I have a 99 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT wagon. At 61K I had the timing belt replaced by the dealer. At 112K I was told it needed replacing again. Gates.com lists belt life as 105K intervals. Was I taken???
Likely but the interval is also 8yrs or 105k whichever first.
Read your car’s owners manual. It will tell you how often the timing belt should be changed, and it’ll have a wealth of other information as well.
The dealer is being cautious and replacing the belt at a 60K mile interval. They also make more money this way. What does the owner’s manual say about belt replacement? I would follow the manual, but remember, there’s a time limit, too.
It never hurts to err on the side of caution. If the belt breaks you’re in big trouble, since the 2.5 is an interference engine.
What has already been said is correct, and this should serve as a very good example of the importance of using the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule (contained in a separate booklet, rather than in the Subaru Owner’s Manual).
When someone doesn’t utilize the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule, it invariably winds up costing the owner more money than if he/she did use this resource provided by the car’s manufacturer. When one doesn’t use that booklet, vital maintenance is often skipped, thus leading to a far shorter life for that vehicle, as well as increased repair costs. In this case, failure to use that booklet has resulted in the owner replacing the timing belt far earlier than was necessary, thus costing him/her more money than he/she would have spent otherwise. Either way, using the maintenance schedule is a money saver in the long run.
That being said, the timing belt on this engine is supposed to be replaced at 105k, or at an elapsed time interval of 105 months (about 8 yrs., 9 months). If that belt was replaced (and I am merely theorizing here, since the OP did not give us exact time intervals) approximately 4 years ago, the dealership is attempting to hoodwink the OP for a second time.
While I always advise that the timing belt replacement should be done a bit earlier than specified, by any measure the first timing belt replacement appears to have been done VERY early, and it is still far too soon for the belt to be replaced again. Incidentally, when reading the Subaru maintenance schedule it is helpful to know that Subaru refers to the timing belt as the Camshaft Drive Belt.
So, even if this is the first time that the glove compartment has been opened, I think that it is time for the OP to dig out that maintenance schedule, read it, and continue to follow it for the remaining maintenance on his/her car. This will save the OP an incredible amount of money over the long-term, and should help to extend the life of that vehicle.
Any used car bought from auto dealer typically had its manual tossed out long ago.