Dan Brock

Hey guys,

New here, but have been lurking...

Last year I purchased a 1990 GT from Surfrider Mason on this forum.

The car is awesome, but Mason was really adamant about a few general maintenance things, especially the timing belt...

Just a background on the car:

-94,000 miles
-manual transmission
-timing belt & water pump replaced 13 months ago.
-Since buying it last year I've put about 600 miles on it.

My question for you experts out there:

Timing belt tension - Mason was saying that every 6 months (or 12 months max) the timing belt tension needs to be re adjusted.

Is that true?

If so, does anyone know of a good guide on how to tighten the timing belt tension? Is it hard to do for a beginner? The shops around here are clueless about 928s, let alone 928 GT/S. I'm thinking it's better if I'm the care taker of this car... it just seems a bit out of my league...

Also, aside from replacing the timing belt and water pump every 4 years, oil changes, and coolant, is there any other urgent general maintenance that I need to be aware of?

Thanks guys! I really appreciate any info you can provide because no one around here knows what they're doing with this thing LOL.

-Dan

Bilal928S4

Dan,
Where are you located?

voskian

Brake fluid in the PSD at least every 2 years, or it can be a big repair expense.

Let us know where you are located and we can recommend listers or shops that can help.

Bob

Bilal928S4

The consensus is 5 years or 30k for timing belt change. After the initial change and tensioning of the timing belt it has to be re tensioned after 1200 miles.
Sorry, did not read my post. It should be every 50k to 60K or 5 years.

SeanR

Bilal, please.

Suggested has always been 50k/5 year. I've only seen you recommending 30k on a belt change. That's just crazy.

daveo90s4

Hi Dan,

I think most would agree:

1. Retension after about 1,000 - 1,500 miles
2. After that, forget it until it next needs to be replaced (assuming belt tensioner is working properly)
3. Replace after about 50,000 miles / 5 years, whichever comes first.

Not a hard job to do at all, after some preparatory work, like removing engine belly pans so you can put a socket on the crank to turn the engine over by hand. From my experience much easier after I'd deleted the air pump. But do-able with the air pump in place. Also you'll need a belt tension gauge. There's the very expensive Porsche tool or the much cheaper, easy to use and cost effective Porken tool.

I found it a bit daunting the first time, but once done I wondered why I'd been so daunted by it.

I'm pretty sure Dwayne has a good write-up with photos. Do a search, or maybe someone will post the link.

Yes I agree, do your own maintenance to the extent you can. Makes owning these cars much cheaper and from my perspective hugely more enjoyable. Especially if a few of you help each other from time to time.

Lizard928

30k miles is for a 944 not a 928.

Factory interval is 60k miles

I hope mason released all the history on that car.

Also on the factory tensioner you retention after the first 1000 miles after a belt job, if it requires additional tension after that something is wrong/broken and the job needs to be redone.
Check the records and if the belt used was a contitech, replace the belt with a gates IMMEDIATELY!

Hilton

Lets not *****-foot around the bush here

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...-12-500-a.html

Bill Ball

Where does this 30K or 50K mile interval come from? Do whatever you want, but the good book says 60K miles. I did my last belt at 189K miles and I'm now at 245K miles. In have 4K miles to go.

Schocki

I recommend the PorKensioner and it will keep the tension perfect during the lifespan of the belt.
Meanwhile I refuse to change a TB without a PorKensioner conversion, I sold my Kempf Tool a long time ago

SteveG

Dan, you are probably still reeling from the info linked and revealed here. His first post. Wow. Assuming you have no recourse with the seller, who most of us are familiar with, and the answers just on the belt that are confusing, I would re-state:
1. Replace it if it is a Conti,
2. read the new visitor thread
3. 5 yrs or 60,000; re-tension at 1,000 to 1,500, some have gone considerably longer than 60K w/o incident, YMMV.
4. don't set and forget it; at least once a year I remove the covers and give it a visual to make sure it is tracking and no bushings or rollers are misbehaving, YMMV. You can check tracking through the vent holes on top of the covers, but you can't inspect the wear on the cam gears w/o removing the covers.
5. No reason you can't have a ton of fun with this car, but considering it's history, all the more reason you should keep an eye onthings. These cars can be mostly worry-free, but they do require attention from time to time. Welcome to the tank.

hobbyrobbi

I can only confırm this. Wıth Schocki's help my 1991 S4 was converted to PorKensıoner this year (yes it appears still to be one of the few German 928 equipped with it) and it performs very well.
If you are in a situation where TB needs to be replaced do yourself a favor and go for it.

Cheers

Robert

James Bailey

I was never impressed by the way Mason did business and frankly would have little faith in anything he said or did. With that in mind, I would probably recommend that the t-belt job be redone to assure that it is done right with the good belt and that the tension warning system is intact.
Nothing you can do about the "history" but to have a t-belt issue now would really screw things up !

Dan Brock

YIKES!

Oh well **** happens I guess. At least it drives nicely - I honestly like driving it way more than my 911 996.

Thanks for the tips guys... I guess I'll just be doing everything myself so I don't sink too much money into it taking it to the dealer or whatever.

Dan Brock

Man... this is kinda discouraging now...

The PSD issue is really bothering me after reading the thread where Mason was talking about parting out the mint condition tranny...

Makes me wonder if he sold it for profit, then replaced it with a bum tranny before selling it to me...

Does anyone know how to figure out of the PSD is functional?

The PSD and ABS lights are indeed on. We replaced the computer, but apparently it needs to be bosch hammered?

Thanks guys! Arg this is kinda disappointing but I definitely love driving the car so at least it's not a total loss.