This year for(and on) my birthday I gave my 05 Outback an emergency crank pulley replacement! Hooray! The garage wasn't able to take the car in for almost a week due to the winter tire rush being in full swing so I bit the bullet and swapped it out myself. Not as bad a job as I had thought. I did a bit of video during the process in case anyone's curious about the truly ghetto mechanic method:

Happy birthday!

Hope you torqued that crank bolt down tight or it will come loose! 140ft lbs.

Happy birthday!

Hope you torqued that crank bolt down tight or it will come loose! 140ft lbs.

Also, a good application to use thread locker on that bolt.

Good information/video. I didn't know that could happen on a 2.5, I had a '92 Legacy as well as my son with the 2.2 years ago and both had the trouble. Before getting it fixed we went through several belts.

Happy birthday!

Hope you torqued that crank bolt down tight or it will come loose! 140ft lbs.

 

Indeed I did. Actually I think I torqued it to about 137 ft lbs  because I slipped adjusting the torque wrench but I reckon that's right in the neighborhood of 'close enough'.

Good information/video. I didn't know that could happen on a 2.5, I had a '92 Legacy as well as my son with the 2.2 years ago and both had the trouble. Before getting it fixed we went through several belts.

I think I've heard of this happening on any vintage subaru as well as other makes and models that use the same rubber-layer pulley construction.

 

I didn't realize at first what was going on. my AC belt came apart and was making noises on the drive to work one morning so I pulled over and cut it off with my pocket knife. When I had time later to check everything over I saw the other belt was starting to go too. So It got a replacement belt, looked one more time and AW DANG... I noticed the crank pulley all cattywompus and discombobulated.