You play - you pay.

How do you know there's a seized idler? How can you see it seeing as it's behind the timing belt covers?

Who was the rebuilder?
Why wouldn't this workshop have fitted a new timing belt & idlers just as a matter of course? Doesn't make any sense to me.....

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I dont known whether it is a seized idler. I was just going on what the guy from RAC told me on the side of the rd when he removed the cam cover on the left hand side. He said " most probably a seized idler that has made the belt really hot and been skimming the belt down and its jumped a few teeth and shredded the belt.. You can see one side of the idler that has some decent groove marks on it and plenty of fluffy black stuff all around the cam covers etc.

As far as I can tell it had a new timing belt put on the engine at rebuild. It had a Dayco timing belt sticker that said 46k ish kms from memory. One would assume the idlers etc were replaced...

I don't want to name the rebuilder as its not nescessary... Its not anyone that you would take your subaru to be rebuilt by under choice. They just don't specialize in that sort of rebuild. They are more of a simple 1 or 2 day job sorta place. High turn over of cars and fix things like oil leaks and head gaskets etc... Only reason it was sent to them because it was the choice of the dealers warranty hotline....

so automasters built your engine?

Clearly this is an issue linked to the original rebuild and really has nothing to do with anything done thereafter by said reputable workshop. This is a classic case of dealer and engine rebuilder handballing.
What you need to do is get a written report from the reputable workshop describing the work they did on the car and the problems they observed....eg the blocked AVCS was obviously as a result of the engine rebuild...the bad hoses were probably something the engine rebuilder wouldn't have worried about - they were probably on a tight budget from the dealer.
Stories like this sadden me since you bought the car in good faith but the dealer has obviously tried to rectify it as cheaply as possible and there have been mistakes made...they are now not taking responsibility since it has been to another (albeit reputable specialist) workshop. And this is all from no fault of yours.
Good luck...

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Thats a really stupid thing to say Ross. Even for you.

He bought the car, its crapped out, got the place to repair it and they stuffed it up more.

How is this his fault? And dont say "he should have taken it to a reputable workshop blah blah." Not everyone does that and even knows about reputable workshops.

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Russ the 'You play - You Pay' quip is because he has added rods, exhaust & another tune etc - which he paid for beyond the scope of the dealers agreed repair.

The dealership is entitled to say - "you had additional modifications carried out at your own cost - good bye" (I hope they don't - but they 'could')

Assuming I'm saying the failure is his fault is an extremely stupid thing to say Russ. Even for you.

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makes me wonder if the belt tensioners were removed when the block was machined, some slag could have got in there & caused premature failure

It could have been caused by lots of things:
Timing belt guides incorrectly spaced, seized idler or tensioner, slack tensioner strut, a big 5th - 2nd money shift......

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Asking to have a couple of extras added on isn't unheard of is it. Doesn't mean he can expect a timing belt to crap out. None of those things he added would do that damage to a timing belt. Even big over revs due to down gearing etc. shredded belt is dodgy workmanship or buggered idler bearings.

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5th - 2nd miss shift would do it - just saying.

More than likely one of these not being spaced correctly:

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