idosubaru Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 1997 OBS EJ22 started making a slapping/clacking noise with some occasional squealing too. I replaced the timing belt and all the timing pulleys with new ones except the tensioner pulley (the single piece style - not horizontal). The tensioner pulley *appeared* fine and compressed and decompressed fine. Swapped alternator and serpentine tensioner pulley. A/C pulley free wheels just fine and A/C works fine with no change when turned off/on. I'm wondering what kind of noise failing tensioner pulleys make and if there's anyway to tell they are failing? How long before this thing *goes*? Not that I want to tempt fate on an interference engine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kudd Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Your EJ22 is interference? I always thought only the EJ25 had that problem.:-\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Your EJ22 is interference? I always thought only the EJ25 had that problem.:-\ all 1997+ EJ22's are interference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kudd Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 sheeesh! Gotta wonder about engineers..... take a perfectly good design and muck it up! But, thanks... now I know what to stay away from! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bheinen74 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 sheeesh! Gotta wonder about engineers..... take a perfectly good design and muck it up! But, thanks... now I know what to stay away from! engineers usually learn from their mistakes.....at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98obster Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 can one put 96 heads on a 97 block? i guess the question is how can you get 9:1 compression on a non-interference subaru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 To answer your actual question yes! Pull the timimng belt cover. You should be able to see the belt and tensioner slapping around. The single piece style (Short fat hydraulic cylinder) are way more sensative to failure if compressed to quickly. I believe the factory service manual talks about compressing those extremely slow, as in over several minutes. They will appear to uncompress fine when installed, but they can't resist the forces once the engine is running. I had this happen on a friends 2000 RS. It sounded like bad piston slap that didn't go away. I've done probably a dozen of the two piece style tensioners and never had an issue. So far I've ruined 1 out of 3 on the single piece style. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 (edited) I had this happen on a friends 2000 RS. It sounded like bad piston slap that didn't go away. Keith thanks a lot keith. sounds just like mine. i'll pick the part up monday and do it first thing this week. how long did your friend drive that RS like that? not at all or...? i've driven the impreza 50-ish miles so far and no problems. better quit tempting fate. i wonder if they're *semi-designed* to be able to withstand some amount of tensioner failure like this without hosing the engine? i'd imagine that was in mind....particularly considering how hard it is to get that stupid timing belt on there!!!!! interesting that it actually started making a noise last week before i did the timing belt. it was at 70,000 miles, so it's 10,000 miles past due. but it's been 70,000 miles since i last did the belt and compressed it. Edited February 7, 2009 by grossgary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 how long did your friend drive that RS like that? not at all or...? i've driven the impreza 50-ish miles so far and no problems. better quit tempting fate. Sorry, I was away from my computer all weekend. My friends RS only ran like that for a total of 5 minutes. We knew something wasn't right as soon as we started it. Luckily we had a spare tensioner lying around that we could install. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wondercow2 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 FWIW, when I bought my 98 Legacy it had a failing tensioner. I assumed it was piston slap or something like that (I had been told the EJ22 was a weird-sounding engine). After I did the timing belt and fired it up, I could see the tensioner flopping around like a dead fish. I might have up and killed it when I took the tensioner off to do the t-belt, but it was already making the noise before I went in there. I wouldn't run a car like that, but I think the previous owner put on several thousand miles with the tensioner in that state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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