Rod Handsfield

On my way to SITM. 400 miles from home. Car running great and "toothed belt service" warning comes on after a half hour stop for dinner. All gauges are in the normal range, oil topped up. Warning message cancels when I flick the lower left side wand then comes back on if I exceed 60mph. '91 S4 auto, 57 K miles,TB at 45 k miles. What should I do, ignore the warning and continue on to SITM, limp home slowly, turn off the car and have it trucked home? thanks for your suggestions. my phone # is 316-210-3672.

Big Dave

Start by checking whether the belt is properly tensioned!

Rod Handsfield

Any easy way to do that while on the road?

WICruiser

Easy is relative but given the potential for damage to the engine I sugest you determine who is near your location with the tools and experience to help check it out. Driving slow really doesn't do much to help because if the belt is to loose at 3000 rpm, it is only marginally better at 2000 rpm and in less than 1 minute of operation once the belt jumps you have a serious engine problem.

Bill Ball

You've had two warnings. You might not get 3.

You have some choices. Safest is to call your trip over and have it towed home. Many would say it's your only choice. I don't know how far you are from SITM, but towing it there would be a good option as you would have probably the greatest concentration of 928 experts in the world at that time. Would make a great tech session!

I don't know where you are and it's getting late, but you could try to identify a local 928 owner with the tension tool and examine the belt and retension it. That's what I did when the warning came on while I was practicing for an open road race. I checked the belt and ran the race the next day at 145 MPH for 100 miles. Drove for another month before the belt warning came back and I changed the belt out. But I take chances. I did the same with another guy and his water pump seized about 40 miles after he left my place. Made quite a mess.

It's not a good sign to have a belt detension this many miles from new. It should have been retensioned at 1500 miles, but after that I expect the belt to be stable.

Anyway, unless you find somebody local with the tool and some time to pull both sides of the timing belt covers and really give the belt, water pump and tensioner a careful look-over, your trip is over.

Sorry.

Now, as a post-script....you could grab the 17mm wrench from your tool kit, and reach down and loosen the locknut on the timing belt tensioner, give the adjustment bolt a half turn clockwise, retighten the locknut and see what happens after that....Just don't tell anyone I suggested it. Oh, and taking the fans out, which is easy on a 91, would make it easier to see and get to the tensioner bolt. It's just barely visible down on the left side looking through the air pump bracket. Once you spot it, reach down and get a feel for where the locknut and end of the bolt are. It's doable. Just don't tell anyone I suggested it. Oh, and sign and return the relelase of liability agreement I emailed to you ASAP.

Anyway, I hope you get some help.

Bill Ball

I guess it's good that all the smart people are at SITM so no one's here to flame me for my "suggestions". Let us know how things worked out for you. Bad time for this to happen.

anonymousagain

Bill, don't forget the tensioner oil level, like happened to mine a little while after we did the TB/WP.

Rod - be sure to crack the lower tensioner bleeder valve to verify oil begins to flow from it. That too will trigger the warning light if all the oil leaked out. Mine was due to a "not-as-tight-as it-should-be" tensioner housing bolt, that allowed a seepage. May be an easy refill with motor oil.

Good luck.

davek9

I'm not one of the "Smart People" Bill, but I would have suggested to give her a 1/4 turn.. and see what happens.

The problem is the warning light could be a sign of one many things in the belt system starting to act up.. Water Pump, belt tensioner pulley and or loose belt

Like Bill said it's a crap shoot.

Last year on the way home from STIM, one of the guys w/ a '91 had a light come on. We all pulled over in a gas station and did a quick inspection of the belt via the Vent holes watching the belt tracking gave it a tweak and he drove the rest of the way home, just didn't keep up with our pace. We did a full re-adjust once we got it home.
Good Luck..!

Edit: if a complete TB/WP job was done the belt was never re-tensioned that could be all it needs. Have you done a long trip with the car before this and after the TB/WP was done?

dcrasta

Interference motors FWIW. I agree with the 'peanut gallery' . Put a slight tension adjustment, and hopefully u can make it to SITM where someone can check the tension.

porsche928guy

I would highly recommend not starting it again unless absolutely necessary and also would recommend following Bill's advice. Next time you check in leave your location. I'm running to St. Louis tomorrow from KC and would be happy to help in any way I can. My # is five eight zero-402-zero six one five.

Edit: I'm a little late to the "party" but the offer still stands if help is needed

Hilton

Late response and you've probably done something already.. I would..

1. Use the car's toolkit to remove the right-side belt cover (take dist cap off, then two 10mm bolts).
2. Inspect the bit of belt you can see for fraying.. if it looks ok, then..
3. Pull the fuel pump fuse, and have the missus crank the car while you watch the belt track and look for more damage or belt rubbing noises.

If the belt looks ok all the way round and tracks ok, and there's no rubber dust visible anywhere, I'd put a half turn onto the lock bolt, put fuel pump fuse back in, and start it. After 3 mins of idle, I'd drive it gently (under 3k rpm's if possible). If the light came on again, I'd turn it off and phone a tow truck.

Of course, I like to buy my 928's sight-unseen from overseas.. so I might take a few more risks than some.. only you can decide what's reasonable or too scary.

Rod Handsfield

Thanks to all who weighed in. I took the easy way out and rented a trailer and took my car home. It will go to Mo Zahr's shop on Monday. Maybe next year for SITM. BTW, this is the longest (400 mi) trip I've taken in a 928. The seats are wonderful, no tingly buns, stiff neck or knees.

Mrmerlin

since you got this far make sure to disconnect the battery and make sure whomever is going to work on your doesnt start it till the belt has been checked.
This will preclude any damage being created by a simple start the car to move it into the shop and then having the belt jump

Tom. M

Mo knows his 928's.... no worries in his hands..

WallyP

"Mo knows his 928's.... no worries in his hands..."

"Amen!" to that, Brother!