 Vehicle
Maintenance - Drive Belt Swap
By: Jamie "SubieGal" Thomas
For: Most all 1990 + Subaru
 - Easy to Medium Difficulty
Where do I get
them?
SubaruGenuineParts.com - or any Subaru Dealership
This is part of
your regular vehicle maintenance schedule: see:
My.Subaru.com for vehicle
schedules
Where are these
belts located? Front-most part of your engine bay, just
behind the radiator
How do I install
them? Right! Let's get cracking!
First off, you do not need to
remove the radiator to install these, don't freak out!
You to take your time,
and be patient with the loosening of the tensioners.
If you rush through this, over torque
something, it's quite easy to snap an adjuster in 1/2!
This is fairly simple maintenance and
you can do this yourself - save yourself a buck and learn a bit
about your car.
I recommend you use OEM Subaru Genuine
parts on this one as aftermarket belts in some cases are not the
right size.
Tools I recommend:
10mm socket + ratchet
12mm open end wrench
12mm ratcheting wrench
1/4 " drive air ratchet (if using air
tools)
1. Feel the belts by hand and get an
idea of how "tight" they are. Try to remember this for your new
belts.
2. Remove the alternator cover
- 3 10mm bolts - see photo 
3. Once the cover has been
removed,
You will expose a series of tension
adjusters and bolts
See Diagram below
4. Start with the Alternator
belt. You will first need to loosen the lock nut/adjuster 12mm (see
diagrams)
After this adjuster is loose, go to
the top long bolt (12mm) and loosen it - keep loosening
You will start to see the alternator
lower itself down. As it does this, the belt will loosen - loosen
enough. Remove belt
5. Now for the Air Conditioning
belt.
Same thing basically. Break the lock
nut loose - this one is tricky. Hand wrench is the way to go
Next loosen the adjusting bolt. Loose
enough to get the belt off.
6. That's basically it! Once
that's done you can reinstall your new belts in the reverse order.
Air conditioning belt must go on
first.
Get the belt in place, make sure it is
lined up on all pulleys
Crank down the adjuster - check to see
the belt tension is tight but not too tight
Do the same for the PS/Alternator
belt.
PDF files with Torque specs and more
insight can be found below:
 
FINAL: After a few days of
driving, go back and double check the belt tension
Typically you will need to retighten
the belts after a few days.
If you hear squeaking, again, check
the tension, you may need to loosen the belts a tick
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