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Center carrier bolt won't come out for belt replacement
I'm trying to replace the serpentine belt on my 2015 991.1 GT3 (with G6 motor) but the center carrier bolt doesn't clear the frame hole. It catches on the bolt flange. I've tried jacking up the motor and that helps a tiny bit but not enough. I loosened the other three carrier bolts but didn't get any more movement, though I didn't try jacking up the motor with the 3 others loosened. I'm afraid to do much more because that center carrier bolt seems so far out of alignment. Anyone else run into this?
Well, what I would do is the correct thing to do: take it to a workshop and let them figure it out. Joke aside, I would probably loosen the top motor mount(s) screws just enough that allows you to lift the engine a few more millimeters to align the bolt.
On the other hand I would ask myself why is the engine sitting so low right now?
Put a hydraulic jack with a piece of wood under the oil pan : you don't need to jack up much...very little. No other points need to be disconnected.
Remove the bolt completely.
Use a screwdriver/pry bar to remove the collar,it's very simple.
Thank you for the responses. In my original post I mentioned that I did jack up the motor with a block of wood and that helped a tiny bit, but not enough. This morning I loosened the other 3 bolts and jacked up the motor but still no go. The motor seems to sit too low by a couple mm. Guess I'm going to take it into my indy shop.
That's because you've jammed that bolt into the carrier and got it stuck in there. Looking at your first pic it actually looks like you've bent the bolt a bit.
Just push the bolt back in and then jack up the engine. You're basically using the bolt as a jacking point against the body. That's why you've probably bent the bolt.
Loosening the other engine attachments is a waste of time,it's NOT NEEDED!
The bolt should be centered in the hole when removing. Without having more information, your motor mounts may be going bad and sagging the engine down.
I don't think the oil pan is a good jacking point. I did mine last year but I found a part of the engine for the jack toward the rear that was more solid.
@SoCalDan This G6 motor replaced an F motor 4 years ago. Shortly after that, the PDK was replaced by the dealer, twice, so the drive train has been fiddled with three times. One of those installations must be causing the rear of the motor to sit slightly low. It's more wrenching than I want to do to correct so I'll be taking it in.
@neanicu Definitely no bent carrier bolts! It slides easily through the sleeve all the way until it contacts the rear frame. As mentioned in both my posts, jacking up the motor helped slightly but not enough.
That looks like a bent bolt to me!
Push the bolt all the way into the sleeve before it touches threads on the engine block. Place the jack and a piece of wood as rear of the engine as possible as pjazz suggested,even though the oil pan is fine as long as you're using a piece of wood between the jack and the oil pan.
Make sure that the sleeve didn't move from its position as that could cause you to believe the bolt is not centered to the exit hole. If sleeve moved then move it back with a screwdriver/pry bar.
Start jacking up the engine,it doesn't take much...pull bolt out...it might have a bit of resistance as you're pulling it out because it fits very snuggly into the sleeve.
Come on man,YOU CAN DO IT! We're routing for you!
No reason to put all that stuff back together or have the car towed...
@neanicu Appreciate the cheering section man! I did do exactly as you described--carrier bolt threads touching the motor, jacked it up, slid the bolt rearward and it still contacted the frame. It's probably 0.5 mm higher with jacking but still needs another 1-2 mm. I think there's a bit of fisheye warping the image a little. The sleeve also looks slightly curved in the image, but it's not.
And I very much appreciate the offer to help but I'm on the other coast.
To close the loop on this, my shop had to loosen all the carrier bolts and the motor mounts to reposition everything slightly. The center carrier bolt now clears the rear frame cutout, so in 4 years when it's time to change the belt again I won't run into this problem.
04-01-2023, 01:06 AM
Center carrier bolt won't come out for belt replacement
. Joke aside, I would probably loosen the top motor mount(s) screws just enough that allows you to lift the engine a few more millimeters to align the bolt.
