Hello:

 

A good friend who lives in a different state has an '87 GL coupe that quit running while driving at low speed. He said it just stopped with no warning like someone pulled a plug but that there was a 'belt sqeal' like noise before it happened (his words..) and that the starter turned over 'weird' when he tried to refire the engine (again, his words..). The car is a CA model 1.8 w/ FI, 5 spd & approx 160k. I have never actually seen or worked on it myself so I cannot verify what sort of condition it's in.

 

He replaced the cap and rotor (both heavily corroded inside) and then said when turning over the new rotor did not move. That lead me to assume the timing belt may have broken. I told him (over the phone) to pull a plug on each side and verify piston movement inside the engine when cranking. He did so and said the pistons move ok when cranked which seems to negate a broken timing belt..

 

At this point I assume it's some sort of electrical connection issue or more likely a broken part in the distributer itself? The problem here is I've never worked on a Subaru w/ a conventional type ingnition (my own Subaru is much newer w/ a distributorless ignition).

 

Does anyone have an idea what might be the problem here?

 

TIA

 

Hiergehts

sounds like a broken timing belt to me, the pistons are still going to move if the timing belt broke.

 

 

Dylan

it's pretty easy to take the front cover off the timing belts to see if that is a problem. The middle cover on mine has a plug that looks like you could just pop that out and feel in there without taking the covers off.

 

My first Soob the timing belts went out going down the freeway and it had just barely over 60,000 mi. on it too Haven't had one do that since then (knock on wood). Even having the dealership repair it, it was only $200 to fix. It's something I wouldn't hesitate to do myself now though.

Hi !!! You have described a situation that I had a couple years back to the T.

It was indead the timing belts. Until he knows that for sure... it's not healthy for him to turn the engine over. Ask him to remove the covers and take a look.

boing

Until he knows that for sure... it's not healthy for him to turn the engine over.

 

Why not?

^ just to add

why would he think the pistons wouldn't turn if the timing belt snapped

also, when you get the tbelt cover off, the belt will probably look fine where you can see it. The teeth probably got stripped off at the crank pulley.

 

 

As for turning the engine over, I would presume it's fine to slowly do it by hand. I wouldn't sit out there all day using the starter to crank it though :-)

Thanks for all the informative and helpful replies everyone. Will forward to him..

 

>why would he think the pistons wouldn't turn if the timing belt snapped

 

Because he's not all that automotively inclined. I found out he'd never replaced the timing belt on it since bought a few years ago... That would be the 1st thing "I'd" check or do if buying a used Suby..

 

Hiergehts

This sounds like a ea-82, they have two belts. Either one will stop the engine from running if not on right.

Where does your friend live?

Where does your friend live?

 

In Southern California.

sounds like a broken timing belt to me, the pistons are still going to move if the timing belt broke.

 

 

Dylan

 

was just gonna say that,same thing happened to me awhile back in my gl-10 i had.