Subaru Imprezza Harmonic Balancer

[101RRS]

The car is a 2004 (04MY) Subaru Imprezza RX 2.5. The two serpentine belts have come off and on inspection it was found that the Harmonic Balancer/Crankshaft pulley has failed - I guess the rubber has perished allowing the outer pulley to flop around. (I have not personally sighted the car myself).

So anyone replaced the crank pully on these?? I assume that it is on a tapered shaft with either a keyway or not and is held on by a highly tensioned bolt.

Any tricks or advice form those who have done these would be appreciated.

Thanks

Garry

[jon3950]

Have suffered through 2 re-builds of 2 litre turbo motors this year. As far as I am aware there are no differences between the 2.0 and 2.5 in this respect.

No tricks, came off easily with a rattle gun. From memory just a straight shaft and key. Of course that doesn't mean yours will.

A word of warning if you have to take the radiator out for access. These engines are bitches to bleed the air out of the cooling system. The only way you will get all the air out is to jack up the front of the car or park it on a slope so that the front of the engine is higher than the rear.

Cheers,
Jon

[Eevo]

These engines are bitches to bleed the air out of the cooling system. The only way you will get all the air out is to jack up the front of the car or park it on a slope so that the front of the engine is higher than the rear.

i thought that was standard on most cars. lol.

bleeding these engines arnt that hard.

[jon3950]

i thought that was standard on most cars. lol.

bleeding these engines arnt that hard.

The design of the boxer engine creates some air pockets at the rear of the head. This makes getting all the air out difficult without tilting the engine. If you are not aware of this problem then bleeding the engine properly is hard.

[101RRS]

Thanks for the information and warnings - seems pretty well straight forward.

Cheers

Garry

[PSI250]

Can be done with the rad in place, just need to ditch the fans, You just won't get a rattle gun in there unless it's a small one. Is the car manual or auto.
Can use a breaker bar to the front rail to lock it up then hit the starter to crack the crank bolt.

[101RRS]

It is a manual - I have an air ratchet drive so it may work if the torque is not too great.

Cheers

Garry

[PSI250]

22mm socket on a long breaker bar or use some pipe over the top. Jam the breaker bar under the drivers side rail to hold it in place then hit the starter, just a flick!! Balancer bolt undone!
To tighten just put it in gear with someone with there foot on the brake and tighten. Otherwise there is a hole on the pass side of the bell housing you can jam a flat head Into to lock up while you tighten.

If none of that makes sense, pull the rad out, with fans attached of you want, and use a rattle gun. Just when you refill with coolant remove the top hose at the radiator end and fill the engine with coolant from there first. Will make bleeding 100 times easier.

[Davehoos]

I only had to use a rattle gun. remove the radiator, and replace thermostat.


I thought there is a hole to lock the flywheel like a timing mark., I have done this through the clutch fork hole.