drewk2

Post #595 would have saved you a lot of work.

Who makes the oil filters for Subaru?

WOW, around a 35% increase in gas mileage. I wonder if anyone else has gotten a near 35% increase in gas mileage after their 60k maintenance...

I agree with you 100%.

I wonder if you can jack up the engine a few inches (like I did on my 2005 LGT as shown in post #595)?

Would you trust someone called "Meaty" over actual engineers when it comes to a timing belt?

Luckily, I have VERY strong hands and wrists and turned them back to the center and held them while my friend installed the vise grips.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes....

Have you ever done one of these timing belts before? If not, I can't believe you had the cajones to attempt this by yourself without having someone experienced with you. More power to you!

I'm a little offended that none of my tips were included....

Bring them back to them, have them get the correct plugs, and then tell them to change them out in their parking lot. I would love to see their reaction if they accepted the job, not knowing how difficult it can be.

We used an air impact-wrench to get mine off. It barely fit between the pulley and radiator, but it worked.

Or, you can check out my post #595. Others have done this too. Jack up the motor a few inches, and with normal tools the job is easy.

I would wait till 100k.

You mean like how I did in post #595?

My advice is to definitely have a friend (preferably mechanically inclined) to help. Believe me, two pairs of eyes are better than one when it comes to making sure everything is aligned and correct. More than 2 hands are helpful too in some of the steps needed.

My mechanic friend is more of the expert, but he thought you could remove the motor mount bolts and jack up the engine slowly without removal of anything else. We slowly jacked up the driver side first at an angle, changed the driver side plugs, slowly lowered the jack....then moved the jack slightly under the passenger side and slowly jacked up the passenger side and did those plugs. You definitely want to have another person for an extra set of eyes on everything when you are jacking it up to make sure you don't harm any hoses or electrical connections.

Me and my mechanic friend done my timing belt/water pump, accessory belts, and spark plugs this past weekend. I used the Gates timing belt kit complete with water pump. Some thoughts: --2 people make this job much easier. I don't know how 1 person does it. --we removed the whole radiator/fan assembly to give us plenty of room. --with the extra room, his impact gun fit over the harmonic balancer nut to remove it. Be careful it doesn't back off too quickly or your impact gun will collide back into your condenser radiator. --another thought.....my mechanic thought there is a way to hold the flywheel still by removing a small rubber plug that is just under the intercooler on the passenger side and putting a large prybar/flathead screwdriver down that hole while removing the harmonic balancer nut. Anyone know if this is true? --the vise grip trick to hold the driver side gears together is an awesome help. The only issue I had after the completed job was we forgot to put the rubber washer/gasket on the radiator drain plug before screwing it in. Now we can't find it and it drips antifreeze about 2 ounces per day. I am having a hard time finding a replacement radiator drain plug or just the rubber washer/gasket. Anyone know where I can get a replacement?

Changed my timing belt, water pump, idlers, ac belt, ps and alternator belt, and spark plugs this weekend. To make it easy to change the spark plugs, my mechanic buddy came up with an idea that may or may not have been mentioned yet. Please note that we had the air box removed, the battery removed, and the radiator/air fan assembly already removed to do the timing belt. Not sure if you really need to remove all this if you were only going to change the plugs only. With the car already on ramps, he got under the car, removed the motor mount bolts, and jacked up the motor gently about 2 inches. This gave us all the room we needed to remove the coil packs and plugs, and to re-install. See the attached pictures showing the passenger side with the rear coil pack already removed.