Only 13k but five years since belt change

[diabloam]

Looking through the history of my car I can see a belt was done at around 84k miles, I am know sitting on 97k, however if I am reading the reciept correct it looks dated 2005. I took covers off not so long ago and eyed the belt and it looked uncontaminated and showed no signs of wear. However I am aware that doesnt always mean much and am now thinking I should probably tackel it fairly soon, can someone look at list of parts and tools and tell me if I missing anything and also whats best place to get it all

Parts: Timing belt tensioner, timing belt, water pump (as it was changed at belt change before that last one), balance belt tensioner. Anything else e.g balance belt tensioner and also does both these belts also have idler pulleys?

Is this the minimum of special tools to do job: Flywheel lock and tensioner gauge.

Am I missing anything as want to get all the bits together before I start

Any suggestions about this low miles but 5 year gap, assume I should do it in next fews weeks anyway!

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Any suggestions about this low miles but 5 year gap, assume I should do it in next fews weeks anyway!

I know I'm possibly over-cautious, but I always say to people that if the belt is over four years old don't start the engine until it's changed. There have been several cases of them failing under 5 years old, whether that's due to other reasons such as contamination, wrong tensioning etc. we'll never know, but it's not worth the risk in my opinion.

Don't forget that the Register has two tensioning tools available for members to borrow, cost of postage only or can be collected from the office.

 

[Diver944]

I agree with Paul 100% and would change it immediately. It's never nice to hear of someone with a snapped belt and it's less common than it used to be but it still happens and can easily be avoided for a few hundred quid. Same with the water pump, I've lost count of the number of people who change their belts but omit the pump because it 'looks' fine only for it to fail a few thousand mile later and have to change the belts all over again.

If you stick to the every 3-4 years for belts rule and every other belt change for the pump you won't go far wrong.

 

[diabloam]

Take a look at this site...

http://www.clarks-garage.com

This is a great resource - follow the "Garage Shop Manual" link from the front page, then look for Balance shaft and Camshaft entries in the index.

 

[lookingfora944]

I am in a similar situation,

My newly acquired 944 had a cam belt/balance belt new chain etc at 123,000 miles, that was only 17,000 miles ago, but the work was done just over 4 years ago. The place where I took it to be serviced recently said they had a look at the cam belt and it looked fine, so I am probably going to leave it until next year sometime and hope that it will be ok, as I am completely skint now

 

[scam75]

My belts were done 4 years ago along with rollers and tensioners by a large garage (not indy or OPC) who also did a major service on the car (previous owner had this done). Only covered 14k miles and when Alasdair done them for me the other week there was evidence of cowboyship shall we say hiding under the covers! Belts were really slack and most probably causing the water pump to slip as well as de-chroming the bit on the pump! I was mighty close to catastrophic failure!

We also found that the cause of my front end oil leak was a missing seal on the camshaft!

Moral of the story is, unless you can vouch for who has done your belts you are on dangerous ground placing trust in them.

I would advise that if in any doubt get it done and get a waterpump in too unless you know it was done last belt change.

Stuart

 

[diabloam]

well pump was done 2 belts ago, which is about 8 years agi but again not a huge mileage, if I recall correctly it was done at 60 something k miles but would need to fish history out, but guess I will change that anyway.

Is it just a flywheel lock and tensioning tool I need or am I requiring anything else in terms of special tools? Also including the timing belt tensioner and the balance belt tensioner are there any idler pulleys I should change, i.e, is my shopping list, two belts, two tensioners and a water pump and thats it or is there anything else I might be needing (guess could look at the seals when its all stripped). Just so I can start collecting all the parts, cheers all. Think I remember a link to a video on youtube on doing this, will need to have a look, thanks

 

[scam75]

A front seal kit will set you back about £50 and well worth doing at the same time. You don't want to be back in there for a long time!!

Check your cambox gasket too as it's a good time to tackle that also. Could also whip the cam out and inspect it and check the followers too if you have the cambox off. We found 2 duff followers in mine which we replaced. Less top end noise now and an annoying start up chatter was removed! []

Stuart

 

[zcacogp]

Diabloam,

Flywheel lock and pin spanner to get the balancer pulleys off are desirable but not essential. I had them the first time I did the job and was grateful for them, but didn't bother the second time 'round. A 24mm socket to put A 24mm socket to put on the main crankshaft nut is an essential, with a long breaker bar (the NM is quite high.)

There are five pulleys that can be replaced, two of them just flapper pulleys but they all seem to be supplied if you buy a 'belt kit'.

It's well worth reading the procedure on Clarks Garage before wading in there as there is a bit to know. No part of it is hard, but you need to be careful and methodical, as with all timing jobs.

One piece of advice: do as much research on how to remove the sprung tensioner as possible before taking it off the engine. It doesn't come off in the way it looks like it should; there are 3 bolts (13mm from memory) which are all hidden, and it comes off as an assembly - the lever, spring and pulley are all mounted on a backplate, which is bolted to the block (by those three bolts.)

If you've done a timing belt on another car before then doing one on a 944 won't fox you, but it is a longer job than you'd expect.


Oli.

 

[Northern924]

Just do it, safest bet is to just change everything and start from a fresh point knowing you have 40k of motoring ahead of you []

 

[sulzeruk]

Alex, I have a full Arnworx timing belt set you can borrow for a week or 2 as I won't be doing any belts in the next while,
Alasdair

 

[Hilux]

Belts deteriorate with time

3years old and I'd change them regardless of mileage

 

[diabloam]

Tax is up tomorrow so going to wash it, sorn it and tuck it in garage and start collecting bits to do the job. Remember a post recently about water pumps so need to have a read of that. Wheres the best place to get a full belt and tensioner etc kit, pretty sure mine is the manual tensioner, ECP, Bert, Porscheshop, Promax plus others so got plenty options.

Alasdair, thanks for your kind offer, will gladly take you up on that offer, very knid and helpfull. However think I am due away later this week back abroad for work so might have to delay things till I am back and have the bits if thats ok with yourself. Guess you got plenty snow down your neck of the woods, my friends who stayed near you in Bonnybridge haved moved to Dunblane where snow was heavy, but I am assuming you got it as well. Good fun for the effortless powerslides in the car but I had to stop as I was in danger of cracking a kerb and bending a rim!!!

Thanks for all advice guys, cheers