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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
By John E. Heyer
My 2004 Forester XS hit the 125,000 mile mark, and I began on the quest of doing my 2 year maintenance. Did my oil and oil filter, cabin and air filters, front and rear differential fluids, transmission and power steering fluids, the fuel filter, and finally the spark plugs and spark plug cables. After going through there recommended guide to see if I missed anything important, I found I indeed had - the timing belt! Subaru recommends replacing at 105,000 miles, and reading up online I heard horrific tales of the belts failing at 125-140k miles, leaving the poor driver stranded and at the mercy of the nearest mechanic.
Determined not to let this happen to me, I started looking in to timing belt replacement and found it would run $1,000+ easily. Holy cow! Shaking my head in disbelief and refusing to spend that much a car that's only worth about $7,500 on a good day, I began to look in to doing the job myself. Countless hours on youtube and reading subaruforester.org led me to conclude the Gates TCK304 kit was my best bet, and at well under $200 it seemed like a bargain. Getting access to the timing belt on a Subaru is no easy task - it requires removing the accessory belts, radiator, crank bolt and pulley, and finally the cover. However, when I finally reached the belt and its pulleys, I was happy to see I had made the right choice. The pulleys in the Gates kit were ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL to the factory-installed ones on my Forester. The belt, while a different brand, was of high quality and included easy to see markings so I could line it up to the spots the old one came off.
If you're working on a Subaru with 100,000+ miles I'd recommend replacing or at least inspecting the following since you'll have easy access to do so:
- Thermostat, thermostat gasket, and heater hose
- Water pump and water pump gasket
- Radiator hoses, especially the lower one
- Crank and cam seals
- Outer Accessory belts
And note that since changing the timing belt requires removing the radiator, you'll need new coolant of course. Subaru recommends their "green" coolant mixed 50/50 with diluted water, along with a 4 oz bottle of their coolant conditioner.
Tip for SOHC 2.5L engines - wait before putting the lower two pulleys on. Put the belt on the crank, then passenger's cam, making sure the marks on the belt line up. Then do the driver's cam, and use a clip to make it stay there while you install the bottom pulleys. Great video on it - [...]
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
By K. Hoober
I just installed this in an 2006 Forester (SOHC 2.5L). The idlers and tensioner appear to be the OEM parts (same part numbers on bearings), the only non-OEM part is the belt, which is an exact fit (lines were even in the right spot) and a quality (made in the USA) part. I uploaded a picture of the idlers from this kit with the factory idlers removed from my Subaru.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
By J. Sylvester
I installed this Gates kit on my 2002 Subaru Forester. It came well packaged and even had a diagram with the torque specs. listed. All the pulleys and bearings were of high quality, as was the belt itself. I tend to use OEM parts from the dealer when I do maintenance, but I'm glad I didn't in this case. I'm sure there's no difference in quality here.
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