I just picked up a 1990 Turbo station wagon with close to 106k miles on it. Automatic with full time 4wd. The car is in very good shape, and even the AC has not been retrofit. The previous owner only owned it for about 8 months and then had to sell it because he lost his job. I dont have any type of history on the car, other than what he told me. I asked about the timing belts, and he said "I was told this model doesn't have a timing belt".

 

Since I'm pretty sure that this model has a timing belt, I'm afraid that it may be the original. Is there any truth to what he said about this model not having a timing belt? Is there any way to inspect the belt before taking it to the dealer?

The PO was wrong. There are 2 belts actually. Not the easiest to see unless you remove a good bit of stuff. Not a real hard job if you have a book.

There is a very good instructions made by Miles Fox here on how to replace a timing belt. They may be in the "Repair Manual". It helped me a lot.

 

And yes, it is recommended to replace timing belts every 60,000 miles. I would replace water pump as well.

 

Good luck,

Sam

Here's a link to the post. It helped me a whole lot.

 

You can do this with the engine in the car as well. The first time I did was with the motor in the car.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50768