mtbscott

So I'm coming home from dinner last night. It's an unseasonably pleasant (for Texas) summer night and I've got the sunroof open and windows down.
I'm about 2 miles or less from home and while going under a railroad bridge, I hear a loud jangling noise coming from the rear, kind of like when something gets kicked up into the wheelwell by the tire.
Less than a minute later, a red "Alternator failure" light comes on but everything else seems to still be normal. I'm almost home so I keep driving, about 1/2 mile further another light tells me "engine too hot" so I pull into a closed hardware store's lot and call Roadside Assistance. While waiting I notice a six foot or so length of rubber coming from under the car, it looks to me like what I imagine to be a drive belt has broken.
Flatbed arrives in about 45 minutes, the car is able to be driven onto it. The guy takes me home and I got a call before 8 this morning from the dealership telling me they have the car and it's in the shop now.
I never like being stranded but it was a fairly painless episode so far, I just hope it's relatively minor and I can be back in the saddle soon.

CSK 911 C4S

How many miles on that belt?

mtbscott

My car currently has 35K miles. That is certainly not a "wear" item in that amount of time.

neanicu

That's unfortunate!

You haven't mentioned the car and mileage,but considering you're on the 991 forum,I'd say very low miles and fairly new car. The serpentine belt should've never failed so soon but I guess it happens...
What I like to do if I see an early failure like this is to look for a possible belt driven part that might have caused the early failure of the belt. I sure hope your dealership knows to check pulleys,tensioner and such to make sure they're fine and not just drop a belt in there and call it a day. If not you might want to give 'em a call and mention this to them just to make sure...?


EDIT : You must've posted the mileage as I was writing the above ^^^.

CSK 911 C4S

Please post up once you pick your baby up and let us know what they found.

mtbscott

Just spoke with the service manager. He wasn't positive which piece exactly but said it WAS either a pulley or tensioner that made the belt snap. He thinks they will have to order some parts and I'm now waiting for the SA handling it to call me back with the details.

LexVan

Well, the "check" service interval on the drive belt is 40,000 miles. So, you were not that far off. The "replace" interval is 60,000 miles or 6 years, w.e.c.f.

Good thing you were not too far from home or in a remote area with no cell coverage, Porsche dealerships, nor flatbeds.

StudGarden

How hot did it get? I'm always extremely wary of overheating conditions, particularly on all aluminum ones with space age tolerance levels.

wanderfalke

The thing about a thread like this is, we are all thinking, but for the grace of god this could have been me.

chuck911

He actually said that?? I'm not 100% up on all Porsche terminology, but pulley and tensioner, pretty sure those are the only things the belt touches so yeah, I would hope it would be one or the other! Oh well at least he didn't tell you its either the front or the back...

mtbscott

Update: Picked up car yesterday. Dealer had to order the belt on Friday and complete work Monday. They said it was simply a belt failure, all components driven by it checked out fine, and once fixed no other fault codes anywhere. Along with fixing the belt, they did a couple of other service bulletin updates that had not been done. I spoke about this with a cycling friend who has been a lifetime Porsche tech and he said "sometimes it just happens" so nothing else to read into it. He did commend me for pulling over quickly, he told me the story of one of his past customers who ruined his engine by continuing to drive down the freeway (while talking to the shop on his phone) after his belt broke. Apparently the Alternator failure light is always the first sign.

Anyway, to make things a little brighter, I had a brand new 2014 Boxster as a loaner. What a sweet car! It was pretty well equipped (still not a fan of PDK but at least got to spend three days exploring it) and if I could ever rationalize a convertible in our tepid Houston weather, this would be it. We had an unseasonable "cool" front this weekend and although too hot during the day, the mornings and evenings were perfect for top down motoring.

roadrat

Which dealer was nice enough to give you a loaner?

mtbscott

Momentum. They now have a small fleet of Porsche loaners; Boxsters, Panameras, and Cayennes. I've always gotten one if I plan ahead, I was lucky they had some in with no prior notice.
If they're out of loaners, they will get you a car from Enterprise.

roadrat

Nice. Great to hear, especially since they've always treated me like poop.

drmatara

Alternator failure I understand but why engine too hot? I thought the cooling fan is electric and not driven by the belt as in the old cars