Surging 2ndary turbo after cambelt etc replacement

[98GT-Biarch]

I just had all the seals and belts changed by a local guy who was referred to me by a mate, and after taking it for a good road test and cranking 2ndary turbo, Im gutted to find it is now quite surgy and lumpy, and seems to come on a bit later as well, about 5500rpms instead of smooth power from 5000.

The mech said he found the timing belt was two teeth out so I should notice some performance improvement with the new one.

Have they plumbed it up wrong or something? Or was the timing supposed to be how it was before - dont they de-tune them for NZ low octane fuel? It was perfectly smooth before, even running on 91 (which I generally always use). Would using 98 help or is have they Fkd it up somewhere?

I\'ve been charged over $1700 for this work which was a bit more than anticipated but he\'s letting me pay it off over 3 months so not so bad.

Its hard to know if you\'re getting ripped with mechanics, even those who are supposed to be good guys who have done \'millions\' of subarus and could do them blind folded.

What do you recon?

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Run it on 98 ALWAYS!!! And reset the computer... May help settle things down a little.

[lachlan]

1700 for cambelt and seals ?

fk me . which seals ?

i think you would have noticed if it was 2 teeth out before coz it would have run like shit and would have had error cores because the timing triggers wouldnt have lined up .

although you can run 91 your achieving nothing well its costing you more to have a much slower car . do a comparison between how many kays you get out of a tank of each . for the $5 is costs to get 98 youll do far more kays out of a tank and your car will feel much faster for less right foot

[98GT-Biarch]

Thanks for the info.

Driving home from work this morning I freaked out a bit when the thermostat/temperature indicator slowly went right up to max limit and I\'m driving on the Auckland motorway. I took it easy and pulled over when I could, and opened the bonnet, no steam, not even very hot at all. Everything seemed fine and I got home (10km) no worries. Pretty bad smell in the car this morning, probably radiator coolant burning off.

Heres the breakdown of my bill/Job sheet:

Alternator Belt $30.13

RH Rocker Cover gasket kit $110

LH Rocker Cover gasket kit $110

4x Camshaft seals @ $16ea

4x Bosh spark plugs @ $31.98ea

Cambelt $130.26

Front crank seal $16

Rear crank seal $31.40

Oil filter $14

Engine Oil $45

Coolant $15

Sealer $14.84

consumables $30

Power Steering oil $12.95

12 hrs labour @ $65ea

+gst $229.72

Total $1761.22

Work Done:

Remove Engine, degrease engine and engine bay, clean all parts, remove cam covers, rocker covers, etc. Replace seals and required, fit new cambelt, time engine, refit covers, seal rear gudgeon cover, clean clutch plate, reassemble engine, refit to vehicle, change oil and filter, top up fluids, run and check.

When I first drove it away after repairs, the exhaust was rattling against the underbody so had to turn around and get him to sort that out, then I find this turbo problem, then the thermostat problem. WTF. I will be having a chat with him on Monday to see what he has to say about it.

[Stoffa]

you probably have an air lock in your cooling system which is easy to do if you rush it, once your car is cooled down leave the radiator cap off overnight and that might be enough to bleed it on its own. Be VERY careful with overheating, its easy to blow a head gasket on a subaru.

If it starts overheating when your driving turn the heater on hot to pull some heat out of the system.

Its a bit of overkill to pull the engine out unless the rear crank seal or gudgeon pin cover was leaking. you can do a cambelt and rocker cover seals with the engine in place which would save at least 5 hours.

But $65 per hour is pretty reasonable compared to some workshops.

oh yeah and dont EVER run a turbo subaru on 91, 95 minimum

[Guest]

$65 is high as fuck for a homer. Parts defo dont look cheap. If you get it done at a workshop they normally give you a bit off for buying all parts through them but they might make it up in labour. Just get a quote before you get work done then youre safe.

[twinturboboy]

dont ever ever run your car on 91

[Stoffa]

 evowrx said:

$65 is high as bother for a homer. Parts defo dont look cheap. If you get it done at a workshop they normally give you a bit off for buying all parts through them but they might make it up in labour. Just get a quote before you get work done then youre safe.

$50/h is dirt cheap in welli, 80% of mechanics in wellington city are over $90/h

I would say all of the dealer ships would be over $100/h, even toyota, they tried charging me 8 hours labour at $100/h to change my wiper linkages in my old hiace when the head mechanic told me it should take 3-4hours tops, they put the apprentice on and he took 8 hours but they still charged him out at full price. They ended up knocking 5 hours labour off

[Guest]

 Stoffa']

[quote name='evowrx said:

$65 is high as bother for a homer. Parts defo dont look cheap. If you get it done at a workshop they normally give you a bit off for buying all parts through them but they might make it up in labour. Just get a quote before you get work done then youre safe.

/quote]

$50/h is dirt cheap in welli, 80% of mechanics in wellington city are over $90/h

I would say all of the dealer ships would be over $100/h, even toyota, they tried charging me 8 hours labour at $100/h to change my wiper linkages in my old hiace when the head mechanic told me it should take 3-4hours tops, they put the apprentice on and he took 8 hours but they still charged him out at full price. They ended up knocking 5 hours labour off

Wrx just had a service and work at wingers before I bought it was 120ish but genuine always are high. Homers have no overheads so normally half the price and you take a risk as above did. Round here workshops 50-80 and homers 30-40.

Going out on a limb with the home mech he may be a business.

[98GT-Biarch]

It was done through a business so 65+gst isnt tooo bad I guess. It was leaking everywhere apparently so thats why he replaced all those seals and had to remove engine.

So whats so bad about running a turbo subaru on 91? Ive been using it for years cos they never had 98 in NP until this year.

Going to leave radiator cap off tonight/morning after work.

Funny thing was it was totally normal on the way to work and only happened heading home, so it might be fine tonight.

[Kiwi_Fozze]

91, under boost, tends to detonate a bit...

the japanese turbo\'d subarus have the tune designed to run on 100 octane fuel in japan, so it\'s best to run it on 98 if you can, 95 at a minimum. especially if giving it a thrash!!

plus, your fuel economy will increase running the higher rated petrol... the extra 5-10 bux at the pump will generally net a noticable increase in power and economy.

[lachlan]

teh knock sensor will know straight away fi it has 91 in it and pull timing drastically and you end up with a sluggish feeling gas gizzler . yeah i guess you paid for what you got . surely you could have got parts at trade price through someone ?

a pretty easy way to 90% bleed the coolant system is jack the front way up and run it with rad cap off and take turns squeezing the heater hoses as much as you can then release . trying to encourage water to circulate through heater

[Drunkenmonkey]

I do t see water pump and idlers on that list....

[Swindog]

Twas what i was going to say.

[98GT-Biarch]

I asked him about that and he said it didnt need to be replaced as "it was fine". I dont know about idlers... are they just some other belts?

Sounds like I shouldn\'t be using 91.... I have gone from 91 to 98 before and didn\'t notice much difference at all in performance but it did seem a little more economical on the open road.

Its never felt like a sluggish gas guzzler, even my v8 driving buddies are impressed with the power before these repairs.

What should I be asking this guy to do tomorrow?

[ben-jamminn]

It makes me cringe when I\'m filling up and i see someone else putting 91 into their turbo car..

Do some reading on detonation

[98GT-Biarch]

Yeah not ideal.

Drove to work tonight and the temp gauge sat on halfway for about 30 seconds before shooting up to max again, then back a bit to just before red zone where it stayed. I was driving as conservatively as possible just on 100km/h.

Lifted bonnet and felt engine, not very hot (I could hold my hand on it), radiator hot as you would expect after 10k of driving 100km/h, but engine was fine and not even making that clicking noise it does when cooling down. Starting to think its not an accurate indication, so thermostat is doing something weird.

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Air lock possibly?

[Drunkenmonkey]

That\'s c rap he didn\'t replace it as they are known to fail and it\'s not a belt just snapping its normally an idler failing and burning the belt

[Stoffa]

Rebleed the cooling system.

stop using 91 reset the ecu and drive it for a few weeks and report back

[98GT-Biarch]

What do idlers do?

When I was letting her warm up before leaving for work it almost stalled and the Check Engine warning light came on, but it picked up the revs again and the light went off.

[Drunkenmonkey]

Where in Auckland are you?

Idlers are what the belt runs over

[madmike]

It sounds to me like he has fucked up...

Take it back and get him to fix it....

[98GT-Biarch]

Took it back to him today and he bled the cooling system and cleared the faults (temp sensor and something else), running the air con on max until it blew hot air. Everything is running sweet now thank buggery. Thanks for the info ClubSubbers.

So to run 98 fuel I need to find BP stations that sell it, or are there Caltex or other stations that sell a similar octane fuel?

[Kiwi_Fozze]

mobil and bp. don;t use gull\'s 98 as it\'s a 10% ethanol blend, theres a thread here on the pro\'s and con\'s.

go for a drive on a saturday / sunday, find all your stations, see if they have 98 on offer, and save it in the back of your head.