GK

Hello everyone,

I would like to have some feedback on the 964 distributor lifetime: after how many years/miles have you changed yours?

Thanks for your answers.

Giorgio.

John Miles

45,000 miles. I was lucky. Friends went on track day and cost him £4,000 in engine rebuild. Change it, Vent it!.
Check out the Technical page on my site.
J

gregC2

I have the instructions to vent my '91 C2 distributor. It calls for an 18mm hole to be drilled 40 mm to the right of the tail light vent tube. Where can I find an 18 mm drill bit? The places I've looked have all "American" sizes (1/2 inch, 3/8, etc.). Any one of those close enough or where can I source the proper drill bit? thanks.

Randall G.

Hi Giorgio,

The belt on my '91 C2 failed at 74,500 miles, February of 1997. No catastrophic
failure, car just ran flat with some stumbling at low RPM's.

porsche964

At 65000 miles, I still have my original belt.

GK

Thank you for all the answers. The reason behind this was to find out if a new distributor was needed at around 60000 miles. There's a nice '93 C4 with just over 60000 miles, with a new distributor and original clutch, which I intend to buy. Given these facts I guess the mileage has not been tampered with.

For GregC2: According to my calculations you should use a 5/7 inch drill bit. This is a bit more than 18 mm. If you cannot find the metric size in the States I can send you one by mail - I live in France, so everything is metric over here!

Regards,

Giorgio.

Gus B.

I am looking at a 94 C2 with close to 80K miles in it and it does not have the vent kit, but the original dist. belt is in there!

bill w

According to "Excellence" magazine distributor vent hoses became standard on 911 C2/4 models August 13, 1993. I'd be suspicious of a "94" model without one. Keeping in mind that date of manufacture and year model sometimes differ. My 93 C2 has 52K mi., has vent hose. But since I bought the car used I can't say what's original and what's not.

Arnold

80000 kms/10yrs.I don't think the vent kit will stop the belt from breaking.Just replace the belt/ distributor prophylactically every ~80000 kms.
Arnold
90C2

MelissaM

My distributor belt broke at roughly 60,000 miles/8 years.

Replaced it with a rebuilt distributor that has been vented since day one. Hopefully it will last even longer than 8 years!

-- Melissa

mick

The belt broke on my 91 C2 at about 50,000 miles. Nothing serious happened. Just would not start and had to be towed. I had some advance warning but did not realize it at the time. Under heavy acceleration I could hear a pop or cracking noice but even my Porsche dealer did not know what it was until it went bad. Good luck. mick

MikeF

To check your distributor, just disconnect the relay to each distributor while the engine is idling (you'll see two white connectors in the drivers side -left- engine compartment just beyond the coils). The engine RPM's should decrease and roughen equally with each distributor unplugged. If disconnecting the relay makes no difference in the idle, your belt is broken. The same can be accomplished by disconnecting the distributor wire from each coil. Unplugging the relay offers less chance of an unfriendly zap though.

Best,
Mike