This is my brothers car… mechanic said the crank pulley was digging into the timing cover and he needs a new engine.  I’ve never seen this … any thoughts?  Does this alone mean the motor is toast? 05 legacy 2.5 … probably 150k on it now.

Looks like the Damper separated and walked back into the cover.  I'd pull it apart and check the components.

If it's just the crank damper you can inspect the shaft and key and replace it.  If the Timing belt is close to due you  may as well do it and all the idler pulleys.

Key is likely shot. Or like Larry mentioned. Ours did the same thing with the covers. Scrap the mechanic. Keep the car. 

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by moosens

Need a new harmonic balancer, and a new mechanic.

The “dampener” bit as previously described above has chewed out and allowed the outer steel ring that the belts run on to walk backwards or forwards in relation to its centre half.

Keyway is likely to be good still.

A new cam cover section would be recommended too.

Cheers 

Bennie

Needs a crank pulley (harmonic balancer, etc) and a new mechanic. Any idiot can see the balancer rubber has failure. Which means his mechanic is *less* than an idiot. 

Keyway and key are fine. Replace the pulley and the center cover (and any other timing components that are damaged or due) and move on (with a new mechanic). 

GD

I've seen the timing cover warp and rub on a good pulley, but that pulley is clearly separated.

 

 

"Needs a new engine" HA!

“Needs engine” was that a legit mechanic or the neighbors uncle who claims to be a mechanic?   “I don’t know” would have been acceptable and honest, an apocalyptic wrong guess is sad  

New balancer, done. don’t fail often enough to require new so used is a reasonable option. 

A good mechanic could - in 20 minutes - remove the pulley, press, tack weld it so it doesn’t get worse and you drive off safely until you get a new pulley to fix it. 20 minutes and you’re safe with no stranding potential.

But instead he lets you drive away with potential more damage and stranding potential, while encumbering you with a new engine…move on from that.

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by idosubaru

Thanks for the replies and the fantastic info … as always.  I knew it didn’t sound correct when I heard what he had been told.  In all fairness … I can’t be 100% certain what was said … but I know a replacement car is being shopped for…. Thanks again!  

As a follow up … can all that be done with the motor still in the car?   Sounds like it … 

Yes easily repaired with engine in car. Removing rad fans and putting some cardboard (or some sort of board that’s hard) across the radiator will give you ample room for this job and the radiator will be protected.

On the later models you might not even need to remove the rad fans if there’s enough room in there. 

Cheers 

Bennie

3 hours ago, mikeamondo said:

As a follow up … can all that be done with the motor still in the car?   Sounds like it … 

15-30 minute in-vehicle repair.  Easy  

 

Edited July 27, 20214 yr by idosubaru

Please keep us up to date on this., thank you so far. 

Everyone was pretty much spot on … my brother took the car to local a Subie shop and they fixed the car in the parking lot while he waited.   Thanks for the quick responses and expert info as always!