Hi, I am new to Subaru and have a cracked front timing cover and it appears the rear cover is damaged as well. Do I need to remove the crank pulley/idlers to replace the rear cover so the front covers have something solid to attach to? Thanks!

Iirc, the crank doesn't need to come off, but the cam gears would. Should be two pieces, one on each side. If it's just cracked, I wouldn't worry to much about it until it comes time to do the timing belt, unless it is rubbing on something. 'Course, if it bothers you, then by all means. If you're going that far though, unless it's just had them, it would make sense to do timing belt, idlers, tensioner, water pump, cam seals and crank seal. Especially if your belt's marks have worn off.

Thank you!

HI,

This is basically a timing belt job. The crank pulley (drives the belts for P/S, Alt and AC) must come off to remove the middle timing cover to access the timing belt components.

 

The cam gear / sprockets will be on TIGHT so you'll need to look up how to hold them in place to remove.

 

As noted no reason to replace the covers unless you're doing the whole timing belt job

 

A normal T-belt job does NOT require removal of the cam gears  unless your cam seals are leaking, too, unless you DO need to replace rear covers.

 

Td

Edited November 11, 201510 yr by wtdash