JD_Vancouver

Is it time for me to service my timing belt and water pump?

My mechanic says I should do it preventatively. Based on mileage it seems he's being conservative, but based on years maybe he's right?

- I have an '89 944 S2.
- I have records showing that the timing belt and water pump were serviced "around" 63,000km, which was in 2009.
- The car now has 90,000km and it's 2016.

So, 27,000km worth of mileage, and ~7 years.

He says the belts need to get serviced every 30,000 MILES, which seems to match what other sources say, but he also says they should get serviced every 5 years REGARDLESS of mileage, which I can't corroborate anywhere.

Advice?

Thanks!

V2Rocket

Do the belts, you should be OK skipping the water pump.

Ask him what his billing time for the belt job is - it should be no more than 3 hours if he is familiar with 944s.

911lnv87

+1

porscharu

What V2 said. I would replace all four belts. They have to come off anyway.

KevinGross

I agree with your mechanic on the belts (and rollers). Bear in mind that there is an initial tensioning, a retensioning after about 1,000 miles, and another at 15,000 miles. At 30K, replace again.

In some cars it can be cheap enough to do the water pump "while we're in there." My experience has been that this isn't necessary for 944 series cars: wait 'til there is a problem to be solved.

dmjames

Here's what I've run across as far as 'conventional wisdom' goes for the belts/pump:

3 years or 30k miles for the belts, whichever comes first.
Replace any rollers/idlers that are 'scrubbing' or rough when spun every time the belts are replaced.
Replace the water pump every other belt job.

The more overly cautious might replace the rollers/idlers/pulleys every other belt change, or potentially even every change. If I didn't know when they'd last been replaced, I'd be inclined to swap out all of them now, then every other or every third job depending on how things are wearing.

There's a lot of room for debate on this stuff, but it mostly boils down to how well you know your car and how cautious of a person you are. Also, these jobs get a LOT cheaper when you do your own work, so if you go that way, it's not as painful cost-wise to replace things a bit more frequently.

V2Rocket

You need to replace all the rollers with every single belt change.
They don't last longer than that.