billtool

Great Year...great color...great choice of tranny...congrats.
As Bob said - Make sure you set the tension on the high side of the Kempf. I'd start with figuring out if it's tensioned properly first. Ya gotta start there. Dick around with the electrical aspects if that doesn't provide the fix. Sure as hell wish you had a new belt though...Yeah - I think a "mechanic" ***-kicking might well be in order. I mean really, do ya change the oil and not the filter too? WTF?

walstib

Ya"ll have scared me to the point the next place my car is going is to a different shop.

soontobered84

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE talk to one of the local 928 owners down that way about what "shop" to take it to before you do. A Porsche mechanic is not necessarily a Porsche 928 mechanic. It DOES make a difference.

VehiGAZ

Perfect - job #1 is done!

Never trust a mechanic that tells you it's OK for the warning light for one of the most critical components of the engine to stay lit. The car is NOT supposed to do that. If the bad advice from a lazy mechanic blows your engine, he only loses one of hundreds of customers, but you lose your car. And there's no way to get him to make it up to you.

Anyway, just to recap some of the advice, in proper order...:
1) Determine if the belt is actually loose. If yes, then don't drive until it is retensioned properly. If not, then...
2) Determine if the tensioner is working properly. If not, then don't drive the car until it is fixed, and strongly consider replacing it with a Porktensioner
3) If both of the belt and tensioner are good, then go ahead a drive it while you try to find the fault in the wiring.

Good luck, Mr. Kid!

walstib

so can anybody recommend a good place to take my car in Triad area? I was thinking of Foreign Accents since my son is in his scout troop and I trust Mr. Benigay to not rip me off. But that doesn't mean they're the best folks to work on the car!

JHowell37

Are you rich? Do you have a lot of money to throw at this car?

I'd guess that about 60% of the people here do the majority of their own repairs and maintenance including the timing belt and are successful. Most of us do our own repairs because if we paid to get it done by knowledgeable shops, these things would become unaffordable.

Do you:
1. Have a garage, or at least a covered work space?
2. Own a decent set of metric tools?
3. Possess any ability to disassemble and reassemble something properly with out leftover parts?

If you can answer 2 out of 3 questions "yes," then you can probably handle this problem yourself.

dcrasta

OMG...

I want to be positive, but really good Porsche mechanics that are good with 928's are expensive, and these cars are so old we are losing quality techs...

Get the Pintle manual and do it yourself. My tensioner was dry, fell apart in my hands. My 'Friend' who has a VW/Audi/Porsche shop wanted 3k to do a timing belt job.

YMMV but I wouldn't trust any mechanic not to take a shortcut if they can get away with it. Took me hours just to get off the harmonic dampener, where a shop guy might take any number of dicey shortcuts rather than being patient and working carefully.

No one will ever do as careful a job as you can, They may have the edge on technique and experience, but if you are careful, you can do it. It really is not a 'Hard' car to work on, it is just a complex one. (but well engineered in a wierd way.)

Landseer

You should call DR at 928 Specialists ASAP. He is the NC guy and a national 928 expert, among other things. And he will know who in NC he would trust, besides himself, where the car could be properly treated.

walstib

so I talked to the mechanic that worked on the car and he said the hydrolic tensioner was broken and he adjusted the manual tensioner and that it would be good for 10,000 miles......WTF?

SeanR

Find someone else to touch the car.

Landseer

If you can get it into a garage and want help, I can drive down there and get you started. Anticipating parts needs, we could do it in a day.

Bill Ball

The 928 tensioner is "manual". There is a minor hydraulic aspect to the MY83+ tensioner that only plays a role in dampening the response to vibration of the belt but does not affect the tension adjustment which is done with a bolt on the end of the tensioner. I'd be worried by the mechancis comments.

If Landeer can take a look at the belt and tensioner warning system with you, then you should have a better idea of what needs to be done.

underdog928

In the above post you stated that this a$$hole of a mechanic refurbished the tensioner and now he's telling you that it's not working?

I suggest that the next call to this idiot is from your lawyer.

Hydraulic.

dr bob

IIRC, Rennlister Rixter is in that area of NC, and can either offer direct services or recommend a competent shop reference nearby. PM him if he doesn't pop in to this discussion.


FWIW, the P-car dealer in Denver did the TB for my car as part of the post-purchase pre-pickup activities. They did a good job, based on my immediate and then years-later inspections. The first TB re-tensioning was done by the local P dealer here in Pasadena, coincidentally the original selling dealer. Their highly-regarded 928 guru managed the belt re-tension OK, but his work required several hours of home follow-up work to fix the collateral damage. Turns out that even the highly-regarded dealer expert was right there on par with the kid who washes the lot cars.

Fast-forward to the shop referenced by the OP. Chances of having a 928-savvy mechanic are very small. Chances of having a -good- 928-savvy mechanic are a small fraction of that same 'very small'. Long-term survival of your car means finding and affording that elusive good 928-savvy mechanic, or learning to do some of this stuff yourself.


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There is a phenomena in this group that I'll label as "social wrenching". It involves knowledgeable owners who can come help you with tasks on the car, usually in trade for a place to hang out for a while, drink your beverages and consume your burgers and pizza. A few times a year, I open the doors to a clinic of some sort, where either I choose a theme or task that I need to do on my own car, or a local owner asks if a clinic can do a task that he needs done. The only hard limitation I have is that we need to finish the same day we start. Visitors get accss to the tools, and generally the expertise and experience of the group,and often get hands-on help for difficult operations. I try to promise myself that I'm just the grill chef, yet somehow always end up with the tools in my own hands a lot. But we tend to be successful on a macro scale, no fires or explosions yet.

Advice: Call one of our sponsoring parts vendors and have them put together a care package with ALL the parts needed for the timing belt replacement. Plan a garage social wrenching event at your place, announce it and promote it here. Beg or borrow a portable AC unit for your garage, a big ice chest for drinks, and have fun learning about the car. Guests will show up with small tasks they need help on,and odds are good that someone there will be able to help them. Payback is that next time the flag goes up from someone who needs help with their car, you'll be ready to support the support effort.

walstib

is it time for a Porksioner? How much to have one installed ? the full kit is like $334 Would love to do it myself ( with LOTS of guidance)