DHC6

Hey guys I was just wondering what your opinion is on my chain pad condition. I decided to double double check the condition of the pads. There doesn't appear to be any real ware on the pads beneath the chain, and the thickness seems to be good as well. I was just unsure how fast they change colors, and want to make sure I am ok with what you guys see here. I am finding alot of "surprises" that the PO left me with so now I am double triple checking everything.

Also when I change the pads how often should you change the tensioner itself?

Porsche16V944

hard to tell with the chain on... they dont look grooved, but they are discoloured. New they are white.

Justin S2

When in doubt, change them. $300 > $2,000 of damage. It does not matter how worn they look, if they are original they get brittle with age. CHANGE THEM and save another 16V 944.

dillon410021

+1

DHC6

ok, so how about the tensioner itself?

fittrjoe

ya , ill be curious for a response on this . i just did the pads @ 83000 but not the tensioner or chain, im now @ 89000. Anyone ?? thanks in advance.

1990 s2 cab

gtroth

Yeah, if the pads might be original, I'd day change them regardless of miles (20 yr old pieces of plastic that will grenade the car if they fail...). You are almost done if you can take that picture.
Bottom pad used to be hard to find. If still so, that might weigh on your 'whole tensioner' decision. Did for me. That plus I did not want to think about my decision everyday. Good thing I went that way too because my tensioner was not right (would not compress for removal for some reason).
Other tough decisions are the oil pipeline and chain. I did not do those.

Mark944na86

Both Zims and Paragon have upper and lower pads sets these days, IIRC.

As for the chain, if the sprocket teeth don't look "square", that can be an indication of wear due to a stretched chain. For my car, the teeth looked to be in almost new condition when I last inspected, so I chose not to change the chain. It's a bit of a pain to replace because of having to reset the timing between the cams when reassembling.

As for replacing the whole tensioner, if it doesn't compress or otherwise doesn't feel right when trying to replace the pads, then yeah, time to replace I would think. AFAIK, there has never been an official factory recommendation for an interval to change this part. Most of the early failures were on cars with > 100K miles, and then it was usually the top pad rather than the tensioner itself that failed.

It would seem the tensioners can go bad at any time, however. The original one was replaced on my car after only about 20K miles, for reasons unclear (I only have the service records from that time.) I recently replaced my top pad, and the replaced pad looked fine, but it seemed cheap insurance to do it because of the age. I'm not planning on replacing the tensioner itself at any particular time, I plan to just inspect it every now and then.

Edit: I had a look a Zims and Paragon to check if you could buy them there, and you can, but the lower pads are expensive compared to the top pads, > $100! Now I remember why I just changed the top pad...

fittrjoe

thanks mark.

Jfrahm

That top pad looks great to me. I would leave it in place.

mhr

Mine looked way worse before Ron at Campbell's garage changed it for me. If was grooved and way thinner. Since your car has more miles I would think we are not looking at the original although who knows.

He suggested that the chain be changed at the same time and I went for it for insurance. He said that it was the original chain and he has seen them cause issues over time. Didn't change the tensioner.

joejoe

I was lucky with my '90 cabriolet. It started making a strange noise in the area of the tensioner, kind of like a metal on metal rolling sound. Upon disassembley and inspection I found the top pad had all but disintegrated leaving the chain rolling on the metal base beneath and cutting into it. Ian at 944online has the sets needed.

Mark944na86

Boy, that's an understatement.

joemis

I say if in doubt change the pads. I changed the tensioner at 120k - not because I thought it was bad - just so I don't have to worry about it for another 100k. Changing the pads is chead insurance. If they go they often take the cylinder head with them!

Joe M.
1989 944S2

hacker-pschorr

Easy to say when it's not your car. Zimbrick Porsche pulled my cover to change the tensioner / chain in 1999. They called, said everything looked fine, don't waste your money.

Less than a year later the chain broke when the pad disintegrated.

When my chain broke not only did the head survive, all 16 valves were ok too.

Both of my cams were destroyed at $950 each from Porsche. I went through three sets of used cams before ordering new ones. All the 2nd hand cams had pitting I wasn't going to put in my car.