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Provided by the compucert As the battlewagon approaches 200,000 miles it's also come to a point that it needs certain maintenance. It's been about 70-75,000 miles since I did the timing belt. About the same for the front seals and the water pump. The heater core is the original. So, hey, why not combine all those jobs and do them at once? They are all related, aren't they? You have to drop the timing belt to do the water pump, and as long as the coolant is out, wouldn't it be best to do the heater care and heater hoses?
Ugh. Maybe for a small army.
I've done the timing belt in the past, and even had to redo it because the belt tensioner went bad. That sucked. But anyway, the heater core was the concern. The Subaru books say you must remove the dash and entire center console to do the job. It took hours to remove enough interior to get to that damned thing. My brother-in-law came over to help, and I'm glad he did. It took both of us the better part of 12 hours to disassemble and reassemble the various jobs.
Hang-ups:
The Heater core is in the heater box which is all the way by the firewall. It was just a complete project to get to in itself. After the new heater core was swapped in it only took a short time to get the ventilation system operational again and the dash together. In the process I managed to break the fuel gauge. That sucked.
My gear puller jammed up while removing the crank sprocket. At 8:15 on a Saturday night we were scrambling around trying to find a place to buy one. Of course all the stores were closed. We ended up in Queens and picked up Manny's puller. We came back to the house with the puller and a pizza, as none of us had eaten since before noon.
I like to replace the front seals with this job. They are cheap and while you have it all apart it's a good idea, as Subarus LOVE to leak oil. The old ones didn't want to come off no matter what. Nothing was going well that day.
Manny took off by midnight. He was spent from working on his father's car from 9 AM. I kept plugging away until nearly 2 AM. At that point I was able to take the car for a ride, even.
Sunday I spent several hours finishing off the assembly of the interior and continued bleeding air from the cooling system. Other than the bum gas gauge, just about everything else is just fine. Stacey even says that the car runs SMOOTHER now. After 75,000 miles I suppose a timing belt can loosen up / stretch out and have a car run a little less than top of the line.
I think I spent in the neighborhood of $200 in various parts and supplies for this job that a mechanic would've likely charged well over $1,500 for. Not bad If I do say so myself.
Ugh. Maybe for a small army.
I've done the timing belt in the past, and even had to redo it because the belt tensioner went bad. That sucked. But anyway, the heater core was the concern. The Subaru books say you must remove the dash and entire center console to do the job. It took hours to remove enough interior to get to that damned thing. My brother-in-law came over to help, and I'm glad he did. It took both of us the better part of 12 hours to disassemble and reassemble the various jobs.
Hang-ups:
The Heater core is in the heater box which is all the way by the firewall. It was just a complete project to get to in itself. After the new heater core was swapped in it only took a short time to get the ventilation system operational again and the dash together. In the process I managed to break the fuel gauge. That sucked.
My gear puller jammed up while removing the crank sprocket. At 8:15 on a Saturday night we were scrambling around trying to find a place to buy one. Of course all the stores were closed. We ended up in Queens and picked up Manny's puller. We came back to the house with the puller and a pizza, as none of us had eaten since before noon.
I like to replace the front seals with this job. They are cheap and while you have it all apart it's a good idea, as Subarus LOVE to leak oil. The old ones didn't want to come off no matter what. Nothing was going well that day.
Manny took off by midnight. He was spent from working on his father's car from 9 AM. I kept plugging away until nearly 2 AM. At that point I was able to take the car for a ride, even.
Sunday I spent several hours finishing off the assembly of the interior and continued bleeding air from the cooling system. Other than the bum gas gauge, just about everything else is just fine. Stacey even says that the car runs SMOOTHER now. After 75,000 miles I suppose a timing belt can loosen up / stretch out and have a car run a little less than top of the line.
I think I spent in the neighborhood of $200 in various parts and supplies for this job that a mechanic would've likely charged well over $1,500 for. Not bad If I do say so myself.
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