O/t Impreza Turbo 2003 Cambelt

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

Gents

 

I've never much had a lot to do with Imprezas before now, a friend of mine has just bought one (2003 WRX) and wants me to do the cambelt on it.

 

From a 2min look at the car it looks like there is plenty of access.

 

Anyone have any pointers or experience, or know if I'm likely to need any weird and wonderful special tools to do it?

 

Thanks chaps

[16v205 9]

I done my wife's belt pump and other bits at christmas, Access wise it was the easiest car ive ever done a cambelt on. I took the rad out as it was being replaced anyway, and there is plenty of space. Took about 4 hours in total over 2 days while waiting for parts to arrive.

Ill list the bits I can remember, and scribble a quick pic of the pulleys so i can describe it

 

You'll need to put the car in gear and get someone to foot the brake to crack the crank pulley bolt off.

 

Align the crank and all 4 cam pulleys before taking the belt off, it sounds bad but lightly tighten a mole grip to hold the cam pulleys on the nearside of the engine, theres no dowels or infact anyway obvious to stop the cams rotating once the belt is removed.

 

Im guessing youve bought a full pulley and belt kit. If not remove the automatic adjuster for the belt tension as is, squeezed it back in slowly over a few minutes with a g-clamp. Theres a small dowel hole you can pop a allen key into once its compressed. If you see any oil at all then its weeping so replace.

 

Youll see on the pic the red lines on the pulleys and crank these align to the block at the top and to each other verticaly, they need to be spot on.

When you get the new belt it will have the usual timing marks on that we normally ignore, but get the main crank line on the correct tooth and by the time youve worked your way around the timing marks should all be in the correct place with the pulleys. Once you turn the engine over for the first time the markings will not line up again so make sure there right beforehand.

 

Leave the idler pulley off while fitting the belt, you can squeeze it on afterwards, but its a nightmare trying to get the belt inplace with it fitted.

 

If youre doing the waterpump as well they can be a nightmare to bleed, its just not funny as all they want to do is overheat and throw any water youve introduced to the system back out the filler. Fill it with water and squeeze the bottom hose into the waterpump, let it run up to temperature so the thermostat opens and then keep squeezing and adding water then squeeze etc. It took maybe 20mins before I had warm air coming back through the heater matrix on wifeys.

 

Best of luck

Rich

 

Edited June 9, 2010 by 16v205

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

Excellent info, thank you. He has only had it a week so we haven't got as far as ordering the bits for it yet. Did you use any specific make of kit, or just a decent (Gates etc) quality kit from the factors? (I'm guessing you probably use Sureparts, my Dad lives at the top of the Slough so I know the area.)

[16v205 9]

Yeah we did use Sureparts . I left it to Daz who works there to order the stuff. The belt was some japanese oem item and the waterpump was nippon. All in all it cost around £350 in parts for a new radiator, waterpump, belt, thermostat, radcap, antifreeze etc. The belt was an expensive item at around £130. No doubt we could have saved a few quid online but I needed this thing up and working right away.

 

I didnt change the tensioners as they were in good nick and only fitted a few thousand miles before by the previous owner, I only swapped the belt as the waterpump had failed and not because it was due. Good design on the waterpump pulley though, it runs on the flat backside of the cambelt so if it locks up solid like ours did it doesnt eat the belt wrecking the engine, it just slips over. Definatly saved me a few quid as her engine would have been scrap if it was the same toothed style pump as pug.

[ORB 227 1 Cars]

I had a P1 for a year or so, as with any car I buy, I swapped the belt in the first week of owning. It is actually very easy, yet time consuming. I found it best to strip anything off that was anywhere near the engine to give a clear picture.

 

You should be able to do it in 2 or 3 hours if you have nice conditions to work in, but my advice is dont rush!

[205wrc 16]

Autodata states the repair time as 1.90 hours.

It does'nt tell you to remove the radiator, but I did when I changed mine as it gives you a lot of extra room to work with.

Pity that Autodata does'nt allow copy and paste or I'd send you the step by step instructions and picture of the pulley system etc..

[Ben 0]

As said much easier with the rad out the way, also a small vice to compress the tensioner is far easier than firing it across the garage when it slips out of the g clamp