Does anyone have a good procedure for checking valve clearance and adjusting it if needed? I understand they take shims, is there a good place on-line that I can purchase a shim pack?

 

Thanks

Scott

There aren't going to be shim packs available. Too many different sizes are needed and they are $5-8 bucks a piece for the shims at the dealership. A range of 2.00MM to 3.00 MM is too great in increments .005 increments.

 

They don't really lose much over time and they should be fine if you havent changed anything in the engine. I would only adjust them if yours are loud. If they aren't I would wait until you blow a head gasket or break a timing belt and just chalk it up. It sounds bad but they are a PITA to adjust in the car. You have to remove the cam caps and cams and all the front timing belt gears, idlers, plastics, etc to get to them. Once you get to them and measure what is in the bucket and then order them, pay the price for the new shims, install....youre going to spend a day or two doing the work, running around to get the parts, etc.

 

Focus instead on putting new hoses, all of the coolant ones, new radiator, fuel filter...all the stuff on the 60 and 120K services that you might have forgotten to do and try to prevent the engine head gasket failure instead.

2.5 Liter Twin Cam Engine Vlave Adjustment

Thanks for the link. I do 3-5 of these a week and hadn't seen a couple of the tips in there that might be helpful.

Sure. I like that article. I found it accidentally when looking for something else one time. Unfortunately they mis-spelled 'valve' as 'vlave' in the title so it doesn't come up in a search for 'valve'.

Just FYI, the tool used in that write up has been superceded. I got the new tool through my local dealership a few years ago, it is actually for the WRX, but with a small modification works on the 2.5 DOHC. It is pricy, but well worth the investment if you work on Subarus every day, porbably not worth it for the DIYselfer. With a good shim selection and this tool it takes me 3-4 hours to do a valve adjustment depending on how many actually need adjusted. So without the proper tool and shims on hand, as said before this would probably be a day or two job if not more, depending on if your dealer has the shims you need in stock.

In the past, IPD rented out a shim kit and the tool for Volvos. You paid a rental fee, plus the price of the shims you used, and returned everything when you were done. Not sure if they still do that.

 

Maybe someone does the same for Subarus?