wilkinstan

My 86 951 just hit the reccomended timing and balance belt replacement interval again. I am going to purchace some new belts and wondered whether or not someone out there makes replacement belts for the 951 with a greater than 36000 mile suggested service life. One would think that someone would, since most new cars today go 100,000 miles before belt replacement. Any info would be helpful. Thanks. - Stan

Keithr726

Nope there is no way out of it. Its a weak spot in the design, the belts just get too much heat. 36k is really pushing it. Do you know the consequences if it breaks?

KuHL 951

Explain to me how a 944 belt gets any more heat than another car? I'm not buying heat as the reason for short belt change intervals.

billthe3

I have been wondering about this myself recently, as the timing belt in my Camry is something like 10 years old and 120K mi yet is still working fine. Well, I presume it is fine. I have never checked it. lol

The water pump is still going strong at either 120K or 240k, but don't the porsche ones have some design flaw that causes somewhat premature failure?

Keithr726

I was was under the impression that the belts were a bad design and also that they get heat which I can see since the are very close and low down in the engine bay compared to my avalon. I guess they moved the belts farther away from the engine these days. My avalon has 82k miles and the service manual says they need to be done at 90k and the dealer wants like 2-3 grand for the work. I thought these cars were affordable. The BMW on the other hand has a timing chain and it is supposedly good for the life of the car and because its a chain(a big one too), it can get as hot as the engine. Each car has their high and low points. Like the BMW has 4 cabin filters($140) while the toyota has one ($25). Ok thats was OT.

billthe3

The belts are still in the plastic gaurds, and at the front of the engine, so they wouldn't be any hotter than any other car's belts.

Could the interval simply be out of fear of the consequences of the belt breaking since it is an interference engine? The toyotas are not inteference, so they don't have to worry about that.

That just made me realize the fact thatthe porsche engines are more likely to be running at higher rpm's than a Toyota engine would. Would that influence wear that much though?

95ONE

New belts get just as much heat or more than the Porsche ones.
Newer belts have Kevlar. Are just much better. There should be some better alternatives. I'm just not sure if there's a large enough demand.

Keithr726

I wonder if a taller (more rubber) belt would fit or last longer. My current belts have 3 years and 4,000 miles on them so I hope I'm good for one or two more years because of the ultra low mileage.

billthe3

I think the main worry with the belts is the rubber disintegrating from age/ exposes to the air, so I'd check your belts before you drive to much.

KuHL 951

You people are freaking belt ****'s. A quality belt like a Gates or Conti will go the full 30K and then some. People are worrying about a 4 year old 4K mile belt? Retension your belts and you'll see more than 30K. The 944 isn't kind to critical belts but I think many people overreact about Belt Zen...it's still just a car and you need to keep it running well.

CarbonRevo

Some of the people on here crack me up. Seriously.

I'm sure the belts could go much longer then 35k miles if; you kept it tensioned correctly, you checked the belt periodically for wear/cracks, and kept the revs low. It's safe to say that every person on this board gets on their car hard at least 5 times a weak. Lets go to a Toyota board and see how often they get on theirs. Hondas and Toyotas have high ratings because those cars are KNOWN for reliability. So in turn, the company wants to keep their status as a reliable motor company, and they engineer their **** to be reliable. Porsches aren't reliable, even when new. Period. Why might you ask. Well lets see. I'm certain that Porsche doesn't intend on a 997TT racking up 100k miles on it in less then 4 years time, or any of their cars for that matter. Porsche is a SPORTS car company, where as Toyota/Honda are RELIABLE companys (and longest lasting). Porsche certainly keeps to it's status as a sport company, wouldn't you say? You bought the car, so deal with it.

My toyota pickup has a timing chain. The only flaw? It has plastic guides from the factory, which break at about 100k miles and cause a sound you hear at certain rpms which is the chain slapping metal. My truck probably ran like this for quite some time, until I finally took it to my on-the-side mechanic. He said the timing chain was stretched so much, he could fit a screwdriver under a part of it (assuming at the cam gear). They make replacement steel guides which last forever. My dads toyota has 150k miles on it, and the motor hasn't EVER been touched (minus a oil change, air filter, fuel filter, dist. cap and rotor). The truck new was only $4100 bucks back in 1987. It runs like a top, because it was built to be dependable, not an all out badass sports truck. It's held up just fine.

The belt intervals are such because Porsche is German, and they try to over-do every single damn thing about a car. It sucks because it leads to crazy stupid *** things like the belts, and ALL of the sensors and what not. Comparing the underhood of my toyota with FI, to my S2...It's night and day how much more **** there is. These cars could have long lasting belts, but then again, Porsches weren't meant to drive 2-300k miles by ANY means.

Get off your little rant and accept the maintenance for the car YOU bought.

Also, an avalon costing 2-3 grand at it's 80k service interval for a t-belt? I'd pay that in a heartbeat. Know why? Lets figure up how much it would cost to have the PORSCHE DEALERSHIP to change your belts 3 times (which would about equal your avalons ONCE). I'm sure you'd much rather fork over the 2-3 grand for 80k miles then what your dealership woulkd charge for 3 t-belt changes on your car (and that's not even factoring in the leaking seals the dealership will tell you that need changed on your 944, where as the toyota dealership will slap the belt on and that's all, and tell you you're set).

Keithr726

I'm not complaining about the car I bought, I love the thing. The topic starter starter was the one that brought up the high mileage belts and I agreed that doing a belt job does get old after a while. I wasn't planning on doing my belts but people keep saying that it is "every three years" and my previous owner chose some weird ways of doing things. Like choosing a r134 compressor that is basically laying on my front sway bar. I'll probably do the belts when I do a headgasket job of preventative as I have a light film in the tank and occasional slight coolant loss. As for my complaining about the toyota's 90k service it is mostly because I found out the car is worth $6-7k and paying almost half of the cars value doesn't sound fun so I'll probably do it myself.

Laust Pedersen

“Belt-****”? Not bad, seems like a reasonable label for some of the belt posts I have seen in the past.


This is what Porsche’s “Warranty and Maintenance” booklet says:

“Check tension and condition of Drive-belt at 500-800 miles and every 15 000 miles for 924 S, 944, 944 S and 944 Turbo and if necessary correct.”

There are no fixed belt change interval recommendations.

I once had a 1985 MR2 with a (frequently used) redline at 7500 rpm. At 130k miles I eventually decided to change the timing belt and after looking at it I would estimate, that it had another 30k miles left.

If the consequences of a belt breakage and the perceived risk of it happening is unbearable, then just convert to a non-interference engine.
Btw, installing a new belt carries a (small) risk too.

Laust

eniac

A few weeks ago I changed the Tbelt on my car for the second time which it's been about 40k miles and 6 years since the last change. The old belt showed very little signs of wear, no cracks, etc. The balance belt looked as good as new also so I didn't even bother to change that since it's not critical. I am sure my t-belt cold have last another 40k easliy. "Belt ****" would be a very accurate term for some people here.

I don't really see what the big deal is. It took less than 2 hours to change my t-belt from start to finish which I also permanently removed my belt covers in this time as well. With those off I can do a quick visual inspection whenever I have the hood up.

KuHL 951

As easy as belt changes are I can see replacing one on a car with no records. Then you have the same people that change the water pump with every belt...go figure?
So would you rather do two belts on the 944 or the single belt on your iX? BMW sure didn't make a belt change much fun on those either if you've done yours. I prefer the 944 only because I've done a few, my 325iX had me swearing at whoever designed those metal belt covers, distributor cap, a forward hinged hood, and studded standoff bolts.