My husband has a '96 Subaru Outback Legacy wagon, about 170K miles, purchased in February, used. On the way home from work on Friday, his AC quit working but everything else continued to work right, and then all of a sudden with no warning the engine just stopped working. (Luckily he was close to an exit and managed to coast off into a parking lot.)

 

It tries to start, but makes a higher pitched noise than it should. We've had several ideas given to us, but the most reliable so far thinks it's the timing belt. We do have the Haynes manual, would this be easy for someone who is only marginally mechanically minded? (Well, cars anyway.)

 

Thank you.

The A/C quitting first seems strange-would not be symptom of timing belt unless entirely curcumstancal. A compression check would reveal if tming belt was bad-prolly get close to zero compression in all cylinders if broke. Perhaps alternator is bad letting battery run down? Put voltmeter accross battery and see what it reads, 12.5++ OK, much less it may be too low to start. Hard to diagnose by remote control but that is where I would start.

 

 

Let us know what you find out

Thank you for your reply! We do have a voltmeter, so we'll check that out this afternoon. If it's reading low, there are a couple of the chain auto places in town that can do stand-alone alternator tests - the car won't start at all. Makes a higher than normal sound and tries to catch, but doesn't do anything.

How about if you remove the timing belt cover on one head or the other and check the condition of the belt. They are good for about 60k miles. If you missed the last change (120k) it probably broke..

 

I've changed mine a few times. It's not fun, but you can do it..

 

Good luck

How about if you remove the timing belt cover on one head or the other and check the condition of the belt. They are good for about 60k miles. If you missed the last change (120k) it probably broke..

 

I've changed mine a few times. It's not fun, but you can do it..

 

Good luck

 

DH is going to do that this afternoon. It was purchased in Feb. at about 160K miles, and I thought that the dealer did all those basic tuneup things, but may not have done that.

 

Thanks!