Timing Belt Wear Question Completed 2-18-07
 

I would really appreciate the opinion of the group on an issue that is giving me concern.
Recently I did a TB retension on a friends 86.5. The car had about 1500 miles since a complete TB & WP 6 weeks ago.
The printing on the TB was worn to a point that it was becoming illegible.

My question is - would the printing on a TB that is 6 weeks old and only covered 1500 miles be worn or would you expect to see the printing in fairly new condition?

I have a collection of TB's, some of which have 40ish thousand miles on them and the printing is still legible.

Thanks in advance.
Roger :thumbup:

This is my old one after 22,000 miles / 6 years (with the new one on top)

What brand of belt was it?

Most of the old belts I've seen you could still read the lettering on the belt, and most were after 40K+ miles. Do you think the customer got a wall job? That's when they park it up against the wall and a day or two later call and say the car is ready, and your bill is $$$$$.$$. :evilgrin:

What does the water pump look like? Are the bolts and area clean? Does it look like the gasket is new for the pump? Is the belt showing any wear on the underside? What was the tension when you went to re-tension it?

Who did the water pump and belt replacement and what is their reputation with 928's?

Jim Mayzurk
93 GTS 5-spd

I am 90% certain it is Porsche OE.
I may have to go in and look again and take a pic.
The printing was the same as the one in Lu'c picture - the new one that is - just well worn.

I think it may be as simple as ink.

Or a bearing is dragging !

If it were just bad ink rubbing/washing off, you would expect the belt to look otherwise like new. If it is wearing off, the belt might look shiny. I wonder if one of the idlers is frozen. That could do it without a whole lot of noise I guess. Anything else in the pathway that contacts the backside would make a constant racket.

If it was a conti I could help you with it, the lettering stays on them for a while.

Rog, paint ain't no thang

Regardless of who made the belt, 1,500 miles is not much for the lettering to be gone, recheck everything.
You know what is at stake if the belt breaks.

The only two things that touch the back of the belt are the tension roller and the water pump pulley. Would a belt that is too tight wear the writing off faster? Are there any fluids that would dissolve the print off, such as coolant or oil? If so, some could have gotten on during the installation and rubbed off long ago as the belt circulated.

Matt

I just cranked the engine until I could see the printing down through the breather hole on top of the TB cover and it is worn to the point of being hard to read. The belt itself looks very worn.

The Water Pump looks clean but so is the engine - difficult to tell if it was replaced recently or not.

The tension was fine when I checked it - did not need any adjustment.

My concerns are two fold here :-
1) Was the job that was supposed to be done, done at all.
2) If it was not then we are looking at doing it again to ensure we have a good TB.

It is definitely the white type of printing that is typical of the Connti belts.
That is what concerned me in the first place.

I guess I am going in again to take a closer look.

Some of the rebuilt pumps I've seen have had a rather rough texture on the pulley surface: I do not think that would have any adverse effect on TB life .... but it may be hell on lettering.

The lower idlers face the backside.

Well it is over 2 weeks since I checked the tension and was beginning to doubt myself and that maybe I had imagined the whole thing and that the belt was not as bad as I thought. WRONG!

I just pulled the TB cover and this belt is worn out and could be the original. Car has 65k. :eek:
The belt is also running on the front of the cam gear on the passenger side. Was not like that 2 weeks ago.

I see a TB & WP job in its immediate future. :mad: