Hello.

Today I got my timing belts replaced along with oil pump seals, drive belts and water pump. Definitely sounds quieter, altho i hear the ticking a bit more now that the pully squeaks are gone. Anyways, all seems good except that when sitting at a standstill, my rig shakes a decent amount. It almost feels like the time one of the spark plug wires wasn't seated quite right. Could the mechanic not have set the timing quite right causing this? Or, do i need to reset the computer to compensate for the timing belts being done? I plan on taking it back in tomorrow morning, as i picked it up just as they were closing so i cant give em a call. Oh, vehicle in question is a 92 Loyale EA82 spfi 5spd 4wd wagon. Thanks....

a generic timing belt change won't require any messing with the timing. by "timing set right" you're refering to the distributor timing. changing the timing belts, while timing related refers to the cams and crank being timed, not the distributor firing timing. they are related (timing belt drives the dist) but not the same. i never time cars after installing timing belts, there's no need to.

 

if the timing belt wasn't installed properly it would run very bad, if at all. does he know subaru's? typical mistake is to not rotate the crank after installing the first belt, in order to install the second cam 180 degrees off from the first cam. mechanics will sometimes install both belts at the same time without rotating the crank and that's a no no - car will run horrible.

Well yea, what he said, but I get the impression from the questioner that that it drives ok, just shakes a bit (how much?) when at a standstill. And that wierd, cause like previously stated, new belts should not have affected distributor timing.

 

So----yea, did that mechanic know Soobs? It all makes me wonder if the mechanic maybe didn't, and futzed around with distributor timing unnessesarily (wish I could spell!) since I can't think of anything else that would make it shake now, if it didn't before it was worked on, since supposedly only belts and pump seal was done.

 

Good luck and keep us posted on this puzzle. I'm curious now.

 

Pyro

ya, its just at idle.. it drives fine..accelerates fine, etc.. just bouncey/shakey at idle. the idle has always been a wee bit unsteady, but the car never shook like this. again, feels like a cylinder is misfiring. when i get outta work here in about half an hour ill see how she drives on the way home and then futz a bit with it under the lights at home. if its nothing too obvious, ill just be going by my mechanic in the morning to rectify the problem.

hmm - interesting. Sounds like my car......it does the same thing. Runs fine, just shakes at idle. I have been assuming mine is because the #1 plug on mine isn't seated all teh way in because the threads are messed up. One of hubby's friends suggested that I put new t-belts on it because he thinks that one is off a tooth or something. I got the impression that if a t-belt was off a tooth, you'd KNOW it though. We've timed mine 3 times, so I know the timing is right. I'm still guessing mine is the #1 plug, but I do plan to do the t-belts soon anyhow just so I know it's got new ones because I have no clue how old these ones are..... I rather miss my EA81 where I didn't have to worry about that, LOL.