Bad Timing Belt Installation 2009 Subaru Outback?

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Hello all,

I have a 2009 Subaru Outback 2.5i special edition, around 113,000 miles. I am the second owner and recently had my timing belt changed on recommendation from my mechanic. That was about a week ago. However, I have been having a strange thing happen that I am wondering if it is related and maybe something went wrong with the installation? A couple of times now, when I got to turn on my car, nothing happens, like the battery is dead. I fiddled with the connection wires on the battery and boom car turns on, runs fine, no strange noises. But this has happened several times. One time in particular when I turned my car off, my gas gage was still up and my battery “died” again, but every time I open the hood and look at everything, the car starts working again. I had a bunch of lights come on after work today, including the check engine, pulled over turned the car off, wouldn’t turn on, waited five minutes and again fiddled with the battery wires and it started running again with no check engine light. Would the timing belt have anything to do with this or is something crazy going on with my battery/wires/starter? It just seems like a strange timing coincidence if that is the case.

Any advice is appreciated! I work on machines at work, but am pretty much a car novice. Youtube is generally my savior lol.

2

Take it back to who ever did the timing belt.

If the battery had to be removed to perform this service, there now be a bad connection at the battery.

Tester

6 Likes
3

Yeah, I figured I would have to. Hopefully they can test some stuff out. It’s tricky because some days my car runs fine and somedays it does this strange thing, so hopefully they can figure it out. Thanks for the advice!

1 Like
4

also, since you fiddle with the battery cables and it starts, you can have a break or corrosion inside the cable.

5 Likes
5

Right. If the mechanic had to remove the battery to do the timing belt job, he may have inadvertently broken a battery cable already on its way out.

Not really the mechanic’s fault, but he may have possibly broken something that was almost gone anyway.

6

For sure. I am hoping it is just a bad cable that can easily be fixed/replaced. Waiting to hear back from them today about getting my car in, so fingers crossed!

7

Car runs ok? No timing codes?