My daughter in San Fran is about to have the timing belt changed on a 97 Subaru Legacy with 65,000 miles. What else should she have done at the same time, and how much should they charge for the extras? I believe the water pump should go (although I don’t know what it should cost), but what else? Should this be done only by a dealer, or can she trust her local shop to do it?
The water pump should be replaced, and perhaps the cam seals. It’s easier to do these things now, rather than wait until they fail and spend the money twice.
Once you have the timing belt off, you might as well replace everything you can reach, such as the things mentioned above. Timing belt replacement on a Subaru is not particularly difficult, due to the nature of the horizontally opposed Subaru engine.
I don’t want to quote a price, since I replaced my Subaru’s timing belt myself, in my garage, for about $50. If you pay a mechanic it will cost more.
There is no reason to go to a Subaru dealer for this. Any decent mechanic should be able to handle it. It’s not rocket science.
Thanks, that helps. Actually I sometimes find rocket science more straightforward than getting my car worked on without feeling like I’ve been taken to the cleaners.