1996 Subaru Outback timing belt damage

lafriedman · Posted at Sun Aug 31, 2008 11:28 pm

Engine Mechanical problem
1996 Subaru Outback 4 cyl All Wheel Drive Automatic
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My 1996 Outback died while my wife was driving it - it just stopped running and shut off. We had it towed to a Subaru dealer who said the tiiming belt broke. Additionally, he said that this usually results in a bent valve. Is this true? If there is a chance that only the timing belt is broken, I would have it fixed. The mechanic said, however, that it is impossible to rule out engine damage without replacing the timing belt. Is all of this correct? It's not worth fixing if there is engine damage.

mhpautos · Posted at Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:39 am

Hi there, Thank you for the donation,

The table in the pic gives you a list of engines and if they are interference or not, interference engine will have valve damage. check for your engine and if it is an interference type at best the engine will have to be removed and the heads dismantled for valve replacement.

Mark (mhpautos)