I got my car back from the dealer today; they were checking into my engine knock that happens when its cold and sometimes when it is warm. The noise is louder on the driver's side of the engine. Well after 6 weeks my car is back and was not fixed. They claim they could not duplicate the noise. Well tonight, I took the covers off of the timing belt and the belt looks brand new, all the pulleys look good. The guides around the right hand intake cam and the crankshaft have no marks where the belt would have rubbed. The tensioner itself had some fluid near the rod out of the top; the fluid was more of a grease than a liquid and it was a reddish brown color. I would say it looked like 5 drops of blood that was semi-dry. Is this enough fluid out of the tensioner to cause concern? Is the fluid that is in the tensioner red like I described? Why would I hear a knock and the guides not have marks where the timing belt rubbed? I don't want to pay for a new tensioner if this isn't the problem because I'm doing the work myself . I'm giving up getting this fixed by Subaru. My car is an 02 WRX, completely stock, 7,400miles.

Matt

 

we had a few people come through the garage i used to work with the same problme. mostly happened on cooler morning, or cold engine starts. sounds almost like a lifter tick or knocking. older subaru engines had hydraulic lifters that went bad, and made a ticking noise. ej20 and ej25 don't though. we didn't really notice the noise on 01 (i think) and older 2.5 models, only the new ej20 and 25. we called subaru and after going around with them for a while, found out that the pistons on the new engines were shortened to reduce weight. so the explantion we got was that on cold starts the piston in a sense knocks against the cylinder wall until the metals warm up, and expand enough. sounds good to me! we never had a performance issues, or anything serious come of it. so i would say you are safe. the tensioners on the timing belt are high quality and will last forever. simply because if they didn't people would be pissed b/c of bent valves from the timing being off. believe me, 2.0 and 2.5 quad cam engines are INTERFERENCE!! but no worries, the whole timing belt setup is quite bombproof.

-PJ

 

I had the same symptoms and had the dealer replace the belt tensioner 2 weeks ago. Noise has not come back. They told me that the early production models had problems with the tensioner and that the replacement had some changes. Said there was no recall since it was not a safety issue. I would insist that the dealer replace the tensioner. It is not news to them about this problem.

 

Thanks alot guys, I did replace the tensioner; however it didnt help. If I put my ear right in front of the badge on the grill it almost sounds like my crank pulley is wobbling? It did this before I installed the tensioner. If open my hood the noise is louder on the driver's side head (the same wobbling sound); I can only hear the noise outside the car. Sometimes the car makes the noise and sometimes not? It will idle quitely, then I can hear it start to wobble even if the car is warm or cold? It will also "wobble" while idling, then quiet down. I have no mods and have always ran 93 or 94 octane. Please help me.


Matt

 

why don't you try replacing the crank pulley with a Perrin then? If it goes away with that mod, and you want Subaru to replace it, just put it back on and tell them you have "irrefutable proof" that it is the crank pulley. (Just don't tell them how you know it's irrefutable"

Blue

 

Is there much problem in adjusting/shimming these hydraulic valve adjusters ??? I was told it was not worth doing unless there was other engine work to be done and it doesn't affect performance but the noise is starting to worry me

The engine is a 2lt turbo ej20