Subaru 2.5 DOHC oil pumps are famous for developing leaks. Always replace the o-ring, they say, when replacing the timing belt or any other time you have a chance to pull the oil pump. So, as part of the valve job I'm doing on this new rig of mine, I pulled the pump and discovered this. Though I'm not exactly familiar with this particular engine, I thought that was an odd shaped o-ring.

 

 

 

Even more odd is that the hole it came out of looks like this. Kind of a square peg in a round hole thing, don'tcha think?

 

 

 

Here's the deal--the timing belt and oil pump o-ring was replaced by a dealer in Pennsylvania 4k miles ago. I know that because it's a one-owner car and I called the local dealer, who read that fact right out of the computer.

 

Here's the curious part--the local dealer is the one that wrote up a $1000 estimate to replace--you guessed it--the o-ring in order to stop the oil leak. But if the dealer could see that another Subi dealer had replaced that part less than 4k miles ago, why would they attempt to charge the woman $1000 to fix it? If anything (if they were honest, IMO), they should have suggested to work something out with the dealer that did the shabby work.

 

A few stupid mistakes on the part of shabby mechanics led to me getting this car for $1200. If you don't do your own work, the lesson here is to 1) know your car 2) always get the old parts and inspect them closely. If you see anything that looks curious, don't just take it in the a$$.

 

Wait! Scratch that! If people actually knew something about the vehicles they drive, I'd be SOL!

Who was the alleged dealer in Pennsylvania?

The name on the reciept is Minooka.