pcar964

Had my belts replaced at Champion Porsche in Pompano a few weeks ago, the belts were WAY overtightened. This pulled the fan down far enough to cut deep grooves in the fan housing, and I believe has ruined the alternator bearings as well. I dropped the car off LAST MONDAY to have them replace the parts they damaged.

Today I went to pick up the car, and here's what I found:

• They had LOOSENED the belt back to normal tension, so the fan is no longer scraping on the housing
• They're trying to claim they didn't touch the car since I dropped it off a WEEK AGO, and that they didn't overtighten the belt in the first place

Now I have a scraped up fan and fan housing, a possibly ruined alternator, and they're trying to pretend they aren't responsible. The service manager has said he will try and make everything right, but I'm going there tomorrow morning to speak with them again, today the mechanic who worked on my car wasn't there... Of course the mechanic will try and cover his *** tomorrow, but I know what really happened...

I am so pissed off with this, I can't even describe it. I guess because I'm a young guy (or maybe because it's just the way they do business with everyone), they think they can screw me like this. I'm threatening lawsuit tomorrow morning if I don't get EVERY part replaced that was damaged, including the very expensive fan and fan housing. I probably would have been happy with just a new alternator, but now because of this treatment, I will settle for nothing less than all the parts replaced.

I will keep you posted on what happens tomorrow, hopefully it all gets worked out. I don't think I'm being unreasonable by demanding a replaced housing and fan, after all they were in excellent condition before, and now have deep grooves. Am I wrong?

Mike J

Believe me I do understand being wanting to go postal at the dealership but I found this more than likely does not work. If they refuse then talk to the owners if you can. If that does not work then write/talk to Porsche in Altanta. If that does not work then use the Better Business Bureau and bring up lawyers. I had to go through all of this for my Targa problems just to get some movement ; I still don't know that resolution yet.

They may argue that your bearings were failing anyways and that caused the problems when the belts were tightened. I am note sure how much pressure you need for the fan blades to scrape. How many miles on the alternator/bearings?

Good Luck!

Cheers,

Mike

JasonAndreas

pcar964,

Ask Champion if they measured the belt tension after they let the car warm up. The procedure for changing the alternator belt is;

1. Install Belt
2. start the engine and allow it to idle for 20 seconds
3. adjust the tension of the v-belt to 23kg - 35kg.
4. start the engine again and allow it to idle for approximately 15 minutes or road test the car for approximately 10 miles.
5. recheck the belt tension with the engine at operating temperature (194F/90C). The tension should read 28kg to 40kg.

The A/C belt should read 30kg to 35kg.

Your problem has happened enough times in the past that PCNA issued a TSB specifically to deal with this problem (i.e. mechanic uses his thumb to check the belt tension and then doesn't bother rechecking after the car is warm).

Best of Luck!

Rick Lee

Hopefully, this will learn ya to never again take your car to a stealer for anything other than warranty work? Why oh why do people still take air-cooled Porsches to the stealers for service? They are usually incompetent, always overpriced and sometimes crooked. Why oh why?

chris walrod

Jason brings up a great point. These things expand, A LOT when warmed. And this doesnt exclude vertical expansion. Magnesium, much more than Aluminum.

On a somewhat related note, we have found racecar engines to expand over .035" in length from cold to operating temperature. This is critical for engines that are designed as a stressed-member installation.

TheOtherEric

Can you even see these grooves in the fan housing you're mentioning? It doesn't sound to me like any harm was actually done to your car. Ok, maybe the alt bearings will let go 2 years from now instead of 5, but no dealer is going to replace it based on a hunch like that. Doesn't sound like you have much to complain about really.

that'll teach you to go to a dealer!

Chaos

Ask to speak with the regional service rep and put EVERYTHING in writing (no one does)
give the a negitive CSI report, that ranking is very important !
Screaming and going postal will not help !
Good Luck

pcar964

The reason I suspect the alt bearing is shot is there is a new noise coming from that area, sounds like faint metal on metal contact and increases with engine speed. The fan doesn't scrape anymore, but there is a definite noise that wasn't there before.

As far as going to the stealership, believe me I have learned my lesson. I already have a couple private shops I'll be using, recommended by some good old rennlisters!

pcar964

Yes the grooves are very visible. The finish is also chipped off my fan blades which looks ugly. Of course these don't affect the performance of the car, but if you look at the part prices for the fan and fan housing, they're about $900 and $500, respectively. The fact that they've scratched up $1400 in parts alone leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as you can imagine.

MJSpeed

Cosmo,

Sorry to hear about this. I would suggest asking them how they measured the belts before letting them know that, thanks to Jason, you know the correct process. If this fails, walk into the showroom and the office behind the staircase, in front of the main door is where Dave Maraj sits. You can't miss it, it's the one with the LeMans winning Team Cup and the hand written letter from Jacques Chirac.

pcar964

Thanks MJ,

I'll be as diplomatic as possible, but if that fails I'll see if I can talk with Dave. I'll also memorize the procedure thanks to Jason, so I at least have some info to argue with - I seriously doubt they followed the correct procedure in the first place.

ZombiePorsche44

I'm sorry to hear you have encountered this at Champion of all places, their reputation is very important to them, but as mentioned in earlier posts their target customer is no longer guys like us.
Document the whole incident because verbal descriptions don't carry as much weight as the written/photographed description, then definately share it with Porsche's Regional service Rep.

I also agree that you will catch more bees with honey than vinegar, so speak softly and politely while trying to figure out how to successufully sue the crap out of them if they don't make it right.

Good Luck

pcar964

Thanks Zombie, I'll follow your advice. I'll definitely get the Zone Rep involved if things aren't worked out through normal channels.

tom97c4s

Actually if the fan is out of balance it can be damaging to the car

pcar964

What's the easiest way to check if the fan is out of balance?