m21sniper

"I have to agree with Nicole on the price of timing belt work. A friend of mine just had his GTS's belt changed and it cost about $1200 although it took them 6 weeks to complete the job. The other expense you need to consider is that it needs to be checked after 2k miles which is another expense for about $3-500."

Unless you're not running the cam covers, which you can do on the 16v motors. It takes me about 30 seconds to check myTB tension.

cobalt

Fair enough, but most people run the covers and they are a PITA to remove. at least on the 32v. I personally would not run without the covers. What if something made its way up into the engine bay and got under the belt you can skip a tooth or throw a belt that way. Just a thought.

goliver

You only have to remove the passenger side top cover. Simple half hour job to check tension on an S4.

Having owned several Alfettas and GTV6s, I would agree they are fun to drive but the syncros are made out of glass and are real expensive to fix. The rear brakes are inboard like a Jag and are a huge PITA to deal with. If you get one with Mechanical fuel injection the pumps are huge money as well. The S4s are cheap to keep once you are on top of the maintenance curve. Not hard to work on and are WAY more rewarding than any Alfa i've ever driven. Hope you find what you are looking for.

cobalt

Wow, Now we are talking history the Alfettas and GTV6's were great cars. Something I haven't seen or thought about in a long time. They had the greatest instumentation and rather unique lines and were a blast, very easy to make rather fast too if I recall. Too bad they rusted out so easily. In europe they were a real sleeper and would prey on lowly SC's back in the 80's.

Robert_H

BlazinBWF,

In my case, probably the single most important item that helped me with my 928 is this board and the people (both the people who you meet because of it and the people who offer their advice) associated with it.

A few months after purchasing my 928 (1989 S4 with 140K miles), the brakes went out on me. I took my car to the local Porsche dealership where... even before seeing my car and knowing what model of Porsche I was driving, given a quote of around 3.5 to 4K to fix the problem. I bit my tongue on that one and then proceeded to setup the appointment. When he found out that I had a 928, I was told that "they did not like to work on those...". After I heard that, I decided to walk and try to tackle the brake problem myself.

I then spent about a month printing and downloading everything I could find on S4 brakes, repair procedures, tips, etc. I literally had a huge 3-ring binder of information. Also, I figured that since the car did have so many miles on it and saw that it had been a while since either of the previous owners had brake work done on it, it might be a good idea to go over the entire brake system carefully.

I purchased all of the tools needed to get the job done using just one person (the Motive Power Bleeder) and all of the various parts needed to get the job done right (new lines, rotors, caliper rebuild kits, master cylinder, 2 different colored brake fluids, everything). After talking and ordering items from the Big 3 (Devek, 928 Specialists and 928 International) and having spent around 1.5K in parts alone, I was ready.

The car was up on jackstands for about a month and some days I only worked on her for maybe an hour or so. I phoned, emailed and bothered other 928 owners on this site for weeks, but guess what... I did it. I learned a lot and have a very deep respect and gratitude to the people on this site.

Using the services of this site (and having the manuals, either on CD or the paper versions) is invaluable in keeping these cars up and running.

Good luck in your decision.

Rob

jcady

Just had my '84S timing belt replaced at independent. Cost of readjustment at 1k miles = $80.00

cobalt

If it were only that easy on the GTS. I have the distributor and all that goes with it that makes for a bit more work to access. I was quoted higher numbers because of the extra time involved to remove the extra stuff to gain access.

I forgot the changes made over the years.

m21sniper

"What if something made its way up into the engine bay and got under the belt you can skip a tooth or throw a belt that way. Just a thought."

It's a possibility. Worse case scenario i replace the belt for 40 bucks. The 84 and older US models are all non-interference.

Towing it would be a hassle, but i like the easy access for checking the tension, and my next t-belt job will take me about an hour. To me, it's a more than acceptable trade-off.

You can't do it on the 85 up US 32v motors because the dist. caps bolt right to the cam covers, and given that they're interference motors, i'd never do it on an 85 up anyway.

IcemanG17

This forum (& the listers who make it) are what makes 928 ownership finanically possible for a great many of us! If we all had to pay shop rates of $100 an hour to fix every little thing, very few of us could keep a 928! Depending on your location there are often many very knowledgeable local 928ers who can help you immensely....plus you get to learn as you save money fixing your own car! It is far more rewarding doing the research yourself...buying a couple tools and parts and fixing it yourself!!! Not even counting that it is fun working on the car with other great 928ers....plus if your car is confusing you at some point, it helps alot to look at a similar model!
Brian

Big Dave

C'mon, it's not that simple. You've got to re-time the engine and find out why the belt failed in the first place. Belts rarely break...instead they slip off (mine did) or jump teeth. There's some detective work involved in finding out why it happened and making sure it doesn't happen again. Just throwing another belt on is a bit of an oversimplification.

Very true.

Bill51sdr

You can't run a 32 valve engine without the belt covers. The distributors are part of the upper covers...

Bill Ball

SIX weeks for a TB/WP?? The car must have sat for over 5 weeks before they got to it. By the book it is a 10 hour job. I've only done a handful of TB/WP jobs, and I can do it in about that time, done right too. Also, $300-500 to check TB tension? That's quite a hourly rate for a job that takes under an hour even if you are slow.

cobalt

Thats New Jersey for you. Everything is overpriced here. Most of these guys get over $100 per hour. I don't think these guys really wanted to be bothered. I agree they dragged their feet on the job. I personally would not use them. Not many people interested in working on 928's around here either. They will take on the work but reluctantly.

Bill Swift,

I should have phrased that differently I was talking about running any engine with the covers off. I understand the distributor is bolted on. I guess I need more practice atremoving it. The last time I did it, it took me over an hour just to remove the distributor and cover. I find it very hard to get my hands in the tight spaces to remove the bolts. I think next time it should take me much less time.

SharkSkin

When Dr. Ron was over here one day, I popped off one of his distributors to check T-belt tension in about 5 minutes. The key is to have a 1/4" universal socket(not just a universal adapter) and a gear wrench in the right size.

cobalt

Looks like its time to buy more tools Thanks for the advice.