Ky944TurboNewbie

If you are having the work done by the dealer, I would assume they would do the FOES at all times because the majority of the expense is in the labor and it isn't that much more to do the seals.

Typically the numbers and dates I have seen are belts changed every 3 years / 30k miles whichever is first.

Inspect the Water Pump and FOES each time and replace every other belt change (6 years / 60k miles).

I do my Water Pump and FOES at the same time and the simple belt change every other time.

divil

They're really not complicated at all. At least the timing belt set up is no more complicated than any other timing belt. If you live near a decent sized city there shouldn't any problem finding someone. If you haven't already searched rennlist for something like "shop recommendation [your city here]" then give it a shot. Someone has likely had this problem before you.

Regarding how the car runs: you probably won't get any warning whatsoever in how the car runs before the timing belt goes. I'm not saying yours is about to go just because it's 5 years old. It might be fine, but I wouldn't put it off for long.

951Dreams

If your not leaking that's at least good. Oil on the belts is one theory as to why they don't last as long as they should. Heat is another. But no matter how you cut it, they are rubber, and age is as bad as wear. Why they say you should never keep tires more than 5 years.

It was hard for me to swallow, the 3yr/30k life of these belts. Most are honestly good for 100k. But after a guy posted on another forum about how his belt on his turbo went at 3.5 years and like 5k miles, I started thinking it was better safe than sorry. He swore there was no oil, and that he had rechecked the tension at 1.5k. He had also done them himself for like 15 years with no issues. But it was the first time in all those years he had waited that long.

What really got me was all the other people who chimed in about similar experiences. There is some design flaw on these that eats belts. I think it's part of the reason shops don't like doing them too much. I'm betting they got burned by a belt or two.

So, for me, I'll stick with the 3/30 rule and play with the odds in my favor.

V2Rocket

Doing 944 timing belts is a 2-3 hour job for any "pro", and that's taking their time.
Most of that is just getting stuff out of the way for working room.
It's really dead-simple...