Cambelt tensioner cautionary tale

[sawood12]

ORIGINAL: VanhireBoys

Chaps
On a different note the service interval for the belt on a Focus TDDi is 100k miles. I got both the belt and tensioner changed at 80k and the dealer said I was being Paranoid ! I would change the belt and tensioner on a 944 every 30k or 3 years just to be safe....!

Yes i've got a Focus 1.8 zetec and that is also 100k interval. I'm sure technology has moved on over the years and when the 944 was a new kid on the block. I'm sure the belt is good for 100k as Ford recommend but I too am thinking about replacing somewhere between 80 and 90k miles.

I can't believe how much of a big deal people make out of timing belts. It's just a service item like any other. Just change it and forget about it. On the 944 change the balance shaft belt as well as they tend to take out the timing belt if they go. My idy did my timing belt for under £400 which isn't a huge cost in my view for every 35k or so miles. At £400 and 35k miles it's 1.1p per mile - tyres are much more expensive - especially if you attent track days. Stick a piggy bank on your dashboard and feed it after every journey. My rules (formulated over my years on this forum) to a happy and perfectly reliable timing belt is:-

1. Replace every 35k miles or 3.5 yrs as if your life depended on it.
2. Always always always have your belt re-tensioned after 1k to 1500k miles
3. Always always always replace your balance shaft belts as well
4. Replace your tensioner every other belt service
5. goto 1

Follow these rules and you will sleep easy and will never have a timing belt failure. The timing belt is 100% reliable if these rules are followed. If you can't or wont follow these rules then maybe you should reconsider 944 ownership.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

god these are seriously cr** smilies. I need a magnifyer to even see them

Try www.blind as a bat need to see the optician.com........[8|][8|][8|][8|][8|][8|]

 

[pauljmcnulty]

This is a genuinley scary thread....

I appreciate that many people might buy a £500 944 on e-bay, and then be surprised that it needs a few little niggly things done to bring it up to scratch. That would be, I dunno, £30k car level of scratch?

We have an engine, and we have a thin rubber band that holds the whole damn thing together. Belt change is around the £200 mark, throw in the whole tensioners, rollers, oil seals, water pump and whatever else, once in your lifetime with the car, at, say, £800?

Or, if the cost of servicing is too high, buy a new Boxster or 300Z or RX8, whatever, and ignore the depreciation, because you have saved the cost of a belt change.

I just don't get it. Porsche say the belt will last 48K/48 months MAXIMUM. I would challenge anyone to guarantee that a 20-year-old car has not leaked any oil onto that belt and shortened it's lifespan, or the last change was a dodgy stamp from the garage at the time. I bought VJ with a receipt for a belt change in French, from a guy wearing a sheepskin jacket with a mobile number that was strangely unavailable after I bought the car. No problem, Ross was a PCGB member and I am happy with the car, it's just that for my own peace of mind I had the oil changed, the brakes checked and the belt done. Wallet, lighter by £200. Bed, slept in without the nagging doubt.....

If you're on this forum, and you have belts that are more than 30K or 3 years old, it's up to you if you start the car. Personally, I'd trailer it to a garage and get it changed. Period.

 

[Guest]

Glad I read this thread. My car has just gone in today for belts & water pump. Will make sure they check the tensioners. Out of curiosity, it looks liek a belt service is £200; is that if you do it yourself? The quote for the garage to do mine is a lot higher.

 

[sawood12]

My last belt change was about £400 which was for timing belt and balance shaft belt. Tensioners were not done as they were done at the prevous belt change. I didn't think about the water pump at the time but I guess a water pump failure won't affect the belt(?) - your temps will increase suddenly. This happened on a golf of mine and the water temp just started to increase suddenly and I just pulled over.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that. I've had a quote of £600 plus VAT which (I think! I hope!) includes the tensioners as well as belts & water pump. My pump started leaking 3 days ago so decided to get the belts done at the same time as the labour will be the same. I am so looking forward to getting the car back... Next thing to sort out is the suspension geometry....

 

[edh]

ORIGINAL: sawood12
I didn't think about the water pump at the time but I guess a water pump failure won't affect the belt(?)

Maybe not - but if it
a) leaked coolant all over the belts
or
b) seized

That might be a problem.

 

[Diver944]

We go on and on about this subject ad infinitum on the forum but it still catches some people out ££££££££

We've even had people comment that we dwell on this too much, and it still catches people out £££££££

I don't know what more we need to do [&:] It may be time to mention it in Porsche Post every couple of months?

 

[xenon]

ORIGINAL: sawood12

I can't believe how much of a big deal people make out of timing belts. It's just a service item like any other. Just change it and forget about it. On the 944 change the balance shaft belt as well as they tend to take out the timing belt if they go. My idy did my timing belt for under £400 which isn't a huge cost in my view for every 35k or so miles. At £400 and 35k miles it's 1.1p per mile - tyres are much more expensive - especially if you attent track days. Stick a piggy bank on your dashboard and feed it after every journey. My rules (formulated over my years on this forum) to a happy and perfectly reliable timing belt is:-

1. Replace every 35k miles or 3.5 yrs as if your life depended on it.
2. Always always always have your belt re-tensioned after 1k to 1500k miles
3. Always always always replace your balance shaft belts as well
4. Replace your tensioner every other belt service
5. goto 1

Follow these rules and you will sleep easy and will never have a timing belt failure. The timing belt is 100% reliable if these rules are followed. If you can't or wont follow these rules then maybe you should reconsider 944 ownership.

That sums it up perfectly for me.

 

[tim court]

So far no-one here has mentioned the cam chain and tensioner. I had a rattly noise appear together with a loss of power - not dramatic but enough to make me stop and check the engine. It sounded like very loose tappets.

I drove gently to Camtune who took the rocker cover off and on first inspection all was ok but a close inspection noted that the tensioner was missing a piece of the nylon guide.

Upon dismantling they found a tooth missing from one of the cams and had jumped one tooth out. It was a miracle from the wear that the chain hadn't snapped or that the revised cam timing hadn't caused a valve/piston incident!

It needed 2 new cams chains and tensioner and a good flush. even then I was worried stray particles would be floating about.

The service history recorded 'new chains at 84,000' but although this MIGHT be true, the wear on the cam teeth finally gave in and nearly wrecked the engine.

I knew this is a common 944 fault but assumed that all was well as the chains had been duly changed. Moral of the tale is check the wear tolerance on cams, chains and tensioner at 84K.

 

[xenon]

Did you replace the cam with the tooth missing from its sprocket?

The nylon shoes for the chain tensioner are now available separately and are worth replacing. I bought a new upper and lower a couple of weeks ago, along with all the seals, with the intention of changing it. However, I now read in the history file that it was done about 15000 miles ago. I'll still probably change them again though soon, since I have them.

EDIT - re-read your post and saw the cams were changed too. Can't have been cheap....

 

[tim court]

I think it was around £1300.[]

 

[Neil Haughey]

True the nylon slipper cost practically nothing, I get mine checked about once a year. Not much cost or time to take the cam cover off once a year and check it all over. ISTR Jon M may do this as part of his mega service?

Reminds me that I need to take my belt cover off and check to see where this strange whirring noise is coming from. It happened before and I thought it was the PAS pump bearings, it then went but has come back and may be one of the rollers.

I must be paranoid because nobody said anything all day Sunday but I always hear these things.

How many ppl regularily check their spark plugs? The handbook says 12k miles but even when my car was a daily driver the plugs never lasted 12k, usually after about 10k they looked shot. Likewise the dizzy cap needs replacing after about 20k miles tops.

 

[Fen]

I mention the cams on roughly a monthly basis I'd say, but as it only appleis to S and S2 models (and the S3 []) it's less wide in its appeal.

My indie can do them for around £1k, possibly less (depends on prices of parts direct from Germany).

 

[berg944]

Surely a roller with a stud through it is more reliable

NO, its a really bad design thats why it was changed. The stud is the weak point as it is very long. It looks like it is screwed into the pump but it actually goes through giving abt 30mm extra leverage to stress the bolt. Moving the stud while locking the adjuster can also fracture the stud.

I know this because it cost me a new engine (whole car in reality as I did not have the time to fix it).

With the manual adjusters ALWAYS change the adjuster bolt with the roller .......as it recommends in Clark's

I wish i hadn't ignored that advise.[&o]

Mike[:'(]