This Blog Sucks

Since 2006 this car hasn’t needed many repairs (that I knew of at the time, anyway). Still, if I had a brain I’d dump it like a cheap skank and start slumming it with a Zipcar membership since I drive so little. Only problem is last week I had to blow $1,034.04 on new brakes all around PLUS two front calipers! Great, now if I try to sell the car I’ll basically be giving it away after deducting the cost of brakes from the sale price.

And now, after digging through all of the maintenance records I have for the past 65k miles (most of which were driven by my brother Pat when he owned it) I’m 100% convinced that the timing belt will ruin my day sometime soon despite Pat’s insistence that timing belts are never really the car-killing problem everyone makes them out to be. I want to believe that, but according to two different auto shops and this website:

The 2.5L dual over head cam engine is an interference engine. If the timing belt breaks in it, you will bend valve, break pistons, twist rods and crack heads. All sorts of catastrophes will be visited upon you. So, don’t play highway roulette with this one at all.

The 2.2 could lose a timing belt and just need a standard repair, but naturally I have the 2.5. And I’m planning to do 12 hours of highway driving in about two weeks! Sigh. Both over-the-phone estimates that I’ve gotten for a full timing belt job are around $1000. OMG. It’s not a Porsche, it’s a fucking 1996 Subaru Outback. And according to both mechanics, replacing JUST the belt is apparently a bad idea. Right, of course.

Well I guess I gotta do what I gotta do, but I’m not paying dealer retail ripoff for their parts. I’m gonna try to get the parts online and just pay for labor. The shop manager’s gonna start rolling his eyes when I show up with car pieces, but fuck him!

Will my thrifty little scheme work? Will I actually get the right parts and drive away without having to give up a kidney? Stay tuned.