence? An x-Subaru ASE friend told me that he was sure that it was officially recommended, but didn't have any of the manuals on him. Thanks - Not sure if we will get anywhere, I was ready for a drive-line or internally lubricated part failure but not an avoidable timing failure, especially after we paid through the nose for a proper repair. (hoping to convince her to get a WRX or a Forrester XT)