Schocki

Found the time today to wash my car and got curious again how the flexplate looks after 6 months.
Lifted the front end and removed the alu belly pan. Used my borescope to check if the white markings ar still lining up. Result: no movement at all after 5000 miles as a daily driver. Very nice
Everything looks like the pictures from the last post on this issue from Sep 2005. https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/228734-failed-torque-converter-bearings-or-why-do-we-have-these-flex-plate-issues.html



I also had a chance to take a look at the oil pan gasket from Realgaskets and it is still bone dry! The car has not lost a single drop of fluid after the repairs

borland

Nice! You should sleep better now. Your new torque converter bearings would have eliminated the movement, locktite is masking that..

I have the same “Peace of mind”, knowing that mine isn’t going to move, even though instead of locktite, I greased the splines on mine with moly grease as per WSM volume 3, page 37-121, paragraph 1.

borland
90' S4, Slate Metallic

Schocki

They are talking about the spline at the rear. I assume that makes for an easier assembly. The rear can't move anyhow due to the groove on the spline.

Schocki

The Shark is getting ready for the last big event before I move back to Germany. Both bumpers will be repainted as well as the rear fenders.

The car is sitting on my liftbars (GREAT!) and before I take the bumpers off, I changed the oil, coolant change...
I also checked the flexplate with my borescope again and there is still NO movement. Everthing is just where I assembled it about a year ago. Looks like the Loctite 290 is holding the flexplate just fine....

Loaded

Do you have to remove the exhaust to get to the flex plate?

Schocki

If you want to access it you need to drop the cats about 2 inches. I use the small inspection whole to check for any movement.
Dropping the cats is a piece of cake.

Ketchmi

You don't have to remove the exhaust if you have one of my "X"s....

fabric

As Schocki said, yes - you just need to drop it where the manifolds attach to the rest of the exhaust. Once you've done this, leave off the back 2 bolts holding the bell housing on, as those are the only 2 you can't get at, and in the future you won't have to touch the exhaust.

RyanPerrella

did you also use studs on your oil pan along with the RealGasket? Mine looks the same as you describe, i think its a definate improvement over the original design. When i bought my car the pan gasket had been recently replaced (<6 months) by a well known shop and had yamabond all over it as well and still had obvious oil leaks from the pan. Not so with th silicon one from RealGasket.

Garth S

I have reset the flexplates on a mere three S4 autos: in each case prior to releasing the pinch bolt, there was a readily visible imprint on the shaft splines indicating where the flexplate coupling had orriginally been secured.
When the pinch bolt was released, each of these three plates moved back the exact distance indicated by the 'memory' mark on the splines. This was their neutral position and they were reclamped at that spot.
I also did the loctite 290 on my car - and there was zero movement after two years .... and the flexplate remained flat to a straight edge = no bowing due to forward forces from any other source. I will see the other cars again later this year.

Schocki

Good news!
Mine is still at the same spot after nearly a year! Just great!

borland

This car has no movement in 19 years, regardless of locktite:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/87-Po...QQcmdZViewItem

Garth S

At 10K miles .... ~500mi/year ... at the very least, it's a slow mover

Back to flexplates, my S4 had a mere 50KKm (30K mi) of gentle service .... and the flexplate had advanced 3.1mm. I was surprised at that, but it seems more typical than not.

Black Sea RD

I know this will not be popular with this thread, but Loctite should not be used in the front flexplate clamp to stop this movement! Loctite will glue the front flexplate clamp to the driveshaft too well and will make it very difficult to remove later or reposition if needed. There have been some who tried using heat and blunt force to disengage the two for a TT R&R and they finally unbolted the clamp from the flexplates and removed the TT with the front clamp still glued to it. There would be no way to reposition the driveshaft to the front flexplate after the TT R&R in this instance.

Also heating and banging on the driveshaft transmits these shocks to all the bearings in the engine and trans. Loctite is cheap and easy to do but the long term problems it will present makes this something to not do to our beloved 928s! There are other options available, the 928 Intl. method of re-introducing the circlip, washers and bearing at the front of the older style driveshafts or my new front flexplate clamp that can be used with both the old and newer style driveshafts.

Flame away,
Constantine
P.S. The torque converter bearings going bad do not have anything to do with the front flexplate migration.

Garth S

Well Constantine, no flames from me . Actually, would I have overcome my youthful exuberance when first did my ( ex)S4, I would forgo the loctite 290 too and rely on annual inspection .... and release of the pinch bolt as required - no other aids used. This is the more 'experienced' approach I've taken with friends cars. [ I much prefer to gain my experience on the cars of volunteers - but you can't win them all .... ]
Having shortened the two rear bolts of the lower bell housing cover ( or left them out completely) means that once the car is elevated, it is a mere 10 min. job to remove the cover, measure for movement ... and rotate the engine as req'd to release and retorque the pinch bolt. This is an item which should be added to every oil change interval - or at least annually.